Roland to Fastlaners: I take off!

[Roland]

Hi everyone,

Before starting I would like to apologize for the long post, the next ones will be shorter I promise.
This thread is the result of a reflexion I have had in the past few days. Up to now, I have been working on a lot of different projects and none of them has been a success.

I quite like the quote that says: "if you keep doing what you have always done, don't be surprised to get what you have always got." so after my last failure, I at last realized that I needed to stop - not quit but stop. That is definitely one of the things I need to work on, when I want something, I don't stop until I get it. Said like that it sounds like a good mindset to have but actually, it is like everything, when it is too much of something, it is not good, even if it is too much of something that is supposed to be a quality at the beginning. In my particular case, not stopping before I get what I want translates into: I go into the wall in front of me and keep trying to go straight ahead when in fact, if I would step back a little and get the bigger picture, I would find out that there is a door a few meters away on one side.

So this is what I have done in the past few days. I have stopped what I was doing and stepped back to try and get the bigger picture. A couple of things came out of this reflexion:
1- I desperately need to work on my mindset
2- I need to increase my knowledge
3- I need to talk to people

I stopped desperately looking for ideas and I won't do it again until I have achieved the three points above (or at least started as far as point 2 is concerned). Once again, I want to force myself to stop doing what I have always done in order to be able to get something different from what I have always got.

So, regarding my objectives, they are still the same. I still want to be able to retire before my 40s for a number of different reasons but the main ones are:
1- to spend time with my family and be able to offer them a comfortable life
2- travel to all the places I want to discover
3- enjoy all the things I would like to have now but which I am postponing in order to reach my goals.

These are very nice words and mean nothing if I don't do anything about them so here comes what I plan to do:
1- I have three days off next week so I will take advantage of these days for doing three things I have not taken time to do much in the past 2 years: 1: sleep two or three extra hours per night and rest a little, 2: go to the gym, 3: read a couple of books I want to read.
2- One of my biggest weakness is my inability to speak clearly and comfortably in public so I will learn and master this skill. I have already started some things on this but I will keep it for a future post.
3- I will post my actions here to show my progress. I want to hold myself accountable for what I am doing and make you the witnesses of what I am achieving. I don't commit to a daily post because I prefer to keep time to work on all this rather than spending too much time reading and writing here but I commit to write at least one post a week to explain what I have been doing.

This plan will evolve with me but this is the first issue and I start working on it NOW.

Once again I apologize for this long post, the next ones will be focused on actions and driven by results. You are all allowed to give me a virtual kick in the butt if I don't respect my commitments

I don't know when I will reach my goals but I am convinced that I will reach them eventually and I am happy to have been able to draw at last the first sensible steps of this journey. I hope you will find reading my posts interesting and I promise to try and bring as much quality as I can in the feedbacks I will be giving on my actions.

I stop here for now, feel free to comment if you feel like it.

Talk to you soon.

 

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[Roland]

As I said in my first post, one of my biggest weakness is not being able to speak properly in public. It scares me, almost paralyses me. And I didn't really know what to do about it.
A few days ago, looking for business meetups, I found one from an international clubs of professional speakers. In the description of the group, it was written that this club was indicated for people who wanted to practise their speech ability for a specific occasion and/or overcome their fear of public speaking... Exactly what I wanted. I signed-up straight away. Last night was the first event so there I went. I hardly have had to talk but something happened that has been a wake up call to me. The principle of these meetups is that a few people come with a prepared speech and they are evaluated by professional speakers. The first speech was titled "Discapacity, a blessing not a barrier". And after being introduced, here goes a young lady, about my age, walking with big difficulty. She was given a chair and there she started, talking with difficulties about her life and her fight to not be over-assisted. I have to be honest, I couldn't understand everything she was saying but after explaining a few moments of her life, she just concluded: things are a little more complicated for me but not impossible."
She has been rewarded for having done the best speech of the night but further than that, she made me think: if she dares to do that with all the discapacity she has, if I am not able to do at least as well as she is doing, it is really because I don't try hard enough. So I registered for the next event and will force myself to speak. I have to pay for a six months membership and my objective is to be able to be decent at public speaking after three months and to use the second three months to improve my level. I will let you know how I am doing.

 

[Roland]

Here is my new post to share with you what happened in the past few days.
While I am enjoying three days off my job and take advantage to step back from my project to try and see the bigger picture, I have seen MJ's post about The Miracle Morning book and it appealed to me. I am not by far a morning person ad although I get up early because I want, I thought that it could be interesting to read this book and see what I could learn. So I bought it and read it straight away. Two things happened:
- The first one, and I have not done anything for it and so I cannot explain it either, is that out of the six days I have been doing the miracle morning routine, I have been able to wake up four times at the time I wanted without having any alarm clock (and I am talking before 6 am). I couldn't say why or how but here is the fact.
- And the second thing: I followed Hal Elrod advice at the end of the book and sent out "the email that will change your life" to 16 people. For those who have not read the book, this email has to be sent to a selection of people who knows you well asking them for feedback on how they see you, strengths and ideas for improvement. I have to admit that it is one of the most difficult email I have ever had to write and send but I have already received some answers and from what I can read, it was definitely worth it. If you don't know where to start to improve yourself, I strongly recommend you to consider sending a similar email. I now know what to work on as a priority and have already taken actions to improve the weaknesses people have confirmed I have.

 

[Jak]

Hey man, just read your posts. I think it's really awesome that you're putting yourself out there with the speaking group and with that email. I'm brand new here, so I haven't read the book you mentioned yet, but I'll put it next on my list once I finish the Boron Letters. I've begun to notice more and more that when you do things outside your comfort zone, and really put yourself out there for the elements, you will come out on top every time.

I wish you good luck in your endeavors, and I'm interested in seeing what happens.

 

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[bigred]

Great job taking action! Most people never realize that they are a product of their decisions and behaviors and you do. It seems like your taking that insight and working on areas that you see your deficiencies. I think its awesome! Keep on challenging your fears and you will see progress!

 

[Roland]

A quick update since last week. A lot of things have happened.

- First, I have received enough answers now from the email I sent ("the email that will change your life" as explained in my previous post) to be able to see what I need to work on to start with. Strangely enough, it would appear that I know me quite well with regard to my weaknesses but I had no idea about the strengths people see in me so it has been a good surprise for me.
Another outcome of having sent this email has been that the people who are supposed to know me the best (close family and best friends) have either not answered to the email or not been able to answer it objectively. By that I mean that their analysis was fully feeling-based as opposed to fact-based. Interesting experience anyway!

- Then, one day after my post last week, I went to an event I had been invited to. During the evening, I have been able to talk to the CEO of the company that organized the event and I have had the chance to ask him a lot of questions about his business, problems, plans for the future and so on.
Nothing happened this night but later at home, I thought back about the problems he told me about and I imagined a solution to fix his main problem and reached out to him by email to explain him what I have thought and ask him if it would really solved his problem.
Answer came the day after. Very interesting idea from his point of view. He asked me for more details and I developped the idea further. I am just out of a meeting with him and his operations manager. We have discussed the project and if I manage to fulfill their need, I have as my first customer the CEO of a group of companies. They even gave me ways of taking this project further in order to answer their needs in a better way and for me to build a more profitable business. The scalability of this project is huge. I now need to do the numbers in more details to confirm that the project is viable.
I am overwhelmed by the changes that have taken place in my life since I started this thread...

I will also need to find a GOOD telephone sales person to find more potential customers so if you know one you could recommend me that would be great.

Stay tuned for the next update, the next weeks promise to be very exciting!

 

[tafy]

Sounds like you may have stumbled across a need, Nice going! Lets hope the problem is not too big or complex to program

 

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[Roland]

Sounds like you may have stumbled across a need, Nice going! Lets hope the problem is not too big or complex to program

I have a big due diligence to do before going any further but hopefully yes. I'll keep you updated.

 

[LeungJan]

Hey Roland, it's great to see you progressing.

Congrats on following through and starting your miracle morning.

I am also from the UK and pursuing the fastlane journey. I have read through your threads
and I love the effort you are putting in, have you considered getting an accountability partner?

I have just started my first day and it would be great to have a partner who is pursuing the same journey.

Drop me a PM if interested.

 

[Roland]

I am a bit behind my commitment of reporting here every week but here you are anyway.
- First, I have now finished the first month following the miracle morning advice as per Hal Elrod's book. It has changed certain things in my way of doing starting with implementing some discipline. I will now tweak the program a bit to adapt it to what I really need.
- A week ago I have given my very first speech ever. Not a big audience bug enough to make me nervous. The food thing about this public speaking club is the feedbacks you receive from everyone. In my case, my nervousness was hardly noticed and I should try and use more pauses during the speech. But all in all quite a good feedback for a first speech. I have booked a slot to give another one next week. I need to master that.
- And last point about my project, as my main source of failure in my previous projects has been a not deep enough due diligence, this time I have decided to outsource this task to a professional market analyst. I want to an objective view on the potential of this project so I am taking part of the market analysis but the strategy is being driven by the analyst and she is also doing the result analysis. We should have the full picture at the end of next week for me to decide if I keep going or kill this project.

Globally I am quite happy of the progress I have made in the past month even if it is not going as quick as I would like. I stikl have a long way to ho but I can already see some small milestones achieved and that is very motivating.

Stay tunned for the next update

 

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