The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

The Cure for Happiness: Timeless Secrets to a Stress-Free Life

AndrewNC

Limitless
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
433%
Nov 14, 2011
2,486
10,752
stroke.png
The above screenshot is from a business owner who reached out to me after his wife had a stroke due to the stress that came along from building his business.

It's my hopes that sharing my experiences and insights with you will prevent this from happening to you.

The book is for free for the next few days:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0Z5M9S/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

P.S. I apologize for any any spelling or grammatical errors. I just caught a few while reading through my print copy and I'm editing them right now. This was never meant to be a book - it was originally some long email to a girl that...I'll leave that story out of the public realm. </3

Then @LifeTransformer popped into my life with his free book cover offer on the forum and made me publish it (insisting having it go live on valentines day ironically).


IMG_4561.JPG

Edit - @MJ - I'll be purchasing a marketplace ad this weekend and this will be included in that when the free giveaway book ends. I just realized I need some time to get the description for that together.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

AndrewNC

Limitless
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
433%
Nov 14, 2011
2,486
10,752
SECTION 1

EMOTIONAL BALANCE


When I found myself telling the heroin junkie in front of the Emergency Room to drag me inside if I lost consciousness, I realized that I’ve made some poor choices in life.

It doesn’t help that it’s 2:30 in the morning somewhere on the outskirts of Seattle and I’m thousands of miles away from my closest friends and family.

The lessons I’m about to share with you are not from some textbook I read in college or any happy-go-lucky personal development seminar. Once again in my life, I f*cked things up and I had to learn my lessons the hard way.

It is my hope that sharing this story allows you to learn from my mistakes so you don’t face the same disastrous consequences that I did. When you learn these lessons, no matter how bad things are on the outside, you’ll be emotionally balanced to handle anything that comes your way…on the inside.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been dealing with the normal stresses and frustrations of everyday life. For the past three decades, I’ve dealt with these emotions in very much the same way most people do.

• I pushed them down.

• I let them out on other people.

• I allowed them to get the best of me.

It wasn’t until this one fateful event where I found myself rushing to the emergency room before I had to deal with the disastrous consequences which were soon to follow the normal way of handling our emotions.

This Disastrous Consequences of a Stress-Filled Life

It’s the Autumn of 2015 and the business I spent two years building suddenly collapsed in front of my eyes. With the bank account dwindling, the credit cards maxed out, and bills having to be paid, my body became flooded with a wide array of negative emotions.

I tried to come up with some form of positive outlook on the situation. No matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn’t find it.

It wasn’t until I woke up in the middle of the night rushing to the emergency room with heart palpitations before I realized the way I’ve been dealing with my emotions has been led me straight into one of the darkest chapters of my life.

Do you know the scariest part of this all? When this happens to you, you wouldn’t have even seen it coming.

Looking back, all of this could have been easily avoided if I knew the things that I’m about to share with you today.

It actually wasn’t this one event which caused me to spend the next five months of my life in and out of doctors’ offices. The real reason I was facing these problems was because of the slow and silent buildup of:

• Stress & Anxiety

• Anger & Frustration

• Sadness & Grief

• Fear & Regret

The list goes on.

Each and every one of us faces these things in our lives, but it’s what we do when they are here which makes all of the difference.

Rock Bottom Sets You Free

By the time January rolled around, I’ve reached an all-time low. Dealing with health problems all winter, my productivity hit zero. Lying face down in my bed most days, I didn’t have the drive or motivation to advance my professional life. I covered up the sadness with junk food, which ultimately led to gaining a lot of weight. Exercise and relationships were non-existent.

At least I didn’t turn to alcohol or drugs.

I couldn’t bare for life to go on like this any longer, so I decided to end it. I had to end the pain, the suffering, and everything else that went along with it once and for all.

But not how you might expect…

After four doctors told me the physical health problems were caused by stress and anxiety, the fifth doctor was the one who prescribed me a bottle of anti-depressants.

When I looked at the label, it turned out the side effects of the drug would potentially be worse than the symptoms I was facing. To make matters even worse, if I stopped taking the drug too soon, one of the side effects could even lead to death.

Faced with a decision, I held the unopened bottle of pills in one hand. In the other hand, I stared at the emptiness and uncertainty of what other options I had at the time (or lack-there-of).

This was the moment in my life where I decided to do something drastic…

All of a sudden a man appeared in my life telling me that he’s walked this journey before. He found a healthier and permanent solution after suffering in very-much the same way I did.

Years ago, I met him at a business conference where he told me that his business went bankrupt during the 2008-2009 economic recession. This man could relate to what I was going through with this buildup of stress and sadness in his life, so I listened to what he had to say.

The man who’s walked this path before…

When the economic bubble burst, he lost everything he’s built up over the years.

Having to declare bankruptcy, no creditors would lend him money for new business ventures. For months on end he would stay in his room and lay face-down on his bed, depressed about where life has led him. He too was at a rock bottom, but he found a way out.

Eventually he grew tired of living this stressed-out life and he mustered up the motivation to search for another way. Getting back up on his feet and regaining control, he embarked on a journey learning how to manage the emotions he was facing.

After all, that’s all they are. Emotions floating through your body. There has to be a way to regain control of them, isn’t there?

He decided to do whatever he can to find out how to live a happy and stress-free life. Through self-education, trial and error, and learning many of these lessons the hard way, he eventually broke free from his depression and quickly released this buildup of stress.

But after he found the answers, something else happened to him…

Not only did he go on to rebuild his personal and professional life to new and greater heights, but all of those little things which used to get on his nerves suddenly didn’t bother him anymore. Compared to that rock-bottom he faced, the lessons he learned on this journey turned him into the type of person who is now emotionally equipped to handle anything.

After learning these things, he is even better off than he started.

He now ventures through life in a Zen-like state with a flowing stream of calmness and clarity, regardless of what life throws his way. Even though he faces many of the same obstacles and struggles on the outside, he now thrives off of them in ways most people never could even imagine.

While he was going through the struggle and depression, it appeared as if it was the worst time in his life. Inside of the chaos of the storm, it sure felt that way. But when he looked back on the journey he embarked on, this rock bottom in his life turned out to be the very best thing that has ever happened to him.

This depression was the very thing that moved him to shift course and propel him to this happy and stress-free life which we all dream of living.

How did he do it?

When the student is ready, the mentor appears.

If there was anybody in my life who could guide me through this emotional struggle I’m facing, it’s this man in front of me right now.

For the next year of my life, I went on a journey to discover these answers. Just like this man who has walked this path before me, I am proud to say that I found it. I am excited to say that the lessons in this book will help you find it too.

One year later: Emotionally Balanced

Exactly one year later from my rock bottom, I am facing a very similar situation on the outside.

Only this time around, things are much worse.

November 2016 | Backpacking Across the World.

I’m homeless in the middle of some foreign country. All of my bank cards are frozen. It’s 10:30 at night and the man I was staying with just threw all of my belongings on the curb in in a fit of anger and rage.

• My travel backpack.

• My clothes.

• My laptop.

• My passport.

Everything I owned was scattered in the middle of the street in a very bad neighborhood. I had no access to money. To top it all off, my cell phone service stopped working right after his rage-filled text message came in.

I am two miles away from the apartment.

When I looked down at my phone, my date asked me if everything is ok. Yes, all of this unfolded while I was a 40-minute walk away from the apartment on a first date with a lovely Spanish girl.

“Yeah, everything is just perfect”, I said with a sarcastic tone and smile on my face.

After I explained the situation, Cynthia offers to help me find my way back to the apartment. At least she knew her way around the city.

As we are wandering around the streets in the middle of the night, Cynthia says something to me, "How come you don't look stressed? If this happened to me, I would be freaking out right now."

She was right.

Here I was, virtually homeless in a foreign country with no clue how I'm going to get myself out of this mess and I wasn't stressed at all. When I first got the message, the emotions began to come up, but I quickly put what I learned over the past year to use. Surprisingly, I’m actually kind of relaxed.

We joked and laughed for the entire walk back to gather my belongings. She seemed more concerned than I was. I just had this inner sense of calm that no matter how bad things were on the outside, getting stressed out about it wasn't going to help.

It is a very powerful feeling when you learn how to harness and take control of your emotions, instead of letting them get the best of you.

We finally find our way back to the apartment. As soon as we turn the corner, the guy I was staying with looks as if he is in some type of alcoholic rage.

"Stand back and get ready to call the police in case he does something", I say to Cynthia, as I walk towards the front door.

Apparently the rent check I wrote in U.S. dollars would result in a lot of fees from his bank. Angered by this one little mistake, he let his anger take over.

Losing control of his actions.

I walk over to my bag and write him a second check to cover any fees he might incur; I hand it to him, and ask him if anything else of mine is still in the house.

"You fu*ked me over with the check”, he slurred in some drunken half-English accent. “Good luck trying to get your laptop and passport back. That’s in my room and there’s no chance you’re getting through this door."

Without my laptop, I wouldn’t be able to fix my bank cards, I wouldn’t be able to work out my cell phone service, and I wouldn’t be able to get out of this mess. Without my passport, I would be screwed. Feeling the emotions come up, I decide to put what I learned over this past year to use and take control of the situation.

"I'll exchange your house key for the rest of my things", I calmly said to him as a look of terror filled his face.

Of course he wouldn't want me to have the key to his house after what he did. I honestly would have just thrown it away, but this was able to calm him down enough to get my things before he slammed the door in my face.

I laughed to myself as I packed everything back into my travel backpack, noticing something was missing. With a confused look on my face as I'm searching around my backpack, Cynthia asks me what's wrong.

I look up with a smile and ask her, "Do you have any toothpaste at your apartment?"

“Oh, who said you were invited over?” she broke out laughing with a smile to match mine as she snaps a photo of me and we walk away.

Emotionally Balanced

I share this story with you to demonstrate the transition both myself and my mentor went through. In both instances I was out of money and facing a stressful situation on the outside. While it led to an eventual breakdown the first time around, the lessons I learned allowed me to prevent that from happening again.

After these transformations you are about to make, you’ll not only prevent that from happening to you the first time, but you’ll end this section with a special gift. You’ll learn how to tap into a special power that not many people in this world even know exists.

If you are ready to shift course to a happier and stress-free life, consider this book your map and flashlight, leading you to a balanced and brighter future.
 

Bigguns50

Platinum Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
200%
Feb 12, 2013
1,846
3,691
Sedona, AZ
@AndrewNC ... 1st, thank you for the free download of your new book. 2nd, it's the best book/writings I've read of yours so far. I love the layout, metaphors, and personal stories. I understand you're still editing but it feels quite polished. I will be sure to leave great feedback when I'm done. Thanks again.
 

AndrewNC

Limitless
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
433%
Nov 14, 2011
2,486
10,752
@AndrewNC ... 1st, thank you for the free download of your new book. 2nd, it's the best book/writings I've read of yours so far. I love the layout, metaphors, and personal stories. I understand you're still editing but it feels quite polished. I will be sure to leave great feedback when I'm done. Thanks again.
Thank you so much!

As soon as I published it, I already had my mind default to a thought of "how can I revise and expand this" haha.

I guess I'll let more natural feedback come in and see where to take it :)
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top