Ms. iTunes Store, I enjoyed our long 4+ year on-again off-again romance, but I need to end our relationship. No more emaling me about the new hotness you want to sell me, no more fighting to ensure I only use you on 5 computers. I’ve found that for audio, polygamy is OK, and brings me more happiness and less fighting.
Amazon is my new lady. Yes she’s younger, cheaper, and more willing to please me; with such tricks as one-click “Preview all” for albums, $7.99 albums, and my favorite position: the “256kb/s MP3 files” which auto imports into iTunes.
I remember our first date, Ms. iTunes Store, where I was nervous and slow-to-click through your cold-war-era interface. I’d had tried other’s like Ms. MSN Music on the corner of IE and Media Player Ave., but I wanted a more complete relationship. After coming to terms that you were the best relationship at the time, I eventually bought the iPod’s you were sellin’ on the side. Even though the first one wasn’t free the 2nd iPod was better, and I was then fully hooked to your software and hardware.
Then I starting seeing Audible.com on the side for my spoken word addiction, rather then using you as the middle man between us. This provided me more action for the same or less price, and your sister iTunes and your iPod’s never knew the difference. I still needed you for my music habit, but all that work to get your DRM and DRM-less AAC files into MP3 left me looking for another provider.
Now I’ve found your replacement Ms. iTunes Store, and Ms. Amazon is it. Sure I’ll still see you on the side a few times a year for that obscure offering that 70% market share gets you… but baby your prices and your file formats are legacy, and you’d better start playing nice with all the pimps who are growing tired of your conditions and small payouts to them. Remember, it is ultimately those pimps that control you, and not your fantasy of the other way around… and they really dig Ms. Amazon.
Sorry.
Maybe you just get it… but I didn’t. Maybe I just forgot along the way. Before you read any other self-help book, read all 176 short pages of Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard, and then read it again. I find myself going back to my notes again and again to remind myself of what it is to be on the road of mastery in anything I want to do. It always helps when I think of straying off my plan to get better at something. Buy Mastery on Amazon.
Get audible.com, buy the ones below that are on there, and listen. Otherwise read for 15 minutes in morning (when mind is fresh and not drifting off to sleep), or after a Caffeine Nap. If they change you the way they’ve changed me, you’ll be glad you took the time. If you’re in doubt, Google terms like ‘wealthy people read books’, etc.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Don’t get hung up on the real estate concept, but focus on the mindset. This is the book that was recommended to me by a friend 4+ years ago and got me started. When I read it I spent most of my spare time working my job and watching TV, etc.. 4 years later I spend most of my free time planning and working toward leaving the job for good.
Mastery. Once you understand the path to it (I had to read it twice), you tend to be calmer and content with the plateau of ‘work’ in getting good at something. Plus, it allows you to draw similarities between your path to mastery of Google hacking and the path of a Ninja, and that’s always fun.
The Secret. I have the DVD and audio, and have listen/watched them a total of 12+ times, and is still on my iPod. I have many big and exact examples of how the law of attraction has worked for me and mine.
Success is not an Accident. Still implementing this one, but is hard core work if you take it seriously. I expect it to give me laser focus on my life goals and projects by the time I’m through it.
Getting Things Done. Don’t just read this. Take a year to implement it. Trust me. Companies may start to prefer it, CNN boasts about it, and heck even Leo Laporte recommends it. After several methods including paper/Moleskine, Outlook, and Remember The Milk, I have stuck with My Life Organized because it’s digital, runs anywhere and keeps in sync, and I can take it with me on my Windows Mobile phone.
Here I am beyond midnight again just starting my ‘homework’. It continues to amaze me my ability of self defeating procrastination. After hours spent on other things, some important, most not… I sit with a cold cup of Joe realizing I’ll likely hurry through tonight’s homework once again.
You see, I’ve not been one to talk about it too much… what I’ve been focused on for two years. Mostly due to assumptions that others don’t care (hey that’s a good blog title) but also because I want to let the evidence of my actions reflect my work rather than my talk. Here on the most-public-of-all-public-places I’ve also been sensitive that some of the coursework I am studying under is copyrighted and can’t be of much public discussion.
Most, if any of my friends and family do not realize the amount of effort my wife and I have put into changing our life mindset, plans, and goals since 2003. We continue to increase our fever and effort in the simple task of changing our mind’s blueprint and actions to be that of a wealthy or rich person rather than our previous state of mind (the typical middle-classer).
As the books says it’s not been easy; and even just what we’ve done so far is hard enough to describe to someone that we don’t bother. We are doing things with our finances, our discipline, and our lives that no one we know is doing… which makes all this extremely hard. I know that we’re actually following the path of our virtual mentors such as Robert T. Kiyosaki, Dr. Dolf de Roos, Mark Fisher, and of course Mr. Williams; but with not one person to talk to who has done this ‘mindset transformation’ and become truly free, we feel like we’re clearing our own path through the Amazon.
So we have this no quit clause. Which at times has been all that keeps us pursuing our dream: to be independently wealthy within five years so that we won’t have to work for a living wage and become truly free, so that each day can be lived exactly how we choose it to be.
Since I didn’t document any expectations three years ago I’m not sure that I expected this journey to be different then it is. Yet today, as I sit here finishing this post in an attempt to document my emotions (I’m much more a typer then a writer… one of my weaknesses I’m fighting) I realize that I’m not moving fast enough toward the goal. As much as we accomplish weekly, I still feel as if I have never truly challenged myself.