Bandersnatch Your Life - You Choose How the Story Goes

 

Some of you may be asking, “What the hell is a Bandersnatch?!” So in case you missed the cool bus last year, let me explain what I’m referring to. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is an interactive Netflix movie that allows viewers to make decisions for the main character throughout the film. 

As you’re watching the movie, you are presented with opportunities to choose what will happen next. When an opportunity is presented, you have 10 seconds to make a decision, or a decision is made for you—the default scenario plays out. Once that scenario finishes playing, you can go back and choose a different scenario to play. 

At the end of the film, you have the option to choose a different critical choice that allows you to explore other possible endings.

There are several ways the film can end based on the choices you make as you watch, and there are even endings that are harder to reach than others, based on the combination of decisions made....

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Test, Test, Test to Figure Out What Works

 

If you’ve been following my podcast or my writings here on Medium, you may remember that I started a dropshipping business two years ago. The way I learned how to run that business was to set up a website for a general store—meaning I sold any and everything—with no niche, and try to sell everything to everyone. The importance of choosing a niche is a story for another day, but for the purposes of this dropshipping business, this method made sense.

I made my money in that business by finding trendy products, running ads for those products, and seeing what people responded to. If people who saw the ad bought the product, I’d keep selling it. If people who saw the ad didn’t buy the product, I’d stop the ad and move on to another product.

In the dropshipping world, that method is called “testing”, and in ecommerce I learned to test everything. I tested which products I sold, ad copy, ad photos, ad videos, product photos and...

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10 Ways to Avoid Negativity Creep by Choosing Positivity Instead

 

When things are great in life, they’re great! You feel like you’re on top of the world and maintaining positive energy is as easy as pie. When things in life suck, they seem to really suck bad. It’s in those times that positive energy is scarce, making negative thoughts seem impossible to control. 

We all go through those phases in life where it seems like the Universe is kicking us when we’re already down. It’s hard to think positive thoughts when things aren’t quit going exactly as you would want them to go, but that’s when you need to be positive the most. 

What many of us forget is that positivity is a choice—which means, so is negativity. Choosing positivity requires actively making decisions to do so, and it requires intensely training your brain, as if you’re training for a knock down, drag out fight in the Octagon. 

When you’re challenging yourself to accomplish a goal, the struggle to stay...

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No One is Coming to Save You

 

Have you ever known someone who’s extremely smart and so talented that they can literally do anything—so much so that you secretly kinda hate them sometimes because they’re just so damn good at everything they do—but they seem to be letting all that talent go to waste? They desperately want to but aren’t pursuing their passions and sharing their gifts, because they seem to be waiting on someone to do it for them or for something great to fall in their lap. They’re miserable where they are but they’re stuck and won’t make a move.

I know people like this. Hell, this used to be me. Then one day I realized that no one and nothing was coming to save me. No religious belief, no long lost rich uncle (turns out, I don’t even have one), no talent agent—no one.

Maybe that person you know is you. Let’s get really honest right now, because being brutally honest is really the only way out of your misery. What are you...

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One Bold Action Per Day (Week 6 Update)

 

Here we are at just past 6 weeks since I made the commitment to take one bold action per day for 66 days. If you want to hear previous updates about this commitment, check out my podcast, Master Your Mission, on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play Music to get caught up.

Just a quick recap to bring you up to speed—on February 21st, I committed to taking one bold action per day for 66 days. I made this commitment to

  1. Show other people that taking action toward accomplishing their life goals is not as scary as it looks.
  2. Make taking bold actions a habit—or second nature—in my life. (Sidenote: According to studies, it takes 66 days to form a habit.)

I defined a bold action as one that 

  • Moves me out of my comfort zone and closer to my goals.
  • Defies an irrational fear that I’ve allowed to hold me back in the past.

To make this fun for you and me, I also challenged you to take one bold action per day toward something that you want to accomplish in your...

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Michael Jordan's 1997 Flu Game - A Winner's Credo

 

On June 11, 1997 sports history was made. One of the greatest performances ever was made by a flu-stricken Michael Jordan in game 5 of the NBA finals against the Utah Jazz. If you’re a sports fan, you know that particular game well, and you can probably remember where you were as you watched it just like any other major event in your lifetime. 

Michael Jordan was visibly sick throughout this game. He looked weary and wasn’t himself, but somehow he pushed his way through the entire game. The series was tied 2–2 and Utah was in the lead as the clock ticked down to under a minute to play. With less than 30 seconds left on the clock, His Airness drained a game changing 3-pointer that gave the Bulls the lead and helped them win the game. They went on to win the Championship in the very next game, and Jordan’s performance, even while sick, will live on forever as a pivotal moment in basketball history. 

Jordan beasted out 38 points and 7...

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5 Reasons You Should NOT Start a Business

Usually, I’m shouting from the rooftops that you should start a business, and I truly believe that entrepreneurship is the key to happiness for some people—but not everyone. I know that some people aren’t cut out for entrepreneurship or just simply aren’t interested. 

It can be an emotional roller coaster, it can be stressful, it can be one of the toughest things you’ve ever done in your life, but it can also be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made. How would you know though?

If you’re thinking about starting a business, you may be wrestling with whether it’s a good idea for you. To help you out, I made a list of reasons you shouldn’t start a business. 

You’ll have to make tough decisions.

You’re the business owner which makes you the boss. It’s pretty likely that you’re going to be the only person working for your company in the beginning. No one but you will be able to make the hard...

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You Want To Be a CEO but Are You Willing to Be a CSR?

 

One thing about new business owners is that so many want the title of CEO. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter that the business hasn’t made a dime yet. People tend to love that title because it’s sexy. 

It’s impressive to be able to introduce yourself at networking events as the CEO of your business. Business cards and websites are a little bit cooler when your name is followed by “CEO”. Surely, you can shut the haters up when you tell everyone that you’re the CEO of a new business. Wanna impress potential baes and get more dates? Just tell people you’re a CEO when they ask what you do for a living.

When you’re starting out, it’s great to consider yourself the CEO of your new business (because you are), but are you also willing to be the customer service rep, the sales rep, the admin assistant, the project manager, the janitor, the receptionist, the mail clerk, and any and all other roles you’ll have to...

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5 Common Myths About Failure that You Should Never Believe

 

Most of us have failed at something. Actually, most of us have probably failed at many things. From a young age, we’re taught to try as hard as we can to obtain our goals. We grow up playing sports, competing in science fairs, and learning things like how to ride a bike. Failing at those things was, generally, inconsequential. 

As adults, we set out to accomplish goals like graduating from college, starting a business, or raising a family. Failing at achieving these goals could prove to be much more consequential. As a result, failing can be a devastating experience that causes us to develop all types of negative emotions, leading to fear and anxiety of ever experiencing that devastation again.

But we have the wrong idea about failure. We should look at it in a much more positive light, and we should be proud of each time we’ve tried and failed because the alternative is not trying at all.

To help you restructure the way you think of failure, let’s...

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Don't Accept Broken as Normal

 

Have you ever had a broken toilet that only worked if you jiggled the handle the right way? You start out telling yourself that you’ll get around to getting it fixed, but you only remember that it needs to be fixed at the worst possible times. Then before long, you don’t even notice that it’s broken any more. Every time you use it, you automatically jiggle the handle to make it work the right way, because now, that’s what you’re conditioned to do and have grown accustomed to accepting.

You get so used to the toilet being broken that you forget it’s not normal for the toilet to be broken. You forget how abnormal it is to have to take the extra steps that it requires to operate the toilet when you could very easily just flush it, were it fixed. 

Sometimes in life, we get so used to things being broken that we forget what it’s like for things to be normal. We allow ourselves to get conditioned to dysfunctional relationships,...

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