Should You Plan Out Your Day In The Morning Or At Night?

One of the most important things I have started to do in my life has been planning out my day.  By planning out each and every day I am able to keep track of what I want to accomplish that day and do my best to accomplish it.

My daily goals are always created to bring me closer to my life goals.  This means that I am not going to just make some bland "to-do" list, but rather a list of goals that are meaningful, where at the end of the day I can say to myself "Brian. you did great today".

This being said, there are some days I don't write anything down for myself to follow because these days for me are relax days.  Even though it seems like I always end up working on something that I am inspired to work on, I don't have to on these days.

But something that has been on my mind over the past few days has been, "what time should you be writing out your daily plan?'

Myself I have been trying out writing my goals at night for the next day, as well as writing them in the morning for the current day.  I have found a couple benefits of each and would like to share them with you today!


Benefits of writing your goals out at night.

- You already have a set plan for the next day.

- You don't have to stress about creating a plan when you wake up and use up will power at the beginning of your day.

By having a plan set out at night before you go to bed you will get a head start the next morning.  Every morning we wake up we only have a set amount of willpower for the day.  Using it up at the beginning of the day on a plan can sometimes cause you to not follow through on your daily goals.  By setting ambitious goals at night you will not be using that last little bit of energy you have at the end of the day to plan out the following day, which will help you to wake up and focus on the goals you have already set for yourself.


Benefits of writing your goals when you wake up.

- By planning out your day when you wake up you are going to be only writing your list based off of what you are inspired to accomplish during the day.


On the flipside planning your day in the morning can still be very beneficial.  Although it does use up some willpower in the beginning of your day the advantage is that you will be more inspired to accomplish the goals you have for the day.

Have you ever went to bed when you really wanted to do something or, for example maybe you really wanted a new phone and all day all you could think about was buying this phone.  Night comes and you end up going to sleep with this thought still in your mind.

The next morning you wake up feeling completely different about the phone.  Instead of going crazy for it, you notice that it isn't much of a step up and end up not buying it.

The same can happen with your goals.  There have been many nights where I write down that I want to accomplish such and such, then I wake up the next morning and that goal is the last thing I want to do.

By planning out your goals when you wake up you will be more likely to follow through from inspiration for the goal rather than feeling like that goal is a must.



Closing thoughts.

Have you already been planning out your goals?  If so which way works best for you?

If you haven't ever tried planning out your day try it out, experiment and try both ways out, they are beneficial to your journey and will help you stay on track to achieve your life goals.

I hope this gave you some insight on how to plan out your day to be more productive!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,

Make the best of today,

Brian

What You Need To Know To Release Tension!

I want to start off by saying that tis blog isn't my usual blog.  It may sound kind of out there and also contradict things I have believed in the past.  This is going along with a video (which I recommend you watch, because you will be able to see how I feel the day that I made that video which will in turn help you to feel it within yourself!

Anyways getting into it, over the past 2 months or so I have been having this tightness in my throat.  Which I thought could be linked to my thyroid as well as my adrenal glands.  Which it could be, but since then I have been eating foods that help the adrenal glands to act as they are supposed to.

I know that tightness in my throat could be because I am talking quiet most of the time.  Maybe you are noticing the same type of things for yourself as well?

What I have come to notice for myself is that it is most likely my adrenal glands.  How I noticed this is that I started to notice what was always on my mind.

What I started to realize is that I have always been wanting to make money RIGHT NOW!  This way I could buy myself and family things and have the freedom to do what I want when I want, as well as be able to give without worrying about money.

Not bad stuff to do right?  While that is true, I was coming from the place of needing money fast, which is something most of us want. The problem was that I wanted the money so much right now that I had trouble stopping and realizing that it is ok if the money takes longer than I expect.  This can apply to any area of life as well, not just money.  If you want something to happen right now in life this applies to you as well.  Maybe you really feel like you need to be further in life right now because you see someone else that is your age doing better than you.

Find out what areas of life you are coming from the space of lack from in your life.  You first must recognize it before moving on.  So take a few minutes right now to really dial in on what you "NEED" to happen right now!

Ok you figured out what it is?  Good lets dive into the first step/mindset!


The universe/God has your back.

Yes the universe does have your back in whatever you do.  This does not mean you can just lay around all day and expect something to happen when you aren't putting in any effort.  

I can't say to the universe "Ok universe I want to write this blog to help someone else who is dealing with tightness in their throat, but I don't want to write it, can you write it for me?"  

That just isn't going to happen.  I have to put in the effort right now but also believe that it will get in front of the people it needs to.  Which also means that I have to share this on my social media to reach more people.  It wont reach anyone if I just sit here and think that the universe is somehow going to put all that work for me.

With that being said, realize that the universe is there to guide you and help you with whatever it is that you are striving to achieve in your life.  But you and the universe have to be a team, if only one of you works and the other is sitting on the side lines you are never going to win.

It takes time.

Realizing that your vision is going to take time will also help you not be as stressed while working on achieving whatever vision you have created for yourself.  Once again the mindset here is that it will take time, but you still must be working on your vision and goals EVERY SINGLE DAY!  

Getting discouraged is what has caused the most stress in my life.  I used to always dabble every week with some new way of making money, or even just be lazy and watch YouTube videos on how this person made money fast, but not even take any action at all.

Long story short, it didn't really work because I was looking at new ways to make money every week (shiny object syndrome) instead of focusing on one strategy for a while and seeing how it turned out.

In 2016 and some of 2017 I tried out drop shipping and I was pretty consistant but didn't see results that were worth it.  But at least with drop shipping I gave it a shot for a good amount of time before moving on.  I actually tested it as a strategy instead of dabbling.

Now I am getting into retail arbitrage, I have only been doing it a few months and made somewhere around $100.  I know its not much but I'm not spending every single day on it, but when I have some free time I go and look through some stores.  I put in the time I can into it as well as invest my own money into it (which I could lose if the items don't sell).

Another example is my YouTube channel and this blog you are reading right now.  It is something I work on consistently because it is something that I care about and know that it will have an impact on millions of peoples lives in the future.  I could have every excuse to stop making videos and writing but my vision is too big to give up, it keeps me going, and sure its taking time (longer than I wish it would to be honest) but I am trusting my that my effort will soon impact millions of people!

So if you are easily discouraged and always dabbling and trying new ways to make money, or new workout routines every week this mindset will be a huge help for you.  Imagine you are able to go deep on one area of life and be successful at it, how amazing would your life be?

Bruce Lee says "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

It will take time and that is ok, anything great will take time!

Closing thoughts.

This mindset has bee a huge game changer for me since I decided to implement this about a week and a half ago.  I do still have days where there is tightness in my throat but it is nowhere near as extreme as it was before most of the time.

I also notice I am able to take a step back and realize the things that I am inspired to do rather than just doing things for the sake of being "productive", which ends up meaning that I will hit a door instead of taking a step back and using the door knob to open the door and go through it with ease.

Thank you so much for reading, as always,

Make the best of today,

Brian

Are Cheat Day's Important For Staying Lean?

If you have been reading my blogs or watching my videos you know that I love to experiment with different workouts, and different ways of eating.  About 2 months ago I decide I was going to start taking only 2 cheat days per month.  This sounded great on paper and I thought it would help me lean down and gain muscle in a better, more healthy way and also make me feel better because I would be eating more high vibration foods.

Although I did feel better from it I noticed that I started to gain some fat, nothing too major but it was fat nonetheless.  I feel as if the fat gain was in direct proportion to taking cheat days less frequently.

Now I know this may sound counterintuitive but hear me out.

Taking cheat days twice per month was actually not the best idea, and I should've followed my tracking calories advice, by moving my cheat days from once per week to once every 8 days then once every 9 days and so on.

By not pushing back my cheat day by one day per week I started to eat a couple hundred calories more per day, which isn't too bad but it was bad enough for me to gain a small amount of fat.

I thought I would be able to handle taking 2 cheat days per month without working up to it but I was wrong.  I actually discovered that losing fat or maintaining a leaner body fat percentage was easier when eating junk food once per week.

What does this mean for you?

Staying lean or at least maintaining a low body fat percentage can be very challenging.  Being able to cheat once per week has been a huge help for staying lean, but the problem is how you feel the day after.

Sure eating some ice cream or bread will be enjoyable, but the next day it always seems to catch up with you.  You start to feel tired and lazy which just leaves you drained all day.

The easy way is to do what I did and push your cheat days back another week or 2.  The only problem with this is that you will start to overeat (even if its just 100-300 calories per day).  Striking the balance is key!

Closing thoughts. 

Let us both try is this out together, lets push our next cheat day one day, yes only ONE day back, and continue to do this and see how it works for us!

The Importance Of Tracking Calories For Weight Loss And Building Muscle (For Men & Women).

Whether you want to lose fat or build muscle this blog post is for you!  Tracking calories has played a huge part in my journey so far and is literally a staple in building a body you are proud of.  I have been tracking calories for about a year now and yes there are sometimes days and weeks I forget to track calories and guess what happens?  I almost always gain fat, the reason being is even if I think I am eating the same amount of food as I do when tracking calories I always end up over eating.

Tracking calories also works as a way to motivate you to eat foods that have a good balance between calories and macros.  The reason being is that you won't want to be eating a high calorie food with low macros because every single calorie counts and either helps you or works against you.

I can say that while tracking calories I have learned the do's and don'ts of cutting calories from a start.  Lets say that you are currently eating 3000 calories and to lose fat you need to be eating 2200 calories per day.  I have had the experience of literally cutting 1000 calories overnight and I can tell you from experience that is not the way to go.  It ends up messing with your metabolism and backfires on you.

Instead you would want to take 8 weeks to cut out the 800 calories.  It is going to be a long process but it will be worth it.  On the first week you will cut down to 2900, the second will be 2800 and so on.  I know this doesn't seem like it would work but what I have found is that it actually is a more permanent fix rather than the quick fix of cutting 800 calories from day one.

First off it will make your body adapt, and secondly it will be easier for you to eat just under the amount of calories you are used to eating.

By doing it this way it will also feel more obtainable. think about it, if you are walking 10,000 steps per day is 300 more steps going to be a big deal?  Probably not.  But now think if you had to do 2400 more steps, I bet that would be a little harder because its almost 25% more than you are used to doing.  Now if this week you walk 10,300 steps that isn't much harder, then next week you walk 10,600 steps the same rule applies.

Eating for weight loss is the same way!  Make things easy on yourself by taking steps to achieve your goal, rather than taking a big jump off the cliff and hurting yourself.

Closing Thoughts.

I really hope reading this helped you achieve the goals you have for your body.  This concept is very hard to grasp because we all want a quick fix and think if we eat a great deal less that it will help, don't worry I did that to and learned the hard way so you don't have to!

How To Move Up The FOOD Chain. (Eating Healthier)

Eating healthy is different for everyone.  There are no foods that are for sure "healthy" because one person can say that meat is healthy another can say it is the worst thing in the world for you.

This being said you can work towards what foods you consider healthy.

My Story.

About 5 years back I was eating McDonalds, crackers and Jif peanut butter, and Ramen almost every single day.  Sure there might have been some healthy food thrown in the mix but for the most part all I remember eating was pure junk.  If you would have told me 5 years ago "just eat some spinach and stop eating the McDonalds" I probably would've laughed in your face.  It wasn't going to resonate with me to do a dramatic shift in what I was eating in a split second.  In fact now, I do eat healthier than I could've imagined 5 years ago, but I still have a ways to go, (finding out what foods work with me and which one's don't) while implementing more greens and veggies.

Maybe you feel just like I did 5 years ago.  Maybe you are just looking into health, whether it be to lose weight, gain muscle, or maybe you are in great shape but still eat a ton of junk food you know isn't good for you.  Whatever it is this blog will help you!

What does it mean to move up the food chain?

To move up the food chain you must start to make a shift in the foods you are eating.  Lets say you are where I was 5 years ago, you are starting to head down a path that will lead to obesity.  You have been eating this way all of your life and it is starting to catch up with you.

What can you do about it?  Instead of looking at the healthiest foods you can eat, I want you to think of something that is healthier than what you are currently eating.  If your daily diet consists of Cheetos, moving up the food chain might be eating french fries or sweet potato fries.  At this point you may be saying "but don't I need to cut all the crap out of my diet?"

The answer is yes, but it is going to take time.  You most likely won't be able to go into the gym if you have never lifted weights before and start to curl a 50 pound dumbbell.  So we start with something that is still a challenge, we replace a bad habit with a better one.

There is no need to compare what you are eating to what someone else is eating, your first step is to start to cut out the things that are bad and replace them with foods that are a step better.

I remember when I was losing fat about 3-4 years ago eating things I would never eat today, but it worked for me back then.  Meat, even if it was cured in sugar was better for me than some McDonalds.

Closing thoughts.

What are some foods you can eat that are slightly healthier than the foods you are eating right now on a day to day basis?

Don't try to get in shape in a week.  That is the purpose of this blog post, it is going to take longer than you expect, but it also won't be a super long time as long as you continue to replace the bad foods with better foods and make eating these better foods a daily habit.

How To Use Your Tax Refund Wisely.

Mindset

You probably already have or are still waiting to receive your tax refund.  What are your plans with the money you get back?  Are you going to save it or spend it?

Most of the time people are going to spend it on a TV or something that will depreciate.  I don't want that for you, the fact that you are reading this means you think different, you want more out of your tax refund.  However it is going to require some work on your part.

This is in no way easier than going and blowing you refund on something right now.  What can happen if you do what I am going to share with you today is that you may have the chance to multiply your tax refund!  Like I said, it will take work and it isn't easy, but will be worth it in the end.

The Process 

When you receive your tax refund instead of looking at what you can spend money on look at what you can invest in.  Start to look at how you can use that money for leverage in your life instead of "extra money" that will soon be spent on some junk you don't even need.

Although I cannot tell you what is right for you to invest the money in I can give you some pointers, but you are the only one who knows the right way to leverage your money.  The things I would consider are investing in yourself (books, audiobooks, courses etc.) and flipping items (retail arbitrage, garage sales etc).

For example, I decided to invest some more money (about $100) into retail arbitrage through Amazon FBA, this allowed me to put the rest of the money in the bank and let that $100 (hopefully) work for me over the next couple weeks.  If it does end up making a profit that will leave me with $20-40 extra, which will be re-invested back into more items to flip, and the process will continue.  

Imagine if you did this yourself.  Sure you wouldn't be able to buy a new TV or computer right away, which is a bummer, but after a while you will have more money to buy something even better as long as everything works out (nothing is guaranteed) but worse case you are going to be out a couple hundred dollars and gain the experience of trying something new.

Maybe you would rather invest in yourself instead.  The benefits of this are that you have something that will always be there to help and guide you.  However, I would only recommend investing in yourself if you are going to take action on it.  From firsthand experience I have spent an insane amount of money on books in 2015 but I read so many of them without taking too much action which  really just made reading those books a waste of time.

Once again, for investing in yourself don't spend all of your money on it, focus on one or two books or programs that are going to benefit your life.  This way it is easier for you to focus on one thing instead of a bunch of books or programs to the point where you rush through them and don't even learn anything.

Some books/audiobooks I would recommend are Awaken The Giant Within, The 10x Rule, The Millionaire Fastlane, The Power of Now, and The One Thing. (Links to all of these books below.)



 

Closing thoughts

Is investing your tax return something that sounds worth while to you? If so leave a comment below on how you will invest your tax return to give yourself and your loved ones a better life!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,
Make the best of today,

Brian

My First Cheat Day In 3 Weeks (My Experience & How It Can Help You).

As you may or may not know in early March (I believe March 10)  I decided I wasn't going to take another cheat day until April 1.  Now leading up to April first was actually pretty hard.  It only got easier the last 5 days before April.  As I got used to eating junk food once per week my mind also adapted and wondered why I wasn't eating the pizza and what not every week.  It was really hard and I did eat some ice cream throughout the past 3 weeks, but it is ice cream with ingredients I consider pretty good (it kept me sane as well during this period).

As I write this it is April 1 and I can tell you my body has changed to like the taste of healthier food more again.  So far I have eaten about 4000 calories today and it is 8:00 pm.  I may eat one more thing today but that is only if I get hungry before bed, which I doubt but it is possible.  

How can this help you?

Maybe you are where I was last month or you are where I was 5 years ago.  Either way you have the ability to change a habit of always eating junk food.  

Some ways junk food can affect you are:

 - Low energy

 - Sugar crash (having energy for about 30 minutes then losing it all and being tired for hours after)

 - Unclear thinking

 - Slow moving

 - Fat gain

Obviously these are just a few ways junk food can affect you and are the most common in my life when I eat junk.  When you start to eat healthier (leafy greens, high quality protein, and so on) you will notice that you slowly start feeling the effects of junk food less and less and will actually notice your body starts to feel and look better.  

After taking a break from junk food for so long I can dramatically tell the difference in how I feel when I eat it compared to when I was eating it once per week.  Even as I write this I am having trouble focussing  on the writing and I believe it all has to do with what I ate today.  

So enough about me, how can eating junk food less often help make your life better?

First off you will start to have higher energy in your life and a better ability to focus.  (an easy way to start eating healthier is by incorporating smoothies into your diet) they help feed your sweet tooth, but in a healthy way since you are getting fruit and vegetables, (as well as protein powder if you want to add it).  If you have a smoothie filled with bright tropical fruit in the morning you will most likely also notice a better mood throughout the day.  

Try this smoothie every morning:

 - coconut or almond milk

 - frozen pineapple chunks

 - ripe banana 

 - frozen mango chunks

 - coconut oil

 - spinach or kale

I used to make this smoothie every morning.  It was great for a good mood in the cloudy, cold winter and is also what I did every morning while I was losing weight.  Give it a try and tell me how you feel after one week!

Closing thoughts.

If you are someone who is taking cheat days frequently like I was, set a challenge for yourself where you don't take a cheat day for 3 times longer than usual.  Record how you feel throughout this process.  Share in the comment the good and bad you notice from putting off your cheat day, and how you feel after you eat the cheat food.

Thank you so much for reading, as always,
Make the best of today,

Brian