Reading Books vs Audiobooks. (Pro's and Con's)

For a little over 3 years now I have really gotten into learning from people that are where I want to be in life.  Whether it be through books, audiobooks, youtube, or even courses learning from people who are high achievers, and winners in life is something that has made a huge impact on my life.  It helps your mindset to take a shift from the normal life most people live to the prosperous life that these high achievers live.  It shows you ways you can work to get to their level.  Although I still have a long way to go to be at my highest level in life, the mindset that I have is that I can always learn from others.

Today I wanted to share with you the difference in books and audiobooks.  I hope this will help you learn which form of reading works best for you so you can accelerate the learning process in your life.

Regular Books

Let us start off talking about good old regular books.  The reasons I like reading an actual book that you can hold in your hand is because if you want to mark something that you want to go back to in the future, it is very simple and easy to do, you just circle or underline what stood out to you and mark the page and you are all set.  You will know exactly where you want to go when you re-read the book the next time around or when you want to go and look over the things you found useful in the book before.

Another reason I prefer books is that if the book has an exercise to complete it is much easier.  Lets say the author has an exercise for you to write down a few specific things you learned throughout each chapter.  In an audiobook it would be 100 times harder to go back and listen to the chapter to find the answer.  In a regular book you can flip through and find the exact location the answer would be in.

This even applies to if the book has an exercise about helping you come up with a plan for your life.  In a regular book there is usually already a spot for you to brainstorm and write down your plan.  This will save you time and energy compared to if you are listening to an audiobook.

Why is this?  If you are reading / listening to an audiobook with an exercise in it, you will have to pull out a piece of paper and write down the exercise question and then answer them, which can cause you to be more likely not to do the exercise in the first place since you would have to exert "way" too much energy compared to a regular book.



Audiobooks

With all that being said audiobooks have tremendous benefits as well that regular books don't have!

Audiobooks are actually what I now prefer.  I used to love reading regular books, and yes from regular books it is easier to learn from, since taking down notes is super easy and simple.  However with a regular book I cannot read it while I'm driving, in the shower, cooking, or whatever I'm doing.

With a regular book you literally have to sit down in a quiet environment and read it.  With an audiobook, on the other hand you can listen while you are doing almost anything.

If you have a long daily commute to work audiobooks are even better for your life.  Music is awesome and can be fun to listen to in the car.  But every once and a while (about half the time I drive) I like to listen to an audiobook. The reason being is like I said music can be fun, but why not feed your brain while you are waiting in traffic?

Closing Thoughts 


There is a time and a place for books as well as audiobooks.  To use them both in combination is a great idea.

What I mean here is that both books and audiobooks are great, but if you are driving on a road trip you can't just pull out a book and start reading without putting your life and others in danger. but you can connect your phone to your radio and put on an audiobook.

On the other hand if you are in a quiet or peaceful environment reading an actual book can be very relaxing and feel great to do!

Really audiobooks are great for when you are on the move or super busy.  They are great time savers but if you want to learn better and retain more information I would recommend actually reading books.

Like I said both have their benefits in different situations.  From what you have read above what sounds like a better fit for you, reading books or listening to audiobooks?

If you want to take your life to the next level check out some of my recommended books below and get a copy of your own!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,

Make the best of today,

Brian

5 Things You MUST Stop Doing Right Now To Take Your Life To The Next Level.

In today's blog I want to share with you 5 things you are doing in life that are keeping you from moving forward.  Being able to make a mindset shift and stop doing these 5 nasty habits will help you make the first step in taking your life to the next level!

Eating junk food on a regular basis.

If you are new to the Ganifit blog you may not know about my backround.  Until I was about 15-16 years old I mostly ate junk food every single day. I rarely drank any water (only sugary pop) and usually ate tons of processed foods.

At the time I didn't really notice what these foods were doing to my body, but I saw myself gaining some fat and I was not happy with how I looked.

Although I wasn't severely overweight I still had a little gut and some man boobs.  I was lucky enough to start to become conscious of what I was eating around the age of 16. Although my bad habits didn't change instantly, over time they got better (and still are as I learn more and more about nutrition).

From my personal experience I noticed no benefit from eating these foods except the instant gratification I got from the taste of these foods.  I have multiple cavities from drinking so much pop, eating ice cream, and other sugary foods as a kid.

Now whenever I go and eat some kind of junk food, I notice I feel completely different from when I am eating food that fuels my body.

I feel tired and unmotivated (especially if I eat white bread or processed carbs.  When I was eating processed carbs all the time, I never noticed how it really made me feel.  It took me changing my eating habits to notice how eating a burger or pizza really makes me feel afterwards.

Although there are times I eat junk food, I keep it to a minimum because it dramatically will affect
my health and productivity if I eat junk everyday.

This is also the reason most people will eat lunch and come back to work more tired than before.

So if you want to level up in life, changing your eating habits to healthier eating habits is the first step.  Not only will you be less at risk for major health problems, you will also have more energy to actually focus on improving your life!

Gossiping/judging others.

Judging others is one of the biggest things that holds so many people back in life when they are trying to get ahead.  Most people are stuck in the trap of gossiping or judging others because almost everyone is always doing it, which makes it easy for you to get sucked into.

I am currently working to overcome judging others and I wanted to share a couple ways that can help you stop judging as well.

One of the easiest ways that I have found to instantly change how you view other human beings is to start to realize that they are human just like you.  We all have faults and judging someone on their's doesn't change anything and you will end up feeling bad for it in the end.

When you start to see people as other humans just like you, you will realize that they are just doing the best they know how to in life.  Also realizing that each person has a family can help as well (think of how you would feel if someone judged your parents).  Would you want someone judging your family?  Probably not, so why would you judge someone else when they have a family just like you?

Another great way to stop judging others is to realize that no one else has to be your image of perfect.  I would often find myself judging someone for being overweight and thinking "why can't he or she just get into shape?"

Judging people for this reason made me realize that no one has to live the way I want them to live.  Judging them is not going to change anything either, so start to see where this person is doing good in life, or just simply wish them the best.  But don't go around judging someone just because they aren't how you want them to be.

Realize that you can only control yourself, not strangers, or even friends and family!


Living without any goals.

Without having anything to achieve or stand for in life you will constantly be bored, or even worse try to escape life in any way possible, through TV, video games, and even drugs in extreme cases.  Having a goal or purpose in your life will give you a sense of accomplishment each day that you work toward them.

Maybe you have been in the situation before where you had no goals.  How were your days planned out?  Did you have anything exciting or was it just the same old boring day on repeat?

I remember when I was in school, I would always wait to come home and play video games for hours on end.  Although sometime around the time I turned 16, I started to get more interested in building an online business.  The only problem was that I never wrote down my goals for at least another year.

This resulted in me still playing video games on a regular basis, as well as getting information overload on different types of online businesses but never taking any action.

If I didn't set goals for myself I would still most likely be sitting on the couch playing video games for hours every single day.

By setting big goals, as well as monthly goals, and even daily goals, I give myself a roadmap of where I want to go.  I give my life purpose.

By creating meaningful goals for yourself you will start to live a more worth while life and be on your way to taking your life to the next level!


Staying in a comfortable environment.

So many of us get comfortable where we are in life.  We work 9-5, come home watch TV, eat some junk food and repeat.  This becomes a normal process and what we get used to.  The days start to blur together and you are never challenging yourself.

Chances are you are surrounding yourself with people that make the same amount of money as you (or even less).  You never put yourself in situations where you are uncomfortable and thus never grow.

One of the biggest things in my life is getting to the gym and hitting a hard workout.  I know when I go in there that I am going to be one of the smallest people there.  This is a great challenge, I used to be insecure about having smaller muscles than others, but now I realize that I am being challenged.  I can stay home and cry that I don't have big muscle or I can go to the gym and be around people that have bigger muscles than I do and get motivation from that.  Yes it makes me uncomfortable, but I do it because it will help me grow.

What is it for you?  What areas of life can you start to be the least experienced in the room and challenge yourself?  If you can't get around people that challenge you, go on Youtube and search for people who are where you want to be and learn from them.  Yes it'll be uncomfortable, but it'll be worth it!

Watching TV on a daily basis.

I want to start this section off by saying that watching TV isn't always bad.  There is a time and a place for it and it can be a great way to relax.

Believe me, I used to be there, I would watch TV almost daily.  I love TV but I realized that it won't help me get to where I want to go if I watch it all the time.

Personally I have started to set a goal for myself to only watch TV 2 days per week.  And at the most on those days I will watch about 2 hours of TV.

So how can you start this new habit of watching less TV so you can have more time to upgrade your life?  This goes back to the section where I told you to have some big goals set for your life.  Without big goals you will usually just do whatever is easiest since you have no motivation to accomplish any goals in the first place.

Or maybe you use TV as an escape.  Maybe you are someone who likes to come home after a long day at the office and just watch TV till you go to sleep.  You watch it to numb yourself and forget about your long day.

Although this may feel great in the moment, it will only dig you deeper into the trap.  After a while a habit will be built to not have any ambition or goals.

To start out I would recommend that you keep track of how much you are currently watching TV for one week.  Then replace one hour of TV per day with a goal that you truly want to accomplish.  This way you are starting off slow and building a brand new habit that will help you get to the next level in your life!

Closing thoughts.

I truly hope that reading this gave you a TON of value and insight on how you can start to take your life to the next level.  This is all stuff I had to learn so far along my journey (and even still am in some cases).

I believe that these will really help you start to transform your life if you practice all of these tips on a daily basis.

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

Brian

How Can You Deal With Setbacks Outside Of Your Control.

I was inspired to write this post based off of a challenge I am currently going through.  Last week I ended up getting a stomach virus and being completely sick for one day.  Movement of any kind felt like running a marathon and I ended up vomiting like crazy.

That day I forced myself to have a cup of soup to at least eat something.  The next 2 days I was feeling a little better and good enough to live my regular life but eating was still a struggle.  In those 3 days I ate maybe 1500 calories at the most!

This week I started to notice that I lost about 2 pounds of muscle (or at least that what it looks like).

For me this is a huge setback since my goal is to weigh 135 pounds and be lean (8-12% bodyfat).  Gaining muscle and maintaining it is a very important goal for this year and this setback is kind of discouraging me if I am going to be completely honest.

I feel as if the last month of lifting has been a complete waste because of this one situation.  Although, chances are that I will end up gaining that muscle back pretty fast and most likely it wont be a big deal like I am making it out to be.  But either way right now I am discouraged from it.

How can this help you?

Maybe you are currently dealing with a situation outside of your control that is a huge hurdle in your life right now.  Whether its big or small it can have a huge impact on your life and how you move forward from here on.  Every situation can either be dealt with by retreating or by using that challenge as motivation.

As an example, like I stated above, I am discouraged from losing muscle, but what I didn't mention is that it also is giving me motivation to go a little harder on my workouts to not only gain the muscle back that I lost but to put on even more muscle and push myself to the limits more often while working out.

The mindset you must have if you want to get through the setback you are going through, is that you aren't going to fall victim to it.  Believe me I could sit and complain all day that I lost some muscle since last week, plus I am a hard gainer so it will take me even longer to gain back the muscle and weigh 135 by December!

Or I can make that setback my bitch!  I can grab my setback by the balls and use it to my advantage.  I can push through when I want to give up!

And guess what?  You can do the same!  Whatever your setback is right now, how can you take it by the balls?  How can you use your setback as a winning opportunity?

Closing thoughts

What are you going through right now that is a huge hurdle for you?  Instead of using it as an excuse to give up, how can you use it as motivation to not only keep going, but bygoing even harder than before?

Take 5 minutes to write down 5 ways that you can use this challenge to fuel your fire and do even better in life than your were before!

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

Brian

How Can You Find Free Time To Work On Your Passion / Side Hustle When You Work Over 10 Hours Per Day?

Working long hours is a huge reason why so many people give up on going for what they want in life.  Maybe you are working long hours right now and feel as if you have no time when you get home to spend even a couple hours on your passion.  This can be crippling to your success and cause you to not even start in the first place.

And yes working over 10 hours per day can drain your energy and take most of your time that you could spend working on your passion.  Maybe you even have a long commute so add a hour or two to your workday for your commute as well, and now you are up to at least 12 hours.  Add you sleep time to that and there is 20 hours of your day.  All you have left is 4 hours left, and you still might need to prepare dinner so that's another 30 minutes to a hour of you day, taking you down to only 3 hours left.

What I want you to do is to start to realize how you are spending the last 3 hours of your day.  What are you spending your time on in those last 3 hours?  Are you spending it watching TV and scrolling through Instagram?  Or are you using that time to take your life to the next level?

And I know watching TV and scrolling through Instagram can be fun and easy after a long day of work, heck I still do it a couple times per week.  But even if I do I still find myself only doing that for about a hour.  This way I can relax while I eat if I want to before I get to working on writing a blog, making a video, editing a video, or working out.

I also like to pair eating and watching an informational video or listening to an audiobook to give me something to learn from while I eat.  This can be something you can do to replace watching TV while you eat.  This way you will be learning and eating at the same time and freeing up some extra time for yourself during the last few hours of your day.

And yes, I understand sometimes you may just want to come home and watch something while you eat dinner and that's ok.  Just make sure you are doing this in moderation and still have the time you to work on the things that you want to work on that day.


Can you shorten your commute?

Maybe your commute takes you 45 minutes every single morning.  You get up at 6:00 in the morning get dressed and leave at 6:15 stop at McDonald's and wait in line behind a bunch of other people in the drive through for 10-15 minutes then finish your commute to work.  That 10 minutes per day would free up a extra hour per week, which may not seem like much, but if you already work 10 hours per day, every single hour counts!

You also could look for a job that is closer to your house.  Even if it pays a tiny bit less, if it is closer and saves you a few hours per week then its worth it.  Time is more valuable than money, and with that free time you will be able to work on a side hustle or passion.  Just make sure if you do this you job still easily covers your living expenses so you are able to survive without worry.

How can you free up time?

One way to free up some time for your passion or side hustle is something we already talked about.  I want to go more in depth on it because it is very important and substantial to freeing up time and feeding your mind at the same time.  This is switching out TV while you eat with something more productive like informational videos or audiobooks that will help you move towards your goal or give you insight on how you can.

Cutting the time you spend scrolling mindlessly through social media has been a huge help in my life as well.  Although I still could cut out some social media time in my day, I am doing way better than I was before.

Right now you may be getting sucked into scrolling through memes on Instagram and before you know it a hour of your day is gone.  It may be fun at times to relax and laugh for a bit or even just entertaining for a while.  But eventually it starts to take over the remaining time in your day.

Now I find myself spending maybe 30 minutes per day at the most on social media per day (which I know is still bad but it used to be way worse.

Sometimes you can even get sucked into productive procrastination on social media sites.  I used to do this where I would be looking at photos of places I wanted to go or houses I want to live in or even quotes and so on.  This was good for inspiration but after a while I was just using it to not make any actual progress in my life and procrastinate.

Closing thoughts

Since I started working my new job as a porter at a dealership, I have been working longer hours than I have ever worked at a job.  I have been there a few weeks so far and I notice how hard it has been to find time to make videos or write a blog.

It seems as if I only have time to do a couple important tasks per day on the days I work.  Even finding that time can be challenging for me.  If you are someone who has been working as much as I have or more you know how challenging finding time for the things that are important to you can be.  So I hope these tips helped you free up and find extra time to work on your passion or side hustle.

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

Brian

3 Reasons You Should Re-align Your Yearly Goals.

We are officially halfway through 2018 and I really wanted to share with you something that I am currently doing that will make a dramatic difference in your life.  Maybe you have set some yearly goals for yourself but have kinda let them go, or maybe you are totally on top of them but feel as if you aren't where you need to be to achieve those goals yet.

Personally I am somewhere in between, there are some goals I am going to easily achieve as long as I keep doing what I am doing now, and others I have no idea how I am going to achieve them by the end of the year.  So making this blog is a must because this is what is currently helping me align with where I want to be in the near future and really figure out exactly how I am going to live the next 6 months of my life.

1) Figure out which 2 goals are a priority.

I started 2018 in a great way, but it was also kind of stupid.  I gave myself to many goals and directions to move in.  I wanted to achieve a ton of stuff this year in different  areas of life.  Being halfway through the year I noticed that having all of these things to do every day made it almost impossible to have any direction in life.  

If you are putting your focus towards too many things try to narrow you goals down to 2 main goals for the rest of the year rather than having 5 or more.  This way you are able to put more energy and focus into your 2 goals for the year rather than having scattered energy and barely any progress being made.

This doesn't mean the other goals you have for the year are not worth while.  They should still be important goals for you, but they may be more beneficial later in life.  

2)  Make monthly and weekly plans for each goal.

Looking at a goal from 6 months away can be scary and intimidating.  If you are able to step back and look at how small victories will lead up to achieving that goal, it makes it tremendously easier to achieve.  

If you can go to bed each day or each week knowing that you accomplished something worth while and that means a lot to you then you can officially say that day or week was a great one to live!

This is a big mistake I have made is not setting smaller goals (or victories) that help me achieve the bigger goals I have planned for my life.

Yes I may want to weight 135 with a lean body this year (gaining 10 pounds of muscle) but if I only focus on that I will get discouraged.  However if I put my focus on 1-2 pounds of learn muscle per month, while simultaneously focusing on my end goal, then I will be motivated to achieve that goal.

3) Why have you set this goal? 

Reconnect with why you set the goals that you set for yourself.  Think of all the reasons that motivate you to keep going on that goal.  How much will achieving this goal improve your life?  How much will it improve the lives of those around you as well?  What makes this goal important to you?

Ask yourself these questions for motivation and a meaning for each goal.  Without meaning your goal wont be able to give you motivation to achieve it!

Closing thoughts.

I hope these 3 tips have helped you and gave you insight on how to make sure you achieve your goals for the rest of the year!

Be sure to share your goals for the second half of the year in the comments section!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,

Make the best of today,

Brian

Feeling Discouraged Over My Retail Arbitrage Side Hustle (Mindset Blog)

Maybe you are thinking of starting a side hustle and want to look up the pros and cons of starting your own hustle before you start so you know what you are getting into.  Into today's post I am going to share with you some problems you may face when starting your side hustle through Amazon FBA.  Before I get into it, I have to say for the most part FBA has been great, I have had a couple problems that may affect you when getting started if you are on a budget.

The first problem I had (and still have) is where I shipped a package out to Joliet, Illinois.  The problem first occurred when I looked about a week later at the tracking info and noticed that it went to Baltimore, Maryland.  The package was left at the FBA center in Baltimore, so I gave Amazon a call since they work with UPS on shipping and making sure the items go to the right place.  I called Amazon about the problem and they said that they would ship it to Joliet with the same tracking number.  Having seen no progress for a week on the shipment when I looked at tracking on the UPS website I gave amazon another call.  I was then told the shipment was received in Joliet and had a different tracking number.

So I go and put in the tracking number to find that it still hasn't even left Baltimore (in fact as I write this its about another week or so later and its still sitting in Baltimore according to the tracking info).  I know this case is really extreme and probably rarely happens but it is a pain in the ass.  I am going to have to use more time and give them another call to find out what to do about it.

The second problem I had isn't as major but can also be a hassle to you if you are doing retail arbitrage, and depending on how much money you have to invest in it can really hurt you for a while.

The story here is quite simple, I went to look for something else to flip at Marshalls, and within a few minutes I found some Lacoste sandals.  These only cost me $25 per pair and were selling on Amazon for about $55.  This meant I should've been making a little over $15 profit on each pair (I found 3 pairs).  The selling rank was decent to (somewhere around 25,000).  Being a product I thought would be great, I bought all 3 on the spot and was super excited about how easy and fast it was to find them.

This time everything went right on my shipping and arrived at the FBA center like normal.  Only this time, the day my product got there, other FBA sellers started to lower their price, which means that mine either won't sell, I will only make a few dollars, or I will lose money.

My mindset that can help you get started
Now that you have read my story/experience with my current problems with retail arbitrage you know a couple obstacles you may run into when you start.  Based off of these situations, you may be scared to start.

Yes you will have problems when you start.  You may be confused about how to do something with your shipment, or you may even have as scenario worse that mine.  But guess what? It will happen.

You must be prepared for it and expecting it.  However your mindset should always be that it is a lesson to guide you, rather than something trying to hold you back.  Every wall is just a chance for you to build a ladder to get over the wall.

As stated in a previous blog, the universe has your back.  Maybe it is just trying to see if you will keep going or give up when it gets tough.  What I have found helpful is to work with the universe as a team and go even further, even if it is hard and scary!

Closing thoughts

I hope this helped you understand how to deal with challenges that you face when starting your retail arbitrage side hustle.  Feeling discouraged is perfectly normal (especially when you start) but by realizing that you and the universe are a team, you will be able to take daily steps to move closer to what you want to achieve!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,

Make the best of today,

Brian

How To Turn Your Disadvantages Into Advantages.

Today I would like to share with you a topic that has been a very big part of my life over the past couple of years. This is using my disadvantages as my advantages in life.  You are probably reading this and wondering "why would I use my disadvantage to bring me closer to my goal?".  That is a great question!

If you have been reading my blogs or watching my videos you know that I have really gotten in to working out and gaining muscle.  You also know that I don't gain muscle as fast as I would like to.  This is a HUGE disadvantage for me, but is also an even bigger advantage!

Being a hard gainer, this gives me the opportunity to share with other hard gainers tips and tricks on how they can build muscle as I learn along the way.  I also have the advantage of being able to say to myself "I gained muscle solely because I stuck with it and didn't give up and quit and make excuses everyday when it would've been super easy to do".  That is a good feeling.

Even right now, I may not be where I want to be, but I am starting to notice my muscles gaining some definition.

What are your disadvantages that you can leverage?

All of us have something that we think is holding us back.  Right now I want you to come up with 3-5 things that you see as disadvantages in your life.  Then write down 2 ways for each bullet point that you can turn these disadvantages into advantages.

Actually do this, this isn't one of those blogs where you should just go on reading without taking any action.  You clicked on this because you want to be able to leverage what you can in life, and live the best life you can live.

Great!  What did you come up with and what are some action plans you wrote down that you would like to share in the comments section down below?

Stories for inspiration.

About a year ago I was scrolling through YouTube and came across a video of a man without any limbs. I just looked him up again to find his name and link his website here so you can go check it out.

His name is Nick Vujicic.  In the video I watched with him about a year ago, he was giving a motivational speech.  But anyways I thought he would be good inspiration as using his disadvantage to his advantage. Nick could've complained about how he doesn't have an limbs, and you know what I think anyone would be able to complain about that!  But even though I don't know his whole story, I know that he did the opposite of that because of where he is in life.  He may not have limbs but he used it as an advantage rather than a way to say that life is against him.  

Like I said I haven't done much research on Nick, but that really is a huge inspiration for me to use my disadvantages to my advantage.  I'm guessing it is for you as well!

I know that is an extreme case, and most of us are lucky enough to have all of our limbs, but lets talk about someone who inspires millions of people, Tony Robbins.  Tony was a average or even below average person for a good chunk of his life.  

Now he is a public speaker, author, and even has charities that help feed people.  Tony is well know but if you don't know who he is and want to learn about him  click here.

Tony is an inspiration because he went from a low point in his life to being one of the most well known people on the plant in the last century.  

Closing thoughts. 

The list could go on and on for inspiring people.  The point of this blog is really to get you thinking and taking action on things that you think are against you but are really there to uplift you as well as others.  

If you haven't already, comment what you have discovered about yourself when you did the exercise above!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,

Make the best of today,

Brian