Jon versus Craig Ballantyne

This week I managed to grab Turbulence Training's Craig Ballantyne on the phone to pick his brains on fat loss and why he uses certain methods.

(Note to self - interview people in the same time zone as you next time...)

I often get asked what's better out of my own Storm Force Fitness methods (such as the Fat Loss Action Blueprint) and Turbulence Training so I thought I'd get hold of Craig and see if we could figure it out.

Now rather than give the answer that lines my pockets, I say the same things every time I get asked that question and this still rings true even after speaking to Craig.

1) They both work very well, very fast because they're based on.....

.... clean nutrition which is easy to follow
.... weight training and interval methods over 'cardio'
.... intensity over duration
.... enjoying fitness and a love for training adn the feelings that follow
.... supportive communities

2) They are both created and continually improved by guys who love fat loss and fitness and have created profits from a love of what they do and not the other way around.

3) They are both great for fast fat loss if you complete the programs from start to finish and don't wander off half way through or pick out the bits you like.

4) They are both useless if you buy them and leave them on your hard drive for 'when you've got time'. Funnily enough that time never arrives.

Craig and I have very similar views on a lot of things to do with training and nutrition for body fat but it's always good to hear WHY two experts share the same views.

If they do, then maybe, just maybe it's because we know DAMN WELL that these methods work every time as opposed to the magazine writers who largely guess or create piecemeal articles from lots of different sources.

Here's 40 minutes of me questioning Craig on everything from supersets and intermittent fasting to why he doesn't listen to the peanut butter haters.

(And don't worry I specifically told him we weren't going down the no cardio route!)

We got so much covered I had to make 4 videos!









Check out the Fat Loss Action Blueprint and Turbulence Training for fast working fat loss

Cycling nutrition

Go to any gym and you'll find some know-it-all telling you about how he does 4 weeks on high repetitions, 4 weeks on 8-12 reps to build muscle and, 4 weeks on pure strength with reps of 3-5.

Now whilst that guy is well behind the times in terms of what works for building muscle and burning fat, Big Jimmy Four Chins has one thing going for him.



He understands that performing the same kind of training or worse, the same session, for more than a few weeks at a time will result in a plateau and no further progress.

This is an all too common site in gyms.

However, many people do understand (to varying degrees) that you need to mix things up on the gym floor to see results and keep your body, guessing, adapting and ultimately, changing.

This is great but what about nutrition.

Why do we all agree that training variety is required for change to take place, yet we all settle into a nutrition pattern and do it on auto pilot?

Before I go on, this does not mean that you ladies who start a new crash diet every time Heat magazine comes out with the latest 'baby seaweed cabbage soup hypo-caloric breast implant' sensation, are doing the right thing.



The message today is not to get into too many habits no matter how good or healthy you think they are.

Again, your body will adapt.

Eat a high carb diet because you are training for a long-distance event and your body will become more efficient at utilising carbs and therefore less fat will be burnt so don't expect any improvements in body fat for a long time should that become your focus.

Go on a high protein, low carb, low fat diet to lose fat and you will eventually become more efficient at utilising protein as a fuel source. Later attempts at building muscle are likely to take much longer as your body readapts to using other sources for fuel leaving the protein for muscle building purposes.

Your body will do whatever you ask of it, whether you know you're asking the questions or not.

The key to success is rotation of different PROVEN nutrition systems.

My favourite method for fat loss is to follow the lean, clean, 5-6 meals per day, complex carbs only after training plan I use in the Fat Loss Action Blueprint.

After 4-6 weeks, switch things around and be less strict on meal timings and regular protein doses and use Intermittent Fasting (24 hour periods of nothing but water)which helps increase insulin sensitivity.

It also helps easily create a calorie deficit over the week without having to worry about anything on 'normal' days.

So long as you are not overeating to begin with and you can get your head around it mentally, this is an easy way to drop body fat without worrying about carbs, protein, fat, calorie counting or any other annoying inconveniences!

The best resource I've found on this topic is Brad Pilon's EatStopEat program which also provides some shocking evidence about how much protein you should be eating.

(Boys it's no where near what you thought!)

Don't get stuck in your ways but keep challenging your body.

Results will follow!

Jon

Get on the FLAB

Read EatStopEat

Sample recipes from my new cook book

In the next 2 weeks I'll be releasing my new fat loss cook book!

I'm getting a bit bored of the old chicken and rice with spinach and olive oil and decided something needed to be done!

So as usual I wrote a book!

This will bring you 150 recipes which whilst still fitting in with the principles of the Fat Loss Action Blueprint, are very tasty!

Here's some samples for you lifted straight from the book!

Garden Frittata - breakfast




Makes 1 serving

1 tablespoon olive oil
30 grams mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon minced jalapeno pepper
30 grams chopped roasted red bell pepper
1 green onion, sliced
2 teaspoons fresh chopped cilantro
3 eggs, beaten
Pepper

In a medium nonstick sauté pan over medium high heat, heat the oil. Add the mushrooms, jalapeño, bell pepper, green onions and cilantro and sauté until soft. Add the eggs and season with pepper. Cook the mixture, stirring and lifting the eggs to help them cook evenly, until they begin to set. Continue cooking until nearly firm in the center.

Calories: 300 per serving

Pear and Chicken Hash - For the meat eaters!



Makes 4 servings

2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
100 grams chopped onion
2 medium pears, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
1 large sweet potato, baked, peeled and cubed
200 grams chopped skinless, boneless boiled chicken breast
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and pears; sauté 7 minutes or until mixture begins to brown. Spoon into a large bowl, add potato and remaining ingredients. Toss well to combine.

Heat remaining oil in pan over medium heat. Add pear mixture, and pat into an even layer in pan. Cook, without stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir gently; cook an additional 2 minutes or until potato begins to brown. Serve immediately.

Calories: 226 per serving


Potato and Parsnip Bake - lots of recipes for the veggies!



Makes 4 servings

1 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garam masala (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
750 grams sweet potatoes, sliced
350 grams parsnips, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C.

Combine chili powder, mustard seeds, and coriander seeds in a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cover and cook 2 minutes or until seeds begin to pop, shaking pan occasionally. Remove from heat; let stand, covered, 1 minute. Stir in cumin and garam masala.

Combine spice mixture, olive oil, and next 3 ingredients in a roasting pan coated with cooking spray; toss to coat. Bake for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender, turning vegetables after 10 minutes. Sprinkle vegetable mixture with cilantro; toss.

Calories: 252 per serving

How to get your glutes working (most trainers don't know this)

This video has brought some really positive feedback from trainers, clients and friends alike!

You see lots of people are into this 'functional training' idea which is great in theory.

However, what does functional mean?

Surely it means that the exercise being performed does the job you want it to?

Does it build the muscle you want? No? NOT FUNCTIONAL

Does it help burn more fat? No? NOT FUNCTIONAL

Does it use the right muscles or are you compensating for weak muscles by using others? No?

DEFINITELY NOT FUNCTIONAL!

This is the key to this video about exercises designed to work / tone / strengthen / build the glute muscles (your bum!)

As explained, most peoples' glutes don't even work!

This means that no matter how many squats and lunges you do, all you will do is work your legs more making the imbalance even worse.

Consequently, you will NEVER see improvements in your glutes - how annoying is that going to get after 6 months of performingthe 'functional' exercises?

Here's some secrets most trainers don't know....

Please post your comments below!

Cutting carbohydrates

I was a guest on BBC Radio Nottingham today and managed to turn the conversation to how if you're fat it is your responsibility.

I don't care if the 'F' word is no longer politically correct.

No doubt this was dreamt up by one of the many fat politicians who think it is okay for the UK health service to dish out gastric banding and other cop outs for fat people.

Yes Gordon Brown you are fat and you should be setting an example. (Obama's better than you at this so why don't you play sheep as usual but for something positive this time??)

The point is 99.9% of the time it is........YOUR FAULT!

You choose to not eat breakfast, go to a party instead of the gym, drink alcohol as a treat when you have nothing to reward yourself for and you also choose to eat too many carbs which you DON'T need to 'stop you getting hungry'

At the end of my Metabolic Circuit Class last night at the studio, I overheard one of the regulars say they had cut out carbs so my ears pricked up!

On further investigation it emerged he was cutting out carbs because another of the group had lost around a stone since Jan 1st doing it (the 'other' being one of my personal training clients who is a machine - or will be by the time I'm finished....)

It reminded me that people STILL insist on picking bits out of other peoples' diets, weights routines etc and often end up worse off as they don't have the full story.

This client in question has not 'cut out' carbs but instead follows one of three variations of carb cycling I use depending on the goal, the person and what we have found works for them.

I would never recommend cutting carbs 100% a la The Atkins Diet as this will results in a slowing of your metabolism and greater difficulty in shedding fat in the future.

In the Fat Loss Action Blueprint I use one variation of carb cycling which works really well for fat loss whilst maintaining muscle. This involves only eating carbs after exercise.

Another variation is to not eat complex carbs for 3 days then have a high carb day.

Another which I am personally using at the moment is eating complex carbs BOTH sides of my training as I am more about performance at the moment and feel I need the carbs beforehand to 'fuel' up. I want to get the most out of my workouts in preparation for Tough Guy but also want to keep body fat down.

Today's food plan looks like this:

0700 Live biopot yoghurt with nuts, blueberries and dates plus protein supplement
1000 Grilled chicken breast, spinach, olive oil
1230 Salmon, wholegrain rice, tomato, olive oil
TRAIN HARD!
1530 Boiled eggs, wholegrain rice, spinach, olive oil
1900 Lean minced beef and chopped tomato, herbs (chili con carne style) with asparagus
2100 Nuts and peanut butter

Another important factor is when you cut something out you often need to increase something else in order to avoid swinging the other way.

This will involve eating more lean protein, more vegetables and/or more healthy fats such as flax oil to avoid being too low on calories.

Go too low on calories for more than 2-3 days and your caveman instincts will kick in, slow your metabolism and often leave you 'skinny fat' (the technical term used to describe those who drop weight but maintain their semingly treasured muffin top...) and low on energy.

This will effect your productivity at work as well as in the gym!

So today's message is stop taking snippets of nutrition plans, training plans or anything else and make sure you get the full story and understand what you're doing and why!

And yes IT IS your responsibility to go and get the full story - don't wait for someone to read it to you!

What are your thoughts on carbohydrates?

I want to know what works for you and wasn't doesn't!

If you don't know you need to learn!

Jon

Fat Loss Action Blueprint

Is nutrition or training the most important?

The dawn of the internet seemed to signify the beginning of instant access to all the best fitness advice the planet could deliver.

Unfortunately it didn't bring the 100% fat loss results across the globe that should be possible! Instead we just had greater access to Britney Spears' private life, anonymous marketers selling products they never tried simply by adding a link to their blog and a Nike desktop dancer on your laptop.

None of these cleared up the issue of whether training or nutrition makes the biggest difference in a fat loss program!

So here are the arguments in black and white.

There are quite a few arguments for nutrition being the most important factor. The increasing levels of anorexia and other eatinng disorders highlight why it is so important.

You cannot out train the dinner table.

An extremely hard workout lasting an hour may burn around 800 calories if you really have the drive to push yourself. A typical evening meal can easily account for that nevermind the rest of your meals through the day, leaving you flabby and frustrated despite working hard!

The thermic effect

Certain foods can increase your metabolic rate significantly and as you eat food all day (or you should) many changes will occur inside and outside of your body when you switch to a diet consisting largely of lean protein, healthy fats and vegetables. These will help keep you satisfied, maintain muscle and stimulate your metabolism without piling in excess calories.

Fuel in the tank!

You cannot train properly without the right fuel! By manipulating carbohydrates so that you have enough to fuel your workouts and recover afterwards, your energy levels, body composition and training performance can improve almost instantly!

High energy

Sustained energy levels can only be achieved through a clean diet with very few additives or added chemicals. Without consistent energy levels, all elements of your lifestyle will suffer leaving you down in the dumps and exercise will be the last thing you want to do! Pour sand in a Ferrari and it won't move very fast!

Poor nutrition leads to bad sleep

Eating the traditional big family meal in the evening is likely to leave you bloated and with digestion problems which will prevent you getting to sleep as your body will be in work mode! The added sugars in many processed foods will also give you an energy high just at the wrong time!

Too little food can also prevent sleep though! Going to bed hungry may well leave your brain short of sugars to keep functioning so you are likely to keep drifting in and out of sleep as your brain keeps reminding you it needs some fuel!

No excuses!

Nutrition can still be done well when you're injured. That means it has more potential long-term.

Illness prevention

Finally training may not matter when your nutrition is likely to leave you with heart disease, diabetes, cancer and immune system deficiencies anyway. If you're just fighting a losing battle there may not be much point hitting the gym everyday!


There are a few arguments which support training as the most important factor. Consider them carefully!

More muscle, more calorie burn!

The right kind of training - weight training and short intervals - will build muscle. More muscle means a greater metabolic rate both during training and at rest. This will make the fat burning process much easier and faster!

Training burns calories, simple as that. Or maybe not. Intense weight training can leave your metabolism elevated for 24-36 hours after the session whereas low intensity cardio won't, so the choice of training method is important!

Heart strength

Putting pressure on your heart will cause it to adapt and become stronger. The use of interval training in particular will help prepare your heart to cope with the sudden ups and downs of daily life. If you die of a heart attack due to a weak hard, surely the nutrition doesn't matter?

Feel good baby!

Exercise gives you the feel good factor and will generally encoourage people to eat better as they don't want to undo all their good work in the gym! An enthusiasm for health and fitness is what prevents short-lived January fitness kicks!

Physical ability

Exercise gives you strength and physical abilities, if done correctly, which nutrition won't. A weak body is no fun and could leave you depressed as you feel incapable of doing anything without getting tired quickly. This is likely to lead to comforting eating, ruining any carefully planned nutrition regime.

Skinny minny isn't nice!

If you only eat healthily and don't exercise, the chances are you will just end up skinny. Having low body fat is great but having no muscle to go with it can make you look ill despite having an apparently healthy lifestyle.

Posture

Training used the right way can improve your posture and prevent niggling back aches and injuries. Such issues can put an fat loss routine on hold. Poor posture can also affect internal functions which will play havoc with your fat loss attempt!

Anti-ageing

Our bodies need strength training throughout life to prevent the effects of ageing. No amount of vegetables can prevent a stooped posture and loss of physical capabilities. This should be considered!


It is clear that this argument could rage all day.

The truth is that there is a very simple solution which we all know but few actually implement in their life as a regular habit.

You must do both! Yes you know that but you're not doing it!

There is always some excuse for why you couldn't eat properly or get to the gym.

The more I progress as a trainer and coach, the more I see that great results can be achieved with short exercise sessions so long as they are intense enough. However, these sessions can't be maintained week after week without a solid nutrition plan which is carried out every single day, bar the odd blip!

If you truly want to see your body change for the better, you must accept that a clean diet and well-structured, challenging exercise routine cannot be mutually exclusive but must be part of a holistic approach.

With as little as 20 minutes exercise 4 times per week and 10 minutes per day preparing food you could see your entire life change for the better. You just need to make the commitment today!

Jon
http://www.fatlossactionblueprint.com

10 rules which will change your life

I spend a lot of time on personal development and making sure I live every element of my life to the max. This goes for fitness (obviously!), business, and doing things I never though I would do.

Admittedly at times, certain elements take over (because I get obsessive about things in the interests of perfection!) but all with the overall goal of enabling me to live the life I want sooner rather than later.

A life free from the constraints of modern, hectic lives filled with little but money concerns, stress, lower back pain, rising fuel prices and a constant pining for Friday evening, only to feel rock-bottom when the alarm pipes up on Monday morning.

I constantly read and implement new ways to improve myself so I guess by tomorrow this article will be somewhat outdated. However, the underlying principles of these 10 lifestyle rules will literally change your life if you choose to implement them and stick to your guns under even the most intense scrutiny and pressure.

1) Witness the choices you make in every moment

Think about every action you take. Will it be a positive action and carry you closer to your goals or will it only have negative effects on you and those around you. Sometimes things won’t go your way and you’ll want to lash out to make you feel better or munch on a big cream cake but try to look past the immediate ‘benefits’.

Firstly, these benefits tend to be of very little value and secondly the long-term fall-out of action too much on impulse can be very damaging to long-term plans or targets

2) Accept people and situations as they occur

Don’t worry about what just happened. It’s not going to change, hindsight is pointless, and the chances are you will simply stress yourself out and make the situation and the immediate future even worse.

I’m a firm believer in “what’s meant to be, will be”.

Try to look at whatever crappy thing just happened to you in the grander scheme of things. If you get injured, don’t focus on all the things it means you can’t do now. Instead, focus on how you can train around the injury so when you’re ‘fixed’ you’re in a much better position to crack on with your long-term goals.

As I write this I am, 90% recovered from a partial shoulder dislocation following a biking accident. When it first happened m mind was spinning thinking about how it would affect m job as a trainer, how my own training regime would be ruined and how it meant I couldn’t perform the charity session I had planned.

Once the intense pain had numbed and my rational brain was thinking again, I realised that despite my dislike for long, steady runs, I could do that in order to better prepare for the running section of the Tough Guy event I have entered, which was now around 5 weeks away.

Keep your eyes on the bigger prize and accept things as they are. So long as you live by all the other lifestyle rules, your life will move in the direction you want it to. This is a hard rule to live by especially as you may experience a string of bad things (they always happen together), but if you stay strong you will soon hit another purple patch.

Learn from bad experiences rather than bitching and moaning about them and you will experience great personal development.

3) Take responsibility for your situation and the solution

At first glance, this lifestyle rule may appear to contradict the one above.

However, accepting people and situations as in Rule 2 does not mean you should just never put your mind to anything or try to achieve anything due to a belief that cosmic ordering or some other force will just guide you in the right direction.

You need to take responsibility and guide your life in the direction you want it to go. Unless you have some evil, sadistic goals which will harm a lot of people along the way, you will find that constantly working towards your goals and being proactive in making things happen will have profound effects on where you are in 1, 2, 5 or 10 years.

Taking responsibility means not blaming others when things go wrong. If you’re not losing weight, it’s your fault and it’s your responsibility to find the solution.

If anything in your life is depressing you or making you unhappy, you have to get a grip of yourself and figure out how you are going to get from where you are now, to where you want to be. Again this goes back to our old favourite ‘goal setting’ as discussed in Fat Loss Action Blueprint .

If you don’t like your job, don’t blame your boss. You took the job and it’s your decision whether you’re going to keep sitting at that desk or get up off your lazy backside and find a better one. This may require jumping out of your comfort zone whilst you find a new job and settle in but it’s up to YOU whether you value the end result more than being comfortable but unhappy as you are now!

Your friends DIDN’T make you have that bottle of wine and you DIDN’T need to have a cake because everyone else in the office did. Everything that happens in your life is your responsibility. Yes, unfortunate events / accidents will happen but it is then your responsibility to determine how positive your reaction will be.

The flip-side to this is that you should not feel guilty in feeling proud. When you set yourself tough, life-changing goals, you’re in for a tough, life-changing time. That’s the only way it can be.

Consequently, you should take responsibility for your successes. Don’t palm off compliments as if you got lucky. You worked hard, damned hard and you’re reaping the rewards. Enjoy it.

Take responsibility for your successes and mistakes and you will move forward at dizzying pace!

4) Make a list of all your desires

This one does what it says on the tin.

Make a list of your desires then set about telling everyone (only if you’re comfortable doing so), researching how to achieve them and using every minute of everyday to move towards them.

What can go on your list is infinite. My personal goals are likely to mean very little to you and vice-versa. This is not wrong but positively right! They must be your desires. If all your peers drive Porsches, this does not mean it should be on your list of desires. If you really do want a Porshce then go ahead and list it.

However, think carefully as to whether you would actually rather save £20,000 pounds buy getting cheaper car, giving you the opportunity and loose change to set up your own internet site which may enable you to leave your mind-numbing office-job and go travelling to experience all the countries and cultures you read, and consequently dream about.

This list may stay the same for the next 50 years until everything is crossed off or it may be a constantly evolving piece of mental artwork which continually challenges you mentally and physically and guides you on all sorts of paths to personal achievement.

It’s your list of desires – do you as you will.

5) Factor in uncertainty as a necessary part of life

Many of us like our comfort zone.

We like the fact that the dog’s always at the door when we get home. We like knowing exactly how much will be in the pay packet each month. We like going out at the same time, with the same people, to the same pub every Friday.

The rest of us want something more.

We want excitement, we want challenges, we want the adrenaline rush of never knowing what’s coming next.

If you try to control every single element of your life you will a) fail and b) become very boring and paranoid.

Don’t get me wrong – planning is the cornerstone of any great achievement whether it be in business, on the sports field or renovating your new house. However, no matter how hard you try to be in control, ‘sh*t happens’.

Pardon my direct nature and crude language but no phrase sums it up better. People will act in unexplainable ways, the weather will ruin your great day out and sometimes you won’t lose weight on a particular week and you won’t know why.

You have the choice of either getting upset by it (remember how hindsight is pointless) or deciding how best to move on and deal with it so your long-term goals aren’t affected.

In fact, the best plans make room for the inevitable cock-ups, mistakes and unexplainable crap.

It will happen sooner or later. Deal with it!

6) Believe what no-one else does

This is not a religious quip but one of mental strength.

The more ambitious you are in business, fitness and life in general, the more people will doubt you. It is nearly always those who have never achieved anything worth mentioning and probably never will. They find it easier to try to drag you back to their level than to allow you to drag their sorry into your new found bubble of success.

The greatest inventions or ideas were at one time, ridiculous. If the person responsible for that stupid idea had listened to those around them, many of the great things which have revolutionised the face of the planet would never have been seen.

Unfortunately, the average person in modern Western society is fat, mentally weak, unambitious and lives for the weekend like the rest of the sheep. If you’re reading this as a member of Storm Force Fitness, you’re better than that. You’ve already taken your first steps to your best body ever.

The concept behind Storm Force Fitness will never be complete as it will continue to evolve and improve as you should. Whether you come along for the ride is entirely your choice. It will be a horrible, challenging ride at times but the results are what you want and results you will get if you hold on tight and believe when no-one else does.

If I had listened to the people who questioned my first steps into the fitness game when I took on a £5.77 per hour gym job I would probably be sitting in a bank back in Guernsey working over time to pay off my new Porsche which I never really wanted. And I would never have helped some any people shed body fat with Fat Loss Action Blueprint .

7) Don’t always look for the path to follow

If you’ve ever been out walking in a forest or some random fields somewhere in the country you’ll have seen the paths already trodden by those who have gone before you.

Similar to believing when no-one else does, you should look to tread new paths whenever you can.

Don’t always rely on what has been done before for the answer to your problem. Don’t believe everything you read and don’t listen to everything you hear, unless it comes from very well qualified sources and most importantly you have tried it and proved it works. Sometimes trial and error is the best way forward!

We are all built differently, think differently and want different things from life. Decide where you want to end up and then tread the fastest, most exciting path to get there.

By all means learn from others but if you just copy others, it will either not work for you or worse, the result won’t be anything like you had hoped because someone has already been there and done that!

Tread your own path – it’s far more exciting and rewarding!

8) Realise that most of the people you cross won’t understand the difference between obsession and dedication

Try telling your friends that you’re doing well over in England but you’re currently working about 80 hours per week building your personal training business and spending most of your life savings creating a website to provide everything anyone could need for permanent fat loss and attempts to go against the grain and cut through a lot of the crap read in popular magazines!

You’ll hear things like…

“Don’t burn yourself out”
“Make sure you think carefully before doing that”
“Don’t get carried away”
“Aren’t you going a bit far?”

Only when you have an unfaltering belief in what you do and what you stand for, and you truly believe immense benefits can be gained by yourself and all those who work with you, you will understand the difference between obsession and dedication. Many of your friends and family won’t but quite frankly, who cares?

9) Thinking will only get you so far

I guess this relates quite closely to the point made earlier about being paranoid unless you know exactly how every minute of your life will pan out.

You can think all you like and plan all you like but whatever your thinking about will never happen unless you act.

Goal-setting, planning, debating, re-thinking, starting over, re-evaluating….

Where does it end?

All of the above are necessary for long-term progression but at some point you need to draw a line under your complicated drawings and tables and take the dream into the real world by acting.

I figure if I look back on my death bed and can say any of the following phrases, then I’ve missed out on something…

“I was going to say that”
“I thought about that but thought it might not work”
“I was going to, but…”

Maybe I was or I did. But I didn’t. Someone else did.

Learn to take action once your plan is solid enough – don’t wait for perfection because it will never happen. If it goes wrong remember one thing…

“Never regret the things you did. At one point it was exactly what you wanted.”

10) Be better today than you were yesterday

Much to my disappointment, when I reached the age of about 22 I realised that I can’t be the best at everything despite valiantly trying in everything I did as I grew up.

Instead I now have an even more powerful belief that I can always, always, without fail, be better today than I was yesterday. This can have infinite meanings. You might lift more weight, have lower body fat, make progress with your business, be more patient with family and friends when they annoy or frustrate you etc etc.

It can be physical or mental but either way it will set you up for better results in whatever you are currently focussed on.

Whatever it means, find a way to be better today.

Sometimes this will be a giant leap which changes the direction of your life for the better. Other times, no one will notice except you. This doesn’t matter so long as you make positive steps along the newly trodden path you have created every single day without fail.