As I mentioned in my Grateful as Fnck post: I’m going to try to start a regular blogging habit. It’s about time. After all, I’ve had high-paying copywriting clients for several years now. I should have started writing for myself when I first began my work from home journey. But hey, better late than never. I’m going to use this blog to keep a public record of my personal growth highlights. Not quite sure how it will evolve. For now, I will ramble a bit and drop a few links. But more than anything, I will be posting YouTube videos. I consume A TON of talks via YouTube.
- I love learning. (a.k.a. I am a know it all. 😉)
- I try to brainwash myself into good, new habits.
- I work in industries that constantly evolve.
Several of my friends ask me to make a highlight list. This is the easiest way to do that too. Make no mistake though—I am doing this for me. It give me practice in several areas. It also gives me a record. Both of these are useful. Hopefully, it can be useful for someone else as well. Without further ado… Here’s my month in personal growth.
1. Morning Moti-Cuts
Hi! Thanks for reading. 😊
The content from this section has moved.
My favorite motivational compilation videos have their own page now.
The rest of the content will show up in a “Life-Changing Habits” post down the road.
2. Tom Bilyeu is Dominating
Tom is quickly becoming one of my favorite people on the planet.
I love his brand, Impact Theory. Their YouTube channel is a gold mine of high performance.
The Impact Quotes playlist is worth a listen. They are short, powerful, and extremely well done. You’ll find pieces of them across a ton of motivational compilations.
But honestly, the interviews are really where it is at. Tom is probably the best interviewer on the planet. He researches his guests extremely well. Because of that, he gets past their catchphrases quickly and uncovers deeper layers of their psyche. And obviously, he connects their experiences and opinions to the experiences and opinions of his other phenomenal guests.
I watch pretty much all of them.
These 3 hit the hardest for me last month:
Ryan Holiday is just a beast. ‘Nuff said.
Never heard of Wesley Chapman until this interview but I immediately watched his TED Talk afterwards. And holy sh!t, it is incredibly powerful too. I highly recommend both. The man has suffered tremendous abuse and has a healthier mind than most of us.
There is a lot to be learned from his perspective.
But this guy:
Many of Tom’s guests surprise me. Rob sure did. He sounds like me through a lot of it.
Here are time stamped links of my favorite parts:
- On Clarity of Your Ideal Life (named episode based on these 5 min)
- On How Important Belief Is (“only thing that matters”)
- On Self Awareness & Growth (probably my greatest skill)
- On Mapping Your Habits (sounds like he gets down with my #4)
- On Love & A Clean Life (becoming worthy of the partner you want)
Surprisingly few jokes. Just a lot of smart advice on goal setting.
Sounded a lot like he was trying to help me on the way to…
3. Realizing My Personal Legend
Sometimes I read relentlessly.
Too often though, I don’t touch a book for months at a time. It’s something that I really want to make a consistent thing. But I struggle.
Well I’ve recently crossed another batch of books off of my wish list. Unfortunately, the last batch is only half-done. And we won’t even talk about the batches before that.
Booooooooo 👎👎👎
Still, I might have struck at something with this last batch.
I purchased two fiction books: The Richest Man in Babylon and The Alchemist. I read right through them.
And while they aren’t packed with cutting edge neuroscience and psychology like most of the books I read, they might be even better for my self-brainwashing.
The Richest Man in Babylon boosted my developing hunger to become an educated investor. I’ve never saved money so easily since I completed it. Now, I’m reading the Alchemist from the third or fourth time in my life. And holy crap, it is just as good. And talk about good brainwashing material.
I highly recommend both of these books. I am excited to read them to my sons.
Still, I value the “dry” reads.
How could I not?
After all, one of the driest books I’ve ever read helped me form a question:
What are the practical steps I can take to maximize my productivity?
Well, I’ve found that…
4. Bullet Journaling Is the Answer
Getting Things Done by David Allen helped me think of my life differently.
And Bullet Journaling has helped me turn those new ideas into new practices.
I won’t go on too much about it. You can search “GTD bullet journal” to find people using the Getting Things Done method in their bullet journals. You can also look up “bullet journal spreads” to see more ideas on how people use them.
Basically, they use dots instead of lines or grids. This makes it easy to create mind-mapping tools or habit trackers.
I use it for to-do lists and habit tracking. I won’t go into it too much in this post, but I use it like how Rob Dyrdek described his habit tracking in the video I posted earlier in this post. Eventually, I hope to go in-depth into the way I set mine up…
Because my layouts are better (a.k.a. more USEFUL) than 99% of what I see online.
You can actually use my spreads to learn and get better. And I do.
But my Bullet Journal is also partly responsible for number 5.
5. My Butts Been Burning All Year
But I can’t lie, a good 70% of the credit for my solid January should go to Art Williams.
I listen to one of these three everyday:
Art Williams famous “Just Do It” Speech:
Five Minute Clip of the “Just Do It” Part:
Even Better Speech with Epic Piano Background:
Everyone should watch the short one. I’m partial to the long one. I listen to it probably 4 mornings a week.
It usually makes me tear up.
And I don’t know why… but it always gets my butt a’burning.
There’s something about it that makes me think:
“Zach, dad-gummit, you’re supposed to go for it. Zach, dad-gummit, you’re supposed to be somebody. You’re supposed to make a difference with your life.”
And more often than not, I end up making a difference with my day.
Maybe it’s because a real southern drawl speaks to my soul.
Maybe it’s because I wish he had been my high school football coach.
Or maybe, it’s just his genuine nature and the truth in his words.
Whatever the case, I’ll keep mixing him with the Gary Vee and Tom Bilyeu on my way to masterpiece days.
Yaaay, got that thang done.
I’m already ready for the next one. Publishing on a schedule has always be a problem for my own brands. I’m excited to tackle the challenge.
It’s time my various projects came out of their shells anyway.
ZachBradshaw.com will act as the hub, but my other sites will probably be more interesting in the months to come.
Don’t have a snazzy catchphrase for these yet… so I guess I’ll just stop rambling.
You’ll hear from me again soon. Thanks for reading.
:)