Back To School (COLLEGE EDITION)(3 TIPS) How To Properly Balance School, Fitness, Work, & Partying

1. The 1st week of school is commonly known as “Syllabus week”, I’m telling you now, this will be the most off time you have all semester. Use that to your advantage.

Here is the key to maintaining a 4.0 GPA: Print out the syllabus for each one of your classes, take an hour or two and sit down with no distractions, and write out every single due date for each one of your classes in your daily/weekly planner (preferably color coordinated). If you only take one thing out of this post, let it be that. All it takes is an hour or two out of your day to guarantee yourself AT-LEAST a 3.0, and that would be from doing the bare minimum. You basically just eliminated 85% of your competition because you took the time to properly plan out your semester. Crazy, right?

2. Learn how to manage School, Fitness, Work (part-time job), and “Fun” (IN THAT ORDER).

• Along with your daily planner full of assignments and due dates, make sure that you are planning out your days the night before. Have specific hours set up where you are going to study, workout, work (if you have to), and go out and be social/have fun. You want to make sure that every hour, minute, and second is accounted for. Remember, sporadic actions will get you sporadic results. Doing shit randomly will get you random results. That is NOT the formula for being a successful student. If you expect to roll out of bed in the morning and go about your day doing random shit while having no guidance expecting a 4.0 then I’m going to be honest with you… you are fucking delusional.

The key is BALANCE. By taking that time to plan everything out before hand you are actually SAVING yourself time and energy that can be allocated to something else. This will be the difference in you receiving 4.0 GPA and a 2.5 GPA. It is that crucial.

Here is the good news though, once you have completed your most important tasks for the day then your day is officially OVER. You have won that day, congratulations! The rest of the time you have in the day is all yours. Reward yourself, you actually earned it!

3. Be SOCIAL: Remember, this will be your home for ATLEAST the next 3 months. I want to challenge you to go up and introduce yourself to 3 new people every day. Let’s do the math real quick, there are roughly 90 days in a semester, which means if you meet 3 people every day by the end of the semester you will have met around 270 new people. 270 people who could end up becoming your life-long friends, business partners, or potentially even your next girlfriend/boyfriend. Life really is a numbers game, it isn’t about what you know but WHO you know. Only positives will come from it! All I want you to do is go up and say hi, there should be no pressure. Break out of social conditioning and get comfortable with being uncomfortable… As humans we tend to think it is abnormal to walk up to a stranger and start up a conversation but really that is just you stuck up in your own head. Let’s be honest, most peoples lives are really boring. You can make so many peoples lives more interesting by simply walking up to them and saying hi. And even if they aren’t so welcoming, you went up with good intentions and good vibes. That is all you can ask for!

I really hope this semester brings you plenty of success not only academically, but in all aspects of life. I’m interested in seeing where your journey takes you! Keep me updated. If you implement these 3 simple tips I have no doubt in my mind that this will be an iconic time in your life. Good Luck!

 

Best wishes,

Anthony Garrett

How To Live Your 20’s THE RIGHT WAY!

My fellow peers,

It may come as no surprise to you that there are people in our generation who are living life completely backwards. I mean, that was me for awhile. It is the people that are the closest to you that could be making these mistakes and in-turn, by you associating with them you’ll begin to pick up these bad habits aswell.

What I want to address today is the way you should go about setting-up your life in your 20’s so that you can maximize your mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and financial GROWTH. That way when you are well into your 30’s and 40’s your future self and future family are THANKFUL that you had your shit together in these prime years. 

1st MISTAKE: Focusing TOO MUCH On A Relationship, Not Enough On YOURSELF

Seems like everywhere you look today you see these “happy couples” (So you think) on social media and as a natural human tendency, we begin to crave that too. I’m no different, It’s the same for me, I’m human too. What separates the way I view long-term-relationships in these prime years from the average person is that to me they are a COMPLIMENT to my life, not a PRIORITY. If you are focused solely on yourself, making your life better, and creating your own legacy, that is beneficial not only for you, but everybody in your life!! And truthfully, you attract higher-quality people that way. Those are the best relationships! Now why am I suggesting that mindset-shift? Here are just a few reasons:

• Learning how to enjoy your own company and be alone will actually make your relationships STRONGER & BETTER. By filling your own cup and not relying on happiness from anyone outside of yourself, you get rid of that co-dependent behavior that is TOXIC for relationships. You actually become so much more attractive when you can enjoy your own company. Master yourself first and you’ll see how your relationships just continue to get better and better. The best ones come when you aren’t focused on them. 
• Your future family, spouse, and your future-SELF will THANK YOU for the work you decided to put in today. While everyone else is out turning up, doing a bunch of coke and ruining their bodies, living for today, you are focused on the person you will be 10 years from now. Understand, most people can’t look that far into the future, they aren’t capable. But soon life will wake them up. Realize, you either suffer now and live lavish later, or you try and live lavish now and fuck your Future-self over. Those are the only 2 options.

2nd MISTAKE: Thinking You Should Already Have Your Life Figured Out 

• There are so many people my age that are living life day after day stressing out about finding the perfect job or trying to make as much money as humanly possible… I mean, it is the position society puts us in. We graduate high-school with very minimal skills that are applicable in the real-world and they basically just throw us in the water and expect us to swim like Michael Fucking Phelps. On top of that, social media really doesn’t help. You scroll down your timeline and see Billy out here with the flooded Rolex and that Audi and you automatically start to think you are below him in life. That is not true, you just have a different story. A very small percentage of people in their 20’s have their life figured out… Hell, I don’t even have this shit figured out. Here’s the key: YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW YET! Like I said prior, these are the years where you are learning about yourself. You might be really passionate about something today, and tomorrow you could change your mind and want to do something else.. that is OKAY! It’s trial and error. Mess up now and get it out the way rather than taking that same mindset into your later years. Keep dabbling in your hobbies, things you truly LOVE, and then find a way to monetize it. And if that doesn’t work, you are still young so can bounce back with ease. 

3rd MISTAKE: Not Taking Full-Advantage of These PRIME Years

You hear it over and over, “I wish I could go re-live my college days, I swear they were the best” and for many people, that may be true. But truthfully, If college was “the best time of your life” then you’ve missed the most important lesson. College, your 20’s, is just another stage in your life; Just like your youth, your 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s will be. You should NEVER favor one over the other. That is the message I’m trying to spread here. If you are on the journey of personal development and are focused on constantly improving yourself day after day after day then this is only the beginning for you. Your life will continue to progress as time moves forward while you look around and see all your peers wishing they would of taken life more seriously when you did, and they will still have the audacity to call you LUCKY. That won’t be me, don’t let that be you. 

Anthony Garrett

Self-Care 101 (The Return)

Let’s start off with defining what self-care is. Textbook definition; Self-care: Any activity you do deliberately in order to take care of your mental, emotional, and physical health. My definition: Any activity you choose to do on a daily basis that not only makes you feel good, but is also good for you. Not to be confused with activities that make you feel good, but are detrimental to either your mind, body, or spirit in the long run. ex. drinking, smoking, eating bad foods, binge watching Netflix, etc. All of these activities make you feel good momentarily but will hurt you more than they will help you. I’m not advocating that you shouldn’t do any of these things, personally, I do all of those things. The difference is I indulge in those activities sometimes, not on a daily basis.

Okay, so what would be some solid examples of Self-Care that you could apply to your own life? I’ll just give you a few of my own.

• Meditation
• Working Out
• Reading 
• Journaling
• Listening to Podcast
• Learning a New Language
• Hanging out with Friends
• Cold Showers
• Most Importantly: Helping Others 

Why do these things matter so much? Why should you make them a priority? Let me put it into perspective for you. We all know that life has its constant ups and downs. I mean, what fun would it be if life only gave you positive experiences or only gave you negative experiences (God forbid)? It would be BORING. It has its peak experiences where for a period of time we feel….. high on life, almost invincible, like nothing can hurt us. These are the times where our life is full of amazing people, constant positive emotions, and a sort of mental stability where you feel like nothing can stop you. As Yin-Yang goes, eventually that side of the coin flips, and you no longer have those amazing people, those positive emotions, and your mental stability is lackluster at best. These are your dark times, your dark experiences.

What self-care does is it helps us navigate through those dark experiences, bringing us back to center, finding the happiness within ourselves rather than looking for it in an external stimulus. It helps us re-identify who we are so we can get back to experiencing those peak experiences we all crave. Whether you realize it or not, it was self-care that got you through your last dark time and what set you up for this last peak experience you had. Knowing that, it is self-care that will get you through this current dark period of your life and it is self-care that is setting you up for this next peak experience you’ve been waiting for. It is coming, it is on its way, I promise. 

Remember that you are the only constant in your life. Everything else is a transient, passing experience, it’s always changing. So whenever you put your happiness in something outside yourself, it can always be taken away. Realize that investing in yourself and your future is the smartest thing you can do. Especially in your late-teens and early 20’s. What you are left with after everything is taken away from you is your mind, body, and emotional strength/stability. Knowing that, why wouldn’t you make taking care of yourself your main priority?

Hope you guys enjoyed!

 

Anthony Garrett

Bulletproof

“If you are pained by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your judgement of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment” – Marcus Aurelius.

When I first came across this quote I was a depressed 17 year old PUSSY. Picture it: Senior year; terrible grades, no social life, awful attitude, NO FUTURE. It wasn’t looking good for me. All my friends were getting accepted into these big time universities and I was doing so poorly in school I didn’t even know if I was going to graduate, yet alone go to college. Shit seemed hopeless at this point. It was around this time in 2016, the countdown to graduation was getting closer and closer and I needed a wake up call BAD. One day I just snapped, I started looking for answers on how to get out of this shitty state of mind I was in, I just wanted to be happy honestly. That’s when I came across this philosophy. I’m about to share with you what changed EVERYTHING for me. From a 2.6 GPA in high school to a 4.0 in college. From a non-existent social life to having more than enough friends, From a Loser to a Winner.

Alright let’s get one thing straight first; Everything that happens to you in life is neither negative or positive. All events are completely neutral. Honestly, shit just happens and it is in your control whether or not you want to view the event as positive or negative. Welcome to the world of Stoicism. An ancient philosophy that has turned boys into men since 121 AD. 

For example, say you were on your way to work and you were taking the normal route you take every day. You are going 45 MPH in a 40 MPH speed zone. It’s 5 miles over, nobody ever gets pulled over for going 5 over, right? Wrong. You look back and you see the Red and Blues on your ass, the cop signals you to pull over so you do. He proceeds to get out of his car and write you a $200 ticket and tells you to watch your speed next time. Not only are you late for work, you just picked up a ticket that you don’t have the money for right now. 5 miles over, really? How would most people react at this point, they’d probably get really angry and let that situation ruin their entire day. How would a stoic approach this situation? Well a stoic realizes that he doesn’t have control over the external, he realizes that he doesn’t have control over the cop pulling him over, and he doesn’t have control over the ticket he received. He does however have control over his mind and instead of this ruining his whole day he chooses to look at this situation in a positive light. A learning experience. He realizes this is a chance for growth and where most people dwell on these situations, you embrace them. 

If we are being 100, I still haven’t mastered this. I still catch myself letting my emotions get the best of me all the time. Instead of beating myself up about it I just look at it as practice, getting better and better every day! Master this way of thinking and you can handle ANYTHING life throws at you.  Whether it’s something as small as the example above, or something tragic like a sudden death of someone close to you. Realizing you don’t have control over those situations but you have control over how you react to them is freeing. Your BULLETPROOF. Plus you separate yourself from the 99% of losers who fold under pressure. You will be the one they confide in because you’ll have a level head ALWAYS. You can see how this way of thinking was powerful enough for me to completely change the direction of my life. Best part is this is just the beginning!! Hope you guys enjoyed today’s blog post. Love you guys, LET’S SUCCEED!

Are Your Goals Big Enough?

Not too long ago I was alone in my room just sitting there, thinking. I thought back to when I used to sit up at night and think about everything I wanted to accomplish in life and how badly I wanted to be successful. I’d start getting really motivated and overzealous, planning in my head everything I needed to do to accomplish that goal from beginning to the end. I’d go to sleep ready to get shit started as soon as I woke up and at that point I felt like nothing could stop me. I had the plan, now it was just time to execute. For the next couple of days I got up and did what I set out to do, I kept the promise that I made to myself. Over the next couple of days however, something changed. I realized I didn’t have that same fire/desire I did previously and I didn’t know why. I’m sure many of you can relate to this as well. It didn’t just happen once, it was a reoccurring incident, so I took the time to look into the psychology aspect behind it.

For me, the reason I couldn’t maintain that same level of intensity day in and day out was simply because my goals weren’t exciting enough. Motivation is bullshit, nobody can stay motivated 24/7, that just isn’t realistic. What keeps that fire burning inside of you consistently is having a goal so big that you have no choice but to get up and chase that shit down every day. The top athletes don’t dream about making their high school teams, the top CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies don’t dream about getting an internship and working their way to the top through the inside of the company, that’s too boring. Instead, wanting to be the best at what you do should get you out of bed in the morning, even when you don’t feel motivated that day.

Another benefit of chasing these big goals is that there is far less competition on this plateau. I can almost promise you that everybody you know has that mindset of taking things one step at a time and just “seeing how things work out”, not us. Like I said previously, you can predict your own future. There is almost no competition when aiming for the top, and that’s what will help us separate ourselves from those who fail.

Day 2: Set “unrealistic” goals and don’t listen to those who try to tell you it’s unattainable, they see success in you, they just can’t see it in themselves.

How to Predict The Future

What if I walked up and told you that I can tell you what your life will be like in 20 years, would you take the time to listen? Right now I can tell you how much money you will be making, your marital status, and what kind of shape you will be in physically and financially, just by asking you one question. What are your habits like?

If you are working out consistently and making sure your diet is on point, I can tell you that you will be in pretty good shape. It is the person who can tell me how many reps and sets they did and what they ate for breakfast on March 18th, 2016 that you need to be worried about, that you need to be studying. The one that writes everything down so he can measure his progress, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and then acting accordingly. That is extreme. But extreme actions get extreme results. I can guarantee that person will be in great shape.

If you are a student and you spend two to three hours beyond your normal study hours preparing for a test that is weeks into the future, I can tell you that you will be an A+ student. Life is fucking easy when you think about it this way, It is simple cause and effect. Stop leaving everything up to chance and looking for a lucky break, expecting to be rewarded for minuscule actions. Stop playing the lottery with your life..

Day 1 conclusion: Success comes from your habits. The things you do consistently on a daily basis will guide you in the direction you want to be. Don’t bullshit yourself, answer this, do you have the habits of a successful person you look up to right now? If not, why not? 

Success.

Success, a word that can be interpreted many different ways. It can be used as motivation, the reason you jump out of bed at 5:30 AM on a cold December morning with enthusiasm ready to conquer the day, having that end result of success on your mind. Even though laying in your warm bed for another hour would give you temporary satisfaction, that would be too easy. Success isn’t easy. It can also be derived from fear. The fear of disappointing your parents, or entering adulthood having no idea what you want to do with your life and feeling hopeless. It happens to all of us, none of us get a free pass in life. While some people whine and complain, we work. Everyone has their own definition of success, our motives aren’t all the same. Some people are content with working a 9-5 Monday-Friday and bringing home $35,000 a year, living an average American life. But fuck that.. when that person is long gone their legacy won’t live on and they will eventually be forgotten. Not me, not us. I’m here to leave my mark and make this world a better place, and I believe you feel the same way.

What I will be doing with this blog is sharing with you my habits. These are the habits that I have implemented into my daily routine for months now, consistently. They are habits that the most advanced athletes and entrepreneurs embody. They separate the rich from the poor, the good from the great, and those who will succeed from those who won’t. Keep an open mind and follow me along this journey, can’t wait to see who makes it to the top with me.