What one thing are you the worst at? Your new goal is to make that something that you are the best at. Okay so you don’t have to become the best at it, but your mission is to be great at it.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be able to solve complex mathematical equations, become a marketing guru, or simply make a perfect omelet every time. This should become your new passion. And in order to achieve it you need to do two things.

Practice and study… but that sounds boring when said like that, how about if you were to gain experience and wisdom! That is something that you might be more willing to strive for.

Of course it works best when it is something that you want to achieve as opposed to something you don’t particularly like. For example I was in band during high school and I didn’t strive to be an exceptional trumpet player by any means. I went to every practice after school and performed at every basketball, football, and volleyball game but I was still a sub-par player.

In almost the same amount of time that I spent showing up and going through the motions, I could have focused on my playing and come up with a goal to be 1st chair by the end of the year. Granted our section didn’t really have a competitive environment, it could have been a motivation to do better.

But now in my college’s food court there was a guy who could make some serious omelets. They were perfectly crafted and great tasting. So whenever there was an omelet day, his line would be huge. And with good cause as well.

Not much later I began attempting to cook them as well. At first there were a number of failures. There were egg flipping problems, burning problems, and who knows what else, let’s just say I had a few disasters on my hands. Since then I have spent time trying to emulate his techniques, and then even expanded upon them. Does this mean that I could beat him in an omelet throwdown? I don’t know, but it would be a close match!

I’m sure that there would be more productive things to become the best at instead of frying eggs and blowing on horns. Perhaps it’s your company that needs to improve things. So go figure out what you or your company is awful at and go turn that around!

People talk a lot about the keys to wealth. Yet somehow, they forget something we have to find in ourselves.

Every week, I determine two primary goals for my spare time. This week, my goals are

(1) restructure our personal finance files and paperwork and
(2) write about my personal expectations for life in a journal every day.

I find that one of my goals is satisfied for the week, I cross it off. I find great satisfaction in drawing that bold line. And I challenge you to do similar projects.

What’s this list stuff got to do with money?

Lining up your finance files this week will put your current financial situation in perspective. You know exactly where to find items for banks, stock trades, mutual fund purchases… You can see how much risk you’re comfortable taking and a rough sketch of your financial obligations, assets, and needs.

Second, what’s the point of pinching pennies and spending every spare minute on accumulation of wealth if you don’t have a plan for this money in the future? Take time every day this week to reflect on your direction. Ask yourself these questions:

1. In twenty years, I see myself spending my evenings with whom, doing what?

Imagine your ideal town, beautiful house, hobbies… Do you have kids? How are you all dressed? What are you eating? Here’s your chance to day dream about your happily ever after.

2. In twenty years, how do I want to spend the hours of 9 to 5?

You basically have three options: work for someone else, work for yourself, or not really work much at all. What do you pick? Why did you pick this choice?

3. Do I want a specific amount of money? When will I be satisfied with my amount of wealth?

Are you shooting for a specific dollar sign in the bank? The feeling of a specific lifestyle?

4. What do I want so much money for?

You probably want a specific lifestyle—but what else? Do you want to give money, give time? Do you want specific things? Why are you equating the value of money to the value of your future dreams?

5. Who do I want so much money for?

Do you want your spouse or kids to have a certain lifestyle? Are you hoping to give them specific opportunities that you had or never had? When you’re working with someone else in mind, you can find yourself much more eager to go the extra mile when all you want to do is quit. (Know any new fathers who hate their jobs? They go every day for that wife and baby—no question, no hesitation.)

6. What’s one idea I have for increasing my net worth in a way that can grow without my constant supervision?

This question requires an absolute, which makes it the hardest question to ask yourself. But ask yourself this one every day. After a while, you start to see opportunity where you never did before. You’ll be like Walt Disney—seeing the potential in full-length films and cartoons, discovering the significance of a destination family vacation like Disney Land, then spotting the rapid love affair with televisions and tapping into the channels with shows like the Mickey Mouse Club.

7. Finally, what can I do better tomorrow to reach these goals that I learned from today?

Well I’m back to Montana right now, and on the three day drive, I learned a couple important things about traveling long distances alone. Some of it more useful knowledge than others, but still here they are.

Record your thoughts – While this is a good idea even if you aren’t driving across the country, this keeps them from evaporating. There are a limited number of ideas that your brain can hold before it clears them out for the newer ones you think up. So while it’s hard to write things down, perhaps you should get a voice recorder or do it at the next rest/gas stop.

Bring plenty of music – I had to listen to the same few cds the whole trip. While it was things I liked, but there is a limit to the number of times you can listen to anything. As Gnarls Barkley asked me plenty of times, “Does that make me craaaaaaazy?” The answer is yes.

Record your thoughts – You have no idea how fast you can lose your million dollar ideas if you don’t record them or write them down. No matter how brilliant, no matter how great the idea is, it is still floating around in your grey matter and is subject to the elements whatever they may be. See you already forgot that this was point one, too. Should’ve written it down.

Take the Scenic Route – Driving across the state of South Dakota on the I-90 is brutal. It’s boring as heck. It’s the worst 400 miles in the world. The only things you will find there are open plains and billboards.

Record your thoughts – Oh yeah–if you have to take the boring way, make some use out of the time by recording the ingenious things you think of on your way.

In case you couldn’t tell, I lost a couple great ideas on my journey. While they are still partially around in fragments, the grandiose portion is gone. Don’t let that happen to you!

For about the last year and a half I have had an idea for a web application that I think would be absolutely great. Everyone who I have talked to about the idea has told me that it is a great idea.

It wouldn’t really make a great business, as there is no obvious revenue source that can be taken that would allow for the objectivity and credibility that I want for this idea. Of course this doesn’t mean that the site couldn’t make money, but that’s one of the things that would have to be addressed.

The second thing holding me back is my lack of programming skills. I could probably fumble along and put something together that would roughly do what I’m looking for; however the loss of features and functionality would be substantial.

If I were to pay a programmer that would most likely cost me a couple thousand dollars at least for a bare-bones version of the application. And that’s not really something that I can do for something that has no way of making money. It’s hard to gain investors when you say, “I’ve got an idea that will probably make the world a better place, but won’t return any money for a long time, if ever.”

I think that people on the internet would really embrace this project, and I would really like it to go through. What will the atmosphere be like on the internet in two years? What if I don’t get to it for five years and the internet is a completely different place? I know that just two years ago the internet was a different place. I think the application would be a little harder to launch today than it would have been two years ago; however defiantly not impossible.

So that’s where I start wondering, would it be better to spend all of my spare time to work on my project or to just let the dream die?

Earlier this week I had a brief break from ‘boring mundane task #1’ and ‘boring mundane task #2.’ During this time I had to accomplish absolutely as much as possible in this amount of time as I could.

One quick note, when I say boring mundane task, I am referring to something that is obligated to be done, but won’t increase your wealth.

As BMT1 wrapped up, I immediately went to work attempting to get one step closer to my dreams. In this case, it was two important phone calls and tweaking some code. Both of the phone issues still need a follow-up, but the other item on the list is good forever.

Of course every time that I get a break it doesn’t end up as productive as this one, and hopefully I can have more such as this one in the future. Life takes planning, and there is an element of strategy involved as well. So when your 15 minutes comes around be ready for it. Have your time planned out and go accomplish things!

Today my husband and I celebrate our one-year anniversary. I honestly feel aghast to know that I am 23, married, and thinking constantly about how to create a million dollars through intelligent financial decisions—things I never associated with myself before I met “Mr. Perfect.”

We started off like every newlywed couple—shopping and lounging on the weekends and eating out. Then we started to realize that we didn’t want to have to work for someone else forever. I was finishing my last semester of college, so not really working yet anyway. Yet somehow, I knew I had to change the way my future was already going.

The next thing I know, our spare time disappears. In addition to our weekday work and school, we start working every Saturday and Sunday from sun up to sun down. On Saturday and Sunday, we work for ourselves; we are our own bosses. We’re driven by the idea of financial independence. This search, of course, makes it difficult for me to convince employers of my absolute commitment to them as I search for a post-graduate job. Yet I think that we all have to have something that drives us forward. What causes you to cruise? Set that goal, and I think that you’ll jump into cruise control.

Our cruise control is definitely locked in. We work like crazy… and we couldn’t be happier. Since March we have taken off two days from our seven-day workweeks: Father’s Day and the Fourth of July. We love the sense of freedom we’re creating. No day off? No big deal. The other thing we’ve learned—you have to set goals and reward yourself when they’re done. We’ve finished the project we started in March; we’re taking a three-day weekend off right now.

So there you go:
1. find a purpose for yourself, seek change
2. set a long-term goal like our desire for financial freedom
3. set a short-term goal of several months or so
4. reward yourself when you reach that goal

When I think of this step-by-step process, I can easily identify one aspect that makes them successful for me: I have a business partner who shares my ambition. My husband is there to rub my shoulders, flag down the ice cream man driving down the street, and share the millionth peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunch with me every weekend; I’d do the same. We each see opportunity and troubles the other might miss—how does that dorky line go?
the mind of 1 person = 1
the mind of 1 person + the mind of 1 person = 11

5. consider a partner you can count on…and who can count on you, then cheer each other on

Thanks, my boy!