One Year

Seriously, all it takes to change your life is One Year.

At the moment, I’m starting a few businesses as I leave full-time employment. For those who haven’t seen, I resigned in December and began a conversion from employee to contractor, which will last for the next two months before I’m in full-time build mode.

In One Year, I know I’m going to be writing to you about each of those businesses, the success we’re having, and sharing on topics like:

• Real Estate
• Entrepreneurship
• Personal Development

You may think to yourself, that’s cocky.

But, what you’re missing is it isn’t cocky if you back it up.

A Step Back

Let me explain.

I’m not saying it to be cocky.

I have experienced enough in my life to date to understand the power a year can make, whether it’s personally, professionally or financially.

Let me give you some examples below and then we’ll dive into how you can utilize the power of One Year to change your life.

Ironman

I’ve talked about this before.

In 2008, I was an out of shape couch potato with a newborn and I’d just turned 30.

After being fat shamed by a past friend, it probably isn’t odd I say past friend, is it, I decided to make a change.

That night in bed, I was reading a triathlon magazine and saw an advertisement for a race in Calgary, Alberta – an Ironman 70.3 or 1/2 Ironman.

I said to my wife, I’m going to sign up for this.

She replied Sure.

She’d seen me say things like this before.

She’d heard me talk about what I was going to do.

But, this time was different.

There was zero chance I was going to let myself get shamed again and it was the first time I implemented the concepts from the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, namely, Begin With the End in Mind.

I created a plan.

I executed on the plan.

In that year, I lost over 30 lbs and completed the Ironman 70.3.

One year later, I lost another 15 lbs and completed a full Ironman, Ironman Canada.

I had taught myself How to Get Sh!t Done and life has never been the same.

Social Media

We started on Twitter, seriously, in August 2021 to promote our Podcast.

When we started, I went hard.

I made the decision to write every day for a year.

Within four months, I crossed 10,000 followers and was just getting started.

By April 2020, I’d become a much better writer and we began to add 20,000 followers per month, every month, for the next 2+ years.

It reinforced another lesson I’ve learned over time, It goes slow until it goes fast.

Podcast

For the past 3 years, the Podcast has been my baby.

When I started, though, I had the realization I would suck and I was okay with that.

You see, You have to suck long enough to be good and you have to be consistently good long enough to be great.

I was willing to do that.

I’m always willing to look silly in the pursuit of my goals.

I said to myself, Clint, don’t judge yourself until episode 100.

At first, I sucked.

At first, I couldn’t get guests.

As time passed and I grew on social media, I was able to get great guests on the show.

How to Use the Power of One Year

I’m not going to tell you to go Monk Mode – we all have lives to live.

But, some common themes I’ve understood to power me whenever I’m launching a new passion:

• Have a Plan
• Do the Work
• Be Obsessed
• Embrace the Suck
• Be Patient and Persistent
• It will go slow until it goes fast

Let’s dive into each of these.

Have a plan and do the work

This is simple.

I always say, to get what you want in life, it comes down to:

1. Know what you want (Vision)
2. Understand what it takes (Plan)
3. Do the work. Day in. Day out (Action)

You need all three steps.

There’s so much information out there today to help you create a plan for anything you want to achieve in life.

Be Obsessed

When you want something, you need to work for it.

It’s Step 3 in my plan above and it matters more than any other thing you can do. Action trumps almost anything.

Even better, deliberate and intentional action guided at your plan is the best thing you can be doing at almost all times.

The key for One Year to work, though, is it has to be consistent action over that year. For me, that will often look like taking consistent action every single day of that year.

Yes, streaks.

You’ve heard me talk about them before.

You’ll always hear me talk about the power of streaks.

Become obsessed and prove your obsession through your actions.

Embrace the Suck

We already talked about it.

You need to Embrace the Suck:

• Suck long enough to get good
• Be good long enough to become great

There’s no other way.

Almost nobody is great overnight.

They’re putting in the reps when you aren’t looking.

They’re not afraid to make mistakes on their pursuit of greatness.

Be Patient and Persistent

Be patient on the results.

Be persistent on the process.

Take the daily consistent action forward.

Set a goal in the future when you’ll judge yourself, whether it’s 100 pieces published or it’s one year after starting.

This supports the idea that it will go slow until it goes fast. You’ll see no results for long periods of time followed by the hockey stick parabolic overnight success. The key is to stick to it until you have that parabolic success and I promise, if you follow the steps above, YOU WILL.

There’s so much more that can help you on this journey, like starting small. Building on your successes. Surrounding yourself with people who are achieving what you want to achieve.

Bottom line, you can do it.

You can achieve your dreams in one year.

I know I’ll be sitting here sharing my dreams one year from now and hopefully you’re sharing how you hit yours, which brings us to two questions:

1. What do you want to achieve in the next year
2. What’s an example of something you did in a single year that blew you away when you looked back

Drop me a line, I love to read them and share what your wins are with the rest of our audience !

TGG Podcast

This week on the Growth Guide Podcast, I spoke to Jared Dillian about their book, No Worries: How to Live a Stress-Free Financial Life.

No Worries shows how anyone can live a stress-free financial life and build wealth for the long term.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Handling debt and risk
• Earning more vs cutting expenses
• Investment strategies and financial literacy

​Join us as we dive into a wealth of knowledge and strategies to embrace a healthier relationship with money to live a stress-free financial life.

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Last Word

I love hearing from readers and I’m always looking for feedback. How I’m doing with the Growth Guide. Is there anything you want to see more of or less? Which aspects of the Newsletter or Podcast do you like the most?

Hit reply and say hello, I’d love to chat with you!

All my best,

Clint