Knowledge For Men

Personal trainer, peak performance coach, and podcaster Ted Ryce has overcome a tremendous amount in his quest to live a legendary life.

Ryce has worked with Fortune 500 CEOs, busy professionals, and celebrities, including Richard Branson, Ricky Martin and Robert Downey Jr. He helps his clients develop and stick with high-performance habits that help them manage stress and adversity and lead more successful lives.

His philosophy is that being a high-performance person, one who chases and achieves their biggest goals, isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity to survive and thrive in the modern world.

Favorite Success Quote

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world needs is more people to come alive” ~Howard Thurman

Key Points

1. You Need to Come Alive 

The world is full of people who are dead on the inside.

They are living and breathing in the literal sense, but their lives lack the passion.

They wake up in the morning with no fire in their bellies. They simply go through the motions, doing things that they dislike because of societal conditioning.

What the world needs, what you need, is to come alive.

To live a life every day that is of your choosing, doing things that you love and spending every day of your life living with deep passion.

Forget what society and your parents taught you. You need to do what will make you come alive, period.

2. You Need to Push Yourself Physically to Succeed at Life 

Your health is a critical part of succeeding at life.

If you are not pushing yourself physically in the gym and challenging your body on a daily basis, then you are doing a disservice to your career, your family, and your personal growth.

Whenever you push yourself in the gym, you can push yourself harder in life.

You wake up with more energy and can live life on a level 10.

3. Consistency is Key

You will never have the body of your dreams, the woman of your dreams, or the millions in the bank account if you are not consistent.

You need to be consistent.

Set a plan and stick to it.

Don’t make excuses, don’t allow life to get in the way.

As Nike says, “Just do it!”

4. You Need More Experiences 

If you are feeling lost in life, you need to experience more things.

Pack up your bags and travel around the world. Move to a new city. Try out a new career.

Do whatever you have to do to give yourself more experiences and grow into the man that you want to become.

5. Life is a Marathon 

Life is not a a sprint, it is a marathon.

You cannot expect to achieve all of your goals and dreams within a year.

It takes decades of dedication and consistency.

And even then you will never truly arrive at any sort of destination.

Life is a never ending journey.

You will never arrive, and that is ok.

6. Training Routine to Build Strength 

If you are looking to build strength and become (literally) the strongest version of yourself.

Follow the below routine.

Workout 4 Days a Week 

Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: Lower Body
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Upper Body
Friday: Lower Body
Weekend: Rest

Exercise Selection

For exercise selection, stick to big lifts.

Deadlifts, squats, bench press, and overhead presses should comprise the majority of your workout.

Pick 2 based on the training day, for example, if you are doing upper body, complete Bench Press, and Shoulder Presses.

Then pick 2-3 supplementary exercises of your choice that are in the same muscle groups to compliment your workout.

Sets and Reps

Option 1

Month 1: 4 sets of 12-15
Month 2: 4 sets of 6-8 (higher weight)
Month 3: 4 sets of 4-5 (higher weight)

Option 2:

Week 1: 4 sets of 6
Week 2: 4 sets of 8
Week 3: 5 sets of 8
Week 4: Deload (Same sets and reps as week 1 with 30-40% less weight)

An Added Note

The most important part of any training program is called linear periodization.

This is the concept of basically incrementally increasing the weight that you are pressing or pulling to continue forcing your body to grow and adapt.

Always seek to add one more rep, just a little bit more weight, or another set to your workouts so that you are continually improving and pushing your body.

7. Bonus Routine for Fat Burning 

An easy trick to help you burn some extra fat is to complete the following workouts either on your off days or as a finisher to your workouts.

Week 1: 5 Minutes of Bodyweight squats in aerobic heart rate range (or some other bodyweight exercise)
Week 2: 10 Minutes of Bodyweight squats in aerobic heart rate range (or some other bodyweight exercise)
Week 3: 15  Minutes of Bodyweight squats in aerobic heart rate range (or some other bodyweight exercise)
Week 4: 8 Minutes of Bodyweight squats in aerobic heart rate range (or some other bodyweight exercise)

8. Sleep Better

Here are a few tips to help you improve the quality of your sleep.

-Download the app F.lux to dim the lights on your computer so that don’t disrupt your natural sleep cycle.

-Invest in a sleep master mask (or just cover your face with a shirt)

-Invest in a nicer mattress

– Set your thermostat to 64 degrees F

-Get ear plugs for noisy environments

-Get to bed at the same time every night, preferably before 11 p.m.

Direct download: Ted_Ryce.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Elliot S. Weissbluth is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HighTower. His commitment to disrupting the industry in favor of transparency and integrity has driven HighTower’s growth since he founded the company in 2007 in the midst of the financial crisis.

The business model he pioneered combines the fiduciary standard for financial advisors with an open-source platform where providers of the industry’s top products and solutions compete for HighTower clients’ business.

Elliot Weissbluth and HighTower continue to challenge the status quo by bringing transformative ideas and transparent solutions to financial services.

Favorite Success Quote

“There is no shortcut to the top” ~Ed Viesturs

Key Points

1. Ignorance Can be Your Biggest Advantage

Whenever you are getting started in business ignorance and naivety can actually be one of your greatest advantages.

For some people, they do not realize just how difficult business can be and would never get started if they did.

For others, being ignorant about the market and the “right way” to do things allows them to come up with creative solutions to problems that experienced veterans would never have thought of.

Do not see your ignorance as a curse, see it as a blessing. It may very well be the only reason that you succeed.

2. The Key to Managing Stress is Finding the Right Outlets

Life is stressful, business is stressful, and entrepreneurship is really stressful.

If you do not learn how to effectively manage your stressors, you will end up burned out and overwhelmed,  utterly unable to continue on the path to success.

You have to learn to effectively mitigate and manage stress through positive outlets or risk failure due to overwhelm.

Whether you enjoy painting, extreme sports, music, time with friends, or just sitting down with a good book, figure out the things that give you energy and recharge your batteries and make time for them every day.

3. Financial Health is Just as Important as Physical Health

You will often hear leaders in the personal development sphere say the phrase “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything” and while this is true, if you do not have financial health, every other area of your life will suffer.

If you are living in a state of financial disease your health, relationships, and spiritual life will suffer, there is no way around it.

One of the predominant reasons for the astronomically high divorce rate in the U.S. is financial stress between spouses.

One of the reasons for the health epidemic is the inability for low-income individuals to afford healthy foods and a reasonable quality of life.

One of the reasons that so few people live the lives of their dreams is because they are too busy trying to survive to figure out what their passions are.

You have to master your physical health, because, without it, everything else in your life will deteriorate.

4. Don’t Mistake Achievement and Fulfillment

While financial health is extremely important, do not ever mistake financial achievement (or any other kind of achievement) for fulfillment.

Some of the happiest people in the world only earn $25,000 a year, and some of the most miserable people on the planet are multimillionaires.

You have to shift your focus from achievement to fulfillment.

What makes you come alive, what do you enjoy doing, who do you enjoy being around?

You will only have fulfillment in your life when you can answer these questions honestly and base the rest of your life around them.

5. Go Experience Failure

Growing up, you were told that failure is bad. That it is evil. That it should be avoided.

But the truth is, failure is one of the most valuable tools you have if you wish to become successful.

Go out and fail faster than you have ever failed before. The more you fail, the more you learn,  and the more successful you will ultimately become.

Direct download: Elliot_Weissbluth.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Ken Blanchard, PhD, is one of the most influential leadership experts in the world. He has co-authored 60 books, including Raving Fans and Gung Ho! (with Sheldon Bowles). His groundbreaking works have been translated into over 40 languages and their combined sales total more than 21 million copies.

In 2005 he was inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 bestselling authors of all time. The recipient of numerous leadership awards and honors, he is cofounder with his wife, Margie, of The Ken Blanchard Companies®, a leading international training and consulting firm.

Favorite Success Quote

“Don’t ever use your position, great leaders and great because people love them and trust them, not because they have power” ~

Key Points

1. Leadership is About Trust Not Power

If you want to be an effective leader, then operate based off of trust, not off of your power.

If you want people to follow you, don’t demand that they follow you, get them to follow you because they trust you.

Leadership is based off of trust, and not off of power. You have to build your community of individuals who trust in you and trust your abilities before you will ever be an effective leader.

2. Don’t Let Age Define You

Whether you are young or old, you have something to offer the world.

Never let your age determine your ambitions.

If you are young, then use that youth and energy to invest into growing yourself and your dream, if you are older, then use your wisdom to grow your dreams while paying it forward and helping someone else.

There is no time in life whenever you do not have a purpose, never let your age define you.

3. You Need to Keep Yourself Excited

No matter where you are in life, you need to keep yourself excited and stimulate, spiritually, physically, and mentally.

If you are not constantly pushing the envelope on your life and growing yourself in all areas you will live a more rich and fulfilling life.

4. Service is Essential to Fulfillment 

You cannot truly live a full life unless you are serving others. Life is empty when it is lived for you.

You have to have some aspect of your life with an element of service. Whether this is starting a non profit, volunteering at your church or with a charity, or just giving 10% of your money to a good cause.

You need to remember that life is bigger than you and act like it.

5. If You Want Something to Go Well Get it Structured 

If you want a marriage, business, or even your health to go well, it needs to be well structured.

You have to put systems into place that help you to operate from strengths, eliminate weaknesses, and get perspective on your blind spots. Only with the right systems in place will anything truly be successful.

Direct download: Ken_Blanchard.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Aaron Anastasi is the founder and coach of the internationally recognized, Superior Singing Method, an online singing lesson program that grosses seven figures annually.

With over 10,000,000 views and 100,000 subscribers, Aaron has the #1 singing/life lesson channel on YouTube. He is also a prominent life coach for clients in industry-leading roles ranging from film directors to marine biologists to TEDx speakers.

Favorite Success Quote

“The inspiration you are waiting for, in order to start, is on the other side of starting”

Key Points

1. You Have to Get Started 

The hardest part of any endeavor, whether it is starting your business, losing 50 lbs. of fat, or marrying the girl of your dreams, is getting started.

Once you have built the momentum and gotten over the fear of failure and vulnerability, things will start to fall into place, but you have to get started!

So plug your nose, and jump into the cold water, years from now, you will look back and be glad that you did.

2. Don’t Hold Your Happiness Hostage to Large Goals 

Having huge, massive, earth shattering goals is admirable, but it can also be toxic.

You need to have your big goals; a million dollars a year in profit, a New York Times best-selling book,  transformed body, or whatever it is, but you cannot allow those big goals to hold your happiness hostage.

Set out towards your dreams with smaller, more managable goals that will allow you to taste the joy of achievement without waiting 10-20 years, and reward yourself for every step you take towards your big goals.

Remember, like Hal Elrod says “Love the life you have, while you create the life of your dreams.”

3. Your Beliefs Determine Your Reality 

Nothing can sabotage you more quickly and more completely than limiting beliefs.

If you wake up every morning, believing that you are not good enough, that you will never achieve your goals, and that you are unworthy of success, then it is impossible to achieve your dreams.

You have to consciously and actively rewire your brain and your belief systems to serve you and your goals, because if you do not, your beliefs will rewire your life for the worse.

4. Your Rituals Create Your Results

Success is simple, but it is not easy.

If you want that great body, workout every day, count your calories, and sleep 8 hours a night.

If you want a million dollars in your bank account, start your business, set about each day intentionally building on the most important things, and hire experts to help you overcome your weaknesses.

If you want the beautiful wife and the white picket fence, then start getting involved in social activities, talk to more women, and take more risks in your dating life.

Success is nothing but the accumulation of small things done consistently over a log period of time.

5. Feedback Helps You Close the Gaps in Life 

If you are not where you want to be in your life right now, then you need to sit down with people you trust and have honest and open conversations about where you are excelling and where you are falling short.

The feedback that you get from others (meaning people who have achieved what you want and who care for you) can give you the knowledge and encouragement you need to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

Direct download: Aaron_Anastasi.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Miki Spies is a spiritual coach with powerful and easily applicable teachings. She is an amazing coach and transformational speaker with an enthusiastic message of manifestation.

Favorite Success Quote

“Being entirely honest with oneself is an important exercise.” ~ Sigmund Freud

Key Points

1. Great Sex is About Presence

Many men think that great sex is all about technique and stamina, but the truth is, while those may be important, great sex is about presence.

It is about showing up and giving your all, being fully focused and present in each moment.

Great sex is as much a mental and spiritual activity as it is physical.

2. Everything About You is Foreplay

Some men believe that foreplay, like sex, is all about what happens in the bedroom. However, foreplay starts the second that you lay eyes on a woman.

Everything about you is foreplay, from the way that you present yourself, to the interactions you have, to the presence that you show in your conversation.

3. Don’t Regret a Damn Thing

Everything that has ever happened up until this very second made you who you are. Don’t regret any of it.

The decisions you have made, both bad and good brought you to where you are today and will help to prepare you for what is to come in the future.

Embrace them, don’t regret them. Don’t waste time wishing to change things that cannot, and should not be changed.

4. Never Settle 

If you ever feel that you are settling in a relationship, then you are doing yourself and your woman a disservice. You can never be truly happy when you feel that you are settling and it will affect every other area of your life.

Your work life, health, platonic relationships, and personal development will all stagnate whenever you have a women in your life who you are not passionate about and who does not push you to grow and become a better man.

Do yourself and your woman a favor and end things now.

5. Anticipation is the Key to Success

If you want to truly succeed and stand out with women, you have to learn to master the art of anticipation.

Women are used to men fawning over them, trying to get into their pants on the first date, and trying to escalate much too quickly.

Instead, learn to build the anticipation. Slow things down a little bit, exercise some restraint. Not only will you be able to make better decisions in your relationships, but women will respect and want you even more.

Direct download: Miki_Spies.mp3
Category:Dating and Relationship Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Mike Dillard is an entrepreneur in Austin Texas. He built his first million-dollar business by the age of 27, teaching small business owners how to effectively market their products and services online using “attraction-marketing” strategies.

In 2010 he founded a financial education company in order to teach others how to achieve financial freedom through investment strategies commonly reserved for the wealthy.

Combined, his businesses have produced more than $50 Million in revenue without outside funding.

Today Mike dedicates his time to mentoring other entrepreneurs and developing technologies in the aeroponics industry that will give people around the world access to clean, healthy, organic food at a fraction of today’s current prices.

He spends his free time pursuing his passion for auto racing, competing in the Baja 1000, Mint 400, and SCCA.

Favorite Success Quote

“Never never stop”

Key Points

1. Success Comes from You

One of the fallacies that many wantrepreneurs make is that they think success will come from outside of them.

They think that if they find the right vehicle they will be successful but they never realize that the vehicle doesn’t matter if the driver sucks.

You have to invest in yourself before you will ever see success in business. You have to master skill sets, understand your personality and how you function, and constantly educate yourself if you ever wish to be successful.

2. You Cannot Use Your Personality Type as an Excuse

Often times in business, entrepreneurs will use their personality type as a crutch.

They say things like “How can I get good at sales if I am an introvert” or “My personality just doesn’t let me focus on one thing” or a whole host of other b.s. excuses.

If you want to succeed in entrepreneurship then wake up and realize that your personality type may be an obstacle but it is never a death sentence.

3. Making Money is Only the First Part of Wealth

Many people believe that once you make money you are set. But the truth is that making money is only the first part of the equation for wealth.

If you want to be wealthy you have to learn how to make, keep, and grow your income.

If you earn $1,000,000 a year but spend $1,250,000 then you are not wealthy, you are broke as a joke.

The things that make so many entrepreneurs great at making money, being comfortable with risks, quick decision making, and a “go big or go home” attitude is also what makes it very difficult for entrepreneurs to keep and grow their money.

To grow true wealth, you must temper yourself and learn to exercise the discipline necessary to make smart investment decisions that are not sexy, do not require a lot of risk, and are often base hits instead of home runs.

Entrepreneurship makes terrible financial decision

4. If You Want to be Respected Have Integrity

This applies to all areas of life, not just business.

If you want people to respect you, then be a man of your word, say what you mean and stop lying. Be real and honest with people, don’t b.s. them because you are hoping for positive feedback.

Your word is how you are measured as a man, make sure that people see you as a man of integrity.

5. Build Your Life One Brick at a Time

Success in entrepreneurship rarely comes in fast spurts. It comes through building your business one brick at a time, a few bricks a day.

When you wake up each day, focus on 3-5 things that you need to accomplish that will grow your business. After several years of this daily ritual, you will be successful.

Like Charlie Monger said

“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts…. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day–if you live long enough–most people get what they deserve.”

Direct download: Mike_Dillard.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

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