A New Horizon

As you may or may not know, my main goal for as long as I can  remember is to gain two things: automated income and freedom of location.  My desire was inflamed considerably after I read Tim Ferriss’ book The Four Hour Workweek.  Unlike other “self help for riches” books, Tim focuses mainly on overall quality of life rather than cold, hard cash.  He repeatedly states that the goal isn’t to become as big or as rich as possible.  The goal is to gain the freedom to live your dreams.  Money means nothing if you can’t use it to achieve your dreams.

After getting out of my culinary school for the Summer, I began to search for a part-time job to make ends meet.  Not finding much success in the first couple of weeks, I started  to look at other options.  I had created an account on Elance a long time before this, but I never got to the point of actually bidding on jobs.  I decided to devote one week exclusively to setting up my profile and bidding on freelance writing work.  I’ve always loved to write, and I had a good amount of experience that I could show to potential clients from my blog and weekly restaurant reviews.  So I decided that this would be my area.   I set up a schedule of four hours a day to devote to this, and to eliminate distractions I would do it from my laptop at the library.

Before bidding on any work, I figured out how much cash I would need to cover monthly expenses.  I decided how many hours per week I wanted to work.  (20).  One division problem later, I found that I needed to earn at least $20 per hour on this schedule to cover the basics.  (Also accounting for the amount I’d need to withhold for taxes at the end of the year).  So I now had my minimum hourly rate, and I started bidding on jobs with this as my guideline.

It’s two weeks later, and I am now working with my second client, who has just extended me to a long-term contract.   I’m also talking with a potential third client about a large project, which combined with my current project would put me right at working four hours a day and earning plenty to cover all the basics.  I made a point of giving my all for my first client, who gave me an excellent review – probably making the second and third clients possible.

Is this my end-all-be-all?  No.  But it accomplishes one key goal: freedom of location.  I will be able to earn my living no matter where I am.  I can do my job from anywhere with an internet connection.  I could be in a Japanese karaoke bar or a French bistro.  And I’m excited about that.

The other big “win” for this is being able to work within my own parameters, on my terms.  I decide when the workday starts and ends.  I decide how much I’ll be paid.  And because of this, I am able to devote the majority of my time and energy towards my next big goal: automated income.

I want to produce a product that I am proud to stand behind and that people will love.  Something that serves a purpose and makes people happy.  I’m narrowing down the possibilities, and when I decide on the final product I’ll put all my effort into developing a following for it.  Using the techniques I’ve learned from 4HWW and my own experiences in internet marketing, I’ll create an SEO-driven site with an auxiliary PPC campaign to drive traffic there.  And the day that I achieve my income goals through that site, that will be the dawn of a new age in my life.

I have felt the thrill of achieving my goals over the past two months, both physically and financially, and I don’t intend to stop now.

Muscle Build Experiment Results

Well people, the month is over, the workouts are done, and the results are in!  Let’s see what happened.

During my month of high intensity training coupled with a high protein diet, I’ve seen some significant gains in strength.  Check out some of my advances:

(Bench press weights include bar weight of 45 lbs)

Regular Bench Press

First workout: 175 lbs x 6 reps

Final workout: 195 lbs x 4 reps  – (note: my lifting goal for the whole Summer was to bench my body weight, around 190 lbs.  I guess I need a new goal now!)

Decline Bench Press

First workout: 195 lbs x 4 reps

Final workout: 215 lbs x 5 reps

Leg press

First workout: 300 lbs x 7 reps

Final workout: 480 lbs x 6 reps

I went to my buddy Michael at Clark’s Tuxedos again to get my final measurements:

Bicep: 13.5″ (.5 inch gain)

Chest: 37″ (.5 inch gain)

Abs: 31″ (1 inch gain)

Thigh: 21″ (1 inch gain)

Shoulder: 43.5″ (1.5 inch gain)

Looking back at our workouts this month, the results make sense.  The exercise my buddy and I did most regularly was the leg press, and we clearly saw large gains in our leg strength and size.  We also focused more on shoulders than we ever had before, and when combined with our chest exercises this made for a significant overall gain to my shoulder breadth.

I suppose a picture is worth 1,000 words, so here’s a couple before and afters:

Note – I told you I’d be tanner by the time this was over! 

Now, is this even close to the results posted on Tim Ferriss’ blog?  Nope!  But that’s coo with me.  I learned a ton throughout this month, and I’ve seen some concrete gains.  I plan to take this month to rest up and focus on muscle tone and maintenance, and then I’ll give HIT (high-intensity training) another shot in July.  Now that I actually know what I’m doing, I believe the results will be even better.  I’ll focus more on upper-body development next time around as well (but I’ll still make sure to do full-body workouts each time).