WHY 2016 

will be the best year of my life!

I love the beginning of the new year!  It is a man made break that allows us the opportunity to start fresh and start again.  It is the time to sit back and reflect on where we are and where we are going!  it is a time to see what we have done wrong as well as where we did it right!  We can leave the mistakes behind us and take the lessons with us, applying them to the next year, making it a better and brighter future.

2015 was absolutely awesome!   I was able to finally figure out how to finally overcome the greatest challenge of my life and finally be done with formal education!

I started my career as a Physical Therapist and now am working on an exciting business venture that is again pushing me to learn and grow at an incredible rate. I have been studying on how to become an entrepreneur and have learned how to start a business (watch for more posts on the steps I took to do this, coming soon).

I learned to appreciate and embrace my challenges and short comings and use them as learning tools.  I was also able to develop good habits to include daily reading/study and affirmation statements.  I feel like my confidence and energy for success grows every day!

As great as 2015 was with all that I learned and accomplished, 2016 will be even better!  Why will it be better?  Because no matter what struggles or difficulties come along I refuse to accept defeat and will make every mountain a stepping stone towards greater achievement and learning.

I have been trained and taught throughout my life that if I make mistakes that I am failing, that I'm not good and that I can't achieve.  THIS ISN'T SO!  I should be trying, taking leaps, landing on my head every once in a while, otherwise I am not going to be growing.  Don't get me wrong, we shouldn't be aimlessly and foolishly making blind decisions, but if I am not challenging myself every single day then I won't reach my defined success!
This is the year I learn and grow more than I ever have, because I choose this day to learn and grow and not feel sorry for myself or afraid of failure!

2016 will also be great because I will achieve more of my goals.  In 2015 I achieved my goal of passing my exam.  That was the entire reason I began this website.  As for my other goals, I have a cruise planned but not scheduled in February of next year, I plan on increasing the revenue of the business I am acquiring to help me earn my desired income, and besides starting some retirement mutual funds I am working on 2 other residual income resources which will take flight this year.  I am so excited to accomplish even more this year!

Resources for the budding Entrepreneur!

My life has recently been consumed by the process of starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur.  I will be writing a series of posts on the process of how to go about starting a business so as to help anyone wanting to step into this world.  

Before I reveal those posts here are some videos and books that I strongly recommend!

ENTREPRENEUR ROLLERCOASTER  

This is a fantastic book that I highly recommend.  Although I haven't finished reading it yet, it has inspired me and is very easy and entertaining to read.  I love the material from Darren Hardy

21 IRREFUTABLE LAWS OF LEADERSHIP

This book by John C. Maxwell is a quick and concise read that should be in every successful persons must read pile!  I just finished this one and will be providing a book report on it. Amazing and fantastic insights.

THINK AND GROW RICH  

One of the first books I read on this topic, this is considered the "Rich Man's Bible"  and is again, a must read that no one who wants to be successful should pass up.

On that note I want to leave you  with some TED TALKS to help inspire and encourage you in all of your entrepreneurial efforts and dreams!  These 5 talks are simply amazing information that will inspire you to accomplish great things even if it's in another avenue of your life!

TED TALK 

WHERE DID I GO!!!???

After passing my exam last month I thought I would jump right back into my old schedule without a hiccup and start cruising along my path to success.  However, it was summer time and with the change in study habits, exciting and important family changes, and summer fun, I have become a victim of completely falling out of my "Success Schedule".
I have realized that no matter how well intended you are to keep to a schedule there will always be interruptions and hiccups that roll through our plans.  The important thing is consistency in daily efforts to do the best you can.  Remember the good days and move on from the bad.  I don't feel too bad about why I got distracted, they are worth while causes...but now I am BACK and ready to keep to my schedule and post my success!!!

Here are my summer Speed bumps:

Father and Son Backpacking trip:
We hiked over 14 miles, crossed the same winding stream over 30 times, sat in a great natural hot springs, and had great conversation before the end of the trip.  My brothers and dad go camping somewhere together every year.  Usually it's a back pack trip and we always have a memorable time.










Boating trips with family and friends:
Earlier in the year I spent a couple days at Bear Lake UT camping and swimming with my family.  After passing my exam I had the opportunity to go with my in-laws to have an equally fun time jet skiing, swimming, and building sand castles.  Then I had some great friends invite us Jet Skiing.  They owned single rider jet ski's, something I have always wanted to try and wasn't about to pass up a fun time and good company.

Epic Pinewood Derby:
Had a "No Rules" pinewood derby race with my Elders Quorum at church.  I spent Friday night and Saturday morning working on it, and after some youtube advice I ended up with a pretty fast car.  It was helpful that our track was twice as high!
MY CAR




The slightly modified and elevated track


Sick Baby:
Poor little Max, he had his molars come in and maybe a little sickness as well, but for 2 weeks he didn't sleep worth beans, ran a high fever every evening, and even a little throw up to top it off!  He would wake up 3-5x/night screaming, and we often had to resort to children's Tylenol to help him, and us, make it through the night.  After 2 weeks of complete sleep deprivation I completely fell out of schedule.  This is probably one of the major factors in killing my schedule because I was so tired every morning it was all I could do to drag my body, kicking and screaming at me, out of bed.  It has taken me a week to recover but now I am so out of habit I am fighting to get back to it...aka waking up early and not falling asleep while I read at night!

Sick Mommy:
My wife is "Great with Child"...we are expecting our fourth in March!!!  She is such a trooper the first trimester being nauseous and very tired most of the time, especially in the evenings.  She has just entered the second trimester where she typically does much better, and we have already seen the shifting of the tides.  To complicate matters she has a subchorionic hemorrhage, which she had with our last baby, and is very limited in lifting and anything that might be the slight bit jarring.  This is the main reason I haven't been blogging.  By the time I get home, help or cook dinner, clean up dinner, spend time with kids, put kids to bed, then clean house and dishes I am exhausted and don't really have time to do anything else.  I have been very tired and had little energy to do anything but take care of my little family right now.  However, now that Heidi is feeling better I will have a little time in the evenings and hopefully can get back to making progress in reading and growing residual income sources and business plans.  Although this may have slowed me down a little, I wouldn't change it for anything in the world!!!  We are very excited for a new little person to enter our home!

Family Time:

After neglecting family time to study for 2.5 years, I have been trying to spend more time with the kids playing, hiking, and just being there more!  Although I still have a billion and a half things to do, it is so nice having achieved my goal and not have the weight of the exam hanging over me!  I thank God almost every day for helping me pass!  I'm so excited to move forward!!!

 Movie Time

Hiking Trip

P-A-R-T-Y

Follow through with my "pass the test party"

I don't think it's fair to myself to not carry through with the reward I set for passing my Physical Therapy boards exam!

Before I passed I planned out a party of renting a movie theater and having friends come celebrate by watching a film and having pizza together!  It has been over 3 weeks since I passed.  Summer schedules and events kept getting in the way, but at last we made the time and had a great time with friends and family.  

I didn't actually end up renting out the theater, but we had a group rate where we got admission, popcorn, and soda for regular admission price.  I was very happy to be able to give back a little to all those who had been such a support to me.  I have blessed to have so many great people in my life, so a few bucks to say thank you was worth every penny.  

We watched AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.  It was a really great movie and had some great laughs as well as action.  We then went to the park and had pizza.  It was a ton of fun and I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did.
Thank you to everyone who supported me, even if you didn't get an invite I am still so grateful to you!

I have passed my exam, now what do I do?

First of all, I accomplished in 4 months one of the most difficult things in my life, of which I had spent 2 years previous to this blog trying.  I learned in a small way how to use the Law of Attraction and build my faith and trust in God! As I continue to refine this knowledge and add to it, is there anything I can't accomplish?!

REVIEW OF GOALS:

YEAR 1

1-2 Year Goals:

1. I passed my DPT licensure exam (1 year)

2. Build/bought our first home (2 year)

3. I Have 1 source of residual income (1 year)

4. I have created $100,000 worth of value to the world (1 year)

5. Took my wife on a cruise to the Caribbean for 1 week (2 year)

Okay, Goal #1 is checked off!  This first goal is the Primary reason I started this entire blogging pursuit.  I really wanted to pass, and I really wanted to see if I could develop the faith and knowledge necessary to put the Law of Attraction into Action!
I not only made it work but did so with the most difficult task I have ever tackled.  The exam took me 2.5 years to pass and 8 attempts.  I put the principles of this blog into action for 4 months before taking the exam that I passed.  If I could do that in 4 months just imagine what could be accomplish over the course of years!!!

Goal # 2 is suddenly a realistic option.  Before passing the exam, Heidi and I had talked to the banks.  Due to the high education loan we had and the small amount of money I was making we could only be approved for a small amount for a home.  Now that I have passed and over a quarter of my loan is payed off, getting a loan for a nice starter home will be no problem!  We are planning on saving money for a down payment over the next 6-8 months and then see what we want to do, but a definite option in the next 1.5 years!

Goal #3 will come along since I now have time to invest in reading and participating in business opportunities

Goal #4, I am a little closer.  By March 2016 I will have made over $100,000.  How will I do this you ask...well, since moving from a Physical Therapist Assistant to a Doctor of Physical Therapy my Salary will have increased.  I am still plenty short but at least a step closer!  I want to work on some residual income sources, but other than that I will work hard and look for opportunities.

The cruise will be easy!  Once I make $100,000 in my first year, buying a cruise with my wife will be easy peasy!  The only major obstacle to this will be if Heidi gets pregnant somehow =)  I think we will be okay.

The goals not on this list includes working into the business side of Physical Therapy.  I would like to be a business owner so now that I am done putting effort into getting my License I can place the work into gaining business knowledge in prep for owning my own crazy successful clinic!!!

Getting Back into my schedule!

Now that the excitement of Passing my Exam is over (okay not really...it's still REALLY EXCITING still), it's time to get back to my regular schedule.  I no longer have to study for the exam and put my time into that....Phewwww....but I do want, and need, to continue reading, learning, and studying life, leadership, and occupational skills.  This is my original schedule that I would like to stick with for now

5am
6am	Wake up at 6am 6-6:50am Meditate, Read, Apply (more info on these below)
7am	6:50-7:10am Get ready to go to the gym and eat breakfast 7:10-8:00am drive to gym, workout, shower, and get ready for work
8am	WORK: I work 4-10’s with Thursday and the weekend off. **Those are the hours I see patients, sometimes I have lunch break to work on projects, but typically I have lunch meetings or notes to work on.  It also takes me 10-30 min after patient hours to wrap everything up.  Also, Tuesday night I spend at meetings for church until 8:30 and Thursday night from 9-11pm is reserved for basketball.
9am
10am
11am
12pm
1pm
2pm
3pm
4pm
5pm
6pm
7pm
8pm	Depending on my shift and when I get home, I spend from 6/7-9pm eating and playing with my kids
9pm	From when I put kids to bed (usually between 8-9pm) to 10pm is reserved for time talking with my wife and helping around the house
10pm	10-11pm is my time to work on projects, read, or just unwind by watching Jimmy Fallon or sports highlights
11pm	Be to bed by 11pm.  This is very difficult as I love to stay up late, making 12:00-12:30 my usual bed time
12am

Learning to be disciplined in keeping to a schedule is very important to personal growth!  I have read many quotes and thoughts on this very topic.  Those who have achieved high levels of success will attest to the principle that great success is linked to great control over one's self!  This is one of the key reasons I want to develop and stick to a strict schedule such as this.

EXAM PASSED!!!

First and foremost I thank GOD for making this miracle come to pass in my life!  My second thanks goes to all those who have prayed, hoped, and supported me through this process to achieving this goal!  According to the academic world the further I got away from my class room work the less likely I had of passing!  Good thing I trusted in God and not Academics!
{If you know anyone going through difficult times in any aspect of their life, forward this on!  Let them know they can achieve anything they desire If they follow the steps I took!  If nothing else I hope my story will help motivate and inspire others!  I encourage you to let my trials be someone else's motivation, and hopefully they can learn and have success more quickly than what it took me!}

I took the National Physical Therapy Exam 8 times over the course of 2 years 6 months almost to the day.  I was only to be allowed only one more attempt to take the exam if I didn't pass.  I have gone through HELL getting to this point.  I suffered depression, frustration, bitterness and pain, more than I thought I could ever bare.  Yet, over the time I have learned and grown in ways I never thought possible.  I have grown in faith and trust in a loving Heavenly Father.  I learned to appreciate and be grateful for what was good, and what I do have.  I learned to see bad events in my life as just that, an event, not a determining factor in my life.  

I feel like I was directed in starting this blog and using the Law of Attraction!  It really works!!! I would not have had the confidence and the ability to pass had I not used the principles that I used.  I have been so blessed in achieving this, now I hope every person that reads this can use the same principles to achieve their goals.  I will continue on the same path to continue meeting goals and become all that I am capable of!

GREAT SUCCESS!
The test is taken, now the week long wait!

TEST TAKEN!

I arrived at the testing center in Salt Lake city Utah at 8am this morning, July 21!  I left the testing center at 4:30pm, after more than 8 hours of sitting and testing!

I wasn't actually taking the test that long.  When I arrived it takes a few minutes to check in, then time to set up the computer and agree to the terms that if I cheat I am going to prison and they will hunt me down and take away everything in my life down to my sweaty socks.  Then I have to go through a tutorial on how to use a mouse and click on the computer screen...all very technical.  They give me 30 min to take the 30 sec tutorial, so I use a good 15-20 min to write down lab values, brachial plexus, cranial nerves, and anything else I can remember that I may use on the test and don't want to forget.  Then I start the test.  

Since I have testing accommodations I have my own room and time and a half.  Having the extra time is helpful so I freely take breaks after each section.  There is only one section that the testing time stops, which is for 22 min. The other breaks I take the clock keeps running, but I have enough time so it is easy to do.  

I always stretch, move, eat protein (brain food) and use the restroom if needed during my breaks.  Today I had The Naked Protein drink and it was awesome!  It sat really well with my stomach and was a quick snack that boosted my energy and provided a killer 32grams of Protein.  It also tasted pretty good.  I had a couple energy bars and a snickers bar as my half way treat!  I did have a sandwich, but I only had a few bites.

I did much better at examining the questions and including all the pieces into answering the question.  For most questions I made sure I could rationalize why each option was or wasn't the correct choice.  It took some major thinking to do that.  In the previous tests I would do a few questions like that but I would get so rushed with time I didn't feel like I could spare the precious seconds to think it through thoroughly.  

I really felt the support and prayers of everyone!  So many people were praying and thinking of me, and I felt it, like you feel the warmth of the sun as it rises in the morning.  I could feel the stress lifted off my shoulders by the faith and support of so many good people!

THANK YOU to everyone for your love and support!

STRESS LEVELS

As mentioned previously I was taught to monitor my heart rate as a way of objectifying my stress levels and giving me a sense of how well I was controlling stress.  During my studying I found my Heart Rate (HR) varied from 48-60bpm.  When I sat down in the testing center I felt some stress across my chest, so I checked my HR and it was soaring at 80bpm.  (The method I used to assess my HR was to feel my Radial Pulse by my wrist and count it for 10 sec's.  Whatever I count I then multiply that by 6 = Beats per minute).    

For about 20 minutes between the first 3 questions I worked to get it down.  I have decided that one of the major restrictions in my test taking is not relaxing during the exam, so I knew I had to get my body to relax and be calm!  I did finally get it lowered to about 60bpm and finally it decided to stay between 55-60bpm the rest of the test.

I was able to accomplish this by reciting parts of my affirmation statement, counted breathing (breath in through my nose for 5 seconds, out through pierced lips for 10 seconds), and a technique called tapping.  As I lowered my HR I started plunging into the questions of the exam, devouring the words to form logical conclusions.  I sent many a prayers to Heavenly Father, asking for calmness, confidence, and abilities to formulate appropriate conclusions to the questions in my attempt to choose the correct answer.  

As I became entrenched into the exam the relaxation became easier and soon it was as natural as breathing.  A couple times I had the HR increase after that, but I would just pray, think the question through, and use my breathing and tapping techniques for a minute and I would feel fine again.  

PARTY PLANNED

I had heard stories of the man that wanted a car but didn't have the money, so he wrote his goal out and then would go test drive the car he wanted until it became his reality.  

One of my spiritual mentors suggested that I apply the same idea for the exam!  So last week I decided I would plan a celebration party for my passing of the exam.  I planned out where we would go to eat and called and reserved a movie theater so I could watch the second Avengers movie that I haven't seen yet, with my friends and family!  

It is yet another way of convincing and directing my subconscious to help me achieve my planned passing rate of 80% on the exam.  It helped me to really think about my success and to visualize it and how it will be when I pass.  That coupled with my test affirmation statement that I read 2-3x/day, I was feeling confident going into the test and coming out of it.  Now I just have to wait a week before I can watch the movie!  Oh well, it will be worth the wait!

  

I now have to wait 1 week before I find out.  This will be a nice week to be grateful, relax from studying, and continue planning my continued progress and success!

THANK YOU to those who helped me prep for this exam...I felt ready emotionally and mentally!