9 Things You Can Learn From My Experiment to Help You Change Your Life Today
If you are at the beginning of your personal development journey to be a debt-free, financially independent (FI) person, who can have more choices, The Doss Experiment is the website for you!!!
Full disclosure, I’m still on this journey, so if you stay with me, you can ride shotgun with me to the finish line. 👌👍
My life started like many of you. I went to school, played sports, and dreamed that when I got older, I would be the CEO of someone else’s company! Our schools don’t do anything to teach us how to succeed in life.
After two years of running track at a Junior College in Arizona, I found myself in Atlanta at Georgia State University (GSU). I switched majors and was studying Marketing. I figured that would put me on the road to being CEO somewhere.
When I got to Atlanta, I started managing a Burger King so I could work nights and go to college in the day. I have always lived pretty frugal, so I was making more money than I needed and had spent (wasted) my money on a Ninja motorcycle while I rented a room out of someone’s house.
One day I was at a bookstore and ran into a guy that introduced me to the Amway business. Around the same time, my friend recommended the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. These two things changed everything.
Tip #1 Read Books on Personal Development
Rich Dad Poor Dad made me rethink my goals. It was enough for me to stop going to college. I now saw that as a waste of money. The Amway business introduced me to many millionaires and A LOT of books. I learned about myself through reading and strengthened a lot of the weaknesses that I had.
The Amway business wasn’t the right fit for me at that time in my life, but it built me a lot as a person.
Personal Development Tip #2 Your Mindset is More Important Than The Detailed Steps
Rich Dad, Poor Dad was more a mindset book than a how to. I knew I wanted to be an owner, not an employee!
Many books taught me to guard my thoughts, and watch my words. Words are a powerful tool for creating the mindset you are looking for. This is crucial in your personal development!
Tip #3 Create a Budget
Atlanta wasn’t helping me grow where I wanted to in life, so I moved to North Carolina with my now ex-wife. She didn’t have any concept of money with more than $70K in student loan debt, but NO DEGREE!!! She didn’t tell me this until a letter came that said she needed to start paying. 🤬 WTF?!?
That relationship didn’t last long for many, many reasons.
The true love of my life later came and she was more versed than I was in money. She always kept a budget and healthy savings plan.
With a budget we were able to live off just my income while having 2 kids and my mom live with us. We also paid off all our student loans and both the car notes we had. This started The Doss Experiment on the path to become Debt Free!!
Even after the business I worked for decided our department was no longer needed to be managed by humans, and I ended up driving for Uber, our budget kept us going!
Tip #4 Set Goals (And Write Them Down!)
I am still working daily on this part of my personal development. This is another area my wife is way past me on. I do know that what you write and review regularly gets done. My wife could definitely write a whole post on this.
Every successful person sets goals!!! You should, too!
Tip #5 Share Your Dreams and Plans With Everyone
This is something I’m big on. You’ve written your goals, now share your plan with everyone.
When others know what you want, they can help. I once talked to someone with a half billion dollar business and he thought my plan was good, gave me his card, and said to contact him in a couple years.
Don’t be discouraged if everyone doesn’t share your dream of success. Keep pressing forward!
If you want to achieve your goals, you need to make sure you…
Tip #6 Find People That Want To Succeed in Their Own Personal Development
As you begin to share your dream, you’ll notice a few other people want the same things. Connect with them. They’ll help you stay focused as you help them. Chasing dreams others don’t or won’t put in the time to achieve is a lot easier when you’re not alone.
Tip #7 Help Other People Achieve Their Goals
Even if you are just starting, there is someone else who doesn’t know what you do. You don’t have to be an expert to help pull someone else along.
As you add value to other people, you’ll magically find other people add value to you!!!
Or what goes around comes around…so don’t just be a taker. Give you experience and knowledge as often as you can.
Tip #8 Find A Mentor
A mentor doesn’t need to be someone personal to you. It may be an author from books you read.
It’s good to find someone where you want to be, and figure out how you can add value to them. You’ll find that most successful people want to help others be successful, too!
Tip #9 Take Action in Your Personal Development
Nothing can happen if all you do is gather information.
Ray Kroc didn’t graduate high school, nor did he create McDonald’s. What he did do is take action. That action led him to create the largest franchise in the world.
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft. Taking action on his dream made him the richest man in the world at one point.
It’s not the people that know the most, it’s the people that do the most that succeed!!!
You lose 100% of the races you never start.
Bonus: There’s Nothing Wrong with Failing
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan
I’m sure you’ve heard, you can’t win them all. Everything you do can’t be a success.
Some things just don’t work, and that’s ok. Fail and fail often, just don’t quit!!!
The greatest baseball players in the world don’t get a hit 70% of the time.
Steph Curry, arguably the best 3 point shooter ever misses 60% of the shots he takes outside the arc.
Clearly, I’m a sports nut, but here’s something different. Thomas Edison failed more than 1,000 times before successfully creating the lightbulb 💡!!!
We’d all still be in the dark if he was afraid of failing.
Remember, we all learned to walk one step at a time after MANY failures, but we all survived it because we didn’t quit!!!
–DossExperiment
Please check out my other Blogs here.
Buying Your First House: Things Everyone Should Know
What’s The Best Strategy to Pay Off Debt?
The #1 Thing Keeping You in Debt
How to Create SMART Goals AND Achieve Them
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