What should you do if you’re broke and ambitious? I’ve heard this question tons of times over the years and I never really had an answer for it because I’d never been and still haven’t been in that situation. It’s all about being smart with your money but that doesn’t mean that this can never happen to me. Although my calculated risk paid off so far this doesn’t mean that I’m perfect. But ok back to your situation, let’s imagine that you’re ambitious, went all out and suddenly are down to your last dollars. That’s a possibility and now you have to work your way back up again just to do it all over again. You probably feel like Sisyphus. Pushing the rock on the hill just to see it go back down and then just to repeat the whole process over and over again.

What to do if you’re broke and ambitious but don’t want to work.

This one if kind of funny to me. Some people have the following attitude.

1. I don’t want to work a normal job but I want to be successful in what I do.
2. I want to work but only in that position (mostly a higher one that you can’t have right away).

If you’re falling into the second category I can tell you only one thing. Stop feeling so fucking entitled. Sure you’ve got a degree but that doesn’t make you better than other people. You have to start at the bottom just like anybody else. And they dare to say stuff like “but I deserve that position”. The only thing that you derve is a slap to your head. Maybe that’ll get you to use a little more common sense next time you “think”. I hate people with this attitude but I guess you kind of figured that one out already. That whole attitude is the reason that you’re slowly going broke and don’t get the job you want.

The “I don’t want to do a normal job” part even when you’re broke.

Listen, normal jobs suck. I get it. They’re a huge waste of time in my opinion. But how can you claim that you don’t want to do a normal job when you don’t have money? That kind of doesn’t make sense. It’s not about not wanting to do a normal job. You just don’t want to work in general. Because if you wanted something you’d do everything to get if, even if that meant that you had to work a normal job just to make money. Let me give you a real-life example. I know a girl who’s got a controlling mom and is pretty miserable at home. She’s about to move out. But moving out costs a lot of money and she chose to move out despite that. She knew it meant she had to work crazy long hours (she works 60+ hours a week) to make it happen.

She could have stayed at home and suffered silently but she chose to do the right thing and move out. Amor fati, embrace your fate. And then people make claims like “the devil I know is better than the devil I don’t.” Well, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. The clock is ticking. You’ll be more miserable 5 years down the line and you’ll be older and less likely to take the step to make a change. Because waiting equals problem creating. You’re going to struggle anyways so why not struggle to pursue something meaningful?! The longer you wait the harder it gets and you’ll turn bitter instead of becoming better.

What to do if you’re broke and ambitious. Get a job but…

This one is self- explanatory right? I mean you need money so you work to earn that money. But make sure that you get a job that doesn’t require you to work a lot of overtime if you don’t need to. I never accepted a job that required me to work more than 8 hours a day. I could do this because I didn’t throw my money out of the windows. There’s a reason why I lived for 3 months in Thailand without having to worry about money. Sure I made money from my second book (you can buy it here) and my blog but I also had cash aside.

The best-case scenario is that you look for a job that pays you to work 8 hours but lets you go home when your work is done. So far I only know one profession that allows this and that’s being a mailman.

This is like the best-case scenario. Some people will have to work more than one job to get by and eventually be able to save money. Sell whatever you don’t need and be smart with your money! Buying stuff that you don’t need is like the easiest way to go broke in no time.

The 72- hour rule.

This is a pretty interesting concept. Most people see something, think they want it and then buy it. This leads to the fact that they sometimes have 4 headphones while they only use one. This is where the 72-hour rule comes in. It’s pretty easy. Whenever you see something, don’t buy it. Wait for 72 hours instead and buy it if you still assume that you need it. You’ll most likely forget about it and never buy it or realize that you didn’t need it in the first place. I mean how many people complain about the fact that they’ve got way too much stuff?! The 72- hour rule solves this issue pretty quickly.

What to do if you’re broke and ambitious. Try to live below your “standards”.

This is the reason why most people have money problems. They need a nice house/apartment, a car, the newest smartphone, tablet, computer and so on. Buy what you need and forget about the rest. I was extremely happy in Thailand and I only had a bed, a fan, and a shower. I was sleeping in a hut and that was all I needed. Some people will be like “well I can’t do that. I need comfort.” The truth is that you don’t but look at it this way. Wouldn’t it be better to live a little more modest and than later improve your life situation when you have the money to do it? Doesn’t that sound so much better. You’re just afraid of what people will say behind your back. Those same people have probably a lot of money problems or a leaping pile of debt.

Living the Instagram rockstar life that they couldn’t afford in the first place #sohappy #completelybroke.

Some alternatives.

You don’t have to live alone of course. You can just rent a cheap place with friends and split costs. Or you can live at home for a while if you’ve got a good bond with your parents. You can kind of make a deal with your girlfriend to figure out how to make money. Demetrious Johnson had a job with normal hours so that he could focus on training. His girlfriend worked 4 jobs to get in extra money. They lived in a small place. She just believed in him and supported him (watch this video to see the details.). He’s one of the greatest MMA fighters that ever walked the planet. Probably wasn’t easy but they made it work. Now he makes all the money and she can stay home with the kids.

The problem with the last example is that for every DJ 9 guys just talk a lot and never achieve anything. But what DJ and his wife have defiantly falls under the category lifegoals. The problem these days is that mostly both genders chase a career and that just doesn’t work out in the long run.

What to do if you’re broke and ambitious. The money aspect.

So you did all those things and suddenly have a nice amount of money. So what do you do now? Well, I can only say this “invest in yourself”. I can only say this because I don’t know what your goals are. Just realize that there are also a lot of free resources in this world. I mean I watch MMA related stuff every single day. Investing in yourself means that you buy books or courses related to whatever you want. Hell, maybe you even get a mentor. I had multiple mentors in life. Some were free and some were paid for but I always made sure that they achieved something that I wanted. That’s why I took Sean Fagan as a mentor. He is a blogger and a fighter. He’s probably also one of the few people that understands how hard it is to balance fighting and blogging.

After a while, you’ll have learned so much that you can do the same thing. In Thailand, multiple people came up to me and asked to private sessions. That’s also why I have a coaching program that teaches young men how to figure out what they want and go after it with killer confidence. I gained so much knowledge over the years that I now teach it. I guide men who’re at the same spot where I was 3 years ago. Lost and insecure. Not knowing what they want but also realizing that they want something different than working from 9 to 5 until they’re 65.

Or you can just invest your money in whatever you need to do to take your life and projects to the next level. Just stay woke and don’t go broke.

Work with me.

Did the final last paragraph resonate with you? Well, I can help you out! You can contact me if you have questions regarding the coaching program. Or you can prove that you want to turn your life around and take immediate action. That means that you schedule a free 60 min Skype call with me where we go over your wants, needs, and obstacles in life. You can schedule that one here.

Be quick though because places are limited. I only take 3 clients for now because my main focus is on fighting.

Till next time,

Alex

Ever heard of AYW? It’s short for access your why. Don’t worry I’ll explain everything. It’s kind of a way of reflecting but way easier than the stuff they shove in your throat in college or university. I had to do it back in my college days and hated it. The concept was just to complex in my opinion. I mean you have to answer twelve zillion questions to come to a simple conclusion (might be the reason why so many people hate it). Another thing that was kind of weird about it was that you didn’t have to reflect when something occurred, you could just do it whenever. Can you guess how many fantasy reflections I wrote in my time as an intern? They could become more famous than the whole Harry Potter series because they were a nice collection of fiction as well. I tried the college blueprint at the beginning that I started the self-development journey though.

I used it once and realized that it could be a lot simpler. Back then I just didn’t realize how.

Ever heard of AYW? Why you should access you why!

It forces you to answer the most difficult question that’s been asked by every four-year-old ever: “Why?” It’s easy to say “that’s why” and move on, but that doesn’t make you a better person, does it? Sometimes we have to address our emotions and ask why we feel a certain way. Sometimes you should ask yourself why you’re happy because you have to take notes during the good and bad times in life. You need to be aware of what you do wrong and right. Here’s an example: I noticed that I always felt the urgency to spend a lot of time on my phone at my normal job and after it, too. I didn’t like it, but I did it anyway. I did it until I asked myself why I did it. Turns out that I was so bored that I need other sources to entertain me. Stuff like news and social media. I started spending way less time on my phone as soon as I understood this.

Some more examples.

Example 1: In Thailand, I was pretty nervous on the day of the fight which is normal but I asked myself why because I knew what I was getting myself into. The nervousness went away when I suddenly realized that I was happy to have such an opportunity. That was at 4 in the afternoon when I was buying my steel cup because I forgot it.

Example 2: They were wrapping my hands and suddenly my trainer told me who my opponent was. He looked too big to be 70 kgs so I just looked back unimpressed because I assumed he was joking. He wasn’t but I wasn’t afraid, the nervous never came back so I started reflecting in the locker room. Don’t worry I also made a shit ton of jokes in the locker room, I was fine. The reason why I wasn’t nervous was simple. I was going to fight anyways, I already knew that a knockout was the worst thing that could happen. My confidence was peaking back then, I was there to fight. I didn’t care about his size, not even when he tried to size me up. Why? Because weight advantage doesn’t fight, I do.

AYW could improve your life big time! But how do you access you why?

Accessing you why is hard and easy at the same time. Sometimes you’ll have to question certain beliefs that you had for a long time and most people don’t want to do that. It’s like Muhammed Ali said: “A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” It’s hard because sometimes you’ll realize that your beliefs made sure that you drifted away in life or made things harder than they should have been (more on that later).

Other times you’ll suddenly open Pandora’s box in your mind. You’ll suddenly realize that stuff from your childhood still affects you. Realizing stuff like that might be extremely uncomfortable and even confronting. Accessing you why might suck at first but it only gets better when you debunked some dumb beliefs and fixed some problems from the past. Sometimes I laugh extremely hard if I recall the things that I used to believe.

Do it fast, do it slow…

There is a time and a place for everything. I access my why almost immediately when it comes to emotions or thoughts. Because they popped up for a reason. It’s better to use the power of now and address it right away. Why did I feel like that? Why did I just think that? An easy question like that can have pretty complex answers.

But you can also do it slowly. For example: sometimes you might do something over and over again. There’s a set pattern and it’s up to you to figure out why you do it. Most people claim that they’re doomed. It’s like the guy who always dates women who’ll reject him down the line. He knows it but he still does it. Or the girl that always seems to date bad boys who treat her like shit or cheat on her. That’s no coincidence. There’s a reason why you do it. Now it’s up to you to find out why.

Make sure you on your own.

You can’t reflect while you’re surrounded by people. You can’t reflect while you’re sharing corny quotes about how sad you are on Instagram. The sooner you realize this the better. You need silence and solitude to figure things out. Go into nature, sit at a beach… Do something but don’t look for attention. Not a single problem was ever solved by seeking attention. Mostly there were just a ton of problems created by it.

Realize that perception can be an issue. But why?

People need to realize that events just are. There is no such thing as a good or a bad thing in life. Things just happen and we perceive them in a certain way depending on our mindset, past experiences and belief system. How would you otherwise explain that 2 people who went through the same shit end up completely different? That’s a different ballgame, isn’t it?! Because now you can’t act like a victim anymore. You can’t claim that bad luck is the reason why bad things keep on happening to you. Because that’s why you claimed so far. But is it really bad luck that makes sure that bad stuff keeps happening to you?! It’s you and was always. You’re just sabotaging your own life and deep down you know it but your actions are based on your past experiences so you can’t improve since you always messed up in the past.

Boom, now that’s what I call a knowledge bomb.

I’ll repeat one more time what I just said.

Let that sink in for a minute: You can’t claim that bad luck is the reason why bad things keep on happening to you. Because that’s what you claimed so far. But is it really bad luck that makes sure that bad stuff keeps happening to you?! It’s you and was always. You’re just sabotaging your own life and deep down you know it but your actions are based on your past experiences so you can’t improve since you always messed up in the past. You keep on doing it because you just don’t seem to realize that your actions in the now affect your future. So keep on repeating your actions from the past and your future will look like your past. Change your actions now and your future won’t be a replica of your past. Everybody can change but you’ll have to change habits, beliefs, and behaviors.

Why make it hard when it can be easy?!

This alone will save you a ton of time because most things aren’t worth reflecting on after a while. Some people keep doing the same thing over and over again, come up with some weird conclusion after a solid hour of reflection just to do it again one week later. That’s kind of weird right?! You want the reflection part to be hard because your whole life was hard so far. You repeat what you know and then completely dismiss the fact that I could be done easier just because it doesn’t suit your belief system. So you think life is hard and do everything to convince yourself that life is hard. Crazy right. So why is your life hard? Because you made it hard the whole fucking time!

That’s why you need to challenge your beliefs. And that’s also why you access your why. Because life will be very hard and frustrating if you never do any of those. That my friends is the subtle art of reflection.

Access your why: a coaching program.

I have a coaching program that has helped people get clarity and confidence in life. A lot of people have no clue what they want or don’t know how to start (lack clarity) or don’t have the confidence to pursue what they want. I’m here to help you write your comeback story. So it’s time to start right now! It’s time that you stop being miserable. Your dream life can be one call away from happening. So are you a young man who’s looking to turn his life around? Do you want to get on a date with faith?!

You can either contact me via mail if you’ve questions about the coaching program (click here to contact me) or you can schedule a Skype call to see if you’re a great fit for the coaching program (click here to schedule a skype call).

Check Out My Latest Book!

I released a book on Amazon while I stayed here in Thailand. It’s called “The Year Of The Alpha: 366 Lessons On Adding Meaning To Your Life” and this post was a chapter from the book (just a little more extended).

The book contains 366 life lessons that I learned over 3 years and people who read it loved it. Just look at these reviews.

The Year of the Alpha is filled with vast and important lessons for life. They are key ideas that, once lived, will change your life forever.

Have met Alex in person and he is a free spirit with a hard work ethic! His life tips are no BS and hit straight to the core!

This is a book to call you out when you know you need improvement. It doesn’t bother with trivial things it gets right i the heart of the matter and if you want to change this book is the read for you.

A very clear, grounded, no-nonsense book on living a more healthy and conscious life. An easily digestible introduction for those starting out, and a helpful refresher for those already on the path. You’ll learn from this and you’ll use it.

You can buy the book here. It’s available on Kindle and paperback.

My first book, discounts, social media and more.

Don’t forget to check out my first book. The ones who read it liked it.

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It’s now possible to follow me on Patreon as well. It’s a place where you can support me for all the free content that I share.

You can also follow me on Snapchat/Instagram for a look behind the scenes. My username is alexdw92

Till next time

Alex

It’s time to celebrate an anniversary. It’s 3 years ago since I released my first blog post so that calls for a party. Preferably one with cold brew coffee, a good Cuban cigar, a good company, and a nice beach. Some nice food wouldn’t be bad either. It’s the party of a simple man with a plan. It’s pretty crazy that I can celebrate this anniversary to be honest because I almost pulled the plug when it came to this blog. Even multiple times. You see it wasn’t always easy to combine training MMA and blogging while you have a normal job (quit 15/02/2019). It sucked from time to time and at one point I almost quit it all. It was in March 2018 that I almost quit everything but somehow I didn’t and here’s why.

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What’s the one good trait of a great relationship? I can probably name more than a dozen, to be honest. Stuff like trust, loyalty, integrity, honesty, respect, communication, … Ok, I got stuck at 6 but you know the drill or you can use your good old friend Google to find some other good traits. And no treating someone as your priority is not on the list. People keep mentioning this one and I have no clue why. I would swim from Belgium to Mexico and start a new life as Jésus the taco salesman if I would have such a girlfriend. I had an ex like that and my phone exploded if I didn’t respond instantly. She also always wanted to be around me when she didn’t have any plans. Might sound like heaven but it wasn’t.

There is only one person that should be your priority and that is you! And then people say stuff like: you’re just a selfish jerk no wonder you’re single. You can be selfish in a good way. Treating another person as your priority is weird and pretty selfish if you ask me. You ask them to devote all their time to you. Could you please explain the logic behind that mindset? Is it because you can’t be alone? Because you have no clue how to spend your time? Isn’t that a selfish act? You try to control another person’s life. It doesn’t get more selfish than that if you ask me. Oh, I’m making new friends once again.

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Are you utterly depressed and do you have no clue what to do about it? You probably are since you’re reading this post. Or you’re an internet troll who just wants to spam my comment section. Maybe you’re just curious, who knows?! It doesn’t matter what your goal is, what matters is that you realize that this post isn’t going to be pretty. I suffered from depression back in the days and that wasn’t pretty but the truth about it isn’t pretty either. I also wrote a guide on how to deal with it but this one is going to be a little more straightforward. Because after 3 years I’ve been able to add some things to this guide. This is the upgraded version of the previous post. I took it from Zero To Alpha and I’m glad I did.

At the end of this post, I’ll give you some book recommendations that’ll help you out big time.

Subscribe if you haven’t already. You get a free Zero To Alpha cheatsheet with workouts and extra book recommendations.

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Dream, believe, achieve… it sounds so simple yet so many people seem to do it wrong. Because I think it’s safe to assume that some people dream and believe at one point. Maybe they do it even more than once. Maybe they stare at exotic locations while they’re supposed to work or they might check out my Instagram and see all the cool shit that I did the last 4 months. Stuff like quitting my job, living in Thailand, talking mad trash on Instagram, win a Muay Thai fight and so on. So some of those people will figure out that they can do the same thing as me because I’m only human. So they quickly figure out that I like to read, hop in the car and go to the infamous self- help section aka the self- proclaimed Zero To Alpha section.

They then pick up a book like “The Secret” or “The Law Of Attraction”, finish the book highly motivated and start to dream and believe but then somehow they never achieve….. Read More

Have you ever heard the phrase “you should love yourself”? Loving yourself is a hard thing to do especially in this day and age. It took me 26 years to understand what it means to love myself. I hated myself before that and my actions just proved that I did. The problem was that I didn’t admit it to myself and always tried to escape my reality. The other problem was that all that bad behavior was just accepted in our society. I almost drunk myself in a coma and it happened twice. People just joked about it and told me to condition my body so that I could drink more because that’s apparently what you should do. You have to act like a tool to be considered cool. Read More

Have you ever set unrealistic goals? It’s hard to do because most people will never understand this mindset. They’ll claim that you’re stupid/delusional or that you should be more realistic. That’s because they teach you early on to think small and people just pass it on to their kids and others. That’s just what happens when you never challenge your beliefs. This is kind of weird if you ask me. Most adults aren’t really happy with their life and they pass on the same lifestyle to their kids or others. So I take a different approach because I don’t want to live that unhappy lifestyle.

It’s kind off the same approach as the “I have high expectations in certain aspects of my life” approach. People shy away from this because they mostly don’t want to be considered a failure. Because people will judge you, they will hate you and they will mock you if they know that you didn’t achieve your goals. So what do we do then? Set no goals at all and just take life as it comes? That’s a possibility and also what most people do.

But they then hate life because life seems so unfair to them. They can’t be surprised, to be honest, they go with the flow and they crash when the flow crashes. It’s a victim mindset that’ll never get them set. Ladies and gentlemen, you should set unrealistic goals and you should do it every month and here’s why. Read More

On the 14th of May, I was fighting in Koh Samui against a Thai. That’s right, I stepped into the ring with a guy who probably trained before he was even born. Muay Thai is in their DNA, they get into it young and they’re tough as nails. You know that you’re stepping into a crazy fight when you are facing a Thai because they never fight amateur. They fight from the age of 6 without shinguards, headgear and elbow protection. So you fight full Thai rules against a killer. I never really was a fan of the way people fight in Europe anyway. They wear way too much protection in my opinion, they then crumble under the stress when they have their first “real” fight. It’s a false sense of protection that will catch on to you.

I never had an amateur fight, I never even fought before I came here. I just told the trainers that I wanted to fight and put the work in.

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Have you ever heard of Ko Pha Ngan? It’s the home of the infamous Full Moon Party. It took me 2 weeks on the island to hear what all the fuzz was all about and I never even went. Ko Pha Ngan is paradise and that might be an understatement. The beaches are beautiful, the people are nice, the food is cheap, the weather is great, plus 50% of the population is Western. That last one is kind of a blessing and a curse at the same time. Just Google the place, you’ll be amazed. So now people will be like: “Alex, you want me to live on a tropical island for 3 months?! Let me start packing”. Now hold on Cowboy, don’t start packing yet. The reason why I want you to live here is not for all the things that I mentioned above.

They make life a lot more enjoyable but there’s another reason why you should live here. Read More