Day 79 Pics: Mentor Series - Gary Halbert's 10,000 Hour "Mastery Index"

Day 79 of 84

Status: Round 8: Phase 2: Day 2

Here are Day 79 pics for January 26, 2007

G'day, I am now at "T-minus 6" and counting.

My "Operation six-pack in six days" workout regime today consisted of Lactic Acid training part 2. I had a killer lunge/squat double header of 8 sets each!

I was due to increase my lunges to 16 kg today, however one of the 16 kg dumbells in my gym has gone missing.

So, instead of staying at 14 kg I decided to increase 2 increments to 18 kg.

Well, lo and behold I nailed it! This goes to show that a lot of your barriers are purely mental, not physical.

On the nutrition front I am also continuing my "shred phase meal plan" that I talked about back on Day 69.

I have even amazed myself at how well I have been able to stick to my plan. I am now on Day 19 of 24 of eating totally "clean." This kind of discipline would have been unthinkable for me not too long ago.

However, as you transform your body, so do you transform your mind. I firmly believe that all transformation begins within the mind first, once the body catches up they can then "feed" off each other in a cycle of positive energy.

Today I will discuss my "writing" mentor, Gary Halbert. Gary is the self-proclaimed "greatest copywriter who ever lived." A rather bold claim to make as writing "copy" is one of the most competitive industries in the world.

However, take one look at his free online newsletter, The Gary Halbert Letter and you too will see that "Sir Gary of Halbert" can back up everything he says. (Link opens up new window).

Gary writes what I believe to be the most inspirational, educational and entertaining newsletter in existence. Gary used to charge thousands of dollars a year for his monthly newsletter. Then a few years ago he uploaded his archives (and new issues) free of charge for anyone with an internet connection.

While Gary primarily talks about how to excel at the art of copywriting and business success he doesn't just stop there. For me, Gary Halbert is a "life success" mentor. Gary's writing oozes with passion and fire because he speaks the truth as he sees it.

To give you an example of Gary's style he once stated that true freedom is being able to say "no" to anybody. I couldn't agree more as I have spent (and still do) my whole working life bowing to other people's demands and wishes.

Another thing I admire about Gary is that he writes from his own experience (something I try to emulate). In fact, he has revealed so many amazing, gut-wrenching true stories of his personal life that you could mistake his writing as fiction.

Gary literally makes words come alive, they jump off the page and grab you by the scruff of the neck. He doesn't mince words, he'll call you all sorts of names, he'll tease you and taunt you. If your sensibilities are easily offended then Gary is not for you.

However, I believe there is multi-layered genius behind his writing style. Beacuse Gary has only one goal in mind...he wants you to harness your own personal power and take massive action with the "big ideas" he so freely gives in every issue of his newsletter.

His M.O is to cut through all the hype, spin and B.S you read elsewhere online and get right to the heart of the matter. Trust me, Gary gives out nuggets of pure gold in every single edition of his newsletter.

In fact, Gary Halbert is THE reason I am talking to you right now through this blog. You see, a couple of years ago I read an issue of Gary's newsletter where he clearly stated that to achieve mastery in anything requires about 10,000 hours of training.

I took Gary at his word and started a website back in July 2005 called Natural Skincare Authority. This site is a portal of information regarding the "exciting" topic of natural skin care.

This site has a massive database of the Top 100 known toxins present in skin care products cross-referenced with the CDC (Ceneter for Disease Control), FDA (U.S. Food & Drug Administration), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), HazMap (Hazardous Materials) and many more.

I also wrote ingredient based, scientifically backed reviews of the "leading" skin care brands along with leading "natural" skin care brands. All told, the site contains 284 pages of original content available for free plus 3 ebooks and a 14 day email course. I spent 3,000 hours writing and researching the content for that site.

This was not an easy task as natural skin care is something I originally knew nothing about. Truth be told, it was extremely difficult to research and write a whole site on a topic that I did not have a burning passion for.

Don't get me wrong, I believe strongly in REAL natural, organic skin care. In fact I still order over $100 of product a month (on a timed cycle) from the one company I trust to be legitimate. That said, I did eventually lose my drive creating content for a topic that did not really "turn me on."

N.B. If you are interested in learning more about natural and organic skin care alternatives to the highly toxic products perpetrated on us by the $29 billion chemcial empire go to Natural-Skincare-Authority.com (Link opens up new window).

So, why did I do it? Well, the answer is obvious. Gary Halbert told me to! As I mentioned earlier Gary said if you want to achieve mastery in any field you must put in 10,000 hours of training honing that particular skill-set.

Therefore, if your dream is to become a great writer you must write! All the better if the topic is something you know nothing about. Gary has said numerous times that some of his "home run" sales letters were on topics he originally knew little about.

This process forces you to hone your research skills, a very valuable commodity to have when writing on ANY topic.

Now, let's make this blog post relevant to present day. This blog I started on November 8, 2006 now contains 74 entries. The total number of pages written on this blog is enough to fill about 3 books, not to mention the hours I have spent taking daily pictures and optimizing them for web distribution.

I spend on average 2 hours a night writing each blog post. That's a grand total of 148 hours of writing I have done for this blog since I started 79 days ago. Now check this! While my writing has improved since "Zero Day" the art of writing is still not something that comes naturally to me.

I still have to force myself to sit down at the computer every night to think, research and write that day's blog post.

However, what I will say is this. When you write on a topic that burns deep inside of you it is much easier. The topic of transforming your mind, body and life is such a broad one that I could write every day for the next 5 years and still not cover the whole spectrum of just my own personal experience.

All told, I have spent about 4,000 hours writing on natural skin care and physique transformation in the last 2 years (this also includes other articles). In spite of this I am still not even half way according to the "Halbert Mastery" index!

Now, for something really bizarre. Let's contrast the time I have spent writing with the time I have spent in the gym. Since November 8, 2006 I have spent 148 hours writing compared to only 69 hours in the gym!

If you take a look at my current before and after pictures you'll notice that I have made some impressive changes to my physique in that time. Now, if you go back and read my earlier posts you'll also notice that my writing has improved markedly in that same time period as well (my biased opinion!).

Here's the kicker! I personally believe my writing (rather than my physique) has improved at a far rapid pace over this time period. While it may be hard to quantify the numbers back me up. 148 hours compared to 69.

Here's the point. While the long hours spent honing your craft may seem lonely at times the rewards will eventually come.

Did I ever dream that I would be a published fitness writer by Day 65?

Not only published, but on the Internet's No.1 fat loss support community website at BurnTheFatInnerCircle.com (Link opens up new window).

In a word, YES!

This achievement is something that I hold dear to my heart as I toiled away for 42 days before one single person had ever read a word on this blog.

Then in the space of 2 weeks I went from being alone in my own little corner of cyberspace to a potential readership of thousands.

So far I have written two exclusive articles for Tom Venuto's awesome membership site. The first one titled "How To Harness the Power Of Progressive Discipline To Create Unstoppable Momentum and See Results In Only 12 Days" is a 6 page, 2,000 word article I wrote in under 4 hours.

The second article "How To Achieve The Body Of Your Dreams By Unleashing The Power Of Visualization In 6 Simple Steps" I wrote in 2 hours while in the midst of food poisoning and my primary computer terminally crashing.

There are two reasons why I am able to write so quickly. The first is because I am living my life in real-time. This means I am writing from personal experience, much easier to do. The second is because I followed Gary's advice 2 years ago and started my 10,000 hour journey to mastery.

So when some people see that I already have 2 articles published it may sound like an "overnight" success story, but you and I both know better.

To be honest, there was a time when the "Halbert Mastery" index used to intimidate me. Not any more! Now I just imagine how much a better writer I will be by the time I hit 10,000 hours. This number drives me every night when I sit down to write.

What's more "scary" is wondering what my physique will look like after another 9, 931 hours of gym time!

This is the message I want to convey to you today.

If you want to achieve mastery in a certain area know up-front that it will take you about 10,000 hours. However, don't be consumed with that number at first. Break down your mastery aspiration into bite-sized pieces, then feverishly devour each piece as you progress.

On a final note just remember this...your journey to mastery starts with a single step.

You only have so many hours left to live.

Don't waste an hour longer before you start to live your dreams!

Peace, AJ

P.S. What did a home invasion teach me about forgiveness? Tune in tomorrow to find out.