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If you want a motivational kick in the ass and you’re ready to make a change or two, please read on. If you’re easily offended, or if the truth cuts a little too deep feel free to click back to facebook, leave a negative comment because you’re not happy with who you are or watch another video of Miley twerking. OMG can you believe she did that? Move along.

Procrastination should be taboo, it’s the worst. It’s the death of the lifestyle you want before it even got going, it’s the thief of time and yet here we are drinking cups of coffee joking about it. “Oh, I’m such a procrastinator” “Oh don’t worry, me too” LOL. LOL? Really? LOL at not achieving what you dreamt you could? LOL at forgetting that you wanted to be a doctor/lawyer/explorer/writer yet here you are in a shitty middle office role in a stuffy company in a city making up the numbers, knowing full well that if you didn’t come to work the company would barely miss you? Time to stop the LOLing folks, cos it’s not funny. Not by a long shot.

You could be so much more. Deep down, you know it too. It’s never too late to make the change, and it’s certainly not too late right now. Having an idea and shelving it, having an epiphany that lasts shorter than an Irish summer, people are doing it everyday and we’re happy to admit it, to be part of the mire. What’s wrong with us?

We’re too embarrassed to admit that secretly we love One Tree Hill (what?), yet we’re happy to tell people we didn’t live the life we wanted, that we didn’t chase our dreams, that life caught up with us?

That’s f*cked up. We should be mortified by that, we shouldn’t be able to look our loved ones in the eyes. This is our only life, we should be striving with every ounce of our body to live the life we always wanted, but ‘Oh, I’m such a procrastinator’. The unfortunate reason that it’s deemed acceptable is because the vast majority of society is in the same boat, plodding on with their 6/10s. It’s not enough for me, and it shouldn’t be enough for you. You know you want more, so do something about it.

WHO AM I TO GIVE YOU ADVICE

If you guys follow my site, you’ll see I moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to pause my travels for 100 days of intense productivity. It was tough, but awesome and I learned a lot. When my blog began to get popular I often found myself thinking ‘who I am to impart life advice’, but then I thought I’m a guy who chased his dreams and caught them. Writing this from a train in Uzbekistan (country number 105 for me), in a position to take my awesome mother around the world when I want, to own a property mortgage free and invest 6 figures in stocks and shares all in my twenties, it’s time to forget diffidence and stand up shouting IF I CAN DO IT, SO CAN YOU.

So, loudly and proudly, here are my 5 tips to kickstart your life and they’re actionable today:

1) Give up the booze

We may as well start with the one you don’t wanna hear the most. Alcohol is a toxin, it’s a depressant, it hurts your body, your mind and your wallet. I’m not advocating kicking the booze forever (I’m Irish and I love it too so I feel your pain more than most), but cut it out for 3 months or so and you’ll see how much better you function. Your mind will be sharper, your body will bounce out of bed in the morning. Once you’re on track for the life you want, of course you can get loose with your buddies a couple of times a month. But that’s your reward for getting to where you should be, until then keep your eyes on the prize.

2) Exercise and eat healthily

If you have time for a long shower, a facebook session, a trip to the movies then you have time to exercise. Take care of your body and it will take care of you. Commit to something positive. One hour, 3 times a week? You can do that, even if it means waking up at 6am instead of 7am. Try it, and watch your body and mind change.

No one should ever be on a diet. We should eat as healthily as possible indefinitely. Sure, we’re all due a pizza now and again, but a healthy body means a healthy mind. Mental health is everything, and if you get this right you’re already on the path to success.

3) Go to bed before midnight

Sitting in bed with your laptop/ipad knowing that you should hit the sack, but a stupid 30 min youtube session and a bit of social media stalking and suddenly your early night has rumbled on to 2AM again.

Time for a movie to decompress after a long day? Not a good choice. You wanna decompress? Go to sleep at 10.30 and wake up at 7, that’s all the decompressing you need. Late nights help no-one, they’re antisocial, counter-productive and damaging to mental health. Be strict about this one, quality regular sleeping patterns will change your life.

4) Choose one or two passion projects and hit them so, so hard

Did you read my rant above?! Stop f*cking procrastinating, and stop accepting that because everyone else does it, it’s not so bad that you do it. What makes you happy? You wanna get into politics? Sign up, commit. You wanna be a photographer, online classes, sign up today, commit. Me? I wanna travel the world, be rich and free, be a good son, uncle, brother, friend, and do something positive for the world. I’m open about it, and I’m committed to it. Follow suit and stop procrastinating.

5) Focus, refocus and cut out everything counter-productive

Counter-productive – that means taking a step back from friends who just wanna get drunk every time you meet. It means making time for things that improve your life, in exchange for things that don’t. More time exercising and preparing healthy food, less time playing playstation. More time on your passion projects, less time in the office after working hours (oh yeah, that’s right – forget selling your time to them, you’ve done it enough. Do what you have to until you’re in a position to gloriously move on. You’re life can be so much more, just focus, your time is coming).

I read something great online this week, so I’m brazenly stealing it. Take care of the process, the results will take care of themselves. Focus is everything, don’t ever lose it. So every day, re-focus. What are you trying to achieve, are you making progress towards it?

Subscribe to that and you’re well on your way to the life you actually wanna be living.

That’s my lot. I really wanna know what you guys think of this, and whether you think it’s high handed of me to give this sort of advice, so let me know in the comments below and on my facebook fan page. I hope you can make a positive change. Happy travels!