The following is a list of resources that I use or have used in the past to get me to where I am today.

The most important part of taking control of your life is learning. The main resources I recommend are books and free audio mainly in the form of podcasts.

The first book I recommend is                                  If you prefer audio to listen while you drive:

I had heard about this book for a while from Dave Ramsey but I never did anything with it. I was very unhappy with my job, I was supposed to be spending all of my time there (there was a point they wanted me to skip my wedding). I was at the mall with my wife and I looked into a store and I say 48 Days to The Work You Love on top of a pile and it was like it was a sign to go get that book. I had to get that book.

Reading that book was eye opening, it totally changed my view of work. I recommend this book to everyone I meet. I have sent many copies to friends. If nothing else, please read this book.

The next book I recommend is                                 If you prefer audio to listen while you drive:

This book explains a common sense process to take control of your financial life. My wife and I have implemented these strategies and they have changed our life. Consider this: what if you took all of your monthly debt payments and added them up and someone gave you that every month? The same thing would happen if you paid off all of your debt.

If you have every been overwhelmed by all of the stuff you have to do then

is for you. This book outlines a system that you can use to reduce your stress and knock out all of those things that are bothering you. Once I started using what I learned from this book it was so easy to get things done at work and not worry about the things I was not able to do.

If you are reading this you are, most likely, a high achiever. You will always have something that you think needs to be done. This book helps you to be ok with not getting everything done.

I know, Success Magazine is not technically a book but I gain so much information from it. I get two things from this magazine, I get information that helps me grow and build my business and I get inspirational stories from people that have gone before me. If you are reading thins you are most likely an achiever and you have realized that it can sometimes get daunting. This magazine will help you get through the hard times if achievement.

Success Magazine

This is not required but I use a Kindle

so I can download other books I am interested and carry a lot of them when I travel. I call myself an ADD reader because I cannot read one book for more than a few minutes then I have to change to another one.

The next tool in learning is a podcast, it is a radio show that is on the internet and many of them are totally free.

The first step is to get a podcatcher. A podcatcher is program that you use to subscribe to podcasts. The one I use is iTunes

Itunes Link Click Here

Once you have iTunes then you can then begin downloading podcasts. All of the ones I listen to are free and full of information for you to take control of your life.

The following is a list of podcasts I listen to (or have listened to) to reach success in my life.  The links I have provided go directly to iTunes.

Dave Ramsey

48 Days

The American Entrepreneur Radio Show

GTD Podcast

Get It Done Guy's Quick and Dirty Tips

Inspiring Words of Encouragement

The Public Speaker's Quick and Dirty Tips

Another tool I use (which is not required) which makes it easier to listen to podcasts is an

There are many different types but this is the one I use.

I am constantly listening to my iPod so I can keep learning and eventually reach my goals. One of the problems I ran into is that my headphones would keep breaking every 2-3 months; the wires kept getting worn out. I switched to a set of bluetooth headphones and they have lasted so much longer than anything else. They are more expensive initially but they have saved me money over the last several months. Here is a good set of bluetooth headphones:

Here are some worksheets I use in my life that you can download for free.

The most important worksheet is the goal setting worksheet. This is the one I fill out every fall to focus my energies to reach my life goals. This is from Dan Miller of 48 Days and if you do not do anything else you need to download this form and fill it out.

Click here for the goal setting form

GTD (Getting Things Done) is a system I use to get things done the following link is a thinking map to help with the David Allen's GTD system

Click Here for the GTD Map

This goes with the Getting Things Done book I mentioned earlier. This just shows a thinking process to help you categorize the things you have to get done.

My wife and I complete a budget at the beginning of every month to keep track of our money. Here is the budget form we started with from Dave Ramsey:

Budget Form

If you are not ready to buy the book then at least take a look at his baby steps website

Worksheet

This is where he explains the process for you to use to get out of debt.

I am huge on not wasting my time. I have started using several tools to help me to figure out where I am using my time. First is a worksheet I use to budget my time. It is the same concept as a money budget but I decide where I am going to spend my time each week.

Time Budget Worksheet

The next time worksheet I use when I cannot figure where I am wasting my time. Many times I find I spend more time than I realize doing busywork and surfing the net. If I cannot figure out where my time is going I use this worksheet.

15 minute worksheet

Finally some miscellaneous stuff I use.

To help me understand where I am spending my time I sometimes carry a stop watch

When I am doing something that is helping me to reach my goals I turn the stop watch on and when I am not I turn it off. At the end of the day I look at the amount of time I spent reaching my goals. I stole this from Darren Hardy of Success Magazine. Check out his article where he explains how he used this method (click here)

Many of you may have used Microsoft Office products and if you have ever had to buy it on your own then you have realized that it is super expensive. I found a great product that is from a very reputable company. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Office products and it is free. Check out Open Office (Click here) and stop paying a lot of money for similar software you can get for free.