Paul Angone's Blog, page 5

Want my new book for FREE? (limited spots)

Hi friends,

It feels surreal and exciting that my new book 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties (and let’s be honest, your thirties too) comes out in almost a month on April 3rd!!!

Since you’re a part of the community here at All Groan Up, I want to give you the first chance at snagging this new book for free!

The physical book. For Free. Weeks before it comes out for everyone else. No $8 shipping fee for the “free” book. Just the book for FREE.

How? By joining the 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties launch team. The only real catch is that there’s a limited number of spots in the launch team and we close the doors in a few days.

What’s the 101 Questions Launch Team?

As part of the launch team, you basically help share about the book and review it. That’s it.

Then in the process, you and I also get a chance to connect more and you can connect with like-minded readers and influencers in the group (always a fun part to see the relationships made!).

Also, if you’ve got your own website or social media platform, you’ll be prompted to share it with the group. I’ll also be linking to launch team members websites and social platforms on the All Groan Up website in a launch team thank you post.

I want to link to you and help promote you as a thank you for helping promote the book. 

How to Join the Launch Team?

Simply ask to join this closed Facebook group and you’re in! That’s it.

But only 100 people will be able to join. So go now.

My publisher (Moody Publishers) will be inviting people to join as well, so spots will fill up fast.

Big Thank You! And More About 101 Questions

I’ve been honored to connect with many of you through my first book 101 Secrets For Your Twenties. 101 Secrets has literally changed my life, and more importantly, helped encourage and give hope to thousands and thousands around the world as it’s been translated for Thailand, Russia, India, Vietnam, etc..

101 Secrets also just had it’s best three months of sales ever(!!!) and there’s no way that would’ve ever happened without the community here at All Groan Up. Thank you!

Now comes 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties, with the same humor and engaging format as 101 Secrets For Your Twenties, but this time going deeper into the questions every twentysomething and thirtysomething needs to be asking.

To find answers for your life it starts with asking the right questions.

I’ve spent the last five years studying and formulating the most important questions we need to ask for success in our careers and relationships, adulting like a champ, and finding our signature sauce. I can’t wait to see this book come out and help others find their path and place.

More about the new book 101 Questions in the weeks to come. In the meantime, I am excited to connect with you in the launch team! Let’s do this!

Snag 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties by joining the launch team here.

What are your favorite podcasts for Millennials?

Do you listen to podcasts? 

A friend asked me this question at coffee this week and I was a little ashamed of my answer.

No, not really. 

For running allgroanup.com for seven years now, it’s crazy how big of a podcast newbie I am.

I’ve got a running list of the best websites and blogs for twentysomethings. And the 35 best movies for Millennials and the 27 top non-fiction books for twentysomethings.

But podcasts? I really have no idea.

So I’d love to hear you brag on some of your favorite podcasts for Millennials, podcasts for twentysomethings, or frankly, podcasts for anyone with ears and a brain.

Share about your favorite podcasts for Millennials, or just podcasts for any and everyone, within the comments here at All Groan Up.

Even if it’s your own podcast and you’re proud, let’s hear about it!

Photo Credit: .v1ctor Casale. Flickr via Compfight cc

And I’d also love your opinion of podcasts I should reach out to be interviewed on, especially for my new book 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties coming out April 3rd! Crazy, it’s coming fast. Whether it’s podcasts I should reach out to because it specifically speaks to twentysomethings, or podcasts to parents and leaders of Millennials.

Help people discover the amazing podcasts you love that others need to be ear-bathing in.

Go ahead, let us know in the comments at All Groan Up.

I’ll start by mentioning a few of the favorite podcasts I’ve been on.

1. Entreleadership

I had a wonderful conversation about tips for leading Millennials on Dave Ramsey’s Entreleadership podcast with host Ken Coleman (one of my absolute favorite hosts to talk to!). Entreleadership has amazing info for anyone leading, or wanting to lead.

2. Portfolio Life

Jeff Goins always brings a wonderful perspective on work, writing, and publishing, and I was honored to speak with him on how to live on purpose and not “die a slow death“.

3. Pivot Method

In a week I’m recording a podcast with my good friend Jenny Blake for her incredible resource, The Pivot Method Podcast. Always a treat to hear from, and talk to, the wonderful and wise Jenny Blake.

Alright, now let’s hear from you within the comments of this article. Let’s make this a great resource to promote the best podcasts for Millennials and twentysomethings.

3 Simple Ways to Change the World

This post is sponsored by 1040.com

Changing the world and simplicity seem to go together like peanut butter and pickles. The two just don’t mix.

I want to make a difference and do something important, and yet most days, I feel like I’m falling woefully short. Can you relate?

But what if making an impact is much easier than we make it? What if we could do it right now? Here are a few simple ways we can.

Photo via 1040.com’s Instagram

1. Stay the Course

What if changing the world can be accomplished more in the daily, consistent, small choices of our day than in the epic and big?

When we think of world changers, we think of their culminating moments. Martin Luther King Jr. and his “I Have a Dream” speech. Nelson Mandela and becoming president of South Africa. We think of these events as the moment when they “changed the world”.

But those big moments never happen without the thousands of small, consistent, hard choices that led up to them.

If Nelson Mandela didn’t lean into his purpose, even while exiled in prison for 27 long years, then the radical reconciliation he brought later never happens. Their is something revolutionary to staying consistent in the small and daily.

You don’t build a house with the final brick.

You start with the foundation, then lay brick after brick, board after board. If you rush the beginning, it all falls apart.

2. Partner with Organizations who are Making a Difference

Where we spend our money or don’t, makes a difference.

And I think an amazing trend in today’s world is when companies intentionally and positively impact the world, even when their “business” doesn’t have to do that.

For example, what if you could help change the world by filing your taxes? Seems to go together like peanut butter and pickles again. But 1040.com, who I’ve partnered with for a second year in a row because I love what they’re about, is not only a great online website to file your taxes. They also take $2 for every take return filed and give it to Healing Waters International to help give people clean, safe, water.

1040.com has taken an obligatory task and created an impact with it that has already funded 5.3 million gallons of clean water! They don’t have to do that, they choose too.

I’d much rather be doing business with companies who are positively changing the world with their business than companies who are only about their bottom line.

Where you spend your money makes a difference, so why not do it with companies that are exponentially multiplying that impact? Again, those small, daily, intentional choices add up.

3. Make 3-Month Goals

The fewer goals I have, the more unmotivated I feel. The more TV I watch. And not too surprisingly, the less I get done.

Yet, world changers have a simple formula: They make short-term goals tied into a long-term vision.

Their dreams are broken down into doable chunks. They know what they’re accomplishing in the small to obtain the big.

The power of making, and accomplishing, short-term goals is that you build momentum. Confidence. Your far-off dream starts coming into view.

Do you have a big dream that feels unattainable? What are 1-2 obtainable things you can do in the next three months to take steps towards it?

There is power to staying focused on your dream and chipping away at it like a sculptor with a large piece of marble. A masterpiece is created stroke by stroke.

You make an impact every time you sit down and do the work.

7 Surprising Signs Your 20s are Going Better Than You Think

Failing and your twenties go together like Chip and Joanna Gaines. They just seem to always be together.

If your 20s haven’t exactly gone as planned, you’re not alone.

Actually you’re more in the norm than you think.

Nobodies life is as good as it looks on Instagram. As I write about in my not-yet-released book 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties, “There’s another side to everyone’s Instagram photo that they’re not exactly taking a picture of.”

But maybe your life is going even better than you think?

Even if you feel like you’re failing your twenties and the challenges you’re facing are overwhelming, check out these surprising signs your twenties are actually going better than you realize and success is just around the corner.

7 Surprising Signs Your 20s are Going Better Than You Think
1. Nothing feels normal

This doesn’t sound very exciting, but I promise it’s a good thing.

Feeling a little abnormal is the new normal of your twenties.

That just means you’re exploring, trying new things, and finding a new path. If everything felt normal, then you wouldn’t be changing, growing, or creating. You’d be that person still eating five bowls of cereal in your college cafeteria. And while I miss eating bowl after bowl of Berry Captain Crunch, my body is very thankful there is a new normal.

2. You’ve lost some baggage

No, I’m not talking about throwing your luggage off your next American Airlines flight. They frown on that.

I’m talking about cutting off some of the heavy stuff that has been dragging you down. Sometimes that can be a toxic relationship. Or maybe it’s just negative thoughts you’ve believed about yourself for too long. You don’t grow up without having some negative definitions people have thrown at you stuck on your white canvas.

Whether it’s with a friend or dating relationship, sometimes breaking up is the best thing that could’ve happened. While breakups can feel uncomfortable and painful, it’s actually freeing you to run free and with more purpose.

It’s hard to run a race with a dead yak tied to your ankle.

3.  There’s so much you don’t know

When you graduate college, ready to change the world, then quickly realize that you don’t know squat, it can be a sickening feeling.

Yet, the moment you realize how much you don’t know, is the moment a fire is lit to learn more. To dive deeper. To open great books and really ask people questions, not for a grade, but because your life depends on it.

A passionate learner who realizes how much they don’t know is ten times better off than a complacent person who thinks they know everything.

4. Netflix just ain’t cutting it..

I definitely go through seasons where I’m watching more TV than I should. But after awhile, it makes me feel worse than before I started.

I’m watching other people who are successful instead of working on my own. I start itching to take that time and energy, and doing something constructive with it.

So if you’re watching too much Netflix and feeling down, lean into that motivation to try something new.

Keep working on writing your story instead of watching someone else’s.

5. You feel challenged at your job

As I first wrote in 101 Secrets For Your Twenties, “The most dangerous job you can have in your twenties is a comfortable one.”

If you feel stretched and challenged at work, maybe that’s a really good thing. Maybe you’re learning and growing way more than if your job came easy.

Sure, it’s not comfortable, but comfort should not be the goal of your twenties.

It’s really hard to do anything worth doing and remain comfortable in the process.

If you’re job does feel easy, maybe it’s time to explore ways to make it more challenging.

6. You’re asking yourself really hard questions

I don’t think there’s anything more important in your 20s than the questions you bring to it. Obviously I think that since my new book has 101 questions for your twenties in it!

If you don’t ask yourself smart, strategic questions about the future you want to live, how are you going to live it?

7. Your outcomes aren’t amazing, but the work you’re doing is getting much better

Your 20s are a process, a step-by-step progression, hopefully building a foundation that will last you a lifetime.

One hit wonders are that because they weren’t able to build a foundation to sustain the weight of success. Notorious B.I.G sang “More money, more problems” for a reason.

Success in your twenties is in the details.

Success is found in the work, not in the sexy outcomes.

If your work is getting better, the right outcomes will come at the right time. I promise.

I’d love to hear from you within the comments on this article — which of these signs do you relate to the most?

When it’s all just too much…

Doesn’t it all just feel too much right now?

Like WAY TOO MUCH?!

The headlines. The 24/7 insanity. The nagging, unrelenting, driving pressure.

Do you ever look around and feel like we’re all one bad day away from a mental breakdown. One wrong turn away from being caught running down Highway 33 in our underwear holding a pineapple and a frying pan?

What’s the answer?

Photo I snapped at the Arcade Fire concert. Their song “Everything Now” is the soundtrack for this post.

What’s the solution to the unrelentingness? To the constant squeeze.

I want it all. I want it now. But gosh, do I really want it that much.

Everything, (un)surprisingly, becomes too much.

What’s the answer to living in the 24/7 insanity? To moving forward in life, without running around in your underwear on the nightly news?

Here’s the answer I’m kicking around. 

Let’s just all take a deep breath. A big freaking breath.

Let’s pull ourselves out from the feeding frenzy and just be for a few minutes.

Man, if you just need to sit and close your eyes right now, please do it. I’ll be here when you get back.

We will never get it all. We will never get it now.

It will never feel like it’s supposed to, even when it does happen.

Let’s stop moving at a breakneck pace that’s only going to break our necks.

Let’s sit with good friends. Let’s talk. Putting down the illusion that it’s all perfect.

Let’s be full without being stuffed.

Let’s achieve without worrying about the achievements.

Let’s stop reading all the headlines that do nothing for our heads.

Let’s do without being undone.

Let’s pray into the insanity instead of being crushed by it. Let’s give ourselves the grace and space to be still. And know.

To be at peace in the incomplete. To fail without being a failure.

When our foundation keeps spinning 24/7, we can’t really build anything worthwhile, can we?

If we keep trying for everything now, everything will become WAY TOO MUCH.

Can you relate to this post? Share with the community here at All Groan Up. Let’s encourage each other.

(In a crazy line of events, I got invited to an Arcade Fire concert. Probably one of the top five creative, unique, quality bands in my book. Their new song “Everything Now” is spot-on and was on repeat as I wrote this blog. Watch the video below or if you’re reading this in your email, here at All Groan Up.)

The cover of your new book…

What would the cover of your book look like? 

It’s an exciting, frightening question to think about, isn’t it? At least it always is for me. Because most people do judge a book by it’s cover. Then they tell everyone on the Internet about that judgement.

So what does a compelling book cover look like? What’s going to capture people’s attention and blow their minds?

It’s a question I’m wrestling with in a very real way right now as I have a new book coming out in the Spring, titled: 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties. 

This new book is done in a similar style and format as my book 101 Secrets For Your Twenties. However, this time it’s helping you ask some needed questions in your 20s (and 30s, let’s be honest) to find some concrete life answers.

As I write in the new book, I believe there’s nothing more powerful and important in our 20s than the questions we bring to it.

I’m really excited about 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties and I can’t wait to share more about it in the upcoming months.

Right now, I’d love your opinion on which book cover you like best. Check out the three book cover options below and let me know which color you like best within the comments on this article.

I’ll be bringing your thoughts with me to Chicago next week as I meet with the publisher. I’d love to hear which cover you are most drawn to. Let me know in the comments.

You do this 2,340 hours a year…

Do you know what you do about 2,340 hours a year?

Work.

You work.

Totaling about 117,000 hours over the course of your life.

When I see this large number of hours spent working, it makes me think of three important things:

1: We should enjoy our work

 2,340 hours a year is a lot! And if you don’t like your job, man, does this time feel way looooooooooooooonnnnnggggerrrr!!!!!

Like watching the solar eclipse, seeing the day slowly inch forward without quite the payoff you were hoping for at the end.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend the majority of my hours on Earth hating the majority of my hours here on Earth! 

2: We should spend less hours working

What if instead of working 2,340 hours a year, we could be just as productive in half that time.

What if we increased our productivity, worked half the time, and actually got MORE done. I know this is possible because that’s what I’m doing.

3.You can love your work and work less while doing it. 

This year, I’ve worked about 20 hours a week. I loved every hour of it. And I’ve made more money than I ever have.

You can do this too. I’m serious.

And here’s two amazing, FREE resources available right now, that can help you do it too.

To find work you love, with strategies on how to make a strategic career change, check out the “The Pivot Assembly” happening today! It’s a free virtual conference with 14 of the top career change experts in the nation, and I was honored to be chosen as one of them. This conference is bursting with inspiration, information, and action items on how to make a career change and do work you love. Just click over and start getting inside information from the top career experts.

2. Take this new, free quiz from Michael Hyatt to find out how productive you really are — and how you can grow! Michael Hyatt is the King of Productivity and can help you become one too.  Take the quiz to find out how productive you are and do better work with less hours.

You work too many hours of your life to feel like it’s mostly a waste.

Love your work. Work on purpose. There’s too many hours of your life riding on this to not make it happen.

Much love,

Paul

The Main Reason I Am Not Creative

I am definitely not creative.

For thirty years of my life, this is what I thought.

It wasn’t me putting myself down as much as it was just stating a fact. Or at least, so I thought.

I played sports growing up. I couldn’t draw. Heck, I can barely even write legibly.

Creating something was for inspired artists, not a guy like me who can only draw a stick figure.

Yet, when I look back at my life there were signs of creativity. Hints, if I would’ve just been willing to see them.

Now I can’t imagine my day without creating something! Whether it’s a blog article, books, graphic designs, photos, or now I’m even creating my own unique lamps, tables, coat racks, you name it! The more I create, the more I want to create!

Yet, how many years did I lose not creating anything?

I can see now why I wasn’t being more creative for most of my life. And once I made a simple switch, it opened the floodgates to all of my creativity. It can for you too.

The Main Reason I Wasn’t Creative

I wasn’t creative because I kept telling myself I wasn’t creative.

Simple as that.

You and I are more creative than we think.

Yet, too many of us beat down our own creativity. We discount it.

How many of us have these wonderful, life-giving creations and ideas within us that the world is just waiting for, yet we keep telling ourselves there’s nothing worthwhile in there.

It was insecurity and fear that kept me from creating.

I was too afraid of entering into the messiness and ambiguity of the creation process.

We struggle to create and then we stop. Sometimes we stop for good. But why?

The Struggle is Part of Creating

Just because creating is sometimes a struggle doesn’t mean you’re not creative. The struggle simply means you’re actually entering into the creative process.

The struggle is real. The struggle is good. The struggle is part of creating something worth creating.

For years, I’d try to create something and then the first setback I’d experience would stop me. Because I’d see it as another sign I couldn’t create, instead of seeing the struggle as just a natural and important part of the creating process, leading and directing me towards the heart of what I was supposed to create.

If you struggle to create, that means you’re simply doing the work that all creatives do.  In the strain and struggle, that’s where the most wonderful ideas rise to the top.

You Are Creative

Even as I’ve had two books published, I still struggle to call myself creative at times.

I still make excuses for my own creativity. Or belittle my creativity to others as a defense mechanism because I don’t want them thinking I really think I’m creative.

Yet, I don’t want to hold it in any longer. I am creative. And I love creating.

And if you haven’t heard this for awhile, or ever, hear me now:

You are creative too. I promise. And the more you enter into it, the more creative you’ll be.

Creating produces more creating.

Maybe not enough people know you’re good at what you’re good at because (maybe) you’re a little afraid to be really good at it.

Or you’re afraid to really own your creativity and grow it into more of a skill-set. Or you just won’t give yourself credit where credit is due.

Creating is contagious. The more you let yourself create, fail, and try again, the more you will want to create.

I believe we were all made to create. To make. To follow the Creator’s lead by joining in the creation process.

Keep creating. Don’t stop. CUSH it today.

Create Until Something Happens. In you. And in the world.

We need more people owning their creativity and creating.

You are creative. Do you believe me? I’d love to hear from you within the comments on this article.

When Conan O’Brien’s Worst Fear Actually Happened

Do you remember when Conan O’Brien took over for Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show? It was Conan’s dream come true, something he’d worked towards for 16 years as the Late Night host after Leno.

Then in seven months, Conan was gone. Replaced by Jay Leno. Sending Conan into a yearlong desert experience where everything he’d been working towards vanished.

It was Conan O’Brien’s worst fear realized, and yet, it was also his catalyst to some of his greatest successes.

As Conan explained in a college graduation speech at Cornell University after his fall-out with The Tonight Show:

There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized. It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. Your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound reinvention. Disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.”

Having your worst fears realized can actually be the best thing to happen to you.

Because you quickly realize that the worst outcome you could possibly realize, wasn’t actually as bad as you thought.

In my own story, I know this truth all too well. I tried for years and years to get a book published. The worst thing I could’ve imagined was every publisher saying no. Well, after numerous “we like the book, but…” it became fairly clear that my worst fear was curling up in my lap and not going anywhere.

Yet, if my “worst fear” wouldn’t have happened, I would have not started this website allgroanup.com. I would have not gone back to school to get my masters degree. I would not have struggled to become a better writer. I would not have grown in character, perseverance, and humility. I would not have been forced to build a stronger foundation, find another way, and now be able to help others do the same.

Basically, a publisher saying yes to me as an insecure 23-year-old would’ve been the worst thing to happen to me, not the other way around.

So as you take steps towards your dream — ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen.”

Usually our worst fears are not nearly as terrifying as we make them.

Once they happen, we actually realize they were the exact catalyst we needed. Our worst fears were actually the secret sauce to making us become better and do better work.

So if you’re sitting in front of an email you’re scared to send, a project you’re nervous to start, a relationship you’re thinking of pursuing – what’s the worst that can happen? It not working out? Well, it’s for sure not going to happen if you don’t try.

The actual worst thing that can happen is you not giving it a shot at all. That would be the worst. Not a failed outcome. The worst is floating aimlessly in the black abyss of never trying and never knowing. That’s the scariest place to exist.

When the box you’ve placed yourself in shatters, after the initial trauma wears off, you realize there was a whole other world out there. Waiting for you to step into. You just needed something to smash it open. And usher you in.

 

The Most Crucial Piece to Doing Amazing Work

What’s the secret to doing amazing work? 

I’m constantly searching for the sure-fire formula. For the right mix of inspiration, coffee, and time that I can mix together to create something amazing.

Yet, most times I fall flat. My inspiration runs empty, even as my coffee intake keeps increasing.

I complain that I don’t have enough time, then end up wasting too much of the time that I have.

Yet, this week as I stood at my great-uncles farm in Kansas, I was reminded of the answer to doing amazing work.

It’s simple.

The secret to doing amazing work — keep showing up. 

Keep working the ground.

Keep grinding. Keep planting. Keep watering. Keep building.

As you might have heard me say before that I need to remind myself daily —

Sometimes the most inspired thing you can do is to keep showing up when you feel completely uninspired.”  (click to tweet that)

As you look around my great-uncles farm and see what he built, it’s one amazing accomplishment after another.

No fanfare. No frills. Just consistent, quality, every-dayness. 

He’d work hard. Make progress. And then you know, a tornado would hit the farm (actually three tornadoes, three different times, according to my cousin).

Or something would break down. Or it wouldn’t rain.

Yet, he never stopped doing what he knew he needed to do.

Most amazing works aren’t birthed out of inspiration, they are forged out of necessity. 

Find another way. Keep working the problem. Keep showing up. Do amazing work by continually doing the work.

I recently was interviewed by On The Road Radio with host Ryan Thomas and we had a great conversation about the power of showing up like a farmer. Listen to the interview here.