April 6th, 2013
Sunday, 9:00 PM, January 13, 2013 Wyndham Grand Desert Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, Room 713
I spent the earlier part of the day in airports and on planes flying from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Las Vegas. I arrived exhausted and sweaty as usual.
I am in desperate need of a shower. So immediately upon getting to my room I drop my bag and crank up the steam. As I step out of the shower I hear a knock on the hotel room door. I think, “Crap, I’m naked.” I peak through the eye hole of the door to see who it is.
It’s Johnny Soporno.
Jordan Keith and Johnny Soporno in Las Vegas 2013
In the previous 7 months Johnny Soporno had become a real lifestyle guru for me. A friend had shared some of his video’s with me on Facebook and recommended I watched them. I filed it away as, “something to get to on another day”. I had been living in Thailand for the past 3 months having the time of my life and didn’t really need to listen to some motivational speaker.
Finally a rainy afternoon came where I had nothing to do and didn’t much feel like leaving the house so I decided to pop on this guys video and see what the fuss was all about.
By the end of the day I had watched every video I could find of Johnny’ online (about 9 hours worth).
Mind = Blown!
Fast forward 6 months and I am standing naked in a hotel room in Las Vegas. Separated from my new hero by only a few inches of door. Clearly Johnny had been notified of my arrival and check in, so he knew I was in the room. Should I pretend I’m not there and get dressed? Should I answer naked? Should I dive out the window?
I opt for the path of least resistance.
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March 26th, 2013
Earlier today while I was going through my Evernote account and “cleaning things up” I discovered this little note I had wrote back in March of 2010. It was simply a musing of mine that I wrote and never again considered. Re-reading it 3 years later this note actually solved a “problem” i’d been having the past couple of weeks. I am sharing it here now. It was not written with the intent to share, it’s only a personal reflection from my journal. I am not editing it at all outside of correcting grammatical errors. So this is a pure thought from 19 year old Jordan.
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February 1st, 2013
This supernova is a good representation of what is going to happen inside your brain after you go through the exercise in this post.
Warning: This post is an experiment. In it I will lay out some stuff that I can only describe as, “new age, psycho babble, weird, gobbledygook”. Normally, I am vehemently against that sort of thing but I’m a pragmatist first so I do what works. I am going to present you with a mental exercise that I’ll ask you to go through privately on your own time. I cannot explain to you how it works, I can only tell you that it does. It is up to you to suspend any disbelief and go for it.
The only thing you are risking is a little bit of your time and some brain juice. Since you’re already on my blog I know you have some of both to spare so invest them here. You will thank yourself later.
I first went through this exercise in the spring of 2010 and have continued to repeat it at least annually since. I think of this as a software update for my brain and each year I go in and make tweaks/changes so that my software is always running at maximum efficiency.
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January 27th, 2013
There is something going on in Vang Vieng, Laos.
I’ve heard that 20 years ago this little mountain village was nothing more than a brief stop for buses to refuel on the long drive from Vientiane in the south (Laos’ capital) to Luang Prabang in the north (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). That is no longer the case. Now, Vang Vieng is a destination in and of itself for anyone on the Banana Pancake trail (the backpackers circuit around SouthEast Asia).
Without a doubt this tiny place is worth the 4-hour bus ride through dangerously curvy mountain passes.
But why?
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December 28th, 2012
Expectation management: it is that secret ingredient that makes the sauce of life such a savory treat. I’ve cultivated some interesting ideas on the subject, some of which I’ll share in this post. By applying these particular ideas to my own way of living, I’ve noticed a fabulous improvement in happiness, contentment, mood, and productivity. It can be applied to any area in life and, when you learn to do it properly, it just might be the game changer in making you successful beyond your wildest dreams. And as is often the case with me, it ends up being centered around doing less.
This post will serve as an all-around primer and hopefully give you, the reader, some takeaways that you can use immediately.
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October 22nd, 2012
If you have ever wished that you could see the world this post is for you. Here is a no B.S. guide to your first major travel experience. Would anybody argue that the man in this photograph would feel pretty silly if he knew that for the amount of change he gets panhandling in a day he could live a comfortable life on a beach across the world? If only he was taught the importance of savings as a kid.
It is a lot easier than you might think. For me it was like having sex: after I did it the first time I thought, “Why the hell did I wait so long? This rocks!”
Except… it’s better than that. I mean anyone can have sex, and most people do at least once in their lifetime. Less than 1% of people will ever truly experience traveling around the world.
See you on the other side.
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June 9th, 2012
A typical view to accompany a tasty lunch….
Welcome to Koh Samui, Thailand!
Koh Samui was my first travel destination when I left America. So before I arrived, I had spent six weeks imagining how awesome it was going to be and all the great things I was going to do.
You know how it goes when you imagine something is going to be totally awesome and perfect and then you show up and find out that it wasn’t quite what you imagined? Well, that is exactly what happened with Koh Samui.
Fortunately, the reality of what Koh Samui was ended up being infinitely more amazing than anything I could have imagined! This place is paradise defined. Even the parts about it that suck are awesome. It’s still my favorite destination and I never go long without wishing I was back there.
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June 7th, 2012
You’ve all met him while you were out one night. He is the undisputed life of the party. The person everyone wants to get to know. He is the “coolest guy in the bar”. I don’t really care about winning popularity contests. But without a doubt, knowing how to work a bar or a club is an important social skill to have. Luckily, most guys/people absolutely SUCK at this. So you don’t even have to be good, you just have to be clever. This is where my edge kicks in…
Back a long long time ago, I wasn’t really good with girls. I studied a lot of stuff to try and figure out why I couldn’t attract a mate (turns out at the time I wasn’t attractive, go figure). What I learned back then was, there isn’t a foolproof system for getting laid. What I share here are things that I developed myself while traveling, out of sheer necessity. I either had to learn how to meet new people or spend a lot of nights being very lonely.
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April 26th, 2012
I am pretty sure that at the time of this writing, they are still chanting down on Wall Street, “We are the 99%”.
To them I say, “That is so not 1%.”
Whether or not money can buy happiness depends entirely upon knowing what truly makes you happy. If you have always dreamed of being a sailor, and sailing your boat island to island around the Caribbean – guess what, boats aren’t free! There is a huge public discourse going on in America (and around the world) about the Haves vs. the Have-Nots. It is a perfectly worthy debate. Personally, I am not an expert on that matter. So I leave it to those who have looked into the matter, at least for this post.
I would just like to propose that the entire argument is missing a proper context. What’s so great about being in the 1%? America is famous for its depressed millionaires. Do you know what the average day of a 1%er is? They get up really early, read the newspaper, and spend all day working. Sometimes they take vacations to exotic places, but they usually work most of the time. Is this the American Dream? To work hard and get rich, so you can work harder, and eventually die?
I’ll pass.
Meet the real 1%
Today, I invent a new way of thinking. Today, I invent, “The New 1%”
Would you rather have $100,000,000 in the bank and have to go to work every day, or have $500 in the bank and see the world, sleep with beautiful women, eat delicious food every meal, and wake up every morning in sheer surprise that you are somehow allowed to live another day as yourself?
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