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If you’re looking for advice, input or are just on the fence about something, I may have the solution to your problems.

I’m really excited to announce that my wife, Ev’Yan, has just launched a brand new blog called Ask Apricot.

Did I mention there’s a giveaway?

Anyway, I’m really excited about this. Ev’Yan has been looking for an outlet to express her passion for helping others, and I think it’s a perfect fit for her. She may just start life coaching and be kicking my ass soon. =]

So I highly recommend that you check it out.

Oh and speaking of ass-kickings, there’s something else launching this week that is totally going to rock your world.

All I can say right now is that it involves five of the coolest people I know, and tons of free stuff.

Stay tuned.

Do you like bullets in your foot?

It really hurts when you shoot yourself in the foot. Especially when you keep doing it over and over.

And over.

I see this happen all the time with people with a rebel, nonconformist kind of mindset. It’s typical for these types of people to sabotage their own efforts and start rebelling against themselves. (I’m one of these types of people, in case you haven’t guessed yet.)

Here’s an example of the way this typically works:

You start something you’ve really wanted to do for a long time. Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn how to draw. So you sign up for a class, and you’re really digging it. You’re getting better and drawing all kinds of awesome stuff. Maybe you even come up with a tattoo design for yourself. Sweet.

Then a few weeks later the class ends and you’re still going. But since you’re the type of person that wants to really master something, you start this mental arithmetic of requiring yourself to practice drawing. You want to get better, right? So you practice, and you’re excited.

Then something not-so-good happens. You don’t practice one day and you feel like shit. You beat yourself up over it and now you’re not so sure you’re “disciplined enough” to practice mastering your craft. (You don’t realize that you can establish new habits without discipline.) Continue Reading…

Tomorrow the price of Reclaim Your Dreams, will go up.

The price is being raised for $19.95 to $24.95 (and I’m still hearing people say this is a ridiculously low price, compared to most other $39 ebooks).

I just wanted to give you a fair warning.

You have 24 hours.

credit: h.koppdelaney

Freedom is supposed to be a state of mind… Or is it?

If I can’t afford to buy my own time, am I really free? If I have to sell my time to someone else, to achieve their goals and their agenda, then am I really free?

For a long time, my mind has been rented out. I’ve been whoring out my mind so that someone else can further their goals.

We justify this kind of whoring as serving a means to an end. You gotta eat, right? You gotta have a place to sleep, right? Sure. Survival is important. But I’m tired of whoring myself out for survival. I want to live, not just survive.

So like throwing away money to rent an apartment month after month, I’d rather stop throwing away my time to serve someone else’s goals. I’d rather finance the freedom of my own mind, then sublet it to a corporation that barely resembles anything human. Just like people make it a goal to own their own home, I’d like to own my own mind.

But the reason this is so difficult is because of: Continue Reading…

So far, my ebook Reclaim Your Dreams has been purchased over 300 times. That’s seriously awesome. Thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word and has helped me move one step closer to my dream of quitting my day job.

Now I would like to extend the reach of this ebook even further. I think there are more people out there that want to start living instead of just existing. They just don’t know how.

I’d really like to change that.

So if you have a blog that gets at least 1,000 page views a month, then I’ll give you a FREE copy of my ebook, Reclaim Your Dreams.

All I ask in return is that you either:

1. Review the ebook on your blog, with a link back to the book (preferred), or…
2. Mention and link to the ebook on your blog (not a full review).

Here’s where you can link the mention/review to: http://illuminatedmind.net/reclaim-your-dreams

That’s it. Pretty awesome, right?

If that sounds good to you, send an email to jonathan at illuminatedmind dot net, with the subject “Reclaim Your Dreams Gift.”

Oh, and on May 1st, the price of Reclaim Your Dreams is going up to $24.95. If you want to get it for $19.95, you might want to hop on over here now and pick it up before the price goes up.

A couple of other cool things…

Firstly, special thanks to Jun Loayza for setting up the outstanding webcast with me on Sunday, which almost bombed when my internet connection failed. It ended up being fixed after my wife haggled with AT&T, but we started 15 minutes late.

Despite the wonderfully timed technical difficulties, we had some great questions and one on one interaction. Let me know if you’d like to see more webcasts in the future; Jun and I are thinking about doing them once a month.  And while you’re at it, you should go check out his blog now (if you haven’t already) and follow him on twitter. He’s an entrepreneurial juggernaut. (I love that word “juggernaut.”)

Secondly, I have some really exciting news coming up about phase two of Illuminated Mind. I’ll be talking about my allergic reaction to goals and about How to Create a Legacy very soon.

My question for you is this: What makes you visit Illuminated Mind and what would you like to see written about in the future?