July 6th, 2011 by KP

Don’t Let Your Lens Of Life Lose Focus.

I was at dinner with Jim & Anthony the other night, and we had some good talks about business & getting focused on priorities.

It’s tough to keep your head on straight & clear when everyone around you is living the high life & out doing fun shit, and you have to say no to it. It is tough, but it’s necessary. With us focusing on business & goals, like I said in one of my last posts, progress requires sacrifice. You have to always be focusing on the long term over short term. The short term is what most people chase, because you get almost immediate gratification from it, but the gratification is almost all of the time short lived too. Where as when you focus on the long term, this is what brings you the long term gratification and sustained happiness, rather than the short term happiness.

What I mean by this, is don’t let anyone knock you off course.

We were at Coachella this year, and after getting to sleep at 7am on Friday (well Saturday morning), for some reason I woke up 2 hours later at 9am and couldn’t sleep. So I went in the living room of the house we were staying at with everyone (about 10 of us were staying at this mansion, right across the street from Coachella literally walking distance!) got my laptop out and started replying to emails and getting on with some work.

There was me thinking everyone was asleep, but no surprise when Aaron comes walking in to the living room, hasn’t even slept yet and is up on his own lol.

He goes (in his aussie accent): “Mate what the fuck are you doing up?”

Me: “I can’t sleep so just getting on with some work”

Aaron” “Mate, you remind me of me. Let me tell you something, when I was your age everyone was telling me I was young & that I worked too much, that I need to let loose & live life up more. These are meant to be the best years of your life. I’m sure people say the same to you. Don’t fucking listen to any of them mate, just listen to yourself. Know the path you’re on, keep your head down & keep moving. Keep your head down for a few years of solid hard work, and life gets really fucking good mate. It’s all so worth it in the long run. Yes there’s a lot of work in the initial phase, but my life is amazing now, and every day for the past 8 years has got better and better. I can’t explain to you how much I love everyday of my life even more than the day before. Very very few people are willing to sacrifice the good times upfront in the short term, because they’re uncertain they’ll succeed, and they’re afraid they’ll “miss out”. What they don’t know, is sacrificing the short term now only leads to reaping the good times in the long run, and the long term gratification of living life is a billion times more rewarding than the short term. Difference between short term & long term, the short term rewards are short lived, long term rewards are long lived. They are consistently amazing. You’re doing it right mate, I’d tell you if you weren’t. Stay at it mate, listen to you, don’t listen to anyone else or let anyone knock you off track. Alright, now I’m off to bed.” (Aaron’s normal sleep hours are 9.30am -11.30am or so lol)

Aaron’s a really big mentor in my life, one of the most successful people I know & truly living Supernova, he’s living the life. Ferrari, sickest house in LA, most amazing social circle in the mecca of cities to make it big in the world. And he’s only 30. So that talk coming from him meant a lot.

It is hard to stay on track when you see EVERYONE you know living the high life, while you have to tell yourself everyday to keep focused on the long term & stay on track. Especially when it’s available to you, all you have to do is say yes and fall in to the fun. And the fun times feel so good, it’s so hard to resist. But that talk with Aaron, I play it over in my head again & again everyday. I told Jim the same story while we were at Aaron’s that day (watching every 4th July firework show in the South Cali area from Aaron’s house at the top of the hollywood hills, his view is literally a panoramic view of LA, from Malibu to South Bay, Santa Monica to downtown, it’s nuts there were fireworks going off everywhere you looked!)

After the three of us talking at Aaron’s and at dinner, Jim summed up everything by saying –

“Basically, what you have to do, is just not let yourself get caught up in everyone else’s shit.”

No matter how much fun it may seem, if you want to get the long term success as fast as possible, you can’t let anyone knock you off course. You have to stay true to yourself, and you can’t let your lens of life lose focus of who you are and what you’re striving for.

Jim said “I will carry mountains if I have to, as long as I’m still going to get to where I need to be.”

Basically nothing’s going to stop him getting to where he needs to go. And that’s the mindset you have to keep carved in stone in your mind.

The way to approach any goal, stay focused, stay on track, stay true to yourself and don’t let yourself get caught up in anyone else’s shit. If something needs to be done, don’t wait for someone else to do it, don’t complain, don’t think you’re unlucky for having to do it or got dealt a bad hand in life. Want to know something? Life is fucking hard when you’re trying to make it. Fact. The people who sit & complain that they got a bad hand in life, that they’re hard done by, don’t realise that EVERYONE gets dealt shit hands in the game of life! Everyone is hard done by!!!

FUCKING GET OVER IT!!!

No complaining, that’ life. Just do what needs to be done. That’s it, just do what needs to be done & there’s nothing else to it. Something needs to be done? Life knocks you down a peg & it feels like you’ve been dealt a bad hand? You feel like you’re hard done by? Welcome to real life. Get up, figure what the next step forward is, and get to it. Don’t let ANYTHING OR ANYONE knock you off course.

You’re the only person that has the ability to do that.

Til next time, suck it easy.

KP

July 3rd, 2011 by KP

The word ‘addiction’ seems to have a bad connotation attached when we hear it. And of course it should, because we immediately think of drug addicts. But I’m a drug addict, my drugs are business, the gym, my newest drug being producing, and they all fuel my #1 addiction – life. Let me rephrase that, my #1 addiction being Supernova.

I’m addicted to those as fuck.

Well what is an addiction? Addiction in my mind is an obsession or a compulsive physical and/or psychological dependency to anything. I’m a heavy addict when it comes to fitness & business. I OD on them everyday, 24/7. I can’t get enough of them. I need my fix everyday or I get heavy doses of anxiety. People might think that’s bad to be addicted to them, but I’m addicted to them, and when I’m addicted to something that is for long-term success of something I aspire towards, then there’s no way in hell I see that as bad and I sure as hell am not breaking those addictions anytime soon, if ever. For anyone.

These addictions are what have got me to where I am today, and not once in the past 2 years have I looked back and thought I’ve stopped moving towards where I want to be.

Right now I can feel myself becoming a heavy addict in another area, all my mind can think about is getting my producing fix.

After honing in on my time management this week and dedicating time blocks for each addiction I need my fix from, producing is my newest addiction. And I fucking love it.

I’m consuming myself in it.

Business & fitness (yes fitness for physical health, but more so for keeping my mind clean) are still #1 priority. I’ve always believed that keeping your mind & body healthy has a direct correlation to your success in business (I’m sure there are proven studies where this is true too), and right now with business being #1 priority & focus, that means so is fitness. Plus your mental & physiological health should not be something you ever slack on, after all our mind determines how we feel, how we feel determines our actions, our actions determine our results, so I strive to keep my mind as close to 100% healthiness 24/7 because it is the driving force behind your results.

This producing gig might seem overwhelming from the outsider looking in, I need to not only continue to learn & master the DAW (digital audio workstation) that I’ve been getting down these past couple months (Ableton Live) but I also need to learn –

– Sound production
– Production & recording
– EQ & the spectrum of sounds & tones
– Synthesis analysis
– VSTs & VSTis for the DAW
– Sampling
– MIDI & audio interfaces & controllers

And that’s just what I can think of right now. There’s going to be a load more to learn along the way too.

Seem like a lot to learn? FUCK NO!

It would seem like a lot if all I was focused on was the outcome. But the process of learning & mastering this new skill-set is going to be one of the most challenging, yet rewarding & fun experiences in my life. Success is in the journey.

Seeing the progress I’ve made in the past couple months alone gives me a buzz when I think about it, and all I can think & want to do is learn the next piece.

I used to think pro football (soccer for the yanks!) was where my passion was. But producing my own music, seeing what was once a white canvas now painted with the brightest sounds & melodies I’ve ever seen in my head, and turning the canvas into a masterpiece, putting smiles on the faces of the people that witness it… nothing has ever made me feel like this. I love to make people feel good, I mean who doesn’t? And music is a universal way to doing so. I love music, and if I can do what I love, and make billions of people happy from doing so in the process, that just makes me fall in love with it even more.

Myself & my best friends have always talked life being about your passion and purpose.

Find your passion & purpose & get addicted to it!

Who said all addictions were bad.

KP

June 27th, 2011 by KP

Self discipline is more important than anything else when it comes to your success.

I’ve been going through Brian Tracy’s self-discipline program, and if you’re wondering if it’s any good or not, it’s big fuckin titties.

Self-discipline is your ability to make yourself do, what you should do, when you should to do it, whether you want to do it or not. It is the key to success. Going back to my post the other day on “Progress Requires Sacrifice“, self-discipline is essentially having full mastery of your emotions where you decide what you want to do, rather than letting your emotions decide what you do.

The last couple years of hard grind & commitment to business have put us through an emotional roller-coaster, but when you finish the ride, or you decide to ride it again, emotionally you are forged like steel on the inside, and you stand unaffected when things seem bad.

It is the most common personality trait / characteristic I have noticed among the most successful people that I know after spending a lot of time around them, their sickening self discipline & the ability to do what they need to do, when they need to do it, whether they want to do it or not is the obvious secret to their success.

Except most people hope for it to be something else that makes people successful, they look for the quick & easy fix. But there is no magic bullet, no magic pill, no secret, other than a sickening habit of self-discipline. That is the secret to success.

I’ve always had good self discipline, but now I’ve been focusing consciously on forming that habit of self discipline, it’s getting easier everyday and outstanding self-discipline is becoming who I am, rather than something I have force myself to practice. I can feel it, and it is empowering.

Not only does it get easier as the habit is formed, it also compounds, where you might start to get more disciplined in your business area of life, suddenly your ability to get up & go to the gym when you don’t feel like it even though you know you should gets easier too. So it affects all areas of your life.

Self discipline is essentially self control & self mastery.

When you practice self-discipline, you respect yourself more & your self-esteem goes up.

Your image improves & you see yourself as a better person when you take control of yourself and do what you know you should do, for the long-term gain, rather than doing what you want to do for the short term gratification.

I’m making it sound easy.

Don’t get me wrong, it is FUCKING HARD to form the habit of self-discipline! If it was easy to go against our emotions, and we did what we know we had to do, when we needed to do it, whether we wanted to or not, all of the time, we would be evolving at an astronomical rate as a human race! It is easy to see how the statistic – the average human uses just 10% of their brain’s mental capacity is true when you really start to work on yourself & your ‘inner game’, you amaze yourself with the cognitive ability and mental capacity your brain has when it is tested.

Self-discipline is a habit that you can learn with practice & repetition. Do something over & over again, whether you want to or not, and eventually you create a habit.

The difference between successful people & unsuccssful people are their habits. Succussful people have success habits, unsuccessful people have non-success habits. The #1 habit of successful people is the ability of doing what they know they should do, when they need to do it.

Successful people make a habit of doing what unsuccessful people don’t like to do. The ironic thing, is that successful people don’t like to do the same thing unsuccessful people don’t like to do, but they make a habit of doing it anyway because they recognise that it is the price for success

Everything is hard before it is easy. Fact.

Accept that, or be forever fucked in the world of limbo where you wait for something spectacular to be handed to you on a plate.

It only takes about 21 days to break an old habit and create a new one. So practice self-discipline everyday, for just 21 days. Be willing to pay the price in the present, to reap & enjoy the rewards in the future. LONG-TERM OVER SHORT-TERM!!!

More to come in Self-Discipline: The Key To Success – Part II (I’ll be writing up & posting it soon)

The one & only,
KP

June 26th, 2011 by KP

“Somewhere along the line people have been fooled into believing that life is supposed to be easy. I often work 12+ hour days, and there are weeks when I work 7 days. I perform my own workout at the crack of dawn. Do I enjoy waking up at 4AM? Not really, but I get it done. I have a wife and son, with another on the way next month. I also have dogs, house work, work in the yard, etc. I’m beyond busy. Oh well, that’s life. I won’t cry about it and feel bad for myself. I won’t rush to the local fast food restaurant. I cook much of my food ahead of time. I make time. I find a way. Most people aren’t trying to make time. They aren’t making an effort.

We need to stop making excuses for others. People need to stop feeling bad for themselves. Life is tough. That’s a fact. There are good times and bad times. There are action takers and action fakers. There are ultra busy professionals who make time for fitness, while others don’t. We all have options, and we all make our own decisions. If someone has made poor decisions, I won’t sugarcoat it and console them with more excuses.” – Ross Enamit

June 26th, 2011 by KP

“You Can Take a Horse to Water, but You Can’t Make it Drink”

You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. In other words, you can give people an opportunity, you can try and help them all you can with everything you’ve got, but unless they’re willing to help themselves, it’s a waste of your time.

If you know what you’re worth, go out & get what you’re worth.

Don’t wait for a helping hand, don’t wait for someone else to come along and save you. Be self-reliant. Fend for yourself. Then any time someone else comes along & helps you, it’s a bonus. But it should never be expected or what you rely on.

June 25th, 2011 by KP

Greatness exists in all of us.

More to follow in my next post about that with what something one of my roommate’s Carlos told me.

KP

greatness exists in all of us, greatness exists in all of us will smith, greatness will smith, will smith

June 25th, 2011 by KP

Mothafucka god damn I want to go to EDC so bad this weekend in Vegas.

Well at least I want to go for Sunday when Swedish House Mafia are on. I posted their intro to their set at EDC 2010 in my last post, I’ve been listening to it non-stop as well as all their sets from this past year for the past few days. Fuck I wanna go!

They are the biggest of the best for me when it came to getting in to producing house music myself. (this is also why I have watched their documentary ‘Take One’ close to 500 times now)

However, a saying I try to pride myself on, is progress requires sacrifice. To me, Sacrifice = giving something up for the greater good, it involves commitment, risk & mastering your ability to be in control of your emotions. Sacrifice is the act of giving up something you value for the sake of something that’s more important to you. Believe me when I say it won’t be easy, but who said anything that is truly worth it was going to be easy.

Yep, a cow trying to make it through a fence & getting stuck is my #1 choice for a visual aid for “progress requires sacrifice”.

So using our handy visual aid, we can see that progress requires sacrifice, commitment, risk, and hard work.

Mastering your ability to be in control of your emotions is #1 for me, because that’s the ability of seeing things how they really are, not letting your emotions decide your actions, and not being a slave to your emotions.

I know the path we’re on right now, and although it hurts my chest to turn down going to EDC this year & getting our rave on, progress requires sacrifice. After a successful trip to Oslo, Norway and London, England, we’ve been back in LA for a week and a half and are hitting stride with business, working out & focusing on building a huge family in LA again.

But every time we get sidetracked with something that knocks us off course, it’s not just a day or 2 to get back on track, it takes about another week to get our heads back on straight & hit stride again. That stride is invaluable & is one of the small details that no one but you sees, those small details are what separates great from outstanding results.

How I see it in it’s plainest form, is being at war with my emotions. Not saying that emotions are all bad, not at all, but the fact that emotionally I want to go to EDC so bad, right now I want to get a ticket & just go. But when I take a step out of “me” as if I’m looking in on myself from a neutral perspective, I know that at this point in my life right now, creating a business that generates a consistent, residual income, something we’ve been working on for the past year and making it a success, is #1 priority.

And this will change as time goes by & goals are achieved. Wealth, health & relationships are the 3 main areas of life, but to truly master any one, you have to put the majority of your focus in to that one area. Right now for me, it’s wealth, and 85%+ of my focus & energy HAS to go into it if I want to succeed & achieve what I’m striving for in that area. When I know that logically I need to pass on the short term gratification of going because there are bigger priorities on my list right now, if I did go, I would be going against my logic & just a slave to my emotions.

Now you can’t live and breath by not giving in to your emotions sometimes, because it’s those emotions & feelings that we do everything for, and afterall we’re human. As humans, we are emotional creatures. And of course you need to reward yourself & feel emotions otherwise you become a fucking robot! But I know that when an area of my life isn’t at a level that I’m satisfied with, then that’s when progress requires sacrifice and you do need to override your emotions with what you know you should do.

Although the short term fix I’ll get from going to EDC will be fucking amazing, it will also set me back from arriving at the destination of my goal. And if I haven’t succeeded in an area of my life that I live & breath by on a daily basis, then the short term fix I’ll get from going to EDC will feel good in the short term, but long term it will harm the speed of success.

It’s like if you’re hungry and you’re trying to get in shape. A chocolate bar sounds so good right now in the short term, but in the long term, it’s just going to set you back and you’ll have to bust your ass to get back to the point you were at. Long-term over short-term any day. And when you think about it, it is also the long-term rewards that keep you emotions more stable.

Same goes for wealth, as an example if you want to hustle all year to lock down a $1million deal, but it is just a one-off deal, or focus on building a consistent residual income of $85k a month. The $1million deal seems great in the short term & on the surface, but both strategies end up with the same $1million a year earnings, and come the end of the year, one strategy you have to start over, yet the other strategy is still generating $85k a month, and is most likely growing everyday.

Who’s emotions are going to more stable come the new year, the short-term person or the long-term? It’s the same with health, wealth, and relationships. Always long-term over short-term.

When my mate Jim from London was staying with us in LA, he told me one time he was speaking to one of his business mentors, and he asked Jim what he does on a day-to-day basis.

Then he asked out of that list, what isn’t contributing to achieving his goal? Which he followed up with, “Are you willing to sacrifice & give up the things that aren’t contributing to achieving your goal, or not? Because that’s what makes the difference between a goal being achieved or not, the willingness to give up & sacrifice things you enjoy, for the long-term reward.”

Earl Nightingale said the same thing, “Virtually any goal can be accomplished, but the desire for the goal is not nearly as important as what you are willing to give up to achieve the goal.”

Right now, the pain of not going to EDC is no where near the pain of putting success off any longer.

Whoever is at EDC this year, fuck you!!! Haha, I’m jealous. 🙂 For everyone that’s going, this is for you –

God damn that’s a sick song. I’m killing myself listening to every SHM song & set, knowing they’re at EDC this Sunday. Lol. I hope its a blast for everyone that goes, I know it’s gonna be sick!!

But I’ll see you all at the next one. Progress requires sacrifice.

KP

kevin pearn, mastery of your emotions, progress requires sacrifice