The document provides advice on how to change your life in 2016. It suggests: 1) Creating something new like a product, idea, art, or company to make an impact and be in the top percentages of creators. 2) Starting a side hustle for a passion project to eventually replace a main job, taking advantage of low-cost marketing tools online. 3) Reading extensively on topics related to nurturing goals and transforming one's world. 4) Eliminating unneeded busy-ness and prioritizing growth through difficult conversations. 5) Investing in one's own growth and side hustle like a "venture capitalist monk" rather than unnecessary purchases.

2. How to change your life in
2016

4. This is a brief snapshot of my last
three years: . 2013: Started the year as a
Senior Director in Kraft Foods in New York; ended
the year sleeping on the floor of a yoga ashram
fifty miles from Madurai in a forest in South India.

5. 2014: Started the year as an unpublished novelist
with sixty rejections; ended the year with an
international book deal with Penguin Random
House.
2015: Started the year in my dream job as the
Chief Marketing Officer of a Brooklyn based start-
up; ended the year going full throttle to launch The
Yoga of Max’s Discontent in the US. -

6. This isn’t a humble-brag kind of a post. There’s no
straight line of success here. Rather, it’s a series
of starts and stops, a zig-zag line of coming more
and more into myself, all of it predicated by a
hunger to constantly re-invent. Re-invent. Build
things, then tear them down, then build a new
thing again, because stasis is not an option

7. If you aren’t moving forward, you are falling back.
So if you’re ready to embrace a little turbulence, a
lot of fear, but that weird heady feeling of
excitement in your gut, then this is your guide on
how to re-invent yourself in 2016. Note, I won’t tell
you to exercise or meditate.

8. You should do those everyday of-course but they
are enablers to the goal, not the goal itself. Don’t
put all your mental energy into running a 10K
race. If your goal isn’t so insurmountable that it
slashes your insides, then it’s not a goal. So
here’s how to change your life

9. Create (or prepare to create)
If a man’s life is measured by the extent of its
impact on others, then don’t push paper around.
Create stuff that’s going to enhance people’s lives.
A product. An idea. Art. A book. A philosophy. A
company. An agency. A new way of doing things in
your job, whatever.

10. The world will disproportionately reward the
creator. It’s simple supply-demand economics. 2%
of people are creating art, 98% are consuming art
(2001 census). 13% of people are entrepreneurs.
87% of people work for them. 10% of executives
in a company create new systems, 90% follow
them (Gallup).

11. Be in the Top 2%, 10%, 13%, and get results
ahead of the majority. And the results aren’t just
financial. You lose your sense of self, experience
an instant of divinity, become truly alive when you
create. Stuck for ideas? Maybe it’s time for that
long overdue sabbatical? Try it. You’ll never regret
it.

12. Start a side hustle
I’ve been in marketing roles with P&G, BCG etc.
since 2002 so I can tell you with some confidence
that the last 3-5 years are a watershed in business
history. With Facebook advertising, Instagram
advertising, and continued improvement in
Search/Ad Words etc., you can reach the exact
target audience for your passion product in
incredibly cost efficient ways.

13. Seven years ago when I launched my first novel,
Keep off the Grass, my only option to reach my
readers was to hire an expensive PR agency that
begged media outlets for coverage. This year,
when I launched The Seeker in India, I reached
everyone who had read similar books at a fraction
of the cost.

14. Old models are changing. Barriers to entry are
crashing. The balance of power is shifting to the
Davids. If you have a passion for anything,
photography, writing, playing the guitar, whatever,
you have no excuses anymore.

15. Start on the side today (2016), become excellent
(2017), and you’ll start making good money off it
in 2018 to quit your main gig in 2019. Work your
guts out to become excellent—that’s the only
requirement the world is placing on you today. -

16. Read like a maniac
Work in the morning, play with your kids in the
evening, do your side hustle in the night, then
from 10p.m.-midnight, read until your eyes burn.
Don’t read “everything you can lay your hands
on”. Plant a seed in your mind and nurture that
seed by ravishing it with the best ideas in the
world.

17. In 2015, I planted a seed in my head about
creating my own independent income stream. So
just like I’d done in 2013 with meditation and 2014
with writing, I read 50+ books to nurture the idea.
Here are 3 examples(until this year you’d never
have found non-fiction/self-help on my book shelf):

18. The Millionaire Fastlane (Horrible title, great book)
The Art of Non Conformity Think and Grow Rich
These are a snapshot of the blogs I followed daily:
http://fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
https://www.youtube.com/user/GaryVaynerchuk
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/

19. I don’t know the impact of my reading. Perhaps I
change 0.5% for every book I read. But that’s the
magic of compounding. If you’re changing 0.5%
each day, it’s going to add up at the end of the
year—and your world will transform.

20. Shun busy-ness
Do you feel you are rushing too much? Or your
schedule is so packed already that there’s no time
for a side hustle? Then, carefully scrutinize your
day and ruthlessly eliminate the 80% of
relationships that are adding <20% of emotional
value to your life.

21. If your stomach knots with dread but you feel you
“need” to do something only because of social
norm, then don’t do it. You’re not helping anyone,
not yourself, not the person you’re supposedly
doing things for. Remember, growth=number of
difficult conversations you’re having everyday.

22. Have the tough conversations and eliminate the
dross. Busy-ness is a choice. This year, I chose
not to be “busy” by skipping happy hours and
obligatory family events that leave me depressed.
I still failed a few times and attended too many
dinners I didn’t want to go to. I’m going to be even
stricter with my time in 2016.

23. Become a venture-capitalist Monk
Your side hustle is your passion. Your day job
sucks. No big deal. Don’t quit, don’t complain.
Become a venture capitalist, a Robin Hood for
your own ideas. Make money in your day job and
pour it into your side projects. Take the best
writing course in the world if you’re an aspiring
writer. Advertise your wedding photography
business.

24. Take a week off and learn filmmaking in New York.
Rent store space for your cupcake shop. Don’t
buy houses and cars and expensive dinners in
Nobu or whatever else people burn their money
on. Live like a monk.

25. Strip your life of the non-essentials and seek
salvation only in nurturing your soul. Everything
else is “dust” as the Buddha would say. Invest in
your own growth because you are the one asset
that’s going to appreciate year-after-year no
matter the economic environment.

26. Finally, train yourself to think only
exceptional thoughts.
Nietzsche and Victor Frankl said it best. To live is
to suffer and your suffering is like air in a balloon–
it will fill your whole heart. You can either fill your
heart with mediocre thoughts like “X said this and
Y wronged me and my family did this” etc.

27. you can pause and torment yourself with bigger
thoughts. Why was the world created? Does God
exist? How do I live my purpose? Can I step up
my side hustle? Exceptional thoughts lead to
exceptional actions—and nothing less can be your
goal next year!

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