The Relentless Semester: Create Your Own Education

After a lengthy hiatus from the microphone, I’m busting back onto the podcast scene, and I’m excited about it!  It’s time to introduce Relentless: Real People, Real Results, Real World.

Podcast Description:

A deep dive into how real people get real results in the real world. Relentless mixes stories to provide context and the actions you can take right now in both short-format episodes and long-format interviews. Get ready to tackle anything from your morning cup of coffee to your exercise and nutrition regimens to building a million dollar business.

The Relentless Semester: Create Your Own Education

In the first episode I discuss the Relentless Semester, an alternative way to approach education at any stage of your life.  Here’s the rundown:

• Exiting a life rut by first pulling back aggressively and identifying the contributing actions that are under your control.
• Talking formal degrees and the opportunity to get equal or better expertise via your own initiative, drive, and creativity (at a fraction of the cost).  Udemy and Lynda are mentioned as examples.
• Noting that a huge pro to formal degrees – and why they won’t die for a long, long time – is the structure they provide.
• Proposing the Relentless Semester as a way to chart your course and impose your own structure.  Its criteria:
  • Realistic Aggression – challenging but not enough to be demoralizing.
  • Realistic Timeline – the right blend of short-term and long-term.
  • Accountability – partnering, seeking meetups, establishing reporting habits, etc. with the end goal of holding your ass to the fire.
  • Reliability – choosing course material that you trust.
  • Practicality – each course is tied to something that you can apply in the real world.  The more courses tie into your profession, the more you can take on.  And vice versa.
  • Balance – there is no excuse for selecting material that you hate.  The more boring a block of material, the more you must be 100% positive it will make you better/happier.
• Encouraging you to include “gym class” or some sort of physical goal.  Advice for those goals: know why, record metrics, seek social accountability, require little in the way of equipment/materials, and avoid overly-stressful plans.
• Offering my own summer semester as a case study:
  • Course #1:  Becoming a Supple Leopard by Dr. Kelly Starrett (book), Goal – become a better trainer by improving mobility.
  • Course #2: The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman (book), Goal – refresh my business roots.
  • Course #3: Practical – Establish Relentless brand and podcast, Goal – become self-reliant and find lowest effort, highest impact ways of publishing and publicizing content.
  • Course #4: Practical – Quickbooks, Goal – better organize Relentless finance management.

Relentless Action: Whether or not you chart a full Relentless Semester, perform a self-assessment.  Is there something under your control that you can improve upon?  Can you apply one single course on the side to better yourself this summer?

A Favor: If you like what you hear on these first few episodes, please help me out by subscribing to, rating, and/or reviewing the podcast on iTunes.

Speaking of iTunes, you can listen to the episode there, download it via this link, or listen on the player below: