You wake up, rub your eyes, and roll out of bed.

Another day, another week, another new year.

Another chance to either start new, or change nothing and continue to get the same results.

What choice will you make?

Some people choose to transform their life – but more often than not, that choice falls to the waste side after a few weeks as they fall back into their old habits. Others don’t even try, because they don’t want to make any more false promises to themselves.

The majority of people end up more or less where they started at the end of the year. But this doesn’t have to be the case for you.

You actually can transform your life in 2017 (or at any time for that matter) and make that transformation stick. Whether that be to start a successful business, begin traveling the world, live your dream lifestyle, improve with women, or whatever it is you want to do in this big world.

Bonus: and discover the 5 conversation mistakes that put you in the friendzone.

But before you can do so, you need to take the first step – one which, coincidentally, most people never take:

Realize and believe that it’s possible.

Sure, maybe you’ve heard of people who are working online, traveling the world, running online businesses, etc. – but it can still sound like a pipe dream until you’ve seen it up close and had more exposure to it.

Especially because most people in society will tell you that it’s impossible (I know many people told me so – they’re not saying much now, though).

In short, you don’t truly believe it’s possible. And so, you don’t seriously take the steps to achieve that kind of lifestyle transformation.

But once shift your mind into realizing it’s possible, something interesting happens – you start to think of ways to make it happen. You begin to ask yourself the right questions like “How can I do X?” instead of shrugging off your ambitions like “I could never make X happen…”

And so, you start coming up with solutions instead of stagnating in frustration. But in order to do so, you need to take that first step of realizing and believing it’s possible.

So, how do you start believing your dreams – and a true lifestyle transformation – are possible?

There are two great ways to do it: 1) Consume information that will open your mind to more possibilities, and 2) meet people who are doing what you once considered “the impossible”. In this article, you’ll learn how to do both…

Read Books / Listen to Podcasts That Open Your Mind

There are already people out there doing “the impossible” – and the awesome part is, some of them have already written and talked about it.

By reading and listing to books and podcasts, you expose your mind to new possibilities.

You should choose books and podcasts around areas you’re most interested in, in terms of lifestyle and career. I’ll show you some of the books and podcasts that really opened my mind and let to big shifts in my life.

The Books That Opened My Mind…

The Game by Neil Strauss. This is a bit of a controversial book, but it opened my mind to what was possible in terms of 1) meeting and attracting women and 2) living a lifestyle of adventure.

I learned that you can take control of your dating life and also live sort of a helter-skelter lifestyle of adventure. These ideas planted seeds in mind that led not only to the creation of this blog, but also a lifestyle where I can travel wherever I want on a whim. As a college student in the middle of getting an accounting degree, I had no idea either of these were really possible until I read this book.

The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. Before I read this book, I had very limited knowledge of online business. I knew it existed, but I didn’t really believe it was something I could do. This book was like a big slap in the face that said, “YES Dave, you can escape the rat race, travel the world, and live the lifestyle of your dreams, all while you make money online!”

Both of these books had a hand in inspiring the writing of my own best-selling book, Conversation Casanova.

Yes, I wanted my book to show people how to start conversations and flirt like a pro, but I also aimed to provide a deeper meaning. Hence why I included stories of traveling the world, pursuing a lifestyle of freedom, and overcoming the limitations of society’s “rules”. The goal was to help people expand their own ideas of what was possible – and so far, it’s been doing exactly that.

The Podcasts That Opened My Mind

Tropical MBA. I remember listening to this show back in my first full-time cubicle job after college. It taught me a ton about online business and helped plug me into a community of entrepreneurs. I ended up attending their conference in Bangkok a few years ago, and one of the hosts showed up at the launch party for the daily cafe hustlin’ music video in Vietnam!

Entrepreneur on Fire. Up until a few years ago, I didn’t know many entrepreneurs. The whole idea of entrepreneurship seemed foreign to me. It seemed like everything I’d learned in college was pushing me to plug into the corporate world and climb the ladder.

But this podcast gave me an inside look into entrepreneurship. The host, John Lee Dumas, interviews a different entrepreneur every single day. I learned about all the types of different business you can start, the industries you can learn, and more. It was a constant reminder that entrepreneurship and freedom were possible.

Hell, I even took some notes on each episode I listened to!

(These notes are from 3+ years ago – and funny enough, I ended up hanging with John Mcintyre in Medellin!)

Hang Out With People Who Do the Impossible

You truly are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So, make sure those are good people who are doing cool shit.

I’ve been lucky enough to hang with awesome entrepreneurs in Saigon, Medellin, Boston, and Mexico – and I’ve learned from all of them.

I’ve also picked roommates who I know I could learn from, and this has made a huge difference. For example, I lived with David De Las Morenas from How to Beast. He helped me build the habit of working out and showed me what was possible with Amazon self-publishing (eventually helping me to write a best-selling Amazon book). I’ve lived with others who taught me how to cook healthy, set better goals, speak Spanish, and more.

When you hang with great people, your mind will open up to more possibilities. But how do you do this?

Go to Meetup Groups and Events

Search Meetup.com for events and meetups that match up with your passions and the direction you’d like to take your life. For example, if you want to become a web developer, search for meetups with developers.

Beyond that, you can also attend relevant conferences (like I did in Bangkok). For example, there are plenty of online business conferences every year in the USA. These are great places to network with people, improve your skills, and get new insights.

Focus on Adding Value

Always give value where you can in your relationships. You never know what might happen.

So, how can you give value in your relationships? Here are a few tips:

Follow through on your promises (even the small ones like “I’ll email you about x later on!”)

Connect people with other people that can help them

Genuinely care for people and don’t expect anything in return

Invite people to cool events and get-togethers

Build Relationships

When you meet cool people, don’t just expect a relationship to flourish. You need to take an active role to build it.

Aim to hang with new people within a week or two after you meet them – that way, the initial interaction is still fresh in their minds. From there, you can ask the right questions to connect with them and build a deeper relationship.

Take Risks

If you want cool shit to happen, you need to put yourself out there. It’s a lot easier to sit on the couch instead of take the risk of going to an event where you don’t know anybody. But the latter has the potential to change your life, even though it can be a bit scary.

Conclusion

You can transform your life in 2017. The lifestyle and career you want are out there for the taking – but in order to grasp them, you need to first realize that it’s possible.

In doing so, you’ll start to think up solutions and take the steps you need to achieve it.

Read More: The Problem With “Doing What You Love” (And What You Should Do Instead)

If you liked this post, you’ll love my best-selling book: Conversation Casanova: How to Effortlessly Start Conversations and Flirt Like a Pro. You can grab the book on Amazon here.