This one is very very very simple.

Thank You.

Thank you for supporting me. Thank you for the emails. Thank you for buying my book. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing your stories with me. Thank you for helping me have an awesome 2011.

Let’s make 2012 epic.

This isn’t some corny self-help book for teens. It’s not going to give you the 4,347 strategies to success. This book is meant to get you stoked about the possibilities and give some you some tips on how to carve your own path, live the exact life you want to live and Make Your Own Lunch.

Head over to www.ryanspeaks.com to order your 700 copies.

So you’re planning a youth conference or an assembly and you’re looking for a speaker. Do you know who you will hire? Do you know what your looking for?

Hiring a youth speaker can be a frustrating process. There are a ton of amazing and not-so-amazing youth speakers out there. How do you choose the best one for you and your audience??

Because my mom always told me to be nice, I decided to to tackle the issue of hiring a youth speaker in this cinematic masterpiece entitled, 5 Tips for Hiring a Youth Speaker.

I can only assume we will see it nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category.

So I pulled some strings… Tapped into my network… Hollered at some of my people and was able to get in touch with 4 historically significant people to give some graduation advice. Watch the video to see what I mean.

Ok ok ok, so maybe I played all of the parts in the video. I know right? I am a master of disguises. And accents.

Anyway…

You’re graduating. Congratulations! Do realize what that means? It means from here, right now, you must decide. Nobody else can do it for you. What will you have? Where will you go? What will you do? Who will you be?

I have seen it happen too many times. Students who are getting ready to graduate. They have all of these amazing ideas about what they will do, how they will conquer the world and do something that has never been done before but then something happens. They spend their first summer doing the same things they’ve done every summer before that. That slowly becomes the fall, where they do the same ting they’ve done every other fall. Eventually, they forget about the things they used to want to have and the places they used to want to go.

You are standing at the beginning of an incredible adventure where you get decide every part. Are you going to stand around and do the same things you’ve always done? or are you going to carve your own path? Find your own way? and Make Your Own Lunch?

Nobody else can decide this for you.

I hope that you take some time and plan what your future will look like. Decide that it’s realistic for you to have and then decide to get it, no exceptions.

You have spent the past few years to make it here, for this moment where you get to decide, for yourself, what you will do with your life.

Decide. Decide to Make Your Own Lunch.

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Distractions. Everybody has them. Of course you can’t control certain distractions, like when the ice cream truck drives by your house when you should be doing something more important and you find yourself chasing it for 36 minutes to order that clever popsicle shaped like a baseball glove with a baseball gumball strategically placed in the middle.

Am I right?… No? Let’s continue.

The problem is people end up looking for distractions. They sit down to do homework or finish something else important and they end up logging onto Facebook or YouTube and 3 hours later they are looking at prom pictures from somebody they’ve never met and watching videos of fat puppies that can’t roll over.

Distractions will always be there. These distraction are keeping you from more important stuff. They are keeping you from the stuff you want to have, the places you want to go the things you want to do and the person you want to be.

If you decide to do something, do it. Do it until it’s done. Put all your effort into getting it done, then relax.

I’m not saying YouTube and Facebook are bad. I use both. Look above for evidence. I check Facebook almost daily. I use Twitter. I still have a MySpace account and I get hundreds of emails every week that I personally respond to. Use these things. Enjoy the fact that you have access to all of this stuff. Don’t let it take over your life. Don’t let it keep you from what you really want.

Decide what you will let distract you and decide when you will allow yourself to be distracted. You have that control.

Now excuse me, I have a few Epic Fail videos I need to watch.

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People are lazy. Really.

What I mean is, people are always trying to find easy ways to do stuff. They buy a bunch of products from infomercials to make their lives easier, use the contraption one time and then put it in the closet with their Snuggie, Magic Bullet and Slap-Chop.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying these inventions aren’t great. I personally own a Magic Bullet and use it every single morning. And let me tell you, it is indeed magical.

BUT are you one of those people? One of those people who sit around dreaming of stuff you want to do, places you want to go, things you want to have or the person you want to become and never get off the sofa to get those things?

It’s super important to dream. To see the things you want to have but it’s almost even more important to take action. To start taking the steps towards those things. If not, you will join the masses of miserable people who eventually stop dreaming because “none of their dreams come true”.

Living the life that you want to live isn’t luck. It’s a decision. It’s the decision to have those things, it’s deciding that it’s realistic, it’s deciding to cut off every other option until you have it and it’s the decision to take action… To take action now.

What are you waiting for??

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Everyone has advice. From what you should wear to who you should date, what school you should go to and which job to apply for. The crazy part is, some of you are so used to getting and taking advice that you rarely listen to the person who knows you the best… YOU!

It’s natural to ask people for their advice, especially when you are making a big decision BUT don’t discount yourself. You know you better than anybody else. How do you feel about it? How does it fit with your vision? What do you really want?

Listen to your inner-self, it knows you well.

Oh yeah, and don’t bring your cat to prom.

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Nobody can do it alone.

The quickest way to get the things you want, to go the places you dream of, do the stuff you want and be the person you want to be, is to team up with people who can help. People who you can trust to push you and keep you focused. People who understand what you want to do and who support your vision.

Anybody in history who had accomplished something you look at and say, “wow look at what they did”. Those people, didn’t do it alone.

Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen, Batman had Robin, Ernie had Bert, Rocky had Adrian and Chuck Norris had a roundhouse kick.

The point is, to get where you want to go and to get there a lot quicker, start surrounding yourself with the people who can help. It doesn’t have to include Paris Hilton, Lady Gaga, Joe Jonas or even Ozzy Osbourne.

You want to Make Your Own Lunch? Build your dream team.

Too many people waste time trying to be good at stuff they don’t want to be good at. They apply for jobs they don’t really want, go to school for programs they aren’t really interested in and end up hating every minute of it.

Watch the video above to see what I mean.

You have stuff that you are naturally good at, stuff you are interested in and stuff that you want to become good at. That’s amazing! Do that stuff, get involved with those things and forget the rest.

Why waste time trying to be somebody you’re not?

Make Your Own Lunch is about you deciding EXACTLY what goes on your plate. Decide to stack your plate sky-high full of stuff that you love. Make sure you try new things that you are interested in and want to try and make sure you get as much dessert as you want.

I’m not really talking about food either.

Decide to Make Your Own Lunch.

–Ryan

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