By Brian Tracy

The very worst use of time is to stay at a job for months and years for which you are completely unsuited.

There are a great number of people who spend their whole lives doing something they don't enjoy during the week, always looking forward to the weekends. They refer to Monday as "Blue Monday" and to Wednesday as "Hump Day." At the end of the week, they say "Thank God It's Friday!"

These are men and women with very little in the way of a future. They look upon their jobs as a form of drudgery, a penance they have to pay in order to enjoy their free time. And because of this attitude, they will seldom advance or be promoted.

They will stay pretty much where they are, moving from job to job, and always wondering why other people seem to be living the good life while they feel like they are living a life of quiet desperation.

At my seminars, I am frequently asked by people what they can do to be more successful. In almost every case, they are working in jobs they don't like, for bosses they don't particularly respect, producing or selling products or services for customers they don't care about. And many of them think that if they just hang in there long enough, the clouds will part and everything will get better for them.

But the fact is that you are where you are and what you are because that's what you have chosen. You can do amazing things with your life, but nobody else can change your situation for you. It's entirely up to you.

The economic function of your company is to hire people at the very lowest cost so that they can serve customers at the very lowest cost in a competitive market. For this reason, no one has any obligation to pay you any more than you are getting. If possible, they would like to pay you less.

One thing I tell people over and over again is that they must become very good at doing what they are doing if they want to move up in their company. And if they don't have the inner desire to be very good at their job, it means they are probably in the wrong one.

Excellence is like a ladder, and excellent performance at your current job is like the rungs on the ladder. In order for you to progress, you must become extremely good at what you are doing right now. Once you have mastered your current job, you will automatically move up to more difficult, more interesting, and higher-paid jobs.

Too many people do their jobs in an average or mediocre fashion, with the idea that, when the right job comes along, then they will really do a good job. But for some reason, the right job never comes along. They are always passed over for promotions and advancement. They are always the last ones hired and the first ones laid off.

By Jon Benson

I'd like to help you get into top shape as quickly as possible. In order to do that, you must do two seemingly opposing things: Gain weight (muscle) and lose weight (fat).

Many fitness pros just plain don't believe that you can burn fat while building muscle at the same time. But you can. Every time I read an article by some doctor or expert claiming it's "biologically impossible" to gain muscle on a hypocaloric diet (a diet low in calories), I just laugh.

I do more than make claims. I have proven this to be true many times. I've had my body fat hydrostatically measured during several peaks in my training cycles. In all but one, I showed an increase of muscle mass and a decrease of body fat during a 12- to 16-week period. The one time I didn't show an increase in muscle mass was when I was doing most of my training in the gym. That may not make sense right now, but it will in a moment.

Keep this in mind: I'm a 44-year-old former fat guy who does not take any fat-burning drugs or steroids for muscle mass. While training, I eat only two or three times per day. I do not do hours of cardio. And... of all things... my best workouts are under 20 minutes. More like 15.

I look pretty good for a natural bodybuilder who used to be clinically obese. I won't win the Mr. Olympia title, but that's okay. Most people reading this article could care less about looking like a real mutant. (I think drugged-up 300-pound guys, to quote the great fitness trainer Vince Gironda, look like "bloated sausages.")

Okay, I'll come clean. I admire competitive bodybuilders for their drive and passion for excellence. But I do not admire their common sense. I should know - I tried bodybuilding for a while. However, I never actually competed. Came close, but no cigar.

The funny thing is that most people assume I'm a competitive bodybuilder when I'm in top shape (which is most of the year). I have 17-inch arms, a huge back, good natural leg development, and pretty good shoulders.

This is not a fluff piece to tell you how great I am. I'm not. I have plenty of genetic weaknesses, trust me. I walk by a doughnut shop and gain a pound. But the fact remains that most people lose muscle on a diet. Those who don't know how to diet lose far more muscle than fat! So when a guy in his 40s claims he can build muscle AND lose fat... well, eyebrows raise.

As I said, I'm not a competitive bodybuilder. But I love to look like I'm in CLOSE to the condition of one. For me, that's about 7 percent body fat with ample muscle mass, but not enough to make folks toss their cookies. Lest you worry that you will become "muscle-bound," accidentally transforming yourself into the next Mr. or Ms. Olympia, fear not. Muscle is like a biological dimmer switch. It's either on or off - and you control the amount of muscle you wish to see.

So how does this work? Can anyone do it? Absolutely. But you have to have the right combination of factors.

Most fitness pros will tell you that you have to increase your calories in order to gain muscle. Yes, you have to increase your calories to gain weight. But that's not what most people want to do. They want to gain lean muscle and burn body fat.

For men and women who want to lose fat and build shapely muscle at the same time, a bit of metabolic trickery is involved.

A calorie is nothing more than a specific measurement of energy or heat. And your body requires energy and heat in order to survive. Simply stated, in order to lose stored energy (body fat), we need to decrease the amount of energy we ingest (calories). A slight reduction in calories is essential to burn body fat - there's no way around that. So, if you want to gain muscle, doesn't it make sense that you have to increase your calories in order to pull it off?

Yes, it makes perfect sense. But it's wrong. Flat out, absolutely dead freakin' wrong.

Listen up: As long as you have fat to burn, all the energy you need for building muscle can come from that stored energy. What you want to do is tap into that unwanted body fat and use the energy to repair your body after exercise and build lean tissue.

There are three key steps to take to trick your body into doing it.

Step One: Stimulate your body to increase its muscle mass.