As January comes to a close, I'd like to take a moment to thank my readers for their comments and kind words. I know that I've crammed a lot into this month's blog postings, because I wanted to kickstart the new year with the most useful information to get your year off to the best possible start. We covered goal setting in order to properly plot your course towards your dreams. I also got into Glenn Beck's E4 Solution for Restoring American Exceptionalism along with his book The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life. I briefly touched on journaling and finally described the best way to get ahead in life. It may have seemed like a lot of preaching, but I honestly feel that having this information as early on in the year arms you with the most important keys to make the most amount of progress this year. If you missed any of these posts, I encourage you to go back to the blog archives and check them out. I think you'll find some gems there, even if it appears that I've merely glossed over the subject matter. It's always good to review these time tested rules of the road.
Speaking of roads, this week takes us on the road to the Super Bowl, so I'll be lightening up a bit and getting into more exciting posts about things that are going on around us in the here and now. If you're a football fan and got a chance to watch the Pro Bowl this past weekend, you already know that the NFC once again beat the AFC with an impressive 55-41 victory. I realize that this is pretty much an exhibition type of match, but it's good to have the NFL back in Honolulu for this event. We really missed them when they took the Pro Bowl to Miami last year and I really wish that they'd come back to Honolulu for good, but I guess that all still remains to be seen.
Can anyone tell me why they've decided to place the Pro Bowl between the Playoffs and the Super Bowl? To me it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I'd think that one of the biggest draws of the Pro Bowl is seeing some of the Super Bowl atheletes on the field, but when it comes before the Super Bowl, there are two whole teams of superstars who won't be represented in the Pro Bowl because they'ye preparing themselves for the Championship game the following week. I'm so confused as to why the NFL thinks this was a good idea. So I'm asking for any of my readers to explain the NFL's rationale so at least I can try to understand what their thinking might be. And while you're at it, explain why they want to take it away from Hawaii where it has been a tradition for over 30 years.
Let's see how many responses I get by posing open questions in my blog post. If I don't get the answers I'm seeking, then perhaps I won't be asking questions in my future blogs. I'm just looking to see how I might make the blog more interactive for my readers. Feel free to chime in with your own opinions on the matter and maybe the discussion will add an additional layer of flavor to an otherwise lackluster post. Have a great week!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
YOU can do it
The American Dream was meant for everyone, including you. The only one preventing you from achieving your dreams is you. It doesn't matter where you might find yourself today, what's in the past is in the past. You can change the way you look at the world and you can begin to experience a radically changed life for yourself and your family. Dare to dream big and you'll be truly amazed at what you're capable of.
Shed your limiting thoughts and beliefs and begin working from a state of well being and positive energy. You can overcome great defeat, because that is how we were created. God created us in his own image. That image is one of a creator. We all possess the ability to create our own circumstances and we're given a free will so those circimstance can be either positive of negative, the end results are up to us. We decide what action to take every day when we wake up. We choose who we spend our time with and what we focus on. We are in control of our lives, not the government, not our teachers, bosses, peers, or adversaries. We are the masters of our universe. The determination comes from within not without.
Believe in yourself, and continue to believe in the higher power that inspires you to do the right things. Align your will with the will of your creator and you can move mountains. Obstacles crumble before you as you optimistically plot your way to your final destination. I want to close with this inspiration from Matthew 9:26 (NIV), "...with God all things are possible."
Shed your limiting thoughts and beliefs and begin working from a state of well being and positive energy. You can overcome great defeat, because that is how we were created. God created us in his own image. That image is one of a creator. We all possess the ability to create our own circumstances and we're given a free will so those circimstance can be either positive of negative, the end results are up to us. We decide what action to take every day when we wake up. We choose who we spend our time with and what we focus on. We are in control of our lives, not the government, not our teachers, bosses, peers, or adversaries. We are the masters of our universe. The determination comes from within not without.
Believe in yourself, and continue to believe in the higher power that inspires you to do the right things. Align your will with the will of your creator and you can move mountains. Obstacles crumble before you as you optimistically plot your way to your final destination. I want to close with this inspiration from Matthew 9:26 (NIV), "...with God all things are possible."
Friday, January 28, 2011
Increasing Your Income
I'm happy to tell you that you can increase your income whether you have a job or not and whether or not you already own your own business. In order to increase your income you only have to look at expanding. Expanding your market, yes, but more importantly, expanding your mind and getting a handle on your own income thermostat. The most important aspect of increasing your ability to attract more money into your life is first and foremost a mindset. If you can change your current thinking, you can most certainly change your income.
Before I get too far into the various ways that you can go about increasing your income, I want to share with you why I believe that increasing your income is a much better way to get ahead in life then reducing spending. First of all, we all tend to repond better to carrots than we do the stick. Nobody wants to go on a diet and we don't do well in general if we feel deprived in other ways as well. This also applies to spending. But beyond that disciplinary standpoint, there is also the standpoint of the economy at large. The only way to expand the economy is to spend money. Money makes the world go round. If everyone were to tighten their purse strings the country could very well spiral out of control economically. I'm not saying that this simple blog is even remotely influential enough to cause this type of economical downturn. I'm just sayin'... It's better for your psyche if you go out and spend. So why not increase your income rather than turning into a miser?
Now... how to increase that good ol' cashflow? If you're currently employed, you might try asking for a raise. I don't recommend it in this ecomony, unless you happen to know that your company is currently handing out raises to others in the organization. If you do go to ask for a raise, be sure to back it with a strong business case. Do not go to your superiors like Oliver, with his little, wretched, outstretched hands asking "May I have more, please?" You must be able to make your case in terms of the business's bottom line. Point out the ways that you've managed to save the company money while things have been lean. Show how many hats you've been wearing and point out your accomplishments and the things you do that nobody else can do as well as you. Be positive, be assertive (not aggressive) and most of all be smart. If you ask with intelligence and make a strong business case for the raise. There's a good chance that you can get that salary increase. If not, you may hear the reasons why it can't be done right now, and maybe even a commitment from management to increase your salary at a specific future date. DO NOT TRY THIS tactic if you have any black marks on you record. It could go horribly wrong and backfire on you.
If you're out of work, you're certainly not alone. Unemployment in the U.S. is at nearly 10% and has been that way for over 2 years. Look around you. 1 out of 10 people you know are probably looking for a job right now. But I'd like to challenge you to continue looking for a job, but go out and start doing things for other people. You can volunteer and/or donate your time to any non-profit organization. These orgainzations are full of people that are in high positions in companies and are looking for people who work hard. If you show up and start giving your time away for free and you do a great job with a positive attitude, that kind of stuff never goes unnoticed in the market place.
Now if you're not feeling that charitible, you can start your own service based business. Service businesses can be started with little or no start-up capital. It's just you, providing a service for someone else in exchange for money. If you're an accountant, now is the best time of the year to offer to do people's tax returns. Nobody likes doing their own returns even if it is simple to do it yourself online. It's tedious and unpleasant work for those who aren't good with numbers or for whatever reason. By the way, if you're good at this kind of thing, it doesn't matter if you're looking for work or you already have a job, you can earn extra money doing this, and this time of year only rolls around once every 365. It won't be back until the first quarter of 2012. Any skilled worker can offer up any number of services to make extra cash. You can mow lawns (or shovel snow) depending on where you live. You can babysit, you can housesit, dog sit or even spend time with an elderly person and provide in home care. If you're good with your hands, you can offer up home repairs, our neighborhoods are filling up with elderly folks who simply can't do these kinds of things by themselves anymore (sorry Mom). How about car repairs? Nobody wants to spend the kind of money they're charging at the shops (what are they now? $90, $100 an hour?) never mind the dealers. No matter what you're good at, chances are that there are people who live close to you that really need the service that you can provide, especially if you can undercut the competition by a few percent or more.
There is a downside to starting your own service based business. It's just like having a job. The truth of the matter is that you're simply exchanging your time and talent for money. This exchange, takes time out of your day. I prefer setting up businesses that can pretty much run themselves with very little daily effort on your part. However, most of these types of business opportunities require a pretty hefty investment to get started. The general rule of thumb in business is that the more investment capital you have, the less work you have to do yourself. This is why the service based businesses are great for those who are out of work. They don't require a great deal of capital to get their business off the ground. If you have the cash to spare, why invest it in the bank for pennies on the dollar when you can invest in yourself and start a business that will make you real honest to goodness ROI? The more you spend the less leg work you need to do. You can provide venture capital for other people's businesses, or open a franchise and hire a bunch of people who actually work the business. These opportunities are available like no other time in history. But like I said, they require a large cash outlay to launch. Having said that, there are opportunities available to you on the internet that you can start with a fraction of the amount of invesment capital as these other more expensive choices. The beauty of doing business online is that your store is open 24/7/365 and you don't have to pay college students to steal from you while they "watch" your store. If you are even a tiny bit curious about starting a business of your own online, I encourage you to visit my website. If not, maybe you already have your own business and maybe you already have a website.
So what if you already have your own business? How do you give yourself a raise if you're already working your fingers to the bone doing business for yourself? Easy... Expand. If you're business is already a big success, duplicate it and build it out. If you are not really successful enough in your business to build it out yet, you can give yourself a raise by increasing sales in your existing capacity. By improving your business's sales and marketing efforts, you can increase sales, and as a result, your own salary. How? Well, I could tell you, but I'm not going to do it here. I, again, will instead refer you to my website and encourage you to take a good look at what Dream Outfitters offers. We have education, proven tools & systems, and a community of like-minded professionals who are all earning decent cash by learning Sales, Service and Internet Marketing just to name a few of the subjects found in our online university. But don't take my word for it, do your own research and come to your own conclusions. All I ask is that when you do decide that this business opportunity is right for you, please come back to us at Dream Outfitters. You'll be glad you did.
Before I get too far into the various ways that you can go about increasing your income, I want to share with you why I believe that increasing your income is a much better way to get ahead in life then reducing spending. First of all, we all tend to repond better to carrots than we do the stick. Nobody wants to go on a diet and we don't do well in general if we feel deprived in other ways as well. This also applies to spending. But beyond that disciplinary standpoint, there is also the standpoint of the economy at large. The only way to expand the economy is to spend money. Money makes the world go round. If everyone were to tighten their purse strings the country could very well spiral out of control economically. I'm not saying that this simple blog is even remotely influential enough to cause this type of economical downturn. I'm just sayin'... It's better for your psyche if you go out and spend. So why not increase your income rather than turning into a miser?
Now... how to increase that good ol' cashflow? If you're currently employed, you might try asking for a raise. I don't recommend it in this ecomony, unless you happen to know that your company is currently handing out raises to others in the organization. If you do go to ask for a raise, be sure to back it with a strong business case. Do not go to your superiors like Oliver, with his little, wretched, outstretched hands asking "May I have more, please?" You must be able to make your case in terms of the business's bottom line. Point out the ways that you've managed to save the company money while things have been lean. Show how many hats you've been wearing and point out your accomplishments and the things you do that nobody else can do as well as you. Be positive, be assertive (not aggressive) and most of all be smart. If you ask with intelligence and make a strong business case for the raise. There's a good chance that you can get that salary increase. If not, you may hear the reasons why it can't be done right now, and maybe even a commitment from management to increase your salary at a specific future date. DO NOT TRY THIS tactic if you have any black marks on you record. It could go horribly wrong and backfire on you.
If you're out of work, you're certainly not alone. Unemployment in the U.S. is at nearly 10% and has been that way for over 2 years. Look around you. 1 out of 10 people you know are probably looking for a job right now. But I'd like to challenge you to continue looking for a job, but go out and start doing things for other people. You can volunteer and/or donate your time to any non-profit organization. These orgainzations are full of people that are in high positions in companies and are looking for people who work hard. If you show up and start giving your time away for free and you do a great job with a positive attitude, that kind of stuff never goes unnoticed in the market place.
Now if you're not feeling that charitible, you can start your own service based business. Service businesses can be started with little or no start-up capital. It's just you, providing a service for someone else in exchange for money. If you're an accountant, now is the best time of the year to offer to do people's tax returns. Nobody likes doing their own returns even if it is simple to do it yourself online. It's tedious and unpleasant work for those who aren't good with numbers or for whatever reason. By the way, if you're good at this kind of thing, it doesn't matter if you're looking for work or you already have a job, you can earn extra money doing this, and this time of year only rolls around once every 365. It won't be back until the first quarter of 2012. Any skilled worker can offer up any number of services to make extra cash. You can mow lawns (or shovel snow) depending on where you live. You can babysit, you can housesit, dog sit or even spend time with an elderly person and provide in home care. If you're good with your hands, you can offer up home repairs, our neighborhoods are filling up with elderly folks who simply can't do these kinds of things by themselves anymore (sorry Mom). How about car repairs? Nobody wants to spend the kind of money they're charging at the shops (what are they now? $90, $100 an hour?) never mind the dealers. No matter what you're good at, chances are that there are people who live close to you that really need the service that you can provide, especially if you can undercut the competition by a few percent or more.
There is a downside to starting your own service based business. It's just like having a job. The truth of the matter is that you're simply exchanging your time and talent for money. This exchange, takes time out of your day. I prefer setting up businesses that can pretty much run themselves with very little daily effort on your part. However, most of these types of business opportunities require a pretty hefty investment to get started. The general rule of thumb in business is that the more investment capital you have, the less work you have to do yourself. This is why the service based businesses are great for those who are out of work. They don't require a great deal of capital to get their business off the ground. If you have the cash to spare, why invest it in the bank for pennies on the dollar when you can invest in yourself and start a business that will make you real honest to goodness ROI? The more you spend the less leg work you need to do. You can provide venture capital for other people's businesses, or open a franchise and hire a bunch of people who actually work the business. These opportunities are available like no other time in history. But like I said, they require a large cash outlay to launch. Having said that, there are opportunities available to you on the internet that you can start with a fraction of the amount of invesment capital as these other more expensive choices. The beauty of doing business online is that your store is open 24/7/365 and you don't have to pay college students to steal from you while they "watch" your store. If you are even a tiny bit curious about starting a business of your own online, I encourage you to visit my website. If not, maybe you already have your own business and maybe you already have a website.
So what if you already have your own business? How do you give yourself a raise if you're already working your fingers to the bone doing business for yourself? Easy... Expand. If you're business is already a big success, duplicate it and build it out. If you are not really successful enough in your business to build it out yet, you can give yourself a raise by increasing sales in your existing capacity. By improving your business's sales and marketing efforts, you can increase sales, and as a result, your own salary. How? Well, I could tell you, but I'm not going to do it here. I, again, will instead refer you to my website and encourage you to take a good look at what Dream Outfitters offers. We have education, proven tools & systems, and a community of like-minded professionals who are all earning decent cash by learning Sales, Service and Internet Marketing just to name a few of the subjects found in our online university. But don't take my word for it, do your own research and come to your own conclusions. All I ask is that when you do decide that this business opportunity is right for you, please come back to us at Dream Outfitters. You'll be glad you did.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Cutting Back on Expenses
How can I save money when I'm already spending it as fast as it's coming in? I can't believe that somebody actually asked me this question. The answer is in the question itself. Stop spending so much. There are a lot of ways that we can cut back on spending no matter how frugal we think we are already. There's always a few extra bucks you can trim from your expenses. We all spend a lot of money during the course of a year, and sometimes I wonder if we ever really notice how much of that spending is down right wasteful.
Do you travel? Over the course of the year it's fairly likely that you travel more than you really need to, and the mode of transportation doesn't matter really. The internet is a great money and time saver when it comes to cutting down on travel. Not every trip is a necessity. I'm not going to get into this one too much, but whether you fly or drive, you're spending money. Be sure that the next trip you take, whether it be to the corner store or to the opposite side of the country, make sure the trip is absolutely necessary. Plan your grocery shopping to where you only have to run to the store once a week at the most frequent. If you're not buying groceries, and you are dining out 5 days a week or more, I don't need to tell you how much you could be saving by preparing your own home cooked meals.
Take a look at your monthly expenses, mortgage/rent, electricity, cable, internet, phone bills, and cellular just to name the most common. Is your mortgage currently at the best possible rate? Refinance now, while the rates are still low and make sure you have a fixed rate. If you can afford a 15 year note, do it, it can save you thousands. The truly frugal can cut costs by unplugging all of those "brick" type chargers when they're not in use, believe it or not, they draw a charge whether they are charging your toys or not. Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Are you paying for premium television packages like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax? How about High Definition? If you're behind, you can cut back on entertainment until you're at least caught up. Many of us require high-speed internet at home due to our careers, but if business doesn't dictate it for your life, you don't need to pay for it, you can go to the library, or Starbucks, heck, I think even MacDonalds has Wi-Fi these days. No matter where you live, you're probably not too far from a free wi-fi hotspot... But remember, you don't have to drive there. Save the gas and walk or bike. If you still have a home phone and a cellular phone you only need to answer one question, when's the last time you used your home phone for a call you really wanted to make or take? You don't need a home phone anymore. You can ditch the extra line to save big time.
Now let's examine the nitty gritty daily expenses. Do you go our for coffee? MacDonalds, Starbucks, Seattle's Best, or Dunkin' Doughnuts? Regardless of where you get your morning jolt, it costs more than brewing your own at home. This goes for the lunch hour as well. Skip the spendy trendy salad place, if you're dining out, you're wasting money. Brown bagging it can save you over $1,000 a year. Are you commuting? Can you Carpool or take public transportation? How about walking or biking to work? How about working from home? I work from home whenever possible and it can really save you a fortune. If you work at home, you probably don't need to shave as often and that adds up too. What about after work? Are you going out with friends or do you go straight home? Guess which can save you money?
All of these methods are available to you if you want to start saving more money. The key to making this pay off for you is to actually save the money. Don't just turn around and spend it someplace else. Put it in the bank. As I mentioned yesterday, this is not my favorite way to get ahead. I much prefer increasing income to decreasing expenditures. But we all do what we have to in order to get ahead in the game. That's right. This is a game, the game of life. But the stakes are high, so tomorrow, I'll be talking about income boosting. It's a much more exciting topic.
Do you travel? Over the course of the year it's fairly likely that you travel more than you really need to, and the mode of transportation doesn't matter really. The internet is a great money and time saver when it comes to cutting down on travel. Not every trip is a necessity. I'm not going to get into this one too much, but whether you fly or drive, you're spending money. Be sure that the next trip you take, whether it be to the corner store or to the opposite side of the country, make sure the trip is absolutely necessary. Plan your grocery shopping to where you only have to run to the store once a week at the most frequent. If you're not buying groceries, and you are dining out 5 days a week or more, I don't need to tell you how much you could be saving by preparing your own home cooked meals.
Take a look at your monthly expenses, mortgage/rent, electricity, cable, internet, phone bills, and cellular just to name the most common. Is your mortgage currently at the best possible rate? Refinance now, while the rates are still low and make sure you have a fixed rate. If you can afford a 15 year note, do it, it can save you thousands. The truly frugal can cut costs by unplugging all of those "brick" type chargers when they're not in use, believe it or not, they draw a charge whether they are charging your toys or not. Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Are you paying for premium television packages like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax? How about High Definition? If you're behind, you can cut back on entertainment until you're at least caught up. Many of us require high-speed internet at home due to our careers, but if business doesn't dictate it for your life, you don't need to pay for it, you can go to the library, or Starbucks, heck, I think even MacDonalds has Wi-Fi these days. No matter where you live, you're probably not too far from a free wi-fi hotspot... But remember, you don't have to drive there. Save the gas and walk or bike. If you still have a home phone and a cellular phone you only need to answer one question, when's the last time you used your home phone for a call you really wanted to make or take? You don't need a home phone anymore. You can ditch the extra line to save big time.
Now let's examine the nitty gritty daily expenses. Do you go our for coffee? MacDonalds, Starbucks, Seattle's Best, or Dunkin' Doughnuts? Regardless of where you get your morning jolt, it costs more than brewing your own at home. This goes for the lunch hour as well. Skip the spendy trendy salad place, if you're dining out, you're wasting money. Brown bagging it can save you over $1,000 a year. Are you commuting? Can you Carpool or take public transportation? How about walking or biking to work? How about working from home? I work from home whenever possible and it can really save you a fortune. If you work at home, you probably don't need to shave as often and that adds up too. What about after work? Are you going out with friends or do you go straight home? Guess which can save you money?
All of these methods are available to you if you want to start saving more money. The key to making this pay off for you is to actually save the money. Don't just turn around and spend it someplace else. Put it in the bank. As I mentioned yesterday, this is not my favorite way to get ahead. I much prefer increasing income to decreasing expenditures. But we all do what we have to in order to get ahead in the game. That's right. This is a game, the game of life. But the stakes are high, so tomorrow, I'll be talking about income boosting. It's a much more exciting topic.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
You CAN Do It
Yesterday I talked about getting ahead and I got some flack from a lot of folks that told me that it sounds good, but, "It isn't really possible based on what I'm currently bringing home." There's too much month leftover when the money runs out. There's a reason that so many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. They're simply working harder and harder and having less and less to show for it. Well, today my post is going to be fairly short and sweet. I'm going to tell you this, "You CAN Do It."
There are two ways that you can have more money to pay down your debt and increase your savings. It's just a matter of cutting back on expenditures and increasing your income. I'm a much bigger fan of the latter, as I really don't like living in a mindset of scarcity and restriction. But let's face it. Many people are working more than one job to make ends meet or perhaps they're on a fixed income. So they can't see asking for a raise or simply can't get a raise for whatever reason. So, they simply have to cut down on spending. Part of the reduction in spending will come as a direct result of paying off your debt. Debt doesn't come cheap, it's very very expensive.
In addition to a reduction in spending, you want to increase the amount of money you have coming in. You might be able to ask your boss for a raise, but in today's economy, who has the guts to do that? But there is another way that you can give yourself a raise. You can take on a second job or better yet, you can start a home based business of your own. Again, I favor the latter over the former in this category as well. Because with any job, you actually have to trade time for money, and many of us simply don't have any time leftover to take on that second job. Or maybe you're already working at two or more jobs. I'm going to show you what I'm talking about in more detail in the next couple of days.
I'm going to dedicate tomorrow's post to cost cutting and reducing the expenditures that we all have in our lives. I think you'll be surprised how much money you can trim out of your spending with some small relatively painless sacrifices. Then on Friday, I'm going to show you how to increase your income by starting your own business. Most part-time jobs that you might take on to increase your income don't tend to pay all that much anyway, so why not put your time and energy into something that you're really passionate about as opposed to taking on that trading time for money proposition called a job? I think you might enjoy Friday's post more than Thursday's, but I'll let you be the judge.
There are two ways that you can have more money to pay down your debt and increase your savings. It's just a matter of cutting back on expenditures and increasing your income. I'm a much bigger fan of the latter, as I really don't like living in a mindset of scarcity and restriction. But let's face it. Many people are working more than one job to make ends meet or perhaps they're on a fixed income. So they can't see asking for a raise or simply can't get a raise for whatever reason. So, they simply have to cut down on spending. Part of the reduction in spending will come as a direct result of paying off your debt. Debt doesn't come cheap, it's very very expensive.
In addition to a reduction in spending, you want to increase the amount of money you have coming in. You might be able to ask your boss for a raise, but in today's economy, who has the guts to do that? But there is another way that you can give yourself a raise. You can take on a second job or better yet, you can start a home based business of your own. Again, I favor the latter over the former in this category as well. Because with any job, you actually have to trade time for money, and many of us simply don't have any time leftover to take on that second job. Or maybe you're already working at two or more jobs. I'm going to show you what I'm talking about in more detail in the next couple of days.
I'm going to dedicate tomorrow's post to cost cutting and reducing the expenditures that we all have in our lives. I think you'll be surprised how much money you can trim out of your spending with some small relatively painless sacrifices. Then on Friday, I'm going to show you how to increase your income by starting your own business. Most part-time jobs that you might take on to increase your income don't tend to pay all that much anyway, so why not put your time and energy into something that you're really passionate about as opposed to taking on that trading time for money proposition called a job? I think you might enjoy Friday's post more than Thursday's, but I'll let you be the judge.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Getting Ahead
We've all heard the phrase, but do we really know how to go about getting ahead? First of all, it isn't as hard as it might sound. All it takes is a little discipline and some proper planning. But before we get too far, what do they mean when they say getting ahead? Well, when I talk about getting ahead, I'm talking about getting ahead financially. Let's face it, most people don't really have a huge amount in their savings accounts. Oh sure they have retirements set up through 401Ks or any other number of tax deferred accounts that they have set aside for their golden years, but I'm telling you that this doesn't count. That money is set aside and should never be touched for ANYTHING except your retirement. Some people have savings accounts, but then they carry balances on their credit cards that equal or dwarf their savings. I'd like to help you get started on your way to getting ahead regardless of where you're starting from.
The first rule is to pay yourself first. This quite simply means that you should be putting money away before anyone gets their money grubbing hands on it, including the IRS. So if you don't have an IRA or some other type of tax deferred savings vehicle, set one up before the end of the month. This is the first step in getting ahead. I don't recommend moving on to the second step until you've taken care of number one. Pay Yourself First!
The second rule is to get out of debt. I realize that times are tough and there are a lot of folks out there who are living paycheck to paycheck, but you've got to start paying down those balances on those credit cards. If you're only making minimum payments, you'll never be out of debt, the payment schedules are specifically designed to keep you paying quite literally, FOREVER! If you have one or more credit cards and/or other loans (besides your mortgage), start paying the ones with the highest interest off first. Transfer as many balances to your lower interest accounts as you possibly can. By getting out from under your credit card debt, you can finally begin to see the light of day and start getting ahead financially. But if you still carry debt, you're not ahead, you're behind.
Third, once you're credit cards are all paid off, you can start putting extra money aside. I know that most savings account interest rates are a joke right now, but you know what? They're a heck of a lot better than not saving at all. I recommend getting yourself set up with a financial plan that involves a wide variety of savings vehicles. You never want to put all of your eggs in one basket. So please, DIVERSIFY. In addition to setting money aside (in addition to your retirement), you can start thinking about paying down your mortgage faster that you're currently doing.
This step only applies to homeowners who are carrying mortgages. More specifically, 30 year mortgages. If you're already in a 15 year mortgage, you're probably doing the right things, but you too could start making extra payments to get your mortgage paid off even sooner. If you're in a 30 year mortgage, there are a couple of different strategies you might take advantage of. You can either get yourself into a fixed-rate 15 year program, or if that's a stretch, just start paying half of your monthly mortgage payment every other week instead of sending the full amount once a month. Over the course of the year, you'll have made an extra month's payment on your principal. The difference you'll feel in your wallet is miniscule, but the chore to getting that mortgage down will start feeling easier and easier.
So to wrap, I'd just like to let you set some "get ahead" savings goals. The first goal is the easiest, and many of you are probably already here. Get $1,000 in the bank. After that your next goal should be having 3 months worth of mortgage/rent payments in the bank. After that, take it to six months housing costs in the bank. After you have six months worth of rent/mortgage in the bank, expand your savings goals to have 6 months of all of your living expenses (including all other expenses in addition to housing) safely tucked away (not counting your nest egg). And finally, once you've reached the point where you have a full year's worth of your total expenditures socked away, now you can go out and splurge a little bit. Go on a nice vacation, buy that boat, or whatever it is that makes you feel good. You've earned it. After you get to that point, you can support your family on savings even if all income is cut to nothing for an entire year. Not good enough you say, savings stud? OK tuck away 3 years, 5 years, heck go for 10 years (do that and you can almost retire). Let's all do what we can to start getting ahead this year.
The first rule is to pay yourself first. This quite simply means that you should be putting money away before anyone gets their money grubbing hands on it, including the IRS. So if you don't have an IRA or some other type of tax deferred savings vehicle, set one up before the end of the month. This is the first step in getting ahead. I don't recommend moving on to the second step until you've taken care of number one. Pay Yourself First!
The second rule is to get out of debt. I realize that times are tough and there are a lot of folks out there who are living paycheck to paycheck, but you've got to start paying down those balances on those credit cards. If you're only making minimum payments, you'll never be out of debt, the payment schedules are specifically designed to keep you paying quite literally, FOREVER! If you have one or more credit cards and/or other loans (besides your mortgage), start paying the ones with the highest interest off first. Transfer as many balances to your lower interest accounts as you possibly can. By getting out from under your credit card debt, you can finally begin to see the light of day and start getting ahead financially. But if you still carry debt, you're not ahead, you're behind.
Third, once you're credit cards are all paid off, you can start putting extra money aside. I know that most savings account interest rates are a joke right now, but you know what? They're a heck of a lot better than not saving at all. I recommend getting yourself set up with a financial plan that involves a wide variety of savings vehicles. You never want to put all of your eggs in one basket. So please, DIVERSIFY. In addition to setting money aside (in addition to your retirement), you can start thinking about paying down your mortgage faster that you're currently doing.
This step only applies to homeowners who are carrying mortgages. More specifically, 30 year mortgages. If you're already in a 15 year mortgage, you're probably doing the right things, but you too could start making extra payments to get your mortgage paid off even sooner. If you're in a 30 year mortgage, there are a couple of different strategies you might take advantage of. You can either get yourself into a fixed-rate 15 year program, or if that's a stretch, just start paying half of your monthly mortgage payment every other week instead of sending the full amount once a month. Over the course of the year, you'll have made an extra month's payment on your principal. The difference you'll feel in your wallet is miniscule, but the chore to getting that mortgage down will start feeling easier and easier.
So to wrap, I'd just like to let you set some "get ahead" savings goals. The first goal is the easiest, and many of you are probably already here. Get $1,000 in the bank. After that your next goal should be having 3 months worth of mortgage/rent payments in the bank. After that, take it to six months housing costs in the bank. After you have six months worth of rent/mortgage in the bank, expand your savings goals to have 6 months of all of your living expenses (including all other expenses in addition to housing) safely tucked away (not counting your nest egg). And finally, once you've reached the point where you have a full year's worth of your total expenditures socked away, now you can go out and splurge a little bit. Go on a nice vacation, buy that boat, or whatever it is that makes you feel good. You've earned it. After you get to that point, you can support your family on savings even if all income is cut to nothing for an entire year. Not good enough you say, savings stud? OK tuck away 3 years, 5 years, heck go for 10 years (do that and you can almost retire). Let's all do what we can to start getting ahead this year.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Journaling for Success
I'm going to talk about starting a success journal as a tool to achieving the life of your dreams. With so many demands on your time, who honestly wants to add yet another task to their already hectic schedule? But I'd like to point out that keeping a journal can actually be more of a time saver than you probably realize. I've been an avid believer in the power of keeping a journal for most of my adult life. But the truth of the matter is that I haven't always been as dedicated to the process as I'd like to be. I've probably started journals over a dozen times in the past 30 years only to stop and tuck them away until the next time I get the encouragement to start up again.
If you already keep a journal, then I'd like to commend you. It's not an easy thing to keep up. I used to try to coax myself into keeping up my journal by purchasing really nice journals that felt luxurious in my hands. My thinking was that I had to feel good about going to the journal to capture my thoughts and ideas. But truth be told, I probably wrote less in the fine leather bound volumes than I have in the more reasonably priced composition books that you can pick up for $1.00 at your local drug store during their Back To School sales. I must have over a dozen leather bound volumes with maybe a month or two of entries before abandoning the project.
I've tried buying expensive pens and multi-colored pens to give myself the ability of writing topic specific thoughts in respective colored ink, but that was extremely impractical. It wasn't until I started keeping morning pages (a method of simply writing just to write) that I discovered in the book entitled The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, that I really stuck to my daily updates. I must have over a dozen of those black and white composition notebooks completely filled on both sides of the pages because the writing was simply just flowing from my thoughts to the page.
The most rewarding part of having the journals is that you can go back and rediscover things that you've been through in your busy life. You can capture those fleeting thoughts on paper so that there is a record available to you for future reference. Journals can help you organize your life and even become a time management tool to keep you on task. The uses of a journal as a tool to achieving succes in life are unlimited. I can now go back and relive various periods of my life, whether they be good times or bad, and see what was going on. I can draw conclusions from all of the data and maybe even get some insights as to the root causes of some of the things that seemed to escape me at the time. They say that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Do you have a good record of your own personal history? I do, and it's taught me a lot, not only about myself, but about those I surround myself with.
The key to successful journaling is that it doesn't become a chore. If you feel restricted or confined by the process you won't keep at it. Trust me on this, I've started and stopped so many times that I can't even begin to count. If you make it as much a part of your daily routine as your morning cup of coffee or brushing your teeth, it will someday just become automatic. But it has to be embraced with comfort before you get to that point.
I like to write, and I suppose that this blog was born out of my love for writing. I've started and stopped other blogs too, but this blog has given me the purpose of helping others. I am truly interested in this as a process, and also as a learning experience and to a lesser extent, a therapy of sorts. I am capturing thoughts and ideas with a common theme all designed to help others to reach their goals and to start living the American Dream. I do this for myself as much as I do it for others. I just hope that somebody else will benefit from these posts. Even if I can reach only a handful of people, I've succeeded in what I set out to do; inspiring others to reach for the stars and realize their own best life today.
If you already keep a journal, then I'd like to commend you. It's not an easy thing to keep up. I used to try to coax myself into keeping up my journal by purchasing really nice journals that felt luxurious in my hands. My thinking was that I had to feel good about going to the journal to capture my thoughts and ideas. But truth be told, I probably wrote less in the fine leather bound volumes than I have in the more reasonably priced composition books that you can pick up for $1.00 at your local drug store during their Back To School sales. I must have over a dozen leather bound volumes with maybe a month or two of entries before abandoning the project.
I've tried buying expensive pens and multi-colored pens to give myself the ability of writing topic specific thoughts in respective colored ink, but that was extremely impractical. It wasn't until I started keeping morning pages (a method of simply writing just to write) that I discovered in the book entitled The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, that I really stuck to my daily updates. I must have over a dozen of those black and white composition notebooks completely filled on both sides of the pages because the writing was simply just flowing from my thoughts to the page.
The most rewarding part of having the journals is that you can go back and rediscover things that you've been through in your busy life. You can capture those fleeting thoughts on paper so that there is a record available to you for future reference. Journals can help you organize your life and even become a time management tool to keep you on task. The uses of a journal as a tool to achieving succes in life are unlimited. I can now go back and relive various periods of my life, whether they be good times or bad, and see what was going on. I can draw conclusions from all of the data and maybe even get some insights as to the root causes of some of the things that seemed to escape me at the time. They say that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Do you have a good record of your own personal history? I do, and it's taught me a lot, not only about myself, but about those I surround myself with.
The key to successful journaling is that it doesn't become a chore. If you feel restricted or confined by the process you won't keep at it. Trust me on this, I've started and stopped so many times that I can't even begin to count. If you make it as much a part of your daily routine as your morning cup of coffee or brushing your teeth, it will someday just become automatic. But it has to be embraced with comfort before you get to that point.
I like to write, and I suppose that this blog was born out of my love for writing. I've started and stopped other blogs too, but this blog has given me the purpose of helping others. I am truly interested in this as a process, and also as a learning experience and to a lesser extent, a therapy of sorts. I am capturing thoughts and ideas with a common theme all designed to help others to reach their goals and to start living the American Dream. I do this for myself as much as I do it for others. I just hope that somebody else will benefit from these posts. Even if I can reach only a handful of people, I've succeeded in what I set out to do; inspiring others to reach for the stars and realize their own best life today.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Common Sense
Is it just me, or does it seem that common sense is becoming more and more uncommon with each passing decade? The dumbing down of America has become epidemic, it's no wonder that the rest of the world looks upon us with contempt. They see our decadence, arrogance and apparent lack of intellect being broadcast from satellites in orbit around the globe and wonder how it is that America ever became a super power.
We've allowed ourselves to get to a place where we simply aren't required to think for ourselves anymore. They have to put labels on MacDonalds coffee cups that tell us that coffee is hot and that we may get burned if we spill it in our laps. We have to be warned that cigarette smoking has been linked to certain types of cancer. We have to be told not to eat the contents of those little silica gel packets that come inside the box of almost every electronic device sold now. Are we really that stupid? Do we have to be reminded that polished marble floors are slippery when wet? I believe that the government honestly believes that we can no longer think for ourselves and therefore must pass legislation to protect us from our own folly. But has the general public really given them reason to suspect otherwise?
As Cass Sunstein said, “Once we know that people are human and have some Homer Simpson in them, then there’s a lot that can be done to manipulate that.” Have we become a nation vulnerable to manipulation because we simply don't think for ourselves anymore? Sometimes it really irks me, while other times I simply pity the people who make fools of themselves on reality television shows. These shows are being aired around the world around the clock and this is the perception that the rest of the world keeps in the back of their minds when they think about Americans. They see Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan being idolized by entire masses of America's youth. And the media continues to promote these figures as role models to our children. There are literally hundreds of other examples of celebrities gone wild that I could cite here, but I like to keep my posts brief. The point I am making is that our society has lost touch with true heroes. Gone are the days when citizens looked up to policemen and firefighters. Now our heroes actually fear for their lives when making routine traffic stops. I'm sorry, but there's something very very wrong going on here. I only fear that it may be too late for us to wake up and regain our reason and morality.
I believe we're at a turning point, but it's up to each and every one of us to determine which direction that turn is going to take. Are we going to continue coasting as if everything is just fine, or will we stand up and say, "Wait just a minute... I'm not going down that road." I'm going to do whatever I can to try to make people think about the things that we often take for granted. Take a step back and examine the way things are going in your life and determine if the current course is headed where you want to go. Is a course correction required? I cannot answer for you. I know that my life wasn't going where I wanted it to go, so I made the decision to make the necessary changes to get my life back on track. I can honestly say that since that point in time, things have been getting better and better. All I have to do is continue evaluating my current course, my self-determined destination and then deciding which actions to take that keep me moving in the right direction.
I want to once again thank Glenn Beck for his E4 Solution to restore American exceptionalism and The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life. Not only has he provided me with two weeks worth of blog posting topics, but I think he has successfully underscored the importance of holding these kinds of values near and dear to our hearts and minds as we go forth into a new decade in America.
We've allowed ourselves to get to a place where we simply aren't required to think for ourselves anymore. They have to put labels on MacDonalds coffee cups that tell us that coffee is hot and that we may get burned if we spill it in our laps. We have to be warned that cigarette smoking has been linked to certain types of cancer. We have to be told not to eat the contents of those little silica gel packets that come inside the box of almost every electronic device sold now. Are we really that stupid? Do we have to be reminded that polished marble floors are slippery when wet? I believe that the government honestly believes that we can no longer think for ourselves and therefore must pass legislation to protect us from our own folly. But has the general public really given them reason to suspect otherwise?
As Cass Sunstein said, “Once we know that people are human and have some Homer Simpson in them, then there’s a lot that can be done to manipulate that.” Have we become a nation vulnerable to manipulation because we simply don't think for ourselves anymore? Sometimes it really irks me, while other times I simply pity the people who make fools of themselves on reality television shows. These shows are being aired around the world around the clock and this is the perception that the rest of the world keeps in the back of their minds when they think about Americans. They see Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan being idolized by entire masses of America's youth. And the media continues to promote these figures as role models to our children. There are literally hundreds of other examples of celebrities gone wild that I could cite here, but I like to keep my posts brief. The point I am making is that our society has lost touch with true heroes. Gone are the days when citizens looked up to policemen and firefighters. Now our heroes actually fear for their lives when making routine traffic stops. I'm sorry, but there's something very very wrong going on here. I only fear that it may be too late for us to wake up and regain our reason and morality.
I believe we're at a turning point, but it's up to each and every one of us to determine which direction that turn is going to take. Are we going to continue coasting as if everything is just fine, or will we stand up and say, "Wait just a minute... I'm not going down that road." I'm going to do whatever I can to try to make people think about the things that we often take for granted. Take a step back and examine the way things are going in your life and determine if the current course is headed where you want to go. Is a course correction required? I cannot answer for you. I know that my life wasn't going where I wanted it to go, so I made the decision to make the necessary changes to get my life back on track. I can honestly say that since that point in time, things have been getting better and better. All I have to do is continue evaluating my current course, my self-determined destination and then deciding which actions to take that keep me moving in the right direction.
I want to once again thank Glenn Beck for his E4 Solution to restore American exceptionalism and The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life. Not only has he provided me with two weeks worth of blog posting topics, but I think he has successfully underscored the importance of holding these kinds of values near and dear to our hearts and minds as we go forth into a new decade in America.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Family
Being a Rabbit year child of Chinese Horoscope fame, I am curiously detached from family. If the Chinese Horoscope knows this about me, it can't possibly be my fault. I do admit that I am not what you might call very close to my family. My mother and sister (my only remaining immediate family members) both live in Southern California and I, in Hawaii. It's not that I don't love my family, I do. We don't get the chance to visit as much as we should, but I did manage to see my mom twice last year, both in August for her birthday and in November the week before Thanksgiving. I'm going to make an attempt to see my family at least once a year from here on out because since moving to Hawaii, I've only been back to visit them four times.
It was a total coincidence that I received a wonderful portrait of my two beautiful nieces today. I don't think they knew I'd be writing about family today, and if they did, it would have been virtually impossible to time the United States Postal Service delivery to arrive exactly on this day. So I'll chalk up another coincidence to the universe and the Law of Attraction. It's like thinking of and old family member who you haven't seen in quite a long time and out of the blue, the phone rings. It's unexplainable, but it hints to the fact that we're really all connected. I love my nieces to death and I wish I had spent more time with them while they were growing up. They're twins and they both just graduated from college this past summer. I'm very proud of them and so is their Aunty Jojo.
The majority of the rest of my family reside back in Minnesota, where I like to refer to as God's country. They've been experiencing some truly frightful weather this winter, but it seems it's been that way all across the U.S.. I grew up in Edina and I have an aunt, uncle and two cousins living in Minneapolis (at least I think they're all still there). The rest are located further north stretching from St. Cloud to Lake Mille Lacs. I have 6 first cousins, whom are good catholics, so you do the math on how large the clan has expanded up until now. I can't even count all of the second cousins and their offspring, and their offspring; so I couldn't really say. I just really need to reconnect. I haven't spoken with any of them in the past 20 years or so with the exception of my youngest cousin Shawn. He and his lovely wife came out to visit us in 2007 and I think they're planning another trip this year. I myself will probably be taking a trip to Minnesota for my 30th reunion this summer, so no doubt I'll be paying a visit to my extended family while I'm there.
What I'd like to say about family is that they are truly the ones who make us who we are. We spend our formative years among them growing up and sharing memories for all of the holidays, summer vacations, weddings, funerals and all other sorts of family gatherings. Superbowls, picnics, parades and fishing trips make up some of my most cherished childhood memories.
OK... Now I'm really getting homesick for Minnesota.
I will make an honest attempt to get back in touch with the family I left behind in the Great White North since we moved to California in 1981. I miss them and God willing they miss me a little bit too. Reach out and touch a member of your family (or more) and try to re-connect now that we have the tools available to us. You're excuses (and mine) for remaining detached are rapidly dimishing. It's way too easy, to pick up the phone, text them, send an email, or "Friend" them on Facebook and send them a message, just to name a few methods available to us today. No longer do we have to sit down and write a letter to send off with the mail man. It's too easy to stay in touch, so join me in my pledge to improve family relationships.
It was a total coincidence that I received a wonderful portrait of my two beautiful nieces today. I don't think they knew I'd be writing about family today, and if they did, it would have been virtually impossible to time the United States Postal Service delivery to arrive exactly on this day. So I'll chalk up another coincidence to the universe and the Law of Attraction. It's like thinking of and old family member who you haven't seen in quite a long time and out of the blue, the phone rings. It's unexplainable, but it hints to the fact that we're really all connected. I love my nieces to death and I wish I had spent more time with them while they were growing up. They're twins and they both just graduated from college this past summer. I'm very proud of them and so is their Aunty Jojo.
The majority of the rest of my family reside back in Minnesota, where I like to refer to as God's country. They've been experiencing some truly frightful weather this winter, but it seems it's been that way all across the U.S.. I grew up in Edina and I have an aunt, uncle and two cousins living in Minneapolis (at least I think they're all still there). The rest are located further north stretching from St. Cloud to Lake Mille Lacs. I have 6 first cousins, whom are good catholics, so you do the math on how large the clan has expanded up until now. I can't even count all of the second cousins and their offspring, and their offspring; so I couldn't really say. I just really need to reconnect. I haven't spoken with any of them in the past 20 years or so with the exception of my youngest cousin Shawn. He and his lovely wife came out to visit us in 2007 and I think they're planning another trip this year. I myself will probably be taking a trip to Minnesota for my 30th reunion this summer, so no doubt I'll be paying a visit to my extended family while I'm there.
What I'd like to say about family is that they are truly the ones who make us who we are. We spend our formative years among them growing up and sharing memories for all of the holidays, summer vacations, weddings, funerals and all other sorts of family gatherings. Superbowls, picnics, parades and fishing trips make up some of my most cherished childhood memories.
OK... Now I'm really getting homesick for Minnesota.
I will make an honest attempt to get back in touch with the family I left behind in the Great White North since we moved to California in 1981. I miss them and God willing they miss me a little bit too. Reach out and touch a member of your family (or more) and try to re-connect now that we have the tools available to us. You're excuses (and mine) for remaining detached are rapidly dimishing. It's way too easy, to pick up the phone, text them, send an email, or "Friend" them on Facebook and send them a message, just to name a few methods available to us today. No longer do we have to sit down and write a letter to send off with the mail man. It's too easy to stay in touch, so join me in my pledge to improve family relationships.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Friendship
Friendship is something that everybody enjoys at least during some points in their lives. The ocean of life provides us with sets of friendships that roll in continually. The people we call friends come and go ebbing and flowing like the tides. The passing of time often changes the set of friends we have around during certain periods in our lives. Some people are lucky enough to have life long friendships that seem to withstand the test of time. These are the fortunates that most likely have not relocated as I have multiple times in my life. With every new opportunity, often a new set of friendships are made and, unfortunately, some are lost, simply a casualty of a new phase in life.
It doesn't necessarily need to be this way. They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder and I suppose this is true with certain friends. I for one am not especially good at staying in touch. It's the old out of sight out of mind scenario. I know that with today's technology we should be able to stay closer than ever before. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to be so tied up in the day to day routines of business and family life that our friends often take a back seat to spending quality time at our own households. Having said that, I'd like to take this opportunity to become better by being a better friend. So I'm going to try to do a better job of reaching out and just saying "Hi" to friends I haven't seen or heard from in years. I think the summer of 2010 was the first time I got onto Facebook. What a wonderful tool for finding and rekindling old relationships. It doesn't even matter if you're half way around the world, or just up the street. We can all afford the time it takes to log in and "poke" a few folks just to let them know you've been thinking of them.
I knew I was going to be writing about friendship today, so I decided to actually go down to my favorite watering hole and visit with a few friends that I haven't seen in awhile. It's hard to take the time to spend with friends when you have a lot of responsibilities, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense if I sat at home in my office and wrote this post about how great friendships are. If one of My friends from Tropics Lounge actually reads this post, do me a favor and hit the "Like" button would ya? At least that way I'll know there's actually someone out there who is taking the time to read this post as I bloviate et nauseum about friendship. I intend to be a better friend in 2011 and if you don't hear from me, let me know about it so I have a little accountability here. If you really want to live a life that's full, surround yourself with good friends and share in the experiences of the world.
It doesn't necessarily need to be this way. They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder and I suppose this is true with certain friends. I for one am not especially good at staying in touch. It's the old out of sight out of mind scenario. I know that with today's technology we should be able to stay closer than ever before. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to be so tied up in the day to day routines of business and family life that our friends often take a back seat to spending quality time at our own households. Having said that, I'd like to take this opportunity to become better by being a better friend. So I'm going to try to do a better job of reaching out and just saying "Hi" to friends I haven't seen or heard from in years. I think the summer of 2010 was the first time I got onto Facebook. What a wonderful tool for finding and rekindling old relationships. It doesn't even matter if you're half way around the world, or just up the street. We can all afford the time it takes to log in and "poke" a few folks just to let them know you've been thinking of them.
I knew I was going to be writing about friendship today, so I decided to actually go down to my favorite watering hole and visit with a few friends that I haven't seen in awhile. It's hard to take the time to spend with friends when you have a lot of responsibilities, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense if I sat at home in my office and wrote this post about how great friendships are. If one of My friends from Tropics Lounge actually reads this post, do me a favor and hit the "Like" button would ya? At least that way I'll know there's actually someone out there who is taking the time to read this post as I bloviate et nauseum about friendship. I intend to be a better friend in 2011 and if you don't hear from me, let me know about it so I have a little accountability here. If you really want to live a life that's full, surround yourself with good friends and share in the experiences of the world.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Compassion
Whenever I think of compassion, my thoughts always turn to the greats like Mother Theresa or Father Damien. I ask myself if it's possible to have so much compassion that I could dedicate my whole life to a cause like they did. Their compassion was such that I believe they must have been sent from God. I believe we're all sent by God to fulfill some purpose, but through our own free will, we choose to become lesser men (or women). Trust me, I'm no saint, and I don't know whether I'll find my true purpose in life before I die or not, but at least I'm willing to examine my talents to try to find that which continues to elude me.
Becoming truly compassionate sounds easy, but it certainly is not. Even at Christmas time, arguably the most compassionate season of the year, I find myself getting so caught up in the commercialism that I drop the ball on all of the remarkable things I was planning on doing for others this year. Oh sure, I give my spare change to the guy outside the department store ringing a bell with his red kettle. I might even offer up a five or ten spot for a homeless man to get himself a decent meal. But these few and far between acts of kindness do not represent compassion at the level that Mother Theresa and Father Damien possessed. They gave of themselves 24/7/365 and never with a thought or a care that they were going to be repaid somehow. There's a saying that gets tossed around quite a bit at Dream Outfitters that I'd like to think we all try to live our lives by, and it is simply this, “Do Something For Someone Today, With The KNOWING That There Is No Possible Way For Them To Ever Repay You.”
We all try to be as good as we possibly can (well, most of us), and while we may never reach the level of perfection of a true saint, we can live a better life today than we did yesterday. We can live better lives by becoming more compassionate to the plight of others. Others less fortunate whom we come across during the course of our day. Merriam-Webster defines compassion as the sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. The key here is the last part, the desire to alleviate it. It's great that we feel compassionate, but even greater when we can actually participate, in a small way, to relieve the pain that we witness. Pain and suffering and loneliness is all around us. It doesn't take much to toss someone a smile instead of just hurrying on our way. That costs nothing. Let's all try to be a little more compassionte this year than we have in the past. I know you will become a better person for it.
Becoming truly compassionate sounds easy, but it certainly is not. Even at Christmas time, arguably the most compassionate season of the year, I find myself getting so caught up in the commercialism that I drop the ball on all of the remarkable things I was planning on doing for others this year. Oh sure, I give my spare change to the guy outside the department store ringing a bell with his red kettle. I might even offer up a five or ten spot for a homeless man to get himself a decent meal. But these few and far between acts of kindness do not represent compassion at the level that Mother Theresa and Father Damien possessed. They gave of themselves 24/7/365 and never with a thought or a care that they were going to be repaid somehow. There's a saying that gets tossed around quite a bit at Dream Outfitters that I'd like to think we all try to live our lives by, and it is simply this, “Do Something For Someone Today, With The KNOWING That There Is No Possible Way For Them To Ever Repay You.”
We all try to be as good as we possibly can (well, most of us), and while we may never reach the level of perfection of a true saint, we can live a better life today than we did yesterday. We can live better lives by becoming more compassionate to the plight of others. Others less fortunate whom we come across during the course of our day. Merriam-Webster defines compassion as the sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. The key here is the last part, the desire to alleviate it. It's great that we feel compassionate, but even greater when we can actually participate, in a small way, to relieve the pain that we witness. Pain and suffering and loneliness is all around us. It doesn't take much to toss someone a smile instead of just hurrying on our way. That costs nothing. Let's all try to be a little more compassionte this year than we have in the past. I know you will become a better person for it.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Truth
We as internet users are being inundated with information like never before. With this comes the need to be able discern what is true and what leaves a little to be desired in the truth department. If you're well informed, the truth is usually pretty easy to discern. It has a certain feeling associated with it, it sounds better than falsehood. This is why they say that some things "ring true" where as other things don't. In order to become our best, we want to come from a place of truth; through our speech and through our actions.
They say that the truth shall set you free, and I believe this; truly I do. Judge Judy has a great phrase that she tells her courtroom parties when she senses that what they're telling her may not be 100% based in fact. She says, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory." What she's saying is that when we only go on the facts, we don't have to worry about keeping our story straight while trying to manufacture a tale that "sounds good." This is liberating, because all you need to do in life is simply recall what actually took place instead of trying to "spin" or bend the truth to put our side in the best light. If our case isn't strong enough based on the merits, then it probably isn't really going to stand up anyhow.
The best thing about the truth, is that it is what it is. Winston Churchill has a couple of quotes (probably more) about truth. He states, "The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is." This alludes to the ultimate resilience of truth. If you make truth the cornerstone of your moral fibre, it makes the rest of life's principles all that much easier to follow through on. Churchill also warns us that, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." This is a warning to not fall into the trap where many people find themselves. Honesty has seemingly become so irrelevant, that people don't even realize that duplicity has become embedded in their moral fibre. They simply gloss over the facts and continue right on living without paying any heed.
There's a good possibility that I've butchered Winston's original meaning here (especially with respect to the latter). But truth be told, that is what the essesnce of the quote is saying to me. Perhaps it's time for us all to take a look around and give the information we're being bombarded with a litmus test. Does it sound right? If it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't true.
They say that the truth shall set you free, and I believe this; truly I do. Judge Judy has a great phrase that she tells her courtroom parties when she senses that what they're telling her may not be 100% based in fact. She says, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory." What she's saying is that when we only go on the facts, we don't have to worry about keeping our story straight while trying to manufacture a tale that "sounds good." This is liberating, because all you need to do in life is simply recall what actually took place instead of trying to "spin" or bend the truth to put our side in the best light. If our case isn't strong enough based on the merits, then it probably isn't really going to stand up anyhow.
The best thing about the truth, is that it is what it is. Winston Churchill has a couple of quotes (probably more) about truth. He states, "The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is." This alludes to the ultimate resilience of truth. If you make truth the cornerstone of your moral fibre, it makes the rest of life's principles all that much easier to follow through on. Churchill also warns us that, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." This is a warning to not fall into the trap where many people find themselves. Honesty has seemingly become so irrelevant, that people don't even realize that duplicity has become embedded in their moral fibre. They simply gloss over the facts and continue right on living without paying any heed.
There's a good possibility that I've butchered Winston's original meaning here (especially with respect to the latter). But truth be told, that is what the essesnce of the quote is saying to me. Perhaps it's time for us all to take a look around and give the information we're being bombarded with a litmus test. Does it sound right? If it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't true.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Courage and Faith
Today we celebrate the life of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. I'd like to encourage you to watch the video of his "I Have a Dream" speech given on August 28th, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; especially if you are taking a paid holiday today. Spend 20 minutes to remember the man who's life was sacrificed in pursuit of racial equality. Listen to his words, let them reverberate in your mind, and then spend a moment of silence to reflect on the courage and faith he demonstrated to the world during his short lifetime.
It was Abraham Lincoln who said, "You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence." So it was poignant that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would deliver his Swan Song on the steps of Lincoln's memorial on the west side of the National Mall in Washington D.C.. His courage, shown in the face of great discrimination, has earned him a place in eternity as one of the greatest men in U.S. history. Time Magazine named him the 1963 "Man of the Year" for his continued efforts in the Civil Rights Movement.
Martin Luther King was a man of deep faith and was pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. His dedication to God and to the unalienable rights of all men shone brightly as a beacon of hope for African Americans and countless others all over the world. On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. I salute Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for his faith, his courage and for furthering the civil rights movement during an extremely turbulent time in this nation's history.
It was Abraham Lincoln who said, "You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence." So it was poignant that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would deliver his Swan Song on the steps of Lincoln's memorial on the west side of the National Mall in Washington D.C.. His courage, shown in the face of great discrimination, has earned him a place in eternity as one of the greatest men in U.S. history. Time Magazine named him the 1963 "Man of the Year" for his continued efforts in the Civil Rights Movement.
Martin Luther King was a man of deep faith and was pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. His dedication to God and to the unalienable rights of all men shone brightly as a beacon of hope for African Americans and countless others all over the world. On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. I salute Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for his faith, his courage and for furthering the civil rights movement during an extremely turbulent time in this nation's history.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Faith, Hope and Charity
This week, I've been writing about Glenn Beck's E4 Solution to Restore American Exceptionalism. My hope is that my readers will be able to glean a little wisdom from these posts and apply it to their own lives. Enlightenment, Education, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship are the keys to rebuilding our nation from the inside out. It all starts with the individual. We as human beings don't possess the power to change others, but we can change ourselves and in turn, have an affect on those around us.
Glenn also talks a lot about Faith, Hope and Charity. Three core attributes that I apply in my own life to be a better person. Have faith in your own convictions. Faith isn't reserved only for God or religion. Have faith in yourself, have faith in those around you and have faith in all that you do such that you become unstoppable. Faith truly can move mountains.
Hope springs eternal isn't just a catchy phrase, it's from Alexander Pope's "Essay on Man" written in 1734. If you haven't read it, I suggest you try and get through it. It is truly a beautifully constructed piece of poetry concerned with the natural order God has decreed for man. Because man cannot know God's purposes, he cannot complain about his position in the Great Chain of Being and must accept that "Whatever IS, is RIGHT."
And finally, Charity; or what I like to call "giving back." Reflect on all that you possess and realize that whatever your current situation, there are still others that are worse off. Be charitible and give to those less fortunate, or give to those who help the less fortunate because without charity mankind cannot hope to rise above. I'll leave you with this from Psalms 41:1-2...
”Blessed is he who considers the poor; The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth.”
Glenn also talks a lot about Faith, Hope and Charity. Three core attributes that I apply in my own life to be a better person. Have faith in your own convictions. Faith isn't reserved only for God or religion. Have faith in yourself, have faith in those around you and have faith in all that you do such that you become unstoppable. Faith truly can move mountains.
Hope springs eternal isn't just a catchy phrase, it's from Alexander Pope's "Essay on Man" written in 1734. If you haven't read it, I suggest you try and get through it. It is truly a beautifully constructed piece of poetry concerned with the natural order God has decreed for man. Because man cannot know God's purposes, he cannot complain about his position in the Great Chain of Being and must accept that "Whatever IS, is RIGHT."
And finally, Charity; or what I like to call "giving back." Reflect on all that you possess and realize that whatever your current situation, there are still others that are worse off. Be charitible and give to those less fortunate, or give to those who help the less fortunate because without charity mankind cannot hope to rise above. I'll leave you with this from Psalms 41:1-2...
”Blessed is he who considers the poor; The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth.”
Friday, January 14, 2011
Entrepreneurship
They say that some people have it and some people don't when it comes to being an entrepreneur, and I guess that's true to a certain extent. However, that doesn't mean that people cannot learn to become entrepreneurs. To me, being an entrepreneur is more of a mindset than anything else. Therefore, you don't need to be born with it, you can become an entrepreneur, but only if you really want to. I actually took a course in entrepreneurship at Hawaii Pacific University back in 2004 or 2005 (the exact dates escape me). While I wasn't technically enrolled at HPU, I auditted the class that was being taught by one of my many mentors. A man I still admire to this day. The course taught me that beyond being a mindset, entrepreneurship was also a process.
I mention the course here because I want to share a little quiz that comes straight out of the text book (so I don't have any problems with copyright infringement, I'll credit the books authors). The book, entitled Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective, was written by Robert A.Baron and Scott A. Shane. See how well you fair on these eight questions:
1. Can You Handle Uncertainty?
Is security (e.g., a regular paycheck) important to you, or are you willing to live with uncertainty -- economic and otherwise?
2. Are You Energetic?
Do you have the vigor and good health required to work very long hours for long periods of time in order to reach goals that are important to you?
3. Do You Believe in Yourself and Your Abilities?
Do you believe that you can accomplish whatever you set out to accomplish, learning what you need along the way?
4. Can You Handle Reversals and Failures Well?
How do you react to negative outcomes -- with discouragement or with renewed commitment to succeeding the next time around and learning from your mistakes?
5. Are You Passionate About Your Goals or Vision?
Once you establish a goal or a vision of where you want to be, are you willing to sacrifice almost everything else to get there, because you are truly passionate about doing so?
6. Are You Good with Other People?
Can you persuade them to see the world the way you do? Can you get along with them well (e.g., handle conflicts, build trust)?
7. Are You Adaptable?
Can you make "mid-course corrections" easily? For instance, can you admit that you made a mistake and reverse course to correct it?
8. Are You Willing to Take Risks or Leaps of Faith?
Once you establish a goal, are you willing to take reasonable risks to reach it? In other words, are you willing to do what you can to minimize the risks, but then, once you have done so, proceed?
Current evidence suggests that successful entrepreneurs are high on all of these dimensions -- higher than other persons. They handle uncertainty, are energetic, believe in themselves, react well and flexibly to reversals, are passionate about their beliefs, are good with other people, are highly adaptable, and are willing to accept reasonable levels of risk. To the extent you possess these characteristics -- or at least most or them -- you may be well-suited for the role of entrepreneur. If you find that you are relatively low on several of these characteristics, however, you might want to reconsider, perhaps becoming an entrepreneur is not really "your particular cup of tea."
Having said that, it is still possible to overcome any entrepreneurial shortcomings that you may possess, as long as you have a burning desire to improve yourself in these areas. Thus, it is possible to change your personality profile to fit the entrepreneurial model. I have a neat little book on marketing and advertising called It's Not How Good You Are, But How Good You Want To Be, by Paul Arden. It's a super fast read that can be read in under an hour. This book shows you that your current state of affairs isn't as important as the direction you are going and the goals that you've set. Think from the end, and if you really want to, you too can become an entrepreneur.
During the 1990's, large U.S. corporations downsized more than 6 million jobs out of existence, yet unemployment fell to record-low levels, mainly as a result of new companies started by entrepreneurs and the dot.com bubble. At the turn of the century, there were more than 10 million self-employed individuals in the United States of America (which was about 1 in every 8 adults). Now, however, we're facing almost record-high unemployment figures (I believe the figure peaked at 9.8% at the end of last year). This means that there are a staggering number of people in the U.S. that are looking for work of some kind. I want to pose this question to the millions who are out of work at this time, "Do you really want to take a job and exchange your time for money, or would you rather create a life and have the freedom to pursue your happiness while making an honest living?" Become an entrepreneur and free yourself from the chains that bind you to a job. Is it easy? Definitely not. But the rewards far outway the sacrifices, once you realize your dream and start living again.
Even if you have a job and a career, are you truly satisfied with all that it provides for you and your family? Take control of your financial future and start a small business on the side. You may be surprised to see your newfound part-time income exceed your full-time income by leaps and bounds. It all boils down to desire, belief and work ethic. So I close with this question, Do you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur?
I mention the course here because I want to share a little quiz that comes straight out of the text book (so I don't have any problems with copyright infringement, I'll credit the books authors). The book, entitled Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective, was written by Robert A.Baron and Scott A. Shane. See how well you fair on these eight questions:
1. Can You Handle Uncertainty?
Is security (e.g., a regular paycheck) important to you, or are you willing to live with uncertainty -- economic and otherwise?
2. Are You Energetic?
Do you have the vigor and good health required to work very long hours for long periods of time in order to reach goals that are important to you?
3. Do You Believe in Yourself and Your Abilities?
Do you believe that you can accomplish whatever you set out to accomplish, learning what you need along the way?
4. Can You Handle Reversals and Failures Well?
How do you react to negative outcomes -- with discouragement or with renewed commitment to succeeding the next time around and learning from your mistakes?
5. Are You Passionate About Your Goals or Vision?
Once you establish a goal or a vision of where you want to be, are you willing to sacrifice almost everything else to get there, because you are truly passionate about doing so?
6. Are You Good with Other People?
Can you persuade them to see the world the way you do? Can you get along with them well (e.g., handle conflicts, build trust)?
7. Are You Adaptable?
Can you make "mid-course corrections" easily? For instance, can you admit that you made a mistake and reverse course to correct it?
8. Are You Willing to Take Risks or Leaps of Faith?
Once you establish a goal, are you willing to take reasonable risks to reach it? In other words, are you willing to do what you can to minimize the risks, but then, once you have done so, proceed?
Current evidence suggests that successful entrepreneurs are high on all of these dimensions -- higher than other persons. They handle uncertainty, are energetic, believe in themselves, react well and flexibly to reversals, are passionate about their beliefs, are good with other people, are highly adaptable, and are willing to accept reasonable levels of risk. To the extent you possess these characteristics -- or at least most or them -- you may be well-suited for the role of entrepreneur. If you find that you are relatively low on several of these characteristics, however, you might want to reconsider, perhaps becoming an entrepreneur is not really "your particular cup of tea."
Having said that, it is still possible to overcome any entrepreneurial shortcomings that you may possess, as long as you have a burning desire to improve yourself in these areas. Thus, it is possible to change your personality profile to fit the entrepreneurial model. I have a neat little book on marketing and advertising called It's Not How Good You Are, But How Good You Want To Be, by Paul Arden. It's a super fast read that can be read in under an hour. This book shows you that your current state of affairs isn't as important as the direction you are going and the goals that you've set. Think from the end, and if you really want to, you too can become an entrepreneur.
During the 1990's, large U.S. corporations downsized more than 6 million jobs out of existence, yet unemployment fell to record-low levels, mainly as a result of new companies started by entrepreneurs and the dot.com bubble. At the turn of the century, there were more than 10 million self-employed individuals in the United States of America (which was about 1 in every 8 adults). Now, however, we're facing almost record-high unemployment figures (I believe the figure peaked at 9.8% at the end of last year). This means that there are a staggering number of people in the U.S. that are looking for work of some kind. I want to pose this question to the millions who are out of work at this time, "Do you really want to take a job and exchange your time for money, or would you rather create a life and have the freedom to pursue your happiness while making an honest living?" Become an entrepreneur and free yourself from the chains that bind you to a job. Is it easy? Definitely not. But the rewards far outway the sacrifices, once you realize your dream and start living again.
Even if you have a job and a career, are you truly satisfied with all that it provides for you and your family? Take control of your financial future and start a small business on the side. You may be surprised to see your newfound part-time income exceed your full-time income by leaps and bounds. It all boils down to desire, belief and work ethic. So I close with this question, Do you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur?
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Empowerment
Dream Outfitters' core concept is based on empowerment. So I've been looking forward to today's post since Monday with great anticipation. The key force behind empowerment is readiness. Look back in your own life and think about a time that you felt truly empowered; maybe it was a feeling you had just before a math quiz, a spelling bee or the big game. You felt this empowerment most likely because you had prepared for it and you were confident that you would be absolutely unstoppable. Life is a continual process of getting ready; and when we're truly ready for something, we feel empowered. So ready or not, here we go.
During the first 25% of our lives, we find ourselves emmersed in a structured environment with its foundation based on readiness. We spend our infancy getting ready to walk and talk, as a toddler or very young child, our parents get us ready to enter the school system to begin our journey in education (yesterday's topic). In kindergarten, we are getting ready for entering the first grade, and in first grade we're getting ready for 2nd grade and so on. All of our years in elementary school culminate in getting us ready for middle school. Middle school is spent preparing for high school and in high shool we're getting ready to enter the "real world" or maybe, if we're lucky, to go to college. But after that, then what?
Well, if you're really attuned to the world of academia, you may choose to stay in school for some length of time after gradusating, getting advanced degrees, doctorates and the like. But if you're like most of us, after your formal education is completed, you're thrust out into the world with not much more than your diploma or degree and a lot of ambition. You feel empowered, because you've learned so much in school, but the real world can still be a pretty scary place. It doesn't take long for that feeling of empowerment to fade when faced with the prospect of landing a job. Especially in today's economy. The competition for decent living wage situations id fierce. You really have to be a sharp cookie to gain and maintain a full-time job. That's where Dream Outfitters come in.
At Dream Outfitters, we say that having a job is not the way to financial freedom. In fact we say that having a job is simply an acronym; JOB stands for Just Over Broke. The days of going to school and getting good grades to get into a good college and working for a good company until retirement age are but a distant memory of yesteryear. Once upon a time, employees were loyal to the companies they worked for and in return, the companies treated employees with a great deal of respect and that loyalty was rewarded with a great retirement package and a gold watch when you left the work force in your golden years. Now it seems that corporations are more interested in the shareholders than they are in the people that make their business function on a daily basis. Employees are now more like commodities than human beings. The focus is now on the bottom line. But who's looking out for you? The answer is nobody. You need to look after yourself. Dream Outfitters wants you to feel empowered once more. So let me tell you how we are empowering thousands of people, just like you, to take control of their financial futures and arm themselves with their very own golden parachute, God knows, your employer isn't going to provide you with one.
Remember that feeling of empowerment I talked about in the intro? That feeling of readiness? The process of getting ready doesn't need to end after we leave school. In fact, I'm still preparing for new and exciting activities that I want to explore. I prepare by gaining knowledge through education. Dream Outfitters has that. Then I further prepare by putting systems in place and using the right set of tools to make my dream possible, we have those too. Once you've gained the knowledge and implemented the correct systems and tools, you're ready to take on the world of online marketing. I believe that the internet is the last great frontier and the beauty of the internet is that it is truly infinite. The real estate stretches on and on and never ends. There's always room for another great offering. So you never need to feel trapped, or restricted.
We will provide you with continuing education, along with a system and all the tools you need. All you need is desire and the willingness to work toward your own self-determined goals. We'll even welcome you into our community of like minded people that you can network with, discuss ideas, and a variety of business strategies. All of the resources you're going to find are what Jay Kubassek (founder of CarbonCopyPRO) likes to call an incubator for entrepreneurs, which leads nicely into tomorrow's topic: Entrepreneurship.
During the first 25% of our lives, we find ourselves emmersed in a structured environment with its foundation based on readiness. We spend our infancy getting ready to walk and talk, as a toddler or very young child, our parents get us ready to enter the school system to begin our journey in education (yesterday's topic). In kindergarten, we are getting ready for entering the first grade, and in first grade we're getting ready for 2nd grade and so on. All of our years in elementary school culminate in getting us ready for middle school. Middle school is spent preparing for high school and in high shool we're getting ready to enter the "real world" or maybe, if we're lucky, to go to college. But after that, then what?
Well, if you're really attuned to the world of academia, you may choose to stay in school for some length of time after gradusating, getting advanced degrees, doctorates and the like. But if you're like most of us, after your formal education is completed, you're thrust out into the world with not much more than your diploma or degree and a lot of ambition. You feel empowered, because you've learned so much in school, but the real world can still be a pretty scary place. It doesn't take long for that feeling of empowerment to fade when faced with the prospect of landing a job. Especially in today's economy. The competition for decent living wage situations id fierce. You really have to be a sharp cookie to gain and maintain a full-time job. That's where Dream Outfitters come in.
At Dream Outfitters, we say that having a job is not the way to financial freedom. In fact we say that having a job is simply an acronym; JOB stands for Just Over Broke. The days of going to school and getting good grades to get into a good college and working for a good company until retirement age are but a distant memory of yesteryear. Once upon a time, employees were loyal to the companies they worked for and in return, the companies treated employees with a great deal of respect and that loyalty was rewarded with a great retirement package and a gold watch when you left the work force in your golden years. Now it seems that corporations are more interested in the shareholders than they are in the people that make their business function on a daily basis. Employees are now more like commodities than human beings. The focus is now on the bottom line. But who's looking out for you? The answer is nobody. You need to look after yourself. Dream Outfitters wants you to feel empowered once more. So let me tell you how we are empowering thousands of people, just like you, to take control of their financial futures and arm themselves with their very own golden parachute, God knows, your employer isn't going to provide you with one.
Remember that feeling of empowerment I talked about in the intro? That feeling of readiness? The process of getting ready doesn't need to end after we leave school. In fact, I'm still preparing for new and exciting activities that I want to explore. I prepare by gaining knowledge through education. Dream Outfitters has that. Then I further prepare by putting systems in place and using the right set of tools to make my dream possible, we have those too. Once you've gained the knowledge and implemented the correct systems and tools, you're ready to take on the world of online marketing. I believe that the internet is the last great frontier and the beauty of the internet is that it is truly infinite. The real estate stretches on and on and never ends. There's always room for another great offering. So you never need to feel trapped, or restricted.
We will provide you with continuing education, along with a system and all the tools you need. All you need is desire and the willingness to work toward your own self-determined goals. We'll even welcome you into our community of like minded people that you can network with, discuss ideas, and a variety of business strategies. All of the resources you're going to find are what Jay Kubassek (founder of CarbonCopyPRO) likes to call an incubator for entrepreneurs, which leads nicely into tomorrow's topic: Entrepreneurship.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Education
Now here's a subject I certainly know something about, although I have never really achieved any academic accolades. Heck I didn't even get a college degree after going in and out of 2 different schools over a period of 5 years. All I can tell you is that in order to become truly successful and continue to stay that way, your education should never end. Being an IT professional, I must continue to learn new skills every year just to keep up with the technology. One thing I've discovered along the way is that you need to become self-educated. There are many topics that really should be taught in schools but simply are not, or they get glossed over in a superfluous manner; Personal Finance comes to mind as a specific example.
Thank God for the internet and all of the information that we can get our hands on. The only problem with having so much information at our fingertips is that you have to sift through it with an eye for what's factual and what isn't. For topics that are widely discussed, you can read a ton of information and a core of truth develops and you can tell where the fringe information, that needs to be discarded, lies. The challenging part comes when you are researching areas that don't have a lot of published information. There isn't a wealth of information available to contrast it against, so you'll want to treat these subjects with a little more scrutiny.
We promote educational material and training curriculums at DreamOutfitters.com and I truly believe that the quality of education that we offer is quite honestly superlative. We belong to a community that is made up of the world's best and brightest online entrepreneurs and they have taken the time to build an educational system for continued learning in the field of internet marketing. It is literally impossible to find the wealth of information that you'll find within our community offered in any other single location. There are eBooks, videos, Podcasts, Webinars, along with well organized computer based training curriculums all arranged by topic for easy access. These courses teach the most vital information that you need to promote your own business ideas on the world wide web. There are courses on everything from internet marketing as we've discussed to sales, service and even legal to make sure that your business is run on the up and up.
There are also multiple brand new training opportunities presented live via conference calls and webinars each and every week. Everything from the very basic beginning methods to jump start your business to the super advanced what you might call "graduate level" courses that show time tested methods that have literally cost the trainers thousand of hours of their blood sweat and tears while they fine tuned their campaigns through a series of trials and tribulations. They share what they've learned with the entire community. As Jay Kubassek always says, "the rising tide, raises all boats." It feels really great to belong to such a community and I've learned so much in a short period of time.
The bottom line for today's post is that you must continue to be a student well after your formal education is completed. Daily reading, listening to audio programs, watching DVDs as well as attending lectures, sermons and seminars. This continual process of filling your mind with the latest and most effective "best practices" can literally save you hundreds and hundreds of hours wasted by stumbling through life by trial and error. Trial and error can be effective if you do not have any examples to follow. But why spend all of that time if someone else has already done it? Success leaves clues. Pick up on those clues and save yourself the trouble of the trial and error that has already been exerted in reaching those proven successful results. Study the people you most admire and you will find the golden nuggets of wisdom that they leave behind much like a trail of breadcrumbs leading the way to where they have already arrived. Don't be a follower, be a student.
Thank God for the internet and all of the information that we can get our hands on. The only problem with having so much information at our fingertips is that you have to sift through it with an eye for what's factual and what isn't. For topics that are widely discussed, you can read a ton of information and a core of truth develops and you can tell where the fringe information, that needs to be discarded, lies. The challenging part comes when you are researching areas that don't have a lot of published information. There isn't a wealth of information available to contrast it against, so you'll want to treat these subjects with a little more scrutiny.
We promote educational material and training curriculums at DreamOutfitters.com and I truly believe that the quality of education that we offer is quite honestly superlative. We belong to a community that is made up of the world's best and brightest online entrepreneurs and they have taken the time to build an educational system for continued learning in the field of internet marketing. It is literally impossible to find the wealth of information that you'll find within our community offered in any other single location. There are eBooks, videos, Podcasts, Webinars, along with well organized computer based training curriculums all arranged by topic for easy access. These courses teach the most vital information that you need to promote your own business ideas on the world wide web. There are courses on everything from internet marketing as we've discussed to sales, service and even legal to make sure that your business is run on the up and up.
There are also multiple brand new training opportunities presented live via conference calls and webinars each and every week. Everything from the very basic beginning methods to jump start your business to the super advanced what you might call "graduate level" courses that show time tested methods that have literally cost the trainers thousand of hours of their blood sweat and tears while they fine tuned their campaigns through a series of trials and tribulations. They share what they've learned with the entire community. As Jay Kubassek always says, "the rising tide, raises all boats." It feels really great to belong to such a community and I've learned so much in a short period of time.
The bottom line for today's post is that you must continue to be a student well after your formal education is completed. Daily reading, listening to audio programs, watching DVDs as well as attending lectures, sermons and seminars. This continual process of filling your mind with the latest and most effective "best practices" can literally save you hundreds and hundreds of hours wasted by stumbling through life by trial and error. Trial and error can be effective if you do not have any examples to follow. But why spend all of that time if someone else has already done it? Success leaves clues. Pick up on those clues and save yourself the trouble of the trial and error that has already been exerted in reaching those proven successful results. Study the people you most admire and you will find the golden nuggets of wisdom that they leave behind much like a trail of breadcrumbs leading the way to where they have already arrived. Don't be a follower, be a student.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Enlightenment
Enlightenment to me, used to be a search for something outside of myself. As a youngster I debated the merits of the church and rebelled because the various factions seemed to be at odds with one another. I witnessed hypocrisy, and diametrically opposed views facing off against one another with respect to who would be saved, who the infidels were and who would be chosen to enter the kingdom of God. It occurred to me that it was impossible for all of these religious points of view to be true, so I searched even further.
Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastianism, you name it, I've probably read about it. It was then that I started forming my own hybrid belief systems based on the teachings of everything I had read. I'd pick and choose the best parts of each, or more accurately, the parts that fit the unstructured life that I had chosen for myself. It was only later in life that I realized that handpicking values from a smorgasborg of practices does not a religion make. True enlightenment comes from discipline and introspect.
Enlightenment doesn't come from the outside. It comes from what's inside of us and is revealed through self-education, contemplation, inspiration and meditation. I've recently been reading quite a bit about quantum physics and the Zero-Point field. Dr. Wayne Dyer refers to it as source energy and Yoda refers to it as the force, while still others refer to it as the Holy Spirit. It is the universal energy that connects us all and everything else in the universe. It's pretty spacey, I agree, but the math works out. And there are a great number of serious phycisists who can support these theoretical axioms through their scientific experimentation.
Whether you find true enlightenment through the Bible, the Koran, the teachings of Ghandi or confucious; You must have faith and believe in it with every ounce of conviction in your heart. It isn't something you can turn on and off at will. It becomes a part of who you are. It shows up in your smile, the way you shake hands and the work that you do day in and day out. I cannot say that I am an enlightened individual by any means, but I continue to grow in my faith and I try to live a life more in tune with the harmonistic vibration of the cosmos, yes all at the same time.
Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastianism, you name it, I've probably read about it. It was then that I started forming my own hybrid belief systems based on the teachings of everything I had read. I'd pick and choose the best parts of each, or more accurately, the parts that fit the unstructured life that I had chosen for myself. It was only later in life that I realized that handpicking values from a smorgasborg of practices does not a religion make. True enlightenment comes from discipline and introspect.
Enlightenment doesn't come from the outside. It comes from what's inside of us and is revealed through self-education, contemplation, inspiration and meditation. I've recently been reading quite a bit about quantum physics and the Zero-Point field. Dr. Wayne Dyer refers to it as source energy and Yoda refers to it as the force, while still others refer to it as the Holy Spirit. It is the universal energy that connects us all and everything else in the universe. It's pretty spacey, I agree, but the math works out. And there are a great number of serious phycisists who can support these theoretical axioms through their scientific experimentation.
Whether you find true enlightenment through the Bible, the Koran, the teachings of Ghandi or confucious; You must have faith and believe in it with every ounce of conviction in your heart. It isn't something you can turn on and off at will. It becomes a part of who you are. It shows up in your smile, the way you shake hands and the work that you do day in and day out. I cannot say that I am an enlightened individual by any means, but I continue to grow in my faith and I try to live a life more in tune with the harmonistic vibration of the cosmos, yes all at the same time.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Glenn Beck's E4 Solution
This week I plan on spending time discussing Glenn Beck's E4 solution for restoring "American Exceptionalism". Before you start rolling your eyes and thinking to yourself, "Oh great... Todd's just another right wing wacko." Let me first tell you that this is not a political discussion. It's not about right and left, or conservative and liberal, or progressive, or any of that. This is simply about stepping up and improving the country we live in by stepping up and making personal improvements in our own lives. This will result in an overall improvement in our surrounding communities and the nation as a whole. I honestly believe that Glenn has actually stumbled upon something very important here (perhaps literally).
I've been listening to Glenn Beck on the radio for at least 7 years, probably longer. I remember when he was just a "Sick Twisted Freak" who harassed 7-11 store owners by calling them on the phone to play "Moron Trivia". But then he started his television program and everything started to shift. While his show was always dubbed "The Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment", I definitely noticed that he was moving more towards enlightenment and departing from his more entertaining whacky antics. Over the past year or so, I've watched him metamorphasize into an educator; an historian if you will. He started teaching us about the founders and I learned a lot of stuff about American History that simply wasn't taught in schools. But since I'm a student and not just a follower, I did my own research and I encourage you to do the same. Do not take my word for it. You've got to be self-educated, which means reading the books, and doing your homework. Don't take anything that Glenn Beck says or anything that I say for granted, find out for yourself.
Now that I've got the disclaimer out of the way, let's get down to what's gotten me all worked up with respect to Glenn Beck. Glenn has announced that he will be embarking on what he calls "The E4 Solution." The four E's consist of: Enlightenment, Education, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship. Three of which were so closely tied to the vision of Dream Outfitters that I was really quite intrigued. I believe that somehow Dream Outfitters and Glenn Beck are somehow connected and perfectly synchronized in time. So I had to find out why Dream Outfitters was missing a piece of the solution. As it turns out, we had overlooked Enlightenment, so I want to thank Glenn Beck for pointing this out so I can incorporate enlightenment into the Dreamers vision and mission. I guess I may have been afraid to bring spirituality to the table, because it is so personal. But I see now the importance of getting down to a more personal level in order to achieve success in life, in the lives of my fellow Dreamers and for America.
As the old story goes:
A man decided that he would change the world. But, he wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change the country. But, he wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change his community. But, he wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change his street. But, be wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change his family. But, he wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change himself. AND HE WAS SUCCESSFUL.
AND HIS FAMILY WAS AFFECTED, AND THEY CHANGED, AND THEY AFFECTED THEIR STREET.
AND THE PEOPLE ON THE STREET WERE AFFECTED, AND THEY CHANGED, WHICH AFFECTED THE COMMUNITY.
AND THE PEOPLE OF THE COMMUNITY WERE AFFECTED, AND THEY CHANGED, WHICH AFFECTED THE COUNTRY.
AND THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY WERE AFFECTED, AND THEY CHANGED, WHICH AFFECTED THE WHOLE WORLD.
The moral of the story is that change always starts with the individual. When setting out on our own E4 Journey, we need to take a good look at what is inside of us. And Glenn launched his campaign by introducing us to The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life:
1. Courage
2. Faith
3. Truth
4. Compassion
5. Friendship
6. Family
7. Common Sense
I'll probably come back to these at a later time. It looks like there might be a week's worth of material here and I don't plan on echoing Glenn's approach verbatim. I want to elaborate on The E4 Solution and give you my take on the four parts before I delve into these 7 wonders. So we'll wrap this post with this story "The 7". The remainder of the week I'll be discussing Enlightenment, Education, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship.
I've been listening to Glenn Beck on the radio for at least 7 years, probably longer. I remember when he was just a "Sick Twisted Freak" who harassed 7-11 store owners by calling them on the phone to play "Moron Trivia". But then he started his television program and everything started to shift. While his show was always dubbed "The Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment", I definitely noticed that he was moving more towards enlightenment and departing from his more entertaining whacky antics. Over the past year or so, I've watched him metamorphasize into an educator; an historian if you will. He started teaching us about the founders and I learned a lot of stuff about American History that simply wasn't taught in schools. But since I'm a student and not just a follower, I did my own research and I encourage you to do the same. Do not take my word for it. You've got to be self-educated, which means reading the books, and doing your homework. Don't take anything that Glenn Beck says or anything that I say for granted, find out for yourself.
Now that I've got the disclaimer out of the way, let's get down to what's gotten me all worked up with respect to Glenn Beck. Glenn has announced that he will be embarking on what he calls "The E4 Solution." The four E's consist of: Enlightenment, Education, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship. Three of which were so closely tied to the vision of Dream Outfitters that I was really quite intrigued. I believe that somehow Dream Outfitters and Glenn Beck are somehow connected and perfectly synchronized in time. So I had to find out why Dream Outfitters was missing a piece of the solution. As it turns out, we had overlooked Enlightenment, so I want to thank Glenn Beck for pointing this out so I can incorporate enlightenment into the Dreamers vision and mission. I guess I may have been afraid to bring spirituality to the table, because it is so personal. But I see now the importance of getting down to a more personal level in order to achieve success in life, in the lives of my fellow Dreamers and for America.
As the old story goes:
A man decided that he would change the world. But, he wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change the country. But, he wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change his community. But, he wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change his street. But, be wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change his family. But, he wasn’t successful.
So he decided to change himself. AND HE WAS SUCCESSFUL.
AND HIS FAMILY WAS AFFECTED, AND THEY CHANGED, AND THEY AFFECTED THEIR STREET.
AND THE PEOPLE ON THE STREET WERE AFFECTED, AND THEY CHANGED, WHICH AFFECTED THE COMMUNITY.
AND THE PEOPLE OF THE COMMUNITY WERE AFFECTED, AND THEY CHANGED, WHICH AFFECTED THE COUNTRY.
AND THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY WERE AFFECTED, AND THEY CHANGED, WHICH AFFECTED THE WHOLE WORLD.
The moral of the story is that change always starts with the individual. When setting out on our own E4 Journey, we need to take a good look at what is inside of us. And Glenn launched his campaign by introducing us to The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life:
1. Courage
2. Faith
3. Truth
4. Compassion
5. Friendship
6. Family
7. Common Sense
I'll probably come back to these at a later time. It looks like there might be a week's worth of material here and I don't plan on echoing Glenn's approach verbatim. I want to elaborate on The E4 Solution and give you my take on the four parts before I delve into these 7 wonders. So we'll wrap this post with this story "The 7". The remainder of the week I'll be discussing Enlightenment, Education, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Goal Setting Lite
Wow! That was fast. We just blew through the first week of 2011 and I can't believe it's over already. I'm still writing 2010 on my checks!
This past week I talked an awful lot about SMART Goal Setting (maybe too much). Having said that, I'd like to share with you a method that works really great for getting the "things" we want in our lives. It's called a Vision Board and it has been highly effective for us in attracting to us the things we want in our life and it isn't half as difficult as SMART Goal Setting is.
A Vision Board is a device to help you keep some of your more tangible goals in the forefront of your imagination. It's simply a space to visually remind yourself with images of the things you want to manifest in your life. We simply cut out little pictures of the things we want and stick them on a board that we can look at throughout our day.
Creating a vision board is very simple. You can use a bulletin board, a white board (I like the magnetic white boards the best), or even the kitchen fridge to get started. Place the board in a location that you will see it multiple times during the day. If you don't want strangers to see your vision board, you may want to place it in your private bathroom or in the kitchen instead of your work place office. My wife and I have these all over our humble abode. There's one in the master bathroom, we still use the fridge in the kitchen and then we have a huge one in our home office (wait... I think we have two in there now).
Now comes the fun part. This is a little bit like scrap booking. You can cut out little pictures of the things you want from newspapers, magazines, books or whatever. I spend 75% of my life on the computer, so I simply print my images directly from web pages. Besides, Google makes it a lot easier to find images of what it is I want. For example, if you want to attain six-pack abs or a washboard stomach for yourself this year, clip out a photo of a model who is sporting the body you want to see for your own. If your dream is to travel more, you might find photos of airliners and cruise ships to add to your vision board. The more you can personalize these images, the better. For instance if you have cruise photos of yourself on the cruise ship, you might want to use those to conjure up memories of those feelings. The more emotional you make the images, the more powerful they become in the creative process.
We've used this method with great results in our own lives for things like cars, motorcycles, guitars and myriad other "material" objects. It seems to me that the physical fitness images are a little more challenging (at least for me they are). My wife still has photos of me and her stretched out on the beach when we were in our twenties. Maybe the key will be for me to actually put some "skinny" images there myself. You can use this method for anything. The pictures or images should be as close to exactly what you're dreaming of as possible. I've heard stories of people putting their dream home on a vision board, packing the board away for several years, and then realizing that they were actually living in their dream home when they unpacked the box and saw the photo of the home they have just moved into. OK... for those of you who know, that was from The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne.
You may be skeptical, and I don't blame you, because I too was thinking to myself that this was just a gimmick, but I have to tell you, it really does work. The more we think about and "see" what it is that we wish to attract into our lives, the more real a thing becomes. Have we acquired everything on our vision boards? No, but there have been so many countless items that have come to pass that it is scary. The washboard tummy is one of those more elusive goals. I also have some pictures of million dollar bills on my boards. I will tell you this. I am a heck of a lot closer to acquiring these things than I would be if I did not have a daily reminder poking my psyche and urging me to continue working out or creating new opportunities. OK, I've rambled long enough. You all get the idea. I'm going to start cutting and pasting some new stuff for this new year. If you don't have a vision board of your own, I urge you to try it. Use your bathroom mirror as a starting place. It works!
This past week I talked an awful lot about SMART Goal Setting (maybe too much). Having said that, I'd like to share with you a method that works really great for getting the "things" we want in our lives. It's called a Vision Board and it has been highly effective for us in attracting to us the things we want in our life and it isn't half as difficult as SMART Goal Setting is.
A Vision Board is a device to help you keep some of your more tangible goals in the forefront of your imagination. It's simply a space to visually remind yourself with images of the things you want to manifest in your life. We simply cut out little pictures of the things we want and stick them on a board that we can look at throughout our day.
Creating a vision board is very simple. You can use a bulletin board, a white board (I like the magnetic white boards the best), or even the kitchen fridge to get started. Place the board in a location that you will see it multiple times during the day. If you don't want strangers to see your vision board, you may want to place it in your private bathroom or in the kitchen instead of your work place office. My wife and I have these all over our humble abode. There's one in the master bathroom, we still use the fridge in the kitchen and then we have a huge one in our home office (wait... I think we have two in there now).
Now comes the fun part. This is a little bit like scrap booking. You can cut out little pictures of the things you want from newspapers, magazines, books or whatever. I spend 75% of my life on the computer, so I simply print my images directly from web pages. Besides, Google makes it a lot easier to find images of what it is I want. For example, if you want to attain six-pack abs or a washboard stomach for yourself this year, clip out a photo of a model who is sporting the body you want to see for your own. If your dream is to travel more, you might find photos of airliners and cruise ships to add to your vision board. The more you can personalize these images, the better. For instance if you have cruise photos of yourself on the cruise ship, you might want to use those to conjure up memories of those feelings. The more emotional you make the images, the more powerful they become in the creative process.
We've used this method with great results in our own lives for things like cars, motorcycles, guitars and myriad other "material" objects. It seems to me that the physical fitness images are a little more challenging (at least for me they are). My wife still has photos of me and her stretched out on the beach when we were in our twenties. Maybe the key will be for me to actually put some "skinny" images there myself. You can use this method for anything. The pictures or images should be as close to exactly what you're dreaming of as possible. I've heard stories of people putting their dream home on a vision board, packing the board away for several years, and then realizing that they were actually living in their dream home when they unpacked the box and saw the photo of the home they have just moved into. OK... for those of you who know, that was from The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne.
You may be skeptical, and I don't blame you, because I too was thinking to myself that this was just a gimmick, but I have to tell you, it really does work. The more we think about and "see" what it is that we wish to attract into our lives, the more real a thing becomes. Have we acquired everything on our vision boards? No, but there have been so many countless items that have come to pass that it is scary. The washboard tummy is one of those more elusive goals. I also have some pictures of million dollar bills on my boards. I will tell you this. I am a heck of a lot closer to acquiring these things than I would be if I did not have a daily reminder poking my psyche and urging me to continue working out or creating new opportunities. OK, I've rambled long enough. You all get the idea. I'm going to start cutting and pasting some new stuff for this new year. If you don't have a vision board of your own, I urge you to try it. Use your bathroom mirror as a starting place. It works!
Friday, January 7, 2011
SMART Goals Are Timely
When we go about setting our goals, it's always advisable to make sure we give ourselves a deadline in order to provide some urgency. Like using metrics to keep our goals measurable, giving our goals definite time tables is a way to let us know whether or not we're on target. If we leave our goals open ended, the goals may never get accomplished.
SMART Goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
By giving a goal a due date, we are more inclined to place a little more pressure on ourselves to achieve the goal. Without this, it is very easy to let the matter slide indefinitely. By stating that I want to lose 10 pounds by the end of the month, we set an alarm clock for our goal that will be constantly "ticking" in the back of our minds telling us to get off the stick.
Another reason we want to place time constraints on our goals is for scheduling. Organized folks should have their work planned out such that they have calendars with milestones. These timelines provide us with the structure to keep everything rolling along smoothly. If we tend to do things "whenever", how do we ever know exactly what we should be doing at any given time? Setting timely goals will keep busy people more organized and therefore more efficient in the long run.
If we want our goals to get done, we need to make sure we're SMART about it. If our goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely, then we have a markedly improved chance of achieving them. If we let everything kind of randomly fall into place, our results may not be optimal. A reminder that people who fail to plan are planning to fail is something that I constantly come back to any time I find myself spinning my wheels. If I have my goals in front of me, it's never really a mystery what I should be doing at any given point in time.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
SMART Goals Are Realistic
When setting your goals for the future, another very important thing to keep in mind is that each goal is realistic. This simply means that the goals have to be possible. They must be based in reality in order to come to fruition. Having said that, we now need to take a much closer look into what reality is.
SMART Goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
When I sat down to write the post this morning, I had a Deja Vu moment. Didn't I just talk about this yesterday? Well yes, and no. While contemplating this, I thought that maybe the creators of this SMART acronym were simply being slightly redundant in order to make the word SMART. But after a deeper considersation of how I can elaborate on 'Realistic' in a way that I didn't touch on when discussing 'Attainable', I decided to talk more about the reality outside of ourselves. So 'Attainable' was introspective and 'Realistic' becomes extrospection (which I'm not sure is even a word). So without any further ado, let's look a little closer at reality.
I believe that reality is constantly shifting; that there really is no hard, fast, rigid physical reality that exists outside of ourselves. I get this absurd belief from the study of quantum mechanics, but I'm not going to delve into that here. Let's just say for the sake of discussion that reality is somewhat illusional based on the beliefs (or perceptions) of the society as a whole. Your individual beliefs shape your individual reality just as powerfully as the concensus of cummulative beliefs. Therefore, it is actually possible to change our personal reality and the outside world's current reality.
OK, before I lose you all, the reasoning behind the madness of my last statement is this: Once upon a time, the world was flat. It was truly a reality that the world was flat because everyone believed it. Once it was imperically "proven" that the world was indeed a sphere, there was a paradigm shift in reality. Some may argue that this was simply because we didn't know the true reality at the time. But I can turn the nay sayers' argument right back on them and ask the question, then how do we know that what we know is the ultimate 'end-of-the-road' reality on any given subject? Man continues to explore the unknown and is constantly coming up with discoveries that shake the very foundation of our current understanding of things. This says to me that reality is indeed somewhat pliable.
Now does this mean that we can set goals for ourselves like, "I will learn how to fly without the aid of any sort of mechanical or external aerodynamic means". I still advise against it. While it may be realistic on some cosmic level over the next millenium of many men contemplating man's unaided ability to defy gravity. It isn't a goal that we as a society would consider realistic. Try to keep your own personal goals firmly planted in reality.
My final thought on reality would be that while it may not be ultimately as concrete as people think it is. The ability to shift reality requires a massive amount of faith. Perception is reality, or so they say. So in order to make a nebulous thing real, you must be able to "see it" in your minds eye. You have to "believe it" with every ounce of your being and then finally, you may have to convince others that what you believe is in fact true. Keep your goals realistic for you, love and believe in the outcomes and do not give up on them.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
SMART Goals Are Attainable
The goals that we set for ourselves need to be attainable. Otherwise, we're simply fooling ourselves, OR we're setting ourselves up for failure. The last thing you want to do is set out on a journey than can never be completed. The key to knowing whether or not a goal is attainable is as the ancient Greek aphorism goes, "Know thyself".
SMART Goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
It seems obvious to most of us, but truth be told, many people go out and attempt to accomplish things that they really have no business attempting. If you're in Real Estate, for example, you just might want to set your sights a little shy of becoming the next Donald Trump. Unless of course you honestly possess the kind of drive and determination that Mr. Trump has demonstrated over and over again in his life. The operative word in the previous sentence is honestly. You want to be as honest with yourself as possible, so that you know that your goals are attainable.
The best way to determine which goals are right for you is some good old fashioned introspect and careful consideration of what your abilities are. Set goals according to your current state of being, but please don't be afraid to stretch yourself. The best way to challenge yourself is to set a goal you know you can accomplish and then maybe drizzle a tiny bit of enthusiasm onto that so that it won't be a slam dunk. Challenge yourself, but don't bite off more than you could possibly ever choke down. You know what you're capable of, go out there and set some attainable goals so that you can reach your dreams.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
SMART Goals Are Measurable
When you go about the business of setting your goals, you'll want to make sure that they're measurable. This means that you quantify the results you're looking for. For instance, your goal could be to increase sales. This goal is admirable, but it has no metrics associated with it. Therefore if you increase sales even by as little as one unit, you've succeeded! But I don't think you'd want to stop there (I could be wrong). Yesterday we discussed the process of specifying your goals more clearly. Adding meatrics is just another layer of specificity that should be applied to your goals.
Just a brief review from yesterday...
SMART Goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
Using yesterday's example of buying groceries, we can add metrcis by stating how much we need to purchase. I need to pick up a gallon of skim milk, one pound of ribeye and 2 large baking potatoes (yes, russets). If you want to increase sales, indicate by how much. Let's say we want to increase sales by 33% over the next year. This is a measaurable figure and therefore lends itself nicely to your action plan. It gives you the ability to calculate how many sales will be required for the year (to reach your desired 33% increase), which in turn can be broken down to more meaningful monthly and weekly sales goals. This gives you the yardstick with which you can measure your degree of success for any given week. If you haven't met your specific sales requirements for the week, you know that you'll need to increase your efforts the following week in order to make up the difference. Without making the goal measurable, you lose this important tracking system for your success.
Having metrics also let's you know if you're pushing yourself hard enough in your goal setting. Let's say your goal was to increase your sales by 10% and you hit your target before the end of the month every month. This simply means that you haven't set the bar high enough and you should really consider increasing the target in order to achieve even more for yourself this year. Yes, goals can be adjusted. In fact it's an important part of the achievement process.
If you're piloting an airplane and you set your goal to fly from Los Angeles to Honolulu, let's say you take off and set your bearings for the aloha state. Now you just kick back until you get there? I don't think so. You need to constantly monitor your progress, making sure that you're on track, and if you deviate from your desired course, you need to make the necessary adjustments to get the plane back on course in order to reach your destination. This evaluation is necessary for all goals and without metrics to give your goals the specificity of being measurable, your don't have the information you need to keep yourself on target. Keep your goals measurable and we'll talk about the rest of SMART goal setting as the week progresses.
Monday, January 3, 2011
SMART Goals Are Specific
Welcome to the first work day of the first week of the first month of the first year of the new decade. 2011 is shaping up to be the best year for us and the reason I can say that is that we've set some goals that are really exctiting. With the new year comes the time to plan out the upcoming weeks, months, and years. Goal setting is something that needs to be done for the short term, medium term and long term. Time frames are important when you start planning massive action. Some of your goals are more immediate or short term goals while others are a little broader and far reaching long term goals. We encourage you to write them all down; big and small alike. There's a saying and I don't even know the source, because I've heard it put hundreds of ways by hundreds of people; "People who fail to plan are simply planning to fail."
We at Dream Outfitters like to set SMART goals - Goals that are:
We at Dream Outfitters like to set SMART goals - Goals that are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
This week, I'll be tackling each one of these items and elaborating just a little bit so that it makes a lot more sense than just a snappy little acronym for goal setting; which means that today I'm going to get down and dirty with specificity and talk about making our goals very specific.
Everybody has goals whether they realize it or not. Every time we get a thought in our mind such as, "I need to buy some groceries", the thought is merely a desire, however, all of our desires are, in reality, goals. Whether we write them down or spend a lot of time dwelling on them or not, they are still considered goals. If you truly want to start designing a new life for yourself, or improve upon the great life that you're already living, you need to have goals. This is how we measure success. Success is measured, in most part, by the achievement of our goals.
The goal that we've set for ourselves in the previous paragraph is great. We know that we need to go and buy groceries, but that goal is a little vague. In order to get the absolute best results for the goal, we need to make it more specific. So how do we go about making it more specific? Easy... We start to ask ourselves questions about it. Questions that more clearly define what it is we really want to get out of the goal. For our example, we might ask the following questions:
- What store do we want to go to in order to buy our groceries?
- What specific items are we looking for? (this is an iterative process)
If we now begin narrow down our specific grocery items we'll see that each iteration gets us closer and closer to our true desires. Let's say we have a pretty short list:
- Milk
- Meat
- Potatoes
I'm from Minnesota originally, so this is primarily my diet (which I'll be improving this year by the way). We still have some narrowing down that needs to be done. We continue looping through this process of narrowing down until we've left nothing to chance. What kind of milk? There's buttermilk, whole milk, 2%, 1%, skim. And meat, well, we have pork, beef, fish, chicken and so on. Now we pretty much nailed milk down (except for possibly the size - Gallon, half-gallon, quart, pint), but the meat is still wide open. There are many different cuts of beef, many different species of fish, etc.. Potatoes too can be further narrowed down unless you're the type of person who only eats russet potatoes. So we go further and further, narrowing our originally vague concept of purchasing groceries until we have a very detailed list of items that we plan to pick up at the store we decided to shop at.
I realize that this was a fairly laborious way of getting at being specific about our goals, but I think that some of us have a tendency to leave our goals just a level or two too vague and this leads us to moments of decision making that could have been avoided had our goals been set up properly in the beginning. Sure we need to make decisions, but the best time to make those decisions is in the earliest possible planning stages, not when we're in action mode. Massive action requires clarity if its to be done efficiently. Keep your goals specific and we'll talk about the other areas of SMART goal setting later on this week.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year! It's 2011...
Yes! We made it to the new year and it's looking very good for us, so we hope to be able to inspire you to have the best year ever too. Since today is a holiday, my post will be brief. I want to wish each and every one of you a very happy new year and a healthy and prosperous 2011 no matter where you are on your journey. I want to especially give a shout out to our men and women defending this great country of ours in the armed forces as well as all who have been called away from home and loved ones to serve. Thank you for the sacrifices that you and your family are making on behalf of the United States of America.
New years is a time to reflect on the past year, but more importantly, a time to lay the foundation for the year ahead. This upcoming week we'll be discussing goal setting and how to go about designing your life based on five specific goal setting strategies and techniques to help you to visualize your future. I'll lay it all out for you starting tomorrow. But for now, let's enjoy New Years Day with family and friends and remember to stay safe and arive alive...
Happy New Year!
New years is a time to reflect on the past year, but more importantly, a time to lay the foundation for the year ahead. This upcoming week we'll be discussing goal setting and how to go about designing your life based on five specific goal setting strategies and techniques to help you to visualize your future. I'll lay it all out for you starting tomorrow. But for now, let's enjoy New Years Day with family and friends and remember to stay safe and arive alive...
Happy New Year!
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