Not the most likely source of inspiration perhaps, but I caught a glimpse of a Hilary Duff movie last night. I know – I probably shouldn’t even be admitting that, but there was a great quote on the wall of a restaurant that really got my attention:
Don’t let your fear of striking out prevent you from playing the game!
Now – as I mentioned a few days ago, we’ve put some money into Iraqi Dinar – not a huge investment, but enough to make a significant return if it all goes as we expect. The funny thing is – I was very excited and grateful when my brother in law shared this opportunity with me. He didn’t make any money on the deal, made no difference to him whether I bought in or not, but he wanted me to know about it so I could make my own decision.
So now we’ve been in the same position of sharing this opportunity with others. For me – I would be REALLY upset if someone I knew successfully did something like this and didn’t tell me about it until the opportunity had passed. I don’t expect them to take responsibility for my decisions, but I do like to know about all the opportunities that are coming up around me! Yet when it comes to sharing this with others ourselves, we come over all shy – why? Because we’re afraid of what they might say…
Here’s the thing – going back to the baseball analogy – if you play the major leagues, and you hit 3/10 – you get paid a LOT of money! Yet that means you’re missing completely 7 times out of 10! So – whatever you’re doing – is your fear of striking out really worth missing out on something altogether? What if you could fail completely 7 times, yet be incredibly successful with the other 3? And this could apply anywhere in your life, from building your own business to getting that first date – fear comes with a high price if you give in to it.
I’ve been wanting one of these for a while now… And you just HAVE to show up at the airport in your pilot’s jacket driving a convertible, right?
Now I’m looking on YouTube, it was only a matter of time before I started looking at boats…
Maybe I should consider a seaplane??? lol
OK – I’m obsessed with flying this morning – this clip just proves my point – is there ANY better way to see the countryside?
OK – so I don’t actually HAVE my pilot’s license yet, but still the thought of being able to fly anywhere we want to, anytime we want to, in a small plane, is very exciting! Commercial air travel is just too sanitised – unless you get a window seat, it’s sometimes hard to tell you’re even in an aeroplane. But small planes – there’s no escape – you are in that experience 100%!
I’m excited today because we just discovered a great place to view planes taking off and landing at our local small airport – Addison airport in TX. There’s no regular service from this airport, but the charter and private planes are pretty busy so there’s usually something to see, even on a wet weekend.
The highlight so far? Watching our two year old run down the road after a helicopter shouting “Come back – COME BACK!”…. Can’t wait to see what he makes of our first plane!
With our involvement with the upcoming Iraqi Dinar reinstatement, and knowing others that have also invested in this currency, it’s revealing to see how people see their lives changing (or, perhaps more importantly, not changing)!
For example, if you stop the average person in the street and ask them what they would do with a million dollars – they can usually rattle off the first few items on their mental wishlist without any trouble. Their list might include a new car, house, clothes, vacation and so on. But what I’ve been noticing is that the details of this new life are missing.
With one couple, for example, they stand to make several million dollars from this deal and it has already been decided that they will be buying a house, leaving their apartment, and the wife will be quitting her job. So far, so good – but what will Monday morning look like? When you ask that question, there’s a gap in their vision.
Here’s my point – most people can visualize the big stuff – car, house, boat, vacation – after all, most of those things are only a monthly payment away anyway. But for your life to TRULY change, you have to think about the details too. As with many things in life, it’s the small things that will trip you up – so what will your Monday morning look like when you no longer have to go to work? What will you do? Will you spend the day in pyjamas, or dress for the office? Chances are, you’ve been spending time in the evenings working on your business, so what will you do with that extra time now? What will you eat for lunch, and where? Will every day be a lunch date with your partner?
In our case, we’ve been working from home a lot over the last few years, so we have some (not all!) of these answers. If your dream board consists totally of the big things that you want to change or have, then I would suggest you start adding some of the small details too. Partly because you can possibly achieve some of the smaller things more quickly, giving you that boost on your way, but also because if there are gaps in what you visualise, your mind will spot them and it will slow you down in reaching your goals!
It’s always a good idea to step back and laugh at yourself – so if you’re on twitter more than you should be (like me!) – check this out!
Way to start the week on a lighter note!!
How many times have you heard someone start out by saying something like this? Maybe it’s “I don’t lose my temper easily” or “It takes a lot to get my goat” – but the sentiment is always the same. And you know what – in my experience, it’s almost ALWAYS the opposite of reality! The more patient someone claims to be, the more likely they are to be impatient. And so on.
Now – I don’t have any statistics to back this one up – it’s just my personal observation, but take a look around you – how often does it hold true for your or for people you know? I won’t ask anyone to respond to this with a comment because, just as everyone believes they have a greate sense of humor, no-one will admit to having a short temper, or lack of patience or not being understanding of others.
Which brings me to my point tonight – what is it about you that you are papering over, rather than confonting? Because that’s what this is – by telling the outside world that we are very patient, we are trying to throw up a smokescreen so that no-one will notice that we have almost no patience at all. And if we make that smokescreen thick enough, maybe we won’t even notice that it’s not reality! But the problems with that are multiple:
- Sooner or later, the wind will blow away your smokescreen, and then not only will everyone (including you) see the reality, but now you’re going to look like a fraud!
- A really good smokescreen can last for many years, but it takes a lot of effort – effort that you have to divert away from getting the real job done – moving your life or career forward and achieving your goals.
- Ultimately, 99% of the people that you are trying to divert with your smokescreen are far too busy creating and managing their own smokescreen to pay any attention to what you might or might not be saying. Unless what you are doing interferes with their ability to look good to the outside world – they just won’t care.
And that’s really what this is all about – trying to look good and keeping from looking bad to others. A huge amount of time and effort is wasted generally in this pursuit – even more tragic given that everyone else is doing the same thing and totally ignoring what you are doing.
So here’s my recipe for personal power in any situation, and it does not require ANY effort. In fact, it probably takes a whole lot less effort than you are using right now! Here it is in two words: STOP PRETENDING – in other words, stop trying to look like someone you’re not. By all means work to imporve yourself, but don’t waste a lot of time trying to cover up things that don’t match your ideal personal profile. No-one’s paying any attention anyway – so you might as well have some fun with life!
One of the great things about Twitter is that so many people are on there – unfortunately, that also means there’s a lot of people on there!! So when you are looking for your favorite athlete or sports star, it can be VERY difficult to work out what their username might be – even more so when there are many others pretending to be that person also…
That’s why I was excited to find this article from Al Ferreti – now you can find, follow and even tweet with the biggest sports names around!
A directory of professional athletes tweeting on Twitter | TwitterWatchdog.com
When I was working in the corporate world, with someone else calling the shots, one of the biggest attractions of working for myself was that concept of “freedom”! The freedom to work when I wanted to, to take time off during the daylight hours, actually see my kids during the week and generally take back control of my life.
But what happened when I started out in business for myself? Just like many others – I ended up working far longer hours than I ever did when I had a boss! Now that’s not all bad – I was working on something that I was passionate about, and I was doing it for me and my family – no one else was getting a cut of my efforts. But still – when I started working from home, I was expecting to see more of the house than just my office!
The key to getting more done from each and every day is, of course, simply organisation. If you go into any day without a plan, then you can be sure that there will be people at every turn – sending emails, making calls – all of whom will happily organise your time for you. Only problem is – they’ll organise you right out of business! If you want to achieve your goals in your business then there are a couple of steps that you absolutely have to take:
- Get clear on what it is that you are trying to achieve! If you just want to replace your coporate salary, that might not be too hard. But if you want to make $100,000 or even $1,000,000 per month – you are going to need a bigger plan. If you have no goal at all – just stop now, is my advice…
- Work out when you want to achieve that income goal – and don’t be too conservative on this one. It’s often far easier, and certainly more exciting, to move quickly in business than to move slowly.
- Define some key milestones on that route – hitting $1,000,000 per month might seem a long way off, but if you can define some clear and logical milestones along the way, then the journey will be much smoother.
- Now break that down into what you need to do each month, each week and each day. That breakdown will be in terms of sales made, ads placed, blog entries made – anything that is a part of your business. But at this point – you need numbers! Exactly how many sales will you make? How many words will you tweet?
Now here’s the last and best step. Now you have your daily benchmarks in front of you – set yourself up with a daily chart. This can be a spreadsheet on your computer, a sheet of paper or a big whiteboard – though I recommend something big and obvious in your office or workspace – something you can really get focused on for the day. List out exactly what you will do each day and leave a space for filling in the results as you achieve them.
And here’s the exciting part – it’s your business, so there’s no way you’ll leave that office until your board is complete. But on the other hand – it’s your business, so if you get your board completed by lunchtime – you can spend the afternoon on the golf course without asking permission and without wondering whether or not you did enough today. Now THAT’S why I love working from home!!
