Trying To Get Focused

From time to time, my mentors remind me of something that I try and keep at the forefront of my thought process: Good is the opposite of great. From my own personal experience, this seems to be the greatest deterrent from higher levels of success. We often get excited about getting to a certain point and it can blind us from really stretching ourselves to a more enjoyable level of satisfaction. Many times, we put a couple minor things on hold and reach that "good" point, and then let a couple of the minor things back in to the forefront. Then, not only do we sabotage our efforts of getting to great, but we also endanger our comfort-filled "good" position.

What am I talking about? Well, I'll use personal anecdote to explain. I love sports. Going to sporting events, watching sporting events, reading about and talking about sports. I played just about any sport I could growing up and multiple sports in high school. As a kid, the most consistent conversation I had with my Dad was talking sports and sports statistics. That hasn't changed a lot, actually. Regardless, sports was an enormous part of my life.

The business that I'm involved in, however, takes a great deal of focus when it comes to where and how I'm spending my time. There is often a direct correlation between personal development, action and end result. The only issue is that often times what determined the end result and it's time frame can only be quantified when the end result is met. I know, I know, you want it in English. My business involves dealing with many different personalities if one plans to succeed at high levels and very few people are naturals in this arena. Even those who are benefit from continued development, so commiting time to developing in this area is pretty vital to succeeding. The thing is, you don't usually know if you've worked on yourself enough until you're either attracting people with your behavior or repelling them until after it's happened. It's not like you read a chapter of a book like Bringing Out The Best In People and at that moment everything clicks into place.

What do these different ramblings have to do with how I started this post? When I'm at home at night, choices abound. I can do anything from trying to combine a little ESPN with reading just before bed, to falling asleep with the TV on before I even get to the reading part. When I leave my day job, I have the opportunity to either go out and shake some hands, make some new friends and delve into the personal networking part of my business, or I can stop at the house and spend an hour or so with my little girl before heading back out. Now, most people will say, "why can't you just do a little of both?," and to be honest, that's what I fight all the time.

Here is why I can't do both: watching some sports and reading a little or spending a little of my prime networking time at home with my daughter before heading back out will most likely result in me being good at what I'm trying to accomplish, but not great. The fear is looking back in two years, not having the results I could have had, and still be working in the active-income arena with a daughter that is two years older. To be more to the point, this is what I look back on now and get angry at myself about. I've tried to do both and so far I've become pretty good at knowing my business, my personal development and the growing my business. What stinks is that I look back and see that if I would have just focused solely on the business, I could be in position right now to be living in the strictly passive income world.

The solution seems obvious, right? Just keep the dumb TV off and give up a little time with the kid to spend all kinds of time with her in the near future. So why is it still so hard to do? For one, I believe that putting watching sports (or more honestly - Sportscenter) on the back-burner is essentially breaking a habit spanning multiple decades. I'm only 30, but sports has been a mainstay as long as I can remember. Don't get me wrong, I don't sit at home watching games during prime time. I've overcome that. The issue is postponing even the 45 minutes of Sportscenter that I can oftentimes fall asleep watching, thus eliminating my attempts to read. Honestly, in total, outside of watching a movie rental on a Saturday night with Mrs. Objects In The Mirror, I may watch a little less than 10 hours of television a week. For most, this is pretty good. For me, it's not great.

When it comes to the stop at home, it was a mini-habit that started from me stopping at home to change cars with Mrs. Objects. I couldn't just switch cars and be back on the road. I had to at least go inside and see the little one. Well, once I was in the house, Mrs. Objects had a touch of relief and tried to knock out a couple of quick things while I played with the little one. Before you know it, it's an hour later and I've lost vital time.

So here's what we're going to do: despite the fact that my Bears are odds on favorites to go to the Super Bowl this year and the Bulls are actually better than their record (I shouldn't even know their record if I want to be great,) I am putting myself on a timeout. How? I'm going into the old bag of tricks to get the job done. I can't get rid of the TV because the little one loves Baby Einstein, but I can leave notes for myself to not watch it. Notes that say things like: "Sportscenter doesn't get you out of your job." I'm also putting myself back on a book per week habit. The last time I set a focus like this I was very good at maintaining it.

Can I turn it around that easily? I think I can. My freedom is that important to me. I'm planning on 2007 being the last year I work for someone else, and if I'm serious, I have to be serious. Here we go ...

Staying Steady Through The Holidays

Ahh, the holidays. For many it's the perfect time to take that much needed break, and wind down with egg nog, Christmas cookies, and way too much food. Well, not so much if you want to keep some momentum going in your business. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't necessarily out conducting business on Christams Eve nor will I today, but in a business built on relationships, this is the time when maintaining and furthering those relationships can really come into play.

Everyone is with their family at Christmas time. It's a "spend time with the family" day. People expect to hear from those that are either family, or very much like it today. That's why spending an hour or two to jump on the phone with each of the people I'm working with is so vital. When I start working with people, I can't guarantee that they will be with me forever, but I expect people to want to take what we do the full way. As such, I expect to have long term relationships with them. I expect my kid(s) to play with their kids (when most of them have kids someday.) So as much as I am not always enamored with making phone calls, I get excited about today. Some of these guys, I've just started helping and working with. Some, I've been around for months.

It's also a great time to call people that we worked with at one point who may have decided to choose a different path for their future. I've always been taught to be an ambassador when it comes to my business. You always want to leave the door open for anyone whose dream may have been derailed for whatever reason. You can't make winners win and you can't make quitters quit, but you can welcome back a former quitter that wants to win now.

All in all, I am going to be out and about today. I was for a short while yesterday also. It's never a bad time to bring up a worthwhile business. I mean, at the end of the day, why would I want to shut the doors on my store?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Intention Manifestation/Power Of Spoken Word

Every day I learn something new about life or business, I'm amazed at how little is taught in schools. Schools aren't bad places and I have nothing against them, but why was Chaucer force fed to me when I could have really used a book on positive mental attitude or the power of getting what you speak? I know that right off the bat there are people that immediately are tuning out, thinking to themselves, "That stuff doesn't work. That's just hocus pocus, foo-foo stuff." These are the first people to respond "not much" when you ask them "what's up?" or "what's going on?" and then complain about not being challenged enough and how their days sometimes drag. Your words are the architect of your future. If anything, there is proof of this in the negative sense. How many times do you hear someone say, "Forgive me, I'm horrible with names," and then have to ask you three more times what your name is? Do you really think superstar athletes like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods got to where they are by telling themselves they can't make it and that it would be extremely tough to even try? Of course not.

In this vein, I have read a few books on this concept. Hung By The Tongue is brilliant in it's basic breakdown of how powerful your words are. It's a short, easy read and is pretty inexpensive. What You Say Is What You Get is a little thicker, still inexpensive, but even more detailed in how to control your speech. What To Say When You Talk To Yourself is even more vital if you ask me, as it gets into concepts such as positive confession cards and really delves into what spurns your actions and results in life. I find it hard to believe that someone who doesn't believe in speech controlling life reading that book and not seeing truth. Just get it, read it, and you'll understand (btw, I make nothing if you buy any of those books as this blog is not officially affiliated with Amazon, nor the authors in any way.)

I've been working on putting this concept into effect in everything I do. Whether it's how I greet people in the morning - "not much" has become "everything is going on!" My response to "how are you doing" has become, "Great!" or "Top of the world!" I have to tell you that just doing that makes me feel better about my day. When bad stuff happens (being positive doesn't mean that problems disappear,) I've been working on not overreacting and measuring my response before I just blurt out in anger. It's so easy to have something stupid happen and to stand there saying, "this sucks!" I've been using these methods to write positive confession cards and a personal mission statement. I went out and actually bought some 3X5 cards and a black Sharpie and started putting positive phrases on the cards. Things like, "Smile, it's free!" or "I can relate to anyone." I can pull these cards out at any time while I'm driving and remind myself that "Everything is going to be great" and that I can "Win Today" (two other cards I have.) My personal mission statement/full positive confession talks about where I'm going, what I'm accomplishing, and who I'm becoming. It speaks the type of people that will come into my life, the type of family I will have and the type of impact that I plan on having.

Over at one of my favorite personal development sites, I recently came across something that seemed very much like positive confession. In none of my limited travels had I read much about intention-manifestation, but after reading a little about it, it seems to simply be the secular way of saying the power of the spoken word. I even joined the $1M experiment. Why not? What's the worst that happens? I know, you thought I'd say the worst, but we're talking about speaking positive right? So I'll put it this way - it doesn't cost me anything to participate and has a tremendous upside.

Are you speaking positive in everything you do? Not to get to "astral-plane-hippiefied" for you, but we are creatures of energy and we do produce both positive and negative. What makes you words exempt from being a viable participant? Why would we think we can say negative things and somehow have it not affect us? I use to be very self-efacing. It's easy to make fun of yourself because you don't offend anyone, right? Wrong. You offend you, subconsciously. It's not geeky to tell yourself you're a good person. In fact, it's necessary. 70% of the words you hear come from your own mouth. Why not program it with positive?

It's Not Just The Money

"Yeah right! Sure it's not." That's the reaction I have sometimes gotten from friends and other people that don't understand why I'm so dedicated and bold when it comes to making my business work. What's funny is that I spend probably 20-25 hours a week trying to build a business that will allow me to retire in my early 30's (by 32 is the goal - I'm 30 now,) and yes, if you add that to the 40 hours I put in at my day job, it's about 60-65 hours per week. However, when I reach my goal, the 40 hours will disappear and I'll probably spend 15-20 hours in my business for a few more years until I can whittle that down to about 10. At that same time, the people making the "just doing it for the money" claim will still be chasing a dollar bill working 40, 50, or even 60+ hours a week. Who is doing what for the money? My income will be completely passive in my early 30's. It doesn't make them bad people, or dumb, or losers. It just makes them misinformed or unwilling, and that is okay.

Don't get me wrong, I like toys. I like nice houses with gadgets. Theater rooms are sweet. The sound of a Lamborghini engine is nice and I plan to enjoy all of that stuff. But gadgets can only get so gimmicky. The cars can only get so fast (without me putting them into a wall.) Steaks can only get so good (which I may be open for debate on.) Jewelry can only get so shiny and big (before it looks gaudy.) All the stuff is nice but I know people that have "stuff" whose lives are empty. I've driven past houses in affluent suburbs at night and seen that no one is home. You can keep all that stuff if I can just have the rest of my life with my wife and daughter (and future kids,) spending as much time as I choose with them without having to think about money.

I remember hearing a CD where the speaker was talking about the fact that his mentor hasn't balanced his checkbook in 10 years. What a thought! I'm not a big fan of money in and of itself. But to me, money can be like a scalpel. It can do good and it can do evil depending on whose hands you put it in. It's just a tool. I'm eager to just get to the point where it doesn't dictate every facet of my life.

I'm much more excited to see the positive changes that have come into my life due to the business I'm involved in. I'm more excited about my wife changing as well as the people I'm helping. It's fulfillment with a financial reward as the kicker, not a financial reward hoping that it brings fulfillment.

Travelling For Education

This past Saturday I had an exciting opportunity: one of the leaders on our business team from the East Coast was travelling to the Midwest to speak. One of the things I love about my business is that there is a mentorship system in place that is very well put together. There is no guesswork, there is no "maybe, possibly." It's a very assured and successful system. I've been taught since day one to chase thought process over chasing money and it seemed like an obvious idea. I felt that one thing I understood very well from the beginning is that if you get around successful people, you'll learn how to have their success. I also understand that the little keys that move you forward are not always obvious. It's very possible that in a two hour teaching session, there may be one piece of information that moves you forward, but it moves you light years forward. The same thing sometimes happens in a 5 minute conversation with a hot shot, or a big dog on your way to the car also. That's why the concept of attending everything I can for my business just made sense. Even when it isn't comfortable. Of course, getting a bunch of new guys to understand that doesn't always play well, but that's part of the growth process.

So we were looking at a 10 hour round trip for probably 3 hours and change worth of information. However, if you understand my previous statments in regard to the time not equaling the value as much as the content, you'll understand that this was no big deal. It's another feather in my cap, another badge of honor. And the people we were going to speak are always entertaining, engaging and motivational, so the value is there. The road trip alone gave me an opportunity to further bond with some of my guys; to find out a little more about who they are and to let them know who I am and who they're in business with. Relationships are the most important part to any business, but especially one built on individual networking. I love seeing "rough around the edges" guys open up a little bit and really say what's on their heart, because they feel it's okay to share. I was a guy like that at one point.

Back to the seminar. The place we were in sat over 2500 people and nearly ever seat was full. Later I would hear that just five years ago they couldn't have filled that room with 25 people. I think that's good business growth, I don't care what kind of business it is. The current local success stories got to speak, and one of my mentors was one of them. The recurring theme, not from their lips, but from their persona, is that they are just regular people that were willing to do a little extra. It feels good, because I'm doing the extra right now and things are happening.

My wife and my sister arrived shortly after the event started. They rode in with a couple of ladies who had some circumstances slowing their start time. I'm so excited about working with more couples because my wife is such a willing servant. She could have jumped in the car with me, as could my sister, but they had an opportunity to hang back and travel with some newer people on the team.

I think the biggest point of the night was just learning to overcome. Overcoming mediocrity. Learning to deal with things like, your friends, that don't have anything you want, trying to talk you out of doing what you feel is best in your life. Learning who to listen to. Having faith in your own talents and abilities and then maximizing your potential. There was a guy there who was a police officer. He's been in business for a little while but he hasn't succeeded to the highest statuses in the business, but he still had a $92,000 bonus last month. If that guy can do it, why can't anyone.

How Did We Get Here?

I needed a change. I started this blog originally for reasons I still can't thumb down. I liked the potential for an online journal, and while I've had plenty of experiences to tell stories on here for the next number of years, my first array of blog entries were quite varied and while entertaining to me and my "close-personals," somewhat meaningless in basic value. I don't mean monetarily, but it felt slightly unfulfilling to me to seek the subject matter I was covering. While flopping around the bevy of blogs out there, I found just what I was looking for, in more ways than one.

It's very easy to spend countless hours online, either during work or after, plodding through the various number of blogs out there. As long as a blog is being updated regularly and it's interesting to you, the blogs actual popularity doesn't matter at all. So what did I want to scribe about? A sports related blog? Something politically motivated? Two subjects I love, but two that I don't get to pay the attention I'd like to them. Why not? A-ha! It hit me as I stumbled on Steve Pavlina's blog on personal development (definitely must-bookmark material) : with all the blogs written by successful people telling you how they got there, why not a running commentary from a guy working towards getting there? The trials and tribulations. The obstacles and opportunities. All of it.

For those of you reading that don't know me personally (which will outnumber the ones reading that do,) I started with a network marketing/private franchise business about two years ago. I'll save telling you which one for, probably ever, just because I don't want to debate my particular marketing corporation nor do I want this to be a "recruiting" blog. If you happen to be looking for an opportunity in network marketing you're welcome to get in contact with me to find out what I'm doing, but that isn't the focus of this blog. Anyway, I started the business for a number of reasons, namely my distaste for being under someone elses thumb. Also being married (and now having a kid,) I really prefer to spend my time with my wife than at work. Some of the best fun I've had in my life was when I was working for myself in my early 20's. My wife and I were together all the time and I wanted to get back to that. Also, I understand that just working a job in this Country's economic system just won't cut it. Not for me and not for my family. No one else in my family was financially well off so I was glad to chase it. Lastly, I like toys that cost more than working most jobs can afford. I don't think there is anything wrong with that.

So far, we've had some success. Not as much as we wanted at this point, and not as much as we will have. Our business is growing and most importantly, we're growing. I believe that involving yourself in personal development is vital in becoming successful in any arena. I read constantly, as well as listening to instructional/motivational CD's and I'm always looking for information that will help me grow. Here is where you will see that process. I'll revisit some old me too, just to give you an idea about who I was, but you'll also see some thought processes . There are basic tenets to success and if you've read success books, then you are familiar with them. Now you will have something you can benchmark and hopefully it's beneficial to you. I may say some things you haven't heard before. I may reference some authors you haven't read before. Hopefully you'll get it all. So what are we waiting for? Let's get it on!