What happens if there is no growth? Stagnancy, and then death.

Would you continue to fertilize a plant that was dying? Probably not. You might continue to give it water and sun. But you wouldn’t invest the resources in trying to make it grow if it was happy to die.

When the Universe, God, The Great Unknown or Destiny, what ever you call it, notices that you are alive and trying to grow it will give you what you need. If you feel you don’t need very much you will get access to very little.

If that plant that you thought was dying suddenly put out a new shoot or a bloom you might want to give it fertilizer again. Because you see that it was trying to grow and produce more.

We are like that plant. When we “show” that we have greater things in our lives to produce, the Universe will give us what we need to make it happen!

What does the Bible say? “To those that have, more shall be given unto them” Think of it in a different way. “To those who show they are trying to produce more, more resources shall be provided to them.”

Isn’t it amazing when you hear stories of people who were at the moment of losing something, and then WHAM, exactly what they needed showed up? They needed $100 to make the rent. They needed a ride to get some place important. They needed to meet someone who could help them with a particular problem.

It is when you are clear about what you want and why you want it that “it” shows up in your life.

But you have to have the belief that it can and will show up.

So, where does the cash flow from? It flows from you!

How do we increase your cashflow?

Increase your value!

Leave me a comment and ask me a question about increasing our value.

• Stability
• Loyalty to a concept or cause
• Security
• Fear
• Lack of motivation
• Lack of information

Are any of these your reasons? All of them were mine.

They still influence me. They slow my progress and speed of implementing things I know would move me in the direction I want to go. If I didn’t let these reasons get in my way I could make faster progress.

I would be much quicker to launch new businesses. I could have more today. I could be more peaceful today. I could have been able to help more people than I help today.

But if I continue to let these obstacles hold me down, what will I say in 5 years?

“I could have more today. I could be more peaceful today. I could have been able to help more people than I help today.”

But, even though these were obstacles in moving forward, I did it! And you can too. The first thing you must do is consciously chose which beliefs you will have.

For example:

“I don’t have enough knowledge.”, or “Look at all the knowledge I have already!”

“I don’t have enough experience.”, or “What experience do I have and where can I get more experience?”

“I’ve never done anything like this before.”, or “Who has done something like this before and how can I learn how they did it!”

Your beliefs will determine your ability to “see” your reality. Reality isn’t really real. It is completely subjective. How else could you explain how one person loses a limb and counts their blessings and another loses a limb and believes it is the end of the world?

Look at Tony Robbins. He came from a poor family. He was working minimum wage jobs. And in a very short time he was making millions of dollars and consulting with the most powerful people on the planet! All because of his beliefs. He believed he could.

Dr. Wayne Dyer was another guy who came from a family that had very little. His father left when he was very young. He went on to almost single handedly create an industry, self help.

So, who has the potential to make the big bucks?

When you think of someone who has made great amounts of money what comes to mind?

• Smart?
• Determined?
• Good looking?
• Already had access to cash to get started?
• Already had access to people with influence?
• Had a secret ingredient, model, technique or patent that virtually guaranteed their success?

The only thing on that list that is critical is “Determined”.

All the other things would help. But have you ever met someone who was good looking and broke? How about smart and had almost nothing? What about the people who win the lottery, why do many of them end up in bankruptcy? And just because you know someone with influence doesn’t mean they will “give” you anything. If they are successful they will invest in people that are determined!

So, who has the potential to have big bucks?

You do!

You have just as much opportunity as ANYONE else. What is getting in your way?

YOU!

Or more accurately, the beliefs you choose to hold onto to. Change your beliefs, change your life. It’s that simple.

But I have a saying in our martial arts school, “It’s simple, it’s just not easy.”

What could you do if you had the right beliefs? Write me a comment and tell me!

If you are working for someone else and you believe deeply in the mission of the company or organization, great, stay there and make sure the mission is a resounding success.

What if the above two things are true but you feel you are underpaid for your work?

You have three alternatives:

1. Try to create more value to your organization so they can see you are worth it and afford to pay you more because of your efforts
2. Stay and hope things will get better as a result of the efforts of others
3. Leave and create a better opportunity for yourself. Maybe by starting your own business

Alternatives 1 and 3 are pro-active. If you do one of these it means that you are making a choice.

Alternative 2 means that you are letting life run you instead of you running your life.

Whatever you do, make sure you are CHOOSING to do it.

You may choose to start a business.

Owning your own business is not for everyone. But I believe it can be for you if you establish the right supportive beliefs.

It also has advantages and disadvantages over being an employee.

The typical employee gets a wage, a somewhat predictable schedule, some paid time off and maybe some medical coverage.

Some employees are more fortunate. The people that work for me get that plus they get the chance to be creative and actually run the business. They get to be responsible for what goes on in the business.

They are paid a base income plus bonuses. If they want to earn more money, they can. They just need to create more value for the company (our customers) and that value turns into more money.

Why would anyone want to work for someone else?

• Stability
• Loyalty to a concept or cause
• Security
• Fear
• Lack of motivation
• Lack of information

Are any of these your reasons? All of them were mine.

They still influence me. They slow my progress and speed of implementing things I know would move me in the direction I want to go. If I didn’t let these reasons get in my way I could make faster progress.

We all work to perfect who we  are, all of the time. The key is to focus on what your self imposed restraints are and focus on reducing or eliminating them.

I will talk more about this  in my next  post. Make sure you come back.

Also, in the comments box tell me some of things that you struggle with, what self imposed restraints you have and what you would like help with.

When I was growing up it was just understood that you work for a company for 30 years. You retire. You get paid a pension. You grow old with a certain amount of security.

That scenario just doesn’t exist anymore.

The average person coming out of college today is expected to have over eight job changes in their lifetime! What!

Does that mean that you won’t like your job and you will just go on your way? Does it mean that you are expendable, just a cog in the wheel? Does it mean that your company will cease to exist?

Yes, yes and yes.

Plus many other possibilities. The bottom line? Jobs are not guaranteed anymore. There is NO entitlement to work. No one owes you a job.

You need to be more like my friend, the former accountant who now virtually runs the city he lives in.

• Know who you are
• Know your skills
• Know what you love to do
• Figure out how to do it
• Know what your value is
• Learn to sell your value everyday

Where can you go that will pay you what you are worth?

You need to answer this question first, “What is your life worth?” That is what you are trading for dollars, your life.

So, if you are going to exchange your time for money it should be worth it! You should get paid well, you should be gaining valuable skills and resources or you should love what you do. All three would be best, but at least some combination of the three.

Some people have told me that security should be added to the list. I disagree. Remember what I said earlier. If you are working for a company you are “out of control”.

I think the best security is to invest in yourself and then get the most out of your investment.

You do this by:

• Applying your strengths
• Constantly upgrading your skills and knowledge
• Giving great value to those you serve

This is the foundation of creating wealth. Whether you do this working for someone else or owning your own business.

Leave me a comment or ask a question.

You have a choice. You can hunker down and wait for the “system” to “correct” itself. Or, you can figure out your own system for correcting your self!

I trust myself more than the “system” that has been in place for the last few decades. It hasn’t proven itself very reliable or fair.

It has been fair in regards to the people who take the time to learn about how the system works so they can escape it. They have found lives beyond their dreams. These folks have made the effort to learn new ways of doing things and gaining the experience and skills to create what they want.

Think about a person who spends extra time training for their job, extra hours volunteering to get more experience and goes the extra mile to really do a great job. Wouldn’t you agree that that person has a greater probability of making more money?

That’s what a lot of people have done. They make more money on the internet, in service industries, in sports, in hobby industries, you name it. They took the time to discover what they love, found a way to make money at it and applied themselves to it.

Where could you find more money if you wanted to?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think, or ask a question.

In today’s world most of us have no time to do what we want, or even what we need to do. We are looking for ways to be more efficient and productive. How can you find a need and fill it? A need that you would enjoy filling. Something that you would enjoy doing while helping other people at the same time. Hopefully A LOT of people.

This is where you can find more money. How much more money? That depends on how much and how many people you can help!

How can you find something you love to do that would be valuable enough for people to seek you out and pay you to do it? What do you know that could help people to have a better life, more time, more money, better relationships, more fun? How can you do that? We’ll talk about that more later.

Not everyone will buy something every time. But, a percentage of them will buy every time. If you had a list of 10,000 loyal followers and only 3% bought something you offered that cost $100 that would “make” (10,000 x .03 x $100 = $30,000! How’s that for “making money”? All for sending out one little email!

Now remember, this is someone who worked hard to build a list and worked harder building trust and credibility. But THERE IS something you love to do that would allow you to develop that kind of following.

So, you need to find a lot of people to help. Remember, I think it was Brian Tracy that said, “If you help enough people get what they want, you’ll get what you want.”

How can you find lots of people? We’ll talk about that later too.

Just remember, figure out what you love to do. Then find out how to make that THE way you make money.

This built rapport, loyalty and trust. Over time, most of the people that they built the relationships with will buy something from them. They will have a core group of rabid fans that will buy regularly form them. And these fans will encourage others to become rabid fans who will buy more things over time.

There are methods and techniques to build these relationships.

Whenever these business owners want to “make money” all they do is write some emails, send them to all the people on their list and tell them that they have a great thing to offer them.

If the list is big enough or the trust, loyalty and rapport is strong enough it is like printing money.

Just ask and you will receive!

Leave a comment or a question. I would love to hear from you.

Are you limiting yourself because you have grown accustomed to the status quo, even though you don’t like the results you are getting? It is easier to float along in a comfortable, yet somewhat unfulfilling life rather than challenging the paradigms that hold you back? Paradigms that someone else gave you. And the worst part is that those paradigms were given to them by someone else who got them from someone else who, …

…You got the picture?

Break out of the dull sleep of acceptance. Acceptance of “This is the way it has to be”. The half awake sense of “There’s only one way of doing it”.

Leave me a comment, please.

Most people dream of a better life. Some go out and make it happen!

Which are you?

“If I work hard, if I put the time in, if I just keep playing the game as I was taught. then at some point, it will all pay off. I’ll have everything I want.”

This sounded like a great plan, didn’t it? Millions of people played by the rules:

ü      Work hard for someone else (let someone else take care of me)

ü      Put in the time (30 years or so)

ü      Put back a little for the future (until greedy corporate America squandered the nations retirement savings)

ü      Settle into retirement for a peaceful rest of my life

That ship many people were looking for seems to have sprung a leak!

Many of my friends who just retired are now looking for part time jobs. Others who were getting ready to retire are now sweating out “a few more years” to make up what was lost.

Still others who have children going off to college are telling their kids that they can’t really go to the college they wanted and that when they do go they will have to work a little harder at a part time job or just do with less (not really a bad thing, but the parents feel bad about it)

All this because we listened to the rhetoric about how “it should be done”. In fact, many people over the last few years DID seem like they had figured to out. The plan seemed like it was working.

The ship was in the harbor and then somebody couldn’t make the payments on the dock! So there it sits, just out of reach. We can’t swim to it. So we just look at it while we keep plodding along. For a few more years until we can make this new game work.

True success in life isn’t rare because people are weak or lazy or lack willpower or fear success.

True success in life is rare because too often people use flawed strategies for success.

Three-fourths of American millionaires believe that learning to “think differently from the crowd” has been a key factor in their economic success.

Thomas Stanley, author of “The Millionaire Mind”

What we need to do is look far another game. Instead of waiting for that ship to find a dock that hasn’t been foreclosed on, we need to build our own ship and then chart our own course.

You can do it. I can help.