BEING THE PRIZE

Decisions are much more difficult than choices to use Landmark distinctions. I’m making this tougher than it has to be because I fear a loss on either end. Things are going well in the business we have a new sales rep that is fired up, magazines are moving. The only thing that is constant is my business partner.

We are not specifically fighting but I have the feeling that our personalities are always incompatible. If I don’t get out now, when will I. Happiness is priceless and all the money and fame and pride of product are worthless if you don’t have a sense of joy. I question myself and want to take responsibility for my portion of this unfortunate relationship.

I feel burnt and it seems irreparable with the current situation. I talked with someone the other day about buying my portion of the company but they don’t want to deal with my business partner either. They would buy it in a hart beat if I came with the company. I don’t want a boss and I don’t think my partner will let me buy them out.

There are three options

1)      I stay and stick it out hoping things will work out between us.

2)      Sell my part of the phoenix market and license my software back to the company

3)      Dissolve it all and work with another publisher on a “similar” title

I don’t want to keep spending money on a chance of happiness when I have a functioning profitable company to work with already. So 1 is gone.

I will work to create 2 as the most viable option but if this is refused then I will still come out on top with option 3. I am the company and I can ignite it in a fraction of the time.

I have to keep my integrity and avoid looking back at what could have been once I jump. There is no room for those looking in reverse. My heart is tied up into this magazine and I stopped treating it like a business a long time ago. Sometimes this is good, sometimes this creates problems. I have to decide that I don’t like working with jonathan and sure as heck don’t like working for him. This has never been a partnership and it’s taken me way to long to learn my lesson.

I am meeting today and today I will have an answer.

It’s obvious at this point that I’m not following through with my commitment to blog daily. I am recommitting for the reason that I find pleasure and value in expressing my thoughts for posterity. The internet is an incredible thing. Allowing me to store my thoughts for future reference and creating a way for me to remember the successes and mistakes that I have made.

To the point…

The term Carpe Diem is often used for motivation and it occurred to me last evening (as I was waking from a nap) that one should seize the nano-second. We often think about times in chunks as in years and months and weeks and days. The fact is that we have a life and every moment is a part of that life. I have found myself on many occasions “saving” my energy for this theoretical future thrust of energy. I have in essence been seizing a future day instead of being present in the moment and taking the immediate opportunity at hand.

When we hear of survivors making it through seemingly impossible situations, the common thread is that they take life on moment by moment. They crawl for 5 feet at a time and before they know it they’ve made in a mile. The reality is (at this point at least) that life is challenging and sometimes we feel as if we are unable to accomplish our goals for that particular moment. We put them off until we have enough “energy” If we were to apply this to a life threatening situation we would fall asleep and in all likelihood never wake up.

Ideally I would like to get to the point where life no longer feels like a struggle, but the reality is that enlightenment is a process and it often feels like a struggle. Being a realist is sometimes underrated by people in the self improvement field. Often people look to approach life in a mystical way and fail to combine reality and metaphysical possibility to create the best approach to life.

By telling myself that I will be the prize in that moment of weakness and accept the fact that I feel week I am creating a powerful chain of events. I am living in the moment and being present of my success in that instant. By focusing on the future we sometimes create windows that allow excuses to blow through as a comforting breeze. By letting immediate gratification overcome us we are giving up the chance to create positive momentum and increase our store of positive energy. The winning streaks in life are built in moments not in months or decades.

By focusing on the moment and the success in a moment we increase our awareness of our progress and increase our understanding of how little successes are the structures that allow for greater success to occur. We are rewarding ourselves instead of waiting around for some mystical change of events which will drastically alter our mood. This passive lifestyle is what depression is made from and the cycle that leads to consistent failure.

I will continue more with this tomorrow as I get into specifics of altering my thought process.

Ok, so based on the research done by some very smart people the average time to develop a new habit is 3 weeks or 21 days.  Developing new habit implies that a person get’s into a particular rhythm of doing something without feeling that they need to force themselves to do it, a feeling where it takes little effort to keep up doing something and to actually start feeling a bit awkward when they don’t follow through.  Often times it’s a very hard thing to do, so thinking about it what does get a person through this barrier? I am thinking it must be heart and genuine desire.  I know that when I “have to” do something or I think doing something is “good for me” most of the time it does not get accomplished.  It does happened most of the time when I truly deeply desire something, everything else takes a back seat, a genuine heart-felt desire to do something with emotional and not logical reasons for wanting to achieve it.  So when I want to accomplish something I find emotional reason for doing it because I am just too skilled at playing and outplaying myself in logical games, where I can just as easily reframe my mind about doing something as I can to make myself avoid it.   I say if you can’t find reasons to do something, don’t waste your time until such a time that you do.  For what ends up happening is you waste a lot of energy and time accomplishing practically nothing just spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.   Find the emotion, find the feeling connect with the internal desires and success will follow suit. 

People say that all things genius are simple.  I believe it is indeed the case.  Today I want to talk about the importance of feelings in realization of anything in life.   There is a book by a lady named Lynn Grabhorn “Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting”  several years ago I happened to come across it and it underlined the importance of being able to feel good, to vibe as she calls it.  We all know that feeling good is important, but most don’t realize just how much.  We hear about the law of attraction everywhere recently, and for a good reason, it works.  The feelings are the one thing that seems to be there when things are good or bad, when you are feeling good about things you want to see happened, regardless of what is going on around you at the moment, you seem to effortlessly achieve it.  When you start feeling bad in reflection to undesirable circumstances that you might be facing at the moment, you get more of the difficult circumstances.    It works like a clock in a very predictable fashion, you feel good and good results are guaranteed, you feel bad, and you get more of the things you are feeling bad about.  It’s not easy by any means, some times it is quire hard to switch and start feeling something positive, do it anyways, find things to be happy about, weather imagining your desired happy outcome, talking to yourself in a kind and carrying way as if to a youngster needing encouragement, or simply feeling grateful for what you already have.  Do it, and be pleasantly surprised by the simplicity of being able to achieve desired results J

It’s often that I find myself struggling lately. I have it in my head that there is some magical way to life your life and that by doing these things. By being the prize it will magically start to unfold. It doesn’t always seem to happen that way. I don’t always know the answers that I’m in need of.

To be fair I’m not being as consistent as I need to be to accurately gauge the success of a specific technique or mentality.

I have been working upwards in stages. Exercising regularly, writing nightly and reading daily. I am eating healthy but sometimes lack the energy needed to be excited about the day.

I believe I’m holding back some of the very momentum I need to be successful. I’m keeping myself dormant to a large degree still. I’m not leaping out of my skin and invigorating myself with the joys of daily accomplishments. I’m still holding back mentally and it’s irritating but also like an addiction. I’m having trouble shaking it. I think part of me does not want to let go still. Every time I think I find a way out, part of me is back into the trap I set for myself.

Consistency will help me break through this. I’ll have to keep getting the rebound and putting the ball up again until it goes in. I need to build up my stamina and strengthen myself in many mental areas still. I am blowing in the wind still and I need to be much more flexible as well as more rigid. Bend when needed, but never break.

I have to be the prize instead of talk about the Prize.

I’ve found myself in another difficult position. I think that the idea of the gut instinct is so difficult to understand. Interpreting it is not always easy. I started to question this notion of intuition today. How much of “intuition” proving true is just a case of self fulfilling prophecy? Is it the case that we are only as right as we want to be? How much of our future choices guide us in a particular direction? How do we differentiate from what we think is likely from what is the true probable outcome?

I don’t have any answers right now. I feel that I may be repeating past mistakes and it’s unnerving. Am I actually avoiding past mistakes or creating another situation for failure. I think that avoiding employee turnover comes down to creating a powerful culture, but also hiring the right people to fit into that culture. It’s difficult if not impossible to have a successful employees if the management is not on the same page. The repercussions are felt through every level of a company and it’s impossible to truly grow in that environment.

Employees or Team Members as I like to refer to them as, are in need of structure and support. The reason that they take on the role of being employed for a living is that they prefer the security and/or lack of commitment that the employed receive. The employer is the one that is subject to the greater financial risks (or so it seems).

One of the most difficult parts about forming a new company is hiring staff. Quality people are looking for a quality environment with quality pay. They prefer to work for companies that have been around for a long period of time in order to ensure that they are not risking their livelihood. If a company can not provide the environment that a potential team member is looking for, then they can not expect to attract the right people.

I often hire off of my feelings and intuition of people. I often see potential problems and weigh the odds of me possessing the ability to overcome those problems. It’s difficult to choose someone because there is no guarantee that anything of value will be produced until you actually see them in action. What time or energy is wasted if someone is not compatible with the company?

Is it better to hire on experience and pay more or hire on potential and pay less? If you see a potential problem, do you work to avoid it or accept that it is inevitable and stay away from that person? What price does indecision cost?

I want to refine my intuition to have more answers than questions and be right 90% of the time. Most people use the 80/20 rule but I don’t like the idea of being a “B” student. I find value in the trial and error method, but it’s quite expensive. I think that everyone will make mistakes, but it’s he who recognizes and alleviates those mistakes the quickest that will truly be successful.

To go with the theme of the previous post “Going Back To School” by K, I have an observation.  It seems a lot of people are bend on pouring knowledge into our heads and expecting us to integrate it and do it, I hear the phrase “do as I say not as I do” from people when you catch them contradicting their own teaching.   Should it be surprising though?  Our entire educational system supports a model of teaching that has proven to be effective in only suppressing the curiosity of student and make them frustrated and bored.   No wonder.   Socratic method is the method that was used by Creeks when educating and teaching.  The idea being is that a person already has all the knowledge and instead of taught they need to just be reminded, and how is that accomplished?  Asking questions, it has so many benefits, for one it keeps the student mind constantly active, they have to analyze and illuminate a lot of options that don’t apply to a situation at hand and they become more aware of the subject because they have a first hand experience deriving and analyzing it.  Effectively what Creeks did was to “teach a man to fish”  not giving merely results of study but the processes that could be used in analyzing other questions and situations.  Results – well they discovered atom long before any microscopes has been discovered, Greek Philosophy is a cornerstone in the foundation of the science, not to mention numerous achievements in math, technology  all that with a country that is truly puny in size by today’s standards.  What of it you might say?  Well we can choose to complain about humanity repeating the same mistakes over and over, people being inefficient and desire to turn things around.  That is one way, I propose being grateful for any insights that one has and as a show of appreciation beginning to apply this wonderful insights to our everyday life, not easy true, but the benefits far outweigh the inconvenience of changing a habit…  a wonderful life is yours for the taking.

I sometimes have chosen the difficult path in life, just to prove that I am worthy of attaining success by myself on my own terms. I have looked at people like Sam Walton, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and countless other modern self made men. I have created the idea that these people are Naturals and they have made their own way, with no help and intuitive knowledge. They may have…

I guess it does not truly matter how one gets to their end goal as long as they do it with pride and conviction. How do I know what took place for them to be at the level they are? How do I know if they had mentors or family favors? I know little about these men and yet I made a choice to be like them. I made the choice to be like them with no help and no support just sheer willpower.

What a touching story this would have made, but I have come to realize that education is the most valuable gift one can receive. Given the opportunity to learn from someone who has been at that level and to take that gift rather than reject it for the sake of ego is insanity. I have avoided such opportunities in the past because I wanted to educate myself. I have since awakened to the reality of success. You need people. You are not capable of learning enough or being enough on your own. How obvious is this?

If you have the chance to make $4mil in 10 years or $2mil in 5 years because you gave 50% of your company to the right person is it worth it? Of course it’s worth it. Even from an economic perspective your money is more valuable in your pocket today than it is a year from now. The knowledge you can gain makes this investment priceless. Once you have learned something you are capable of replicating your accomplishments. Learn quickly and easily as often as we can. The quicker we learn, the quicker we can replicate ourselves.

Bring a mentor into your life that aligns with your goals. If you are not lucky enough to have one walk into your life through the laws of attraction; hunt one down and make them your mentor. Find the person that is where you want to be in 20 years and make them your teacher. The super successful often have achieved enough financially that they choose to spend their gifts of wisdom for pleasure and less for profit. You can find the people that will help you. What are you willing to do in order to be successful? Will you turn down immediate gain for knowledge? Will you uproot yourself to travel? Will you forgo your current plans?

I am deciding that my life should be surrounded by teachers rather than students. I have far more to gain as a student than I do as a teacher. I think I will find that there are far more teachers out there than I had originally thought. When you close yourself off to an idea your senses are dulled if not completely removed. I am confident I will find an abundance of teachers who are in need of a good student.

I had no integrity yesterday and failed to write my blog entry for the 17th

Envy is something that is extremely destructive, it comes from lack of abundance and every single person is subject to it at one point or the other, no matter who you are.  The principles behind envy is lack of abundance.  Some people quickly realize that there is more then enough to go around and let go of that animalistic instinct in all of us, no harm done and life is amazing, some can’t let go and as a result suffer.   Not only do they suffer mentally they also suffer in the ways of not being able to recognize when life presents them with proof of abundance and as a result they head on a downward spiral.  Recognize abundance in everything and life will constantly present you with proof of it making it a wonderful experience.  If for some reason envy does sneak up on you at any one time, don’t blame yourself don’t analyze it, just simply let it go, fill your heart with happiness recognizing that there is enough and truly allowing yourself to feel joy for the other person’s fortune, then move on expecting abundance and great things in your life and they will always manifest themselves.  I think it is easy to feel joy for others when you can recognize yourself in them, ideally you should be able to recognize yourself in every person and thus constantly increase the moments of joy in your heart until such a time as joy becomes a constant uninterrupted song in the soundtracks of our life’s.