How's your year so far?

Occasionally, I go off script and instead of giving success advice, I just open up and shoot from the hip. This is one of those times.

It's almost April, so I ask, how's the new year go for you so far; how about those resolutions?

According to the University of Scanton's Journal of Clinical Psychology, only 8% of people are successful in achieving their resolutions.

That just absolutely floored me and got me to thinking about how I was stacking up as it came to my new year's goals.

As March 2016 is wrapping up, I recently spent a lot of time just reflecting on where I came from in just 4 short years. We can't successfully get to where we want to be if we don't understand where we have been.

Here is just a few highlights of my personal journey...

I very clearly remember being part of the 92% of people who failed to meet their resolutions, not just that year, but for many years.

For years I knew that I couldn't create a better life for my daughter by working a dead end job that kept me bound by someone else's schedule, so I tried everything to get out of the rat race; I built an engraving business, got into e-commerce, even tried my hand at authorship, but nothing worked and I kept finding myself in a position where I was having to go back to a 9 to 5 or be a stay at home dad where we barely lived paycheck to payccheck. Nothing seemed to click.

 

• I was a slave to the job, a slave to the clock, a slave to my creditors.

• I had no time to do the things I enjoyed.

• I had no energy to enjoy time with my family.

• No extra money, so no savings, no vacation, no splurging, no emergency fund.

To make matter worse, I couldn't get on facebook without seeing, what seemed to be everyone around me, being more successful than I was. It sucked. Friends taking off in the middle of the week to travel across country, new cars, new house, blah blah blah...

It seemed like everyone around me was successful while I had to listen to my daughter (4 years old at the time) crying because I couldn't afford a happy meal for her.

I kept asking myself,

"Why is this so hard?"

I definitely had a bruised ego, but I still had this dream that I could make a little extra money while spending more time with my family and not chained to a desk or getting stuck in traffic.

I started thinking that the only way to make money online was to sell stuff on eBay or turning into some sort of sleazy MLM type marketer (not that all MLM ventures are pyramid schemes). It was heart breaking because I did not want to do that.

Being able to help people and actually get paid for it was unfathomable to me and, though I saw it done, I felt that you had to be an expert with over 20 years expertise and the title of guru to be able to be successful online.

I was wrong!

Way wrong. Looking back on it, I was always just a few steps away from my dream, I just didn't see it or understand what it was that I was missing.

My goal for the past decade or so, was to figure out how to get out of the rat race. Breaking the golden handcuffs once and for all.

I finally found the secret to having a successful life; After years of trial and error, Zig Ziglar has been giving the answer for years; "You'll get everything in life that you want if you help enough people get what they want."

This is the reason for this blog series. My goal, now that I am out of the rat race, is to show as many people as I can how to do the same.

Now it's your turn

What is your resolution? How can I help you climb out of the maze? Not everyone has the same definition of success, nor do we all have the same hurdles to jump over, so what do you need help with?

Drop me a note and let me know.

 

Your New Year's Resolution:Start A Home Based Business

Start your New Year off with a Home based business. I always tell people that unless you are working for yourself, you're simply fullfilling someone else's dream. And you know it. I have learned many exciting techniques in running a successful home based business and I would like to share them with you.

Now Consider this:

I am sure, if you have been reading my posts for long, that you see it is possible for you to start your own business and kick start your legacy Are you beginning to see how realistically staggering it truly is? If not, I need to apologize to you because I haven’t done my job.

I am extending you an open invitation to duplicate my success and the success of countless others by first changing your mindset and then your life. If I was able to do it, I I know you can.

So I ask you...

         Will you be the next Success story in a home based business in 2016?

Sadly, most people have flat-out given up on the life of their dreams... and they've resigned themselves to a life of struggle, lack, and limitation.  They suffer in the Land of Opportunity.  And they are fooled into believing the lie that it has to be this way. Most people don't realize that with proper leadership and the right opportunity, virtually anyone with desire can achieve the lifestyle and level of income the want with ease!

I'm living proof: Ever since I've started my home based business I feel a rush of internal excitement. I am literally helping people just like you exit the rat-race and achieve the same level of success I enjoy.

You need to possess a willingness to be successful. The individuals you associate with will help you be that person.  Successful people tend to affiliate with others who posses the same attributes. 

Wishful Hoping & No Action is Not Going to Cut It.

 

Here a three reasons why:

 

1.  There is nothing Casual About Worthwhile Achievement.  You must Earn your way to success in life-no matter what you do.  Only then will you achieve  a casual life style with enough money for you and your family to enjoy it in style. My personal achievement channel was my home based business.

 

2.  Trying is Not Doing. People with a " see what happens" attitude get to see what happens,alright...they sit their lazy butts down as they "see" others rapidly making wheelbarrels of success-but they  never do it themselves.  The success of entrepreneurship depends soley on YOUR drive and desire.

 

3.  You need to be honest with yourself to avoid wasting your time in a home based business.  If you only kid yourself, you won't experience a positive change in your life until you First make a postive change. Through personal growth techniques I realized that focusing on positive energy will replace the negativity that is keeping you from achieving the success in your home based business that is vital for your financial freedom.

 

I deserve my success because I took charge of my life.  If you’re wondering what I do with the rest of my time, I spend it with my family; I help worthwhile charities, I ENJOY LIFE and I CHOOSE MY ACTIVITIES.

Make 2016 the year that you decide to move forward and not just be a pawn in creating someone else’s life.

 

Let Go of the Guilt

 

I know, you are probably looking at the title and wondering how this has anything to do with success, but trust me, we all grow up with levels of guilt when it comes to having more or being better than someone else. In today’s society, there seems to be a rule of thought that everyone should be equal and no one should be better off than someone else. That is, of course, “stinin’ thinking” as Zig Ziglar used to put it. It also plays into the scarcity mindset which so many of us grow up with that keeps us bound in the golden handcuffs of a paycheck to paycheck mentality.

 

Now you are probably saying to yourself, “Huh? What is he talking about?” I know, trust me, all too well. I didn’t think I had any guilt about success until I looked back and saw so many times that there were areas that I sabotaged my success subconsciously.

 

Guilt is among the biggest wastes of our emotional energy. It causes us to get trapped in the present by over-concentrating on the past. Guilt, at times, can be very draining. By introducing logic to help counter-balance the guilt, you are able to avoid undermining your efforts toward a successful life and stay on course.

 

Feelings of guilt may not be gotten rid of over night, but they don't have to command your life. By following the steps provided, you can work towards freeing yourself from the guilt in your life that may be holding you back.

 

Pinpoint precisely what you feel guilty about. Your guilt might be telling you that there's something you need to alter in your life. For example, if you are trying to lose weight and know that if you go to a buffet you won’t control yourself and then a friend invites you to a buffet. You may feel guilty about saying no to the invitation, and then you end up going, overeating and then feeling bad about ‘ruining’ your diet. You may find that silly, but that actually happened to me. Or maybe your child wants that latest toy/videogame/whatever, but you have set yourself up on a specific budget in order to pay down debt; the child ‘guilts’ you into foregoing the budget for their newest whatever only to not play with it once they have it. Again (with hand held high) that was something that I dealt with.

 

Guilt comes in many subtle and not-so-subtle packages. The point is to see them, and do what it takes to overcome these guilts. As in the two examples above, most of those types of situations can be handled with a few boundaries that we will get into on a later blog, but for now, lets work on some steps to help you identify and work toward eliminating guilt in your life.

 

Look intimately at your priorities. Make a list of what is all-important for the health and happiness of you, your loved ones and your business. For example, what is significant to your loved ones might not matter to other families and the other way around. It holds true in every aspect of your life. Be strong with your priorities.

 

Construct more time for your priorities. First thing is to know and acknowledge that you can't do everything, so if it is not on your success list then get in the habit of saying "No." The word No can, and will, be your biggest ally. At first you will feel guilty about saying it, but in moderation a little guilt now can save a lot of guilt later.

 

Live in the here and now; any errors in judgment made in the past because of guilt are over and done with. Sometimes, the guilt we feel now that keeps up from moving forward is guilt of the past. Forgive yourself for your errors, learn from them and leave them in the past tense.

 

Determine limits. As a parent you're responsible for the well-being of your children and you set boundaries for them, but you need to do the same for every aspect of your life if you are to be successful.

 

One final thought that is important is to adopt time for yourself. Even though it might seem inconceivable to find the time, if you're debilitated emotionally or physically then you have nothing to give to those around you. Don’t feel guilty for taking some time out for yourself because in the long run, when you have time to recharge, you have that energy to invest in those around you.

 

Guilt is usually subtle, so you have to really look for it sometimes, but when you recognize it and deal with it, you find that success is usually just on the other side of that guilt.

 

An action step for you to take is to do some internal dialog with yourself and see if there are any issues that you feel guilt over. Then analyze why you feel guilty about it. Sometimes the guilt is rational, but the initial reasons for the guilt aren’t.

 

From guilt to success, Click Here!

Power Question:

On a scale from 1 to 10, how excited are you about change?

Time Management - Pareto’s Law

Time management is an efficient tool of performing the tasks within a given time limit. In this context, Vilfredo Pareto found a law i.e., 80-20 law.

 

The origin of the 80/20 rule

 

The law finds its roots in the year 1906. Vilfredo Pareto was working on finding the explanation to the economic disparities in the world. His theory had many takers and backed by various experts of that era.

 

Meaning:

This 80-20 rule lays emphasis on the lesser of anything. It says that the greater portion of anything is usually the least important. As Pareto’s findings state, there is a small group (20%) who owns a major share (80%) of world’s wealth. As per the law, the most significant are less in quantity. And what is in ample amount is generally the least significant.

 

Detailed Analysis

The time and the task management ensure that this theory fits perfectly in any condition. The stress is on the need to manage the few. This significant part would ensure the attainment of the larger part. This could be well interpretive in the super star theory. According to which efforts must be directed to manage the 20% to achieve 80%.

 

Obviously, this is in overly intellectual speak, so in layman’s terms, if you concentrate most of your efforts on the 20% and spend less time on the 80% then the 20% will lead to the 80% getting taken care of.

 

Steps To Adopt the Theory

This law, as it pertains to time management, can be applied in day-to-day life. You do have to take these points into account though for it to work:

 

1: Avoiding Useless Tasks.

 

The most important part of time management is to avoid tasks that take up a lot of time with little to show for it. This is general chat on social media sites when you have a project with a deadline due, surfing the internet while supposedly typing up a proposal, etc.

 

2: Foresight.

 

While planning, the tasks must be selected diligently so as to ensure secure future returns. As today’s solutions have definite impact on tomorrow’s outcome.

 

3: Keep an Eye on Highly Valued Task.

 

The overall efforts must be streamlined in order to concentrate on the most important 20%. If you work in this way over a period of time, the outcome can’t help but become beneficial.

 

Time management works on this 80-20 principle. Maybe not exactly, but close enough that if you try to concentrate on the most important actions first, you will find that things are getting done and you are having more time in the day to work on the other 80%.

 

Keep an eye out for my next installment in this series when we discuss time and money.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

 

By now, you have at least one goal that you are working on for the new year, so in what way could you make this goal (or all of your goals for that matter) more specific or measurable?

5 Life Altering Questions

 

“Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

                                                                                        -Voltaire

 

One good question can transform your life, but one bad answer can ruin it. In some cases, many do not ask questions because they do not want the answer; they are content going through life, never asking the questions that need asking.

 

There is the chance that you just “happened” upon this post, in which case…Welcome! However, for most of you reading this, you are on a journey; a journey to a successful life.

 

As such, you cannot move forward without asking yourself questions and searching out the answers. That is what this journey is all about. It’s more of a quest; a quest to seek out answers to specific questions and not just be content to allow things in our lives to just happen.

 

So lets get started…

 

 

Question #1: What makes me happy?

 

The answer to this question will truly change your life. Many people don’t even ask this question.

If you ask yourself this question every day and you can work on the answers and implement a plan of action then your life will change forever.

Now, I know that this is not a simple question to answer and that is where the other questions start to come into play.

 

Question #2: Am I truly happy in the job I am doing?

 

We spend about a quarter of our lives working. If we are not happy in that job it literally means that we are unhappy for nearly a quarter of our lives. Most of us have to work and most of us are not working at a job we love, however it’s difficult to do a job we love and put money on the table. Though most of us can’t just drop the job and go into business for ourselves right this second, there is ALWAYS something we can do about the job we are in, you’re never too old to change careers, you might need training for a career change but 1 -3 years of your life studying for a new career is better than another 20 years being miserable in a job that you can’t stand. Whether it is changing careers or starting your own business, it doesn’t have to be a dramatic change. Start slow, part time, and at your own pace. In a later post I will discuss the value of the “side-preneur”, but for now, just know that you aren’t stuck; just start looking for the answer.

 

Question #3: Am I truly happy in my relationship?

 

When I say relationship, most minds wander to their significant other, but it goes beyond that. Not just the relationship with your mate, but what about the relationships with your family, friends, colleagues, associates, even your pets.

It is important to evaluate every relationship that you are in and ask this question.

To stay in a relationship out of convenience or procrastination or, in some cases, fear is to allow yourself to not grow. There are obviously some relationships that you can’t just cut off, but you can start to limit the amount of access and input those relationships have in your life.

In a future post, I will get more in-depth about relationships, but for now, ask this question and start figuring out which relationships need work.

 

Question #4:  What can I do to make a difference to someone else?

 

Trust me, this is not as altruistic as it sounds, but if your heart is in the right place then it doesn’t matter. The fact that you are helping someone will make a difference. Helping other people to achieve massive goals or simply helping someone with their shopping can make a difference. Giving feels much better than receiving and gives our spirits a lift.

Zig Ziglar always said, “You’ll get everything in life that you want, if you just help enough people get what they want.” If you truly want to be successful, then this is a question that you need to ask yourself every day. Do one thing a day for another person and you will see a difference, don’t worry if you don’t receive anything back from it, just know that it will make you feel good.

 

Question #5: What can I do to be healthier?

 

Most of us know the answer to this question already; it’s just that we rarely ask it out of fear of what the answer involves and what is needed in order to get there.

10 minutes of exercise per day could change your life if you are willing. Watching how much junk food we consume daily could change our lives.

You don’t need me to give you advice on your health, ask yourself this question and the basic answers will come to you, just work on answering the question if you are brave enough to ask it, that is. Health plays a major role in success believe it or not.

 

Bonus Question: What is the worst that can happen?

 

Yes, I had to slip in a bonus question here.  By answering this question, it will help alleviate any apprehension in answering the other questions as well as give you the confidence to ask yourself even more questions.

This is a fantastic question that will help you out in times of stress. The undue pressure we put on ourselves causes stress, which leads to worst case scenario thinking that ends up leading to more stress over what ifs that don’t exist.

Most situational stress can be alleviated by just asking ourselves this one question, as the answer.

More often than not, the answer usually isn’t as bad as we often think.

 

The goal of this post is to get you to asking the important questions in your life that will lead you to success. Don’t be afraid to ask the question, but more important, don’t be afraid to look for the answers.

 

We are about to get into the bare bones of copywriting, marketing and building a successful business that will lead to a successful life, but to do that, we must be able to ask ourselves the hard questions.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

After creating a goal, how would you feel about aiming to double that goal? For instance: if your goal is to make $50K this year, how would you feel to change that goal to $100K?

4 Tips Toward Making Resolutions That Matter!

As we move forward together toward building your success and creating that legacy that you deserve, we will discuss everything from organization to specific business skills such as marketing and branding yourself. It is going to be a fun ride that I hope you will enjoy with me.

However, this is January and those pesky resolutions have reared their ugly heads again, so I thought it fitting to start this journey of success with some tips on how to keep resolutions.

Making resolutions is one thing, keeping them another. Matt shares four tips to help you reach your goals and to reward yourself for a job well done!

Turning the calendar over is an excuse to make personal resolutions for the coming year. It is also a way to bring about certain frustration for you if the goals that you set for yourself are unreachable, unattainable, or just something you have no interest in doing.

Making resolutions can be done at any time of the year, but if you have been thinking about several new ones for 2015, here are four tips to help you not only make resolutions, but to keep them.

I Resolve To...

Okay, so you have made your resolutions. Now, step back and take a look at each one.

Are they resolutions you wanted to make or resolutions that others have maybe “guilted” you into making?

Make certain that each resolution is something you definitely want to keep, not a halfhearted attempt at reaching a goal that you really aren't interested in reaching.

If your resolution needs to be modified, do it at once.

My Goals Are...

Are your resolutions reasonable or are they reaching well beyond what can normally be expected?

Let's say your goal is to lose 70 lbs in the coming year. While the weight loss resolution is admirable, do you have the time to exercise regularly? Change your eating habits? Change your lifestyle?

Is the 70 lb weight loss goal too much, too soon? Would it be better for you to stretch the amount you want to lose beyond one calendar year?

Consider your health: both physical and mental when evaluating your goals. Keep in mind how your resolution may impact friends and family members...you may be a "bear" to live with over the next twelve months!

I Have Fallen and I Cannot Get Up!

Do you quit at the first sign of failure? If you splurge on food, do you consider your diet and resolution to be over? If so, why? Simply start again and continue. The road to any goal is paved with pitfalls and you are bound to backslide from time to time.

Best advice: Find an accountability partner who knows [and understands] your resolution and can encourage you to keep it.

Reward Yourself

At the end of the year, reward yourself based on how well you kept your resolution. If you hit your weight loss goals, consider going on a cruise -- don't overeat as a reward for good behavior. If you miss your goals, keep the cruise idea open for when you do meet your goals and take a day trip somewhere to celebrate what you did accomplish. In other words, some resolutions are ongoing and shouldn't be restricted by a 365-day calendar.

Remember this: resolutions are for your benefit, not your detriment. Your attitude toward a particular resolution will help you determine whether you should make that particular resolution or not. Any resolution made which doesn't have your enthusiastic backing will certainly become a hindrance come February or March and forgotten altogether by April. Make resolutions that matter and be the better for it!

If you haven’t subscribed to the RSS feed yet, do so now. Creating your legacy has begun and success is just around the corner.

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

Power Question for the day:

What areas of your life could be upgraded or tweaked?