Ignore the Voices

Believe in Yourself, No Matter the Opposition

 

 

We all grow up hearing THOSE voices; you know the ones, the voices that say things like,  “Who do you think you are?”

“What are you thinking even trying to do that?” 

“You have failed so many times in the past, why do you think you can do it now?” 

“Why would anyone listen you?”  “Nobody is going to be interested in what you are trying to do.”

Trust me, been there, heard that. And we end up hearing the voices for so long that we end up becoming conditioned to them so much so that our own inner voice begins to repeat the outside voices. 

“You don’t deserve to be successful.” 

“How is anyone going to want what you have to offer? You’re not a professional.” 

 

Obviously, I know the voices all too well. The voices aren’t just against you; get the picture? I don’t need to keep going.  These voices continually playing and replaying over and over in your mind are destroyers of dreams and can snuff out ambition, self-worth and success faster than anything.  I know, remember I have heard these same voices for years and also because others that I have worked with have told me similar stories. Some of these voices I still have to make a conscious effort to ignore.

 

The most important thing is to remember that it’s all about your perspective. If you find yourself with a gift, a talent, an inspiration or idea that is placed in your heart to share with the world then who are you not to share it? Who are you to allow some echoes from your past to stop that dream from coming to pass?

 

When you reach that moment of clarity, the point in which you know you have something to share then that is when you have to make a decision to let the voices, that we have already established are going to be there, control your thoughts and thereby control your actions, or conclude that you are going to share your dream, your talent, your idea in spite of the negative voices coming in from every direction.

 

After a while of just ignoring the negative input, it starts to take on an almost comical role that inspires you to continue and you come to understand that you are qualified; that you are valuable; that you are helping those people that your contribution is meant for and you are effective. 

 

If you have a calling to write a book, or become a mentor, counselor or coach, then you must accept that you are qualified no matter what the naysayers may tell you.  It is you, your desire to achieve your goal, to reach your dreams and your own journey of self-discovery that will make a difference to others.  Not some external standard of what someone else’s will lead you to fulfilling your calling and NOT what the voices say.

 

Allow yourself to see that you are qualified, you are valuable and you are worthy. You can and you will do it. When you find those voices trying to take over, step away from the situation. If it is a voice from someone now, walk away. Explain that you have heard their opinion and respect their right to have one, but you disagree and will not accept the negative input and then remove yourself from that situation. Every successful person that I have had dealings with have stated that one of the first things you need to do is weed out the negative influences in your life and replace them with good influences. 

 

Now, saying that, I realize that there are some influences in your life that you just can’t walk away from, but you can adjust how much of an influence they are, by taking more control of the conversations and the amount of time that you spend with them. Realize that you are the one that sets the path that you take, not them and just because your direction isn’t the one that they would have taken, doesn’t mean that you are on the wrong path, you are just not on their path.

 

For the inner voices, reflect on where they are coming from. You will find that most are voices from the past that have influenced you. Just like the present voices, CHOOSE not to listen to them. Every time they start to repeat, actively work on replacing the negative output with positive input.

 

As the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out” so by getting self motivational CDs, reading self-help material, surrounding yourself with people who affirm who you are, you can record over these voices from the past.

 

Now for your own voice; too often we are our own worst critics and so many times we don’t take the first step, or we quit half way through because we start doubting ourselves.

 

This is where faith comes in.  We must know that what we can perceive, we can achieve. All we need to do is not let our own negative programming from past situations, relationships, and failures stop us.

 

Failure is only failure if you choose to not get back up after a fall. If something doesn’t work the way you feel it should have, take on Albert Edison’s perspective; it’s not failure, you just discovered one more way that doesn’t work.

 

You are unique, you are wonderful and you can achieve anything that you put your mind to if you just refuse to let the voices stop you.

 

Click Here for more success

Power Question:

If you do not make changes to your current situation, what would the cost be for doing nothing?

Learn to Lean

 

As the phrase goes, “no man is an island.” There are times on this road to success that we have to lean on others for support.

 

Ask for assistance and let yourself be helped and contributed to. Get those around you involved in your journey of success--work together as a team. Recruit acquaintances, loved ones, neighbors, bosses, fellow employees, and so forth and invite their support.

 

There are few things as useful in life as a solid support network. In the great times you have someone there to share them and in the bad you have someone there to help you through it; a support network provides you a feeling of stability as well as a safety net. A support network, however, does call for time, lots of dedication and a right approach to correctly build and maintain. Follow these steps to establish and keep a solid support network around you.

 

Make the time. A support network takes time to build and develop in a stable, organic way. Likewise, allowing a support network to grow will give you a clue of whom you are able to trust, for what reason and to what degree. Trusting someone in one area doesn’t necessarily mean that you could or even should trust him or her in another; take the time to grow slow and know for sure who has your back. Deliberately build your network to be diverse. Diversity commonly promotes force in a system. Cultivate a lot of different meaningful relationships so that dissimilar parts of your emerging support network may help you deal with different sorts of issues.

 

Keep in touch. On a regular basis connect with the individuals in your support network. Making a fast phone call or writing an e-mail just to say "hello", or even a personal message on social media lets individuals in your support network know that you're there for them even as much as they are there for you.

 

Utilize the Golden Rule as your guide. You will get as much out of your support network as you place into it. Zig Ziglar always said, “you will get everything in life that you want, if you help enough people get what they want.” If you want a good friend, you must first be a good friend, this holds true in any type of support group whether it is professional or personal. A Component of constructing a support network is giving up your time and energy to assist other people, even if they claim not to need the help or if you are busy. To construct a really strong support network, offer other people as much as, or even more than, you expect in return.

 

Power Question:

What one change would help propel you forward?

Lean toward your success

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?

Income: Which is Better, Linear or Passive?

Linear income is also called active income; this is the income that you earn a specific amount of income for a specific amount of your effort. To earn a linear income you also need to be present at your supposed workplace, whether that be a doctor, lawyer, etc., practically every employed or self-employed person is earning linear income. If they don’t attend to their clients, they won’t get paid.

Now what about passive income? It still surprises me as to how many people do not understand the concept of passive income. It is an income that you continue earning even when you are not working. Sound unbelievable? Well believe it because thousands of people have made it, even me. Passive income, also known as residual income, is a stream of income which you can earn many times, with your one specific amount of effort. Here are several sources of passive income:

1.       Royalty income. Authors, song writers and many content creators are paid royalties every time their book, songs, or curated content is purchased or used, regardless of how long ago they made it, depending on any copyright agreements. This is a form of royalty income and the best part is, in many cases, it continues for the rest of their lives.

2.       Dividends. This type of passive income is generally created from an initial investment. It can come from stock investments, where listed companies share their income with their shareholders in the form of cash dividends based on earnings. Dividends also come from mutual funds and angel investing.

3.       Real estate. Your real estates can be rented out to earn a good amount of passive income. Now let me be clear about this, when I say real estate, I am not just talking about housing. Real estate is property and property is anything that you own. You can rent out your house, your car, and your web space; basically anything that you own that you can rent or lease to bring income in is real estate.

4.       Interest income. Interests from savings / fixed deposits, etc. This is most commonly attributed to compound interest.

5.       Websites. This is to expand on what I mentioned in 3. Websites have become an effective place to sell your products and services to the mass and earn big bucks! You don’t have to watch the website 24-7 as your clients will be able to purchase your products / services online without much hassle with the advent of online transaction. Going back to 3, you could “rent” your website out by not even promoting and selling your products, but rather promote someone else’s product or service and receive an affiliate commission for promoting them.

How do people actually get rich? The answer: By having multiple passive streams of income. Don’t have all of your eggs in one basket.

So, would you rather earn linear income or passive income? Why not do both and become financially successful faster? I have published books, I promote multiple affiliate programs and I physically work as a marketing/ copywriting consultant and coach. Remember that money is a tool, not a final goal.

Power Question:

How can you get the knowledge, information, training that you need to accomplish your goal?

Power Question?

What are three worth while activities that you could do this week to move you forward with your success goals?

Your Sucess

7 Steps to Position Yourself for Success

Here are 7 steps to position yourself for your success...

Step 1: Commit to the Journey

Successful people are different from most people in that they are very committed and have higher determination in everything they do. The more committed that you are to your success, the more successful that you will be. You need to be committed, and be willing to take persistent, directed and massive actions that will take you to your success.

Step 2: Save to Grow

Develop the habit of saving; not just money, but information. When it comes to money, it doesn’t matter how much right now as long as you make it a habit to save a portion of your income every month and you will see the power of compounding interest. Without saving money, you will never have money for any form of investment and it is the investments that lead to real successful growth. When it comes to information, Jim Rohn says that we need to have a library. This library will consist of books and authors that you find informative, inspiring and educational. It will also house the journals that you will be keeping so that you can randomly go back and see how much you have grown in this journey to success.

Step 3: Adopt the Million-Dollar Mindset

If you missed the blog on the million-dollar mindset, I suggest going back and reading it. Basically, in order to be successful, you need to think like a millionaire, as Jim Rohn says, “not for the sake of becoming a millionaire, but for what you have to become to be a millionaire. For example, a millionaire never blames other people or the environment for what happens to them, even when they suffer losses. Instead they work to improve themselves and learn from losses.  In their failures, they see opportunities and hope while others will only see the failures and wallow in them.

Step 4: Chase Your Passion

As the old adage goes, “do what you love and you will never work a day in your life.” This will keep you motivated even during difficult times. Keep striving and focus your goals around your passion, constantly asking yourself, “What do I need to do or become to make this dream come true?” and you will be on the path to true success.

Step 5: Have a Clear Financial Plan

This one plays into steps 3 and 4. How much exactly do you need to earn in order to have the lifestyle of success that you are looking for? Figuring this out and adding a specific dollar amount to your goal is imperative because this will start the ball rolling when it comes to setting benchmarks to achieve your goals. The phrase “Money Makes the World Go ‘Round” actually has a nugget of truth to it; everything about success requires investment or money, time and effort. It isn’t sufficient enough to just say “I want to be a Millionaire” because it does not give you a clear picture of your end point or how to get there which means that you will not be able to plan for it very easily.

I will take this time to put in here that this plan needs to be on paper. Don’t just try to commit it to memory because that never works. Being creatures of habit, we will find ourselves taking the easy paths and not sticking to our goals.

Step 6: Become a Manager

It is imperative that you become a manager; a manager of every aspect of your environment.

To be wealthy, you need to balance your income and expenses, your time, your associations, your life.

An example to this would be to track your income to make sure they are spent on the right and necessary things. You cannot afford to have your expenditure rising beyond your income.

 

Finally, Step 7: Take MASSIVE Action!

Take massive actions to supercharge your plan for success and start making it a reality today. You should not just let your plans look good on paper. Start with small baby steps, and aim higher after each successive step. Envision your journey of success, not as a road, but a rising staircase that takes you one level higher with each step that you take. Success is yours to take, start now.

Power Question:

Jim Rohn says that we are the sum total of the top 5 people whom we most associate with, who are the top five people who have the biggest influence on your life and why?

 

Here's to your success!

Keep a record of all your past successes

Confidence Building for Gaining a Million dollar mindset.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”
― Bernard M. Baruch

Being confident in one’s self is one of the keys to becoming a successful. Reread the quote above and see the confidence exuded by Baruch when he expresses this quote. Today’s question is, how do we build up our confidence level to propel us to our goals of success?

Start at the beginning

Start by setting smaller, more achievable goals for yourself at the beginning of your path to sucess. No, I am not saying to thing small, but rather start small, learn to walk before you run. The point of doing this is so that you can achieve all your initial goals. Imagine deciding that you want to me a millionaire and you are going to do it in six months. What happens if you profit ends up lower than that? 

Your confidence would probably tank and you would hit rock bottom. It would take you some time to recover your confidence. It would be more practical to set your target profit at say 5,000 within the first few months and add to that once that smaller goal is met, a goal that you are more likely to hit. After all it could be your first venture and you might have no prior experience running such numbers in your business. Your confidence grows as your hit progressively growing targets. As your continuously hit higher and higher goals, your confidence will skyrocket.

Side note: No matter how old you are now. You are never too young or too old for success.

Here’s a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages…
 
Mozart was already competent on keyboard & violin, he composed from the age of 5

Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13 years

Nadia Comăneci At age 14, gymnast of Romania scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics

Pele soccer superstar was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil

Elvis was a Superstar by age 19

Jesse Owens was 22 when he won 4 gold medals in Berlin 1936

Beethoven was a Piano virtuoso by age 23

Roger Bannister was 25 When he broke the 4 minute mile record

Albert Einstein was 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity

Michelangelo created the two of the greatest sculptures “David” and “Pieta” by age 28

Alexander the Great by age 29, had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world

Amelia Earhart was 31 years old when she became the first woman 2 fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean 

 
Martin Luther King jr was 34 When he did the speech “I have a dream”

The Wright brothers, Orville (was 32 ) & Wilbur (was 36) when they invented & built the world's first successful airplane & making the first controlled, powered & sustained heavier-than-air human flight

Vincent Van Gogh was 37 when he died & virtually unknown yet his paintings today are worth millions

Neil Armstrong was 38 when he became the first man to set foot on the moon

Mark Twain was 40 when he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and 49 years old for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Christopher Columbus was 41 when he discovered the Americas

Henry Ford Was 45 when the Ford T came out

Leonardo Da Vinci was 51 years old when he painted the Mona Lisa

Abraham Lincoln was 52 when he became president

Ray Kroc Was 53 when he bought the McDonalds Franchise and took it to unprecedented levels

Dr. Seuss was 54 when he wrote “the cat in the hat”

Colonel Harland Sanders was 61 when he started the KFC Franchise

J R R Tolkien was 62 when the lord of the ring books came out

Ronald Reagan was 69 when he became President of the United States

Jack Lalane at age 70 handcuffed, shackled, towed 70 rowboats

Nelson Mandela was 76 When he Became President
 

One way you can do this is by keeping a journal. Put all the inspiring stories, any accomplishments, testimonials, etc. Record all of your successes daily, regardless of how big or small they may be. Go through your journal when you need motivation because we all have a tendency in times of stress and distress to forget how far we have come. The journal becomes proof.
 

 “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

Hang with the right crowd

Associate with like-minded people who are also working to achieve their success goals. It is essential to put ourselves in an environment conducive to grow our confidence levels and to keep us motivated. There is no better place to achieve this than by deliberately placing ourselves among those who are also trying to achieve the same things that we are– to become successful and build a legacy. Join social and networking events to meet more people like you. Not only will you be able to exchange ideas, you will also be able to motivate each other and keep each other accountable.

On the adverse, we need to limit our associations with those who are counterintuitive to our goals. Those who will hold us down and keep us from success are the ones we need to avoid as much as possible.

Confidence comes with growth and success growth doesn’t just happen, it is deliberate.

Power Question:

 Who is your mentor when it comes to accomplishing your goal(s)? Seeking out those who have already accomplished that which you are aiming to accomplish will help you learn from their mistakes instead of making your own.

If you are like me, you don't really have time to read. I found that the best way for me to digest a book is by, what Zig Ziglar referred to as, automobile university.

This book tells a story. It is short, but contains so much information on mindset. One of the pillars of success is the topic of today's post. Here is a link to an audio version that you can listen to while driving.

Secrets of a Million dollar Mindset

Millionaires were once normal people like you and I, except that they now have plenty of cash with them. How do they create those additional cash and turn themselves millionaires over time? This article presents to you the five secrets of self-made millionaires:

Millionaire mindset #1: True focus on what they want to achieve

Set clear goals. Imagine yourself being a millionaire and what you would do to achieve it. As Robert Collier says, “if you see yourself as prosperous, you will be. If you see yourself as continually hard up, that is exactly what you will be.” Don’t focus on the current state of affairs, but rather where you want to be.

Millionaire mindset #2: Work on what you are passionate about

According to a research conducted by Thomas J. Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, more than 80% of all millionaires admitted that they would not have been as successful if they were not passionate about what they were doing. Just take a look at the countless rich people in the news today- Bill Gates, Donald Trump, the list goes on. They all talk about their work passionately. The question you need to ask yourself now is, what is YOUR passion?

Millionaire mindset #3: Be a learner, educate yourself

One major hurdle to making money is, surprising, not understanding how money works. Ask yourself, how much do I know about money management, investing, etc? If we have zero knowledge on finance management, how do we expect ourselves to earn any level of financial success? 

Millionaire mindset #4: Grow your assets. Life is a struggle if you live paycheck to paycheck, especially with the forever increasing inflation while your monthly wage stays the same. Self-made millionaires work hard to make extra money for investing and not hording; they put their money where it will work for them and where it will do the most good. If you want to get rich, control and manage your income, just like Benjamin Franklin once says, “He does not posses wealth that allows it to possess him.”

Millionaire mindset #5: Be willing to take risks. If you read biographies of self-made millionaires, you can see many of them have often gone through countless failures. What invariably makes them who they are today is the persistence and never-give-up attitudes that they maintained while going through the rough times.

Out of these five mindsets, #5 is the most important. Never give up, no matter what. My ultimate goal from sharing my knowledge and experience with you is for you, no matter if you are a wantrapreneur, solopreneur, entrepreneur or even a sidepreneur, I want you to succeed, so let me know how I can help.  

When it comes to mindset, one of my greatest mentors was Jim Rohn. I found this on Amazon on sale. If you want to change your mindset in order to get higher, earn more and live more, click the link and get it now. Or, in the very least, check to see if you can find it in your local library.

Power Question:

What research could you do to move you forward in taking the next step toward your success goals?