Reality Based Thinking

Reality TV seems to be by far the hottest thing on the tube right now. It amazes me that people watch so much reality TV, yet they don’t face reality in their own lives. You see, in “reality” there are two ways of viewing life that ultimately dictate how you choose to live. They are two dichotomous world perspectives. These two worlds are – the world of “Should Be” and the world of “As Is.” The sooner you get out of the world of “Should Be” and enter the world of “As Is”, the faster you will succeed in life.

There is a very common school of thought that suggests that a perfect balance of fairness and equality should exist amongst all people - there “should be” no racism, no sexism, no classism, no poor, no exceedingly rich, no this, no that, and SOMEBODY should Change the way things are so everyone has a chance to be equal because that would be fair. In a perfect world, all of that might be true, but… that is not REALITY.

The world of “As Is” puts the truth straight in your face and forces you to deal with it as it is. Once you deal with the world of "As Is", you make no more excuses for not being successful no matter what you are starting with or what obstacles are presented to you. You become solution oriented and no longer use HOPE as a strategy (Hoping things will change and be equal is a poor strategy. You accept the real world and navigate your way through the tough challenges of life. You will succeed or you won’t and no one will care except you… that’s the world of As Is.

The world of "As Is" says that even though the playing field is not level and there are many obstacles in front of me, I have the power to overcome them or to succumb to them, but either way it’s MY CHOICE.

Below are two examples to dramatically illustrate how crazy it is when you are stuck in the world of "should be" and how simple life can be when you enter the world of "as is."

Person #1 walks into a room with the intent to come out on the other side but soon realizes that there is no door to exit. He says to himself, “hmmm! There should be a door here,” and proceeds to walk into the wall. He backs up and gets angry and says again, “there should be a door here.” He continues bumping into the wall over and over until he finally gives up hope and sits down and progresses no further thinking to himself that life is not fair because there should be a door here.

Person #2 walks into the same room with the intention of coming out on the other side and also sees that there is no exit straight through. The thought does cross her mind that there should be a door there, but she does not hesitate or dwell on that thought. She simply walks back out the door having learned a valuable lesson, and then walks through the adjoining hallway that she discovered being solution oriented and passes by that room on to her desired destination.

Which world are you living in?

The Secret to Success Is No Real Secret

Let me first say that I enjoyed and appreciated reading Napoleon Hill’s classic wealthy mindset book, Think and Grow Rich. I can also say it was a brilliant strategy to take the principles of that book and put them in a modern medium (video) and create the “Secret,” another best seller and soon to be classic. They were both inspirational and chock full of exercises geared towards aligning your mind towards attracting wealth. I recommend anyone considering getting rich should own a copy of each. As a matter of fact, when surveyed, many self made millionaires said that “Think and Grow Rich” influenced them more than any other book except the Bible. That is pretty powerful.

As powerful as aligning your mind towards money is, it is NOT enough. Ultimately, only one thing will get you what you want – the one thing Napoleon Hill left out of the book and the “Secret” never addressed. That one thing is no real mystery – it’s DECISIVE ACTION.

“Rules such as ‘if I hold positive thoughts about prosperity, money will just start pouring into my life’ are just too simplistic to work… money exists in the physical domain. Money doesn’t come as the result of thoughts in the metaphysical realm; it comes as the result of actions in the physical domain." -Maria Nemeth, PhD; author of "The Energy of Money"

The bottom line is you can think about money, talk about it, write about it in your journal, list it with your things to do, hang it on the refrigerator in the form of an affirmation, and tell as many people that will bother to listen to you about your dreams, but none of that will make you successful unless you take decisive action. “Action speaks louder than words!”

Every day you must take focused and specific action towards your desired outcomes. If your thoughts and words are not congruent with your actions towards attaining wealth, then wealth will never be achieved. Once you align your thoughts, feelings and actions towards attaining wealth, it will come easy and continue to come for as long as you remain consistent.

Reinventing Yourself for the New Economy

One very serious affect that a recession has is the inevitable layoffs that occur as companies struggle to keep their doors open by cutting their greatest expense – labor. Unemployment is currently at a 25 year high at 8.9%, and according to the new Federal Reserve outlook, unemployment is expected to continue to rise to between 9.2% and 9.6% this year. The minutes from the April 28-29 Federal Open Market Committee meeting showed Most Fed members "indicated they expected the economy to take five or six years to converge to a longer-run path characterized by a sustainable rate of output growth and by rates of unemployment and inflation consistent with the Federal Reserve's dual objectives, but several said full convergence would take longer." This means that the staggering 5.7 million jobs lost since the recession officially began in December 2007, including the 539,000 jobs lost last month, pales in comparison to what is to come. As gloomy as this seems, it doesn’t mean that there will not be ample opportunity to make more money than ever before. With innovations in technology, transportation and communication you now have a global marketplace to tap into.

Protestors march with picket signs everyday trying to hang on to jobs from industries long gone to distant shores where corporations can find less expensive labor and materials. Gone are the days when you could graduate high school and work at the local factory or mill or go to college and manage that plant or mill until you were ready for retirement 40 years later. Being a life-long employee in a company just isn't realistic anymore. Those days are gone forever. The quicker we begin to understand that, the quicker we can see the new opportunities that are emerging around the world.

Outsourcing, which many Americans see as the downfall of this country can also be the saving grace of this country. Aside from the fact that outsourcing has kept inflation down, thus maintaining a higher standard of living for the average American, it has also provided new opportunities for those with the technical skills that emerging economies around the world require. Once we get past our own arrogance, we can see that as the US dollar declines against the British pound, the Euro and the Yen we are a cheaper source of labor for companies in other countries. You can become the recipient of outsourcing from other countries that lack the affordable labor pool with the skills required for their growth. You can place your skills on websites that cater to a global audience of companies that require services such as www.elance.com.

There is also money to be made closer to home if you are willing to examine the future trends of how companies will do business in the new economy. Companies are scaling down to skeleton crews, and will begin to hire specialists (independent contractors) on a job by job basis. This allows a company to reduce its operating costs and maintain a higher profit margin as opposed to keeping a full time staff that would require union wages, sick leave, vacation time, payroll taxes and health benefits. This means that in order to have steady income you must retrain and repackage yourself as an independent contractor that moves from company to company offering your specialized knowledge at a price. Independent contractors can perform specific functions for a company ranging from, telemarketing, advertising manager to electrician, and sign an independent contractor agreement specifying the range of time they'll be working with the company and how and when they are compensated. You become a highly-valued specialist and the very thing most people only dream of... your own boss.

Outsourcing your skills or becoming an independent contractor is not a simple task to accomplish. However, neither is getting up to go to work and having other people dictate your agenda, your meal breaks, what time you'll go home, and then leaving feeling under-appreciated and realizing you can get axed at anytime. Weigh your options, start doing the research, and make something happen. Your future depends on it.