Dear Money
I woke up this morning thinking about you. That is not unusual for me. Over the years I have awakened many mornings thinking about you but this morning it was different.
Sweet Money, I have always loved you or thought I loved you. As a small child I became fascinated with you. I was told that you were dirty and evil and that you didn’t grow on trees, but somehow deep in my heart I knew none of that was true.
>From the time of my very first piggy bank I wanted to have more and more of you and there were many times in my life when you finally did arrive in large amounts and I would clutch you to my heart the way two lovers do when they have been apart for a very long time and they are reunited once again. I would hold onto you tightly never wanting to let you go away again, but you always did. It was inevitable that you would. You would sneak out in the middle of the night with lame excuses. Bills, debts and obligations would take you away from me - so you would say. Little by little I would watch you disappear right before my very eyes until there was nothing left of you, or me for that matter.
I felt abandoned by you, afraid and so alone once again and I would hate you and curse you and cry out for you in vain.
I would watch you with other people parading yourself around them, showering them with your bounty and this confused me so much more. I wanted you, lived for you, longed for you. They were so unattached and yet, you wanted them. I was filled with resentment, rage and anger at what appeared to be such insensitivity on your part.
At that point in my life, I would have done just about anything to keep you, much like those desperate women I would watch on my daily soap opera who would lie and steal and cheat and manipulate to hold onto their man. I was willing to do that for you, to sacrifice myself in any way I thought I had to, just to keep you near me. I am not proud of any of it and in the end it never worked for very long. I only succeeded in pushing away the very thing I wanted most in the world. And then there finally came a time when I just wanted to learn more about you, what makes you tick, how you feel, where you’ve been, what it was like and where you’re going. I wanted to know why some people had so much of you and others you kept eluding.
Dearest Money, you have seen more of the world than I probably ever will and touched more people than I will ever know in this lifetime.
Tell me, dear one, what is it like to watch the sun go down on Galway Bay, or linger over a blue Hawaiian sunset, sip deep red Italian wine in Tuscany and flaunt yourself in every store on Rodeo Drive?
What does it feel like to be held in the hand of a billionaire tycoon or kiss the palm of a homeless man? How does it feel to live in a castle or sit in a hovel in the greasy clutch of a drunken sailer?
What do you think about as you are lying on the ground waiting for someone to find you and take you to your next adventure? How many lovers have you had in this lifetime? How many liftetimes have you had on the planet? How many dreams have you made come true? How many wishes have you granted? What is it like to be someone’s fairy godmother? Did you enjoy waking up under someone’s pillow?
What does it feel like to have books written about you, songs sung about you, companies come and go because of you, deals made in seedy backrooms with you stuffed tightly into dusty old briefcases, people killed for you, women selling their souls for you, men trading their hearts for you, children used in your name?
What does it feel like to know that you have the capacity to uplift the world or destroy it in a single moment should you get into the wrong hands? What have you so skillfully taught us about ourselves and each other through the beauty and splendor that you are?
What stories can you tell me dear heart from your travels? What blessings and miracles and treasures have you bestowed upon innocent souls. What desperation and unspeakable darkness have you witnessed along the way.
Beloved Money, tell me everything! I want to know it all. I want to know you, understand you, BE you!
Come, sit with me. Bring all of your friends with you, the plain ones and the beautiful ones, the green ones and the colorful ones, the crisp ones and the shiny ones. We will be together as dear old friends, hearts open and exposed. Bring them all. And together we will sit and talk, and laugh and cry, at the absurdity of it all and marvel at the wonder and the magic.
Come close, Dear Money, and whisper your secrets into my ear.
Fear not, for I love you now with a love more profound than I have ever known.
The importance of will power is recognized by most people, yet few deliberately give anytime or thought to its development.
Learning how to build and direct our will power is a fundamental requirement for increasing the mighty power of our self confidence. We each have a personal responsibility to make the most of ourselves here and now.
Strengthening your will power will confer many advantages and great power. Think deeply upon the satisfaction that will come to you from doing things definitely and promptly, and the increased self confidence that will surely follow from the habit of finishing everything that you undertake in a thorough manner. Not only will developing a strong, well-directed will power give you a daily advantage, it can also help you to realize your life’s ambition.
Our will power, no less than our other powers, is given to us for intelligent development. As we realize this divine responsibility, we shall see the vital importance of will power and make an increasing effort to build it for high and definite ends. “The education of the will,” says Dr. Morell, “is really of far greater importance, for shaping the destiny of the individual, than that of the intellect; and it should never be lost sight of by the practical educator.”
Intensity of Desire
There are many things we desire to avoid - such as poverty, pain, misfortune, and ill health; while there are things we much desire to have - such as wealth, power, knowledge, and independence. It is, however, the intensity of our desire that counts the most.
Here is an example…
“I desire to become a good tennis player,” says one.
“How strong is your desire?” asks the teacher. “Will you practice regularly every day for an hour?!”
“I don’t think I can,” says the student, “because I am too busy during the day, and at night I am too tired.”
“What personal sacrifices are you ready to make?”
“None,” is the answer.
“Then,” replies the teacher, “your desire is not strong enough to make you a good tennis player.”
Repetition
Now sometimes an idea must be repeated many times before an enduring impression can be made upon your mind. This is illustrated in modern methods of advertising. The first time you see an announcement, it may not impresses you. But if it is repeated again and again, in newspaper, magazine, television - there is a magic number of impressions that will lead you to become a purchaser.
Mental habits are established in the same way. A suggestion is made to your mind once, twice, a hundred, or a thousand times. Some day this repeated suggestion will become a fixed habit, an fulfillil its duty subconsciously. Simple reiteration is a very powerful tool.
For example, if a shy person were to repeat aloud for a few minutes daily, with earnestness and concentration, a list of words such as courage, valor, bravery, gallantry, intrepidity, pluck, backbone, and audacity - he or she would shortly find these qualities being incorporated in his or her own personality.
The Dark Side
We must be particularly careful about outside influences (the Dark Side for us Star Wars fans). Once a certain course of conduct is decided upon after mature consideration, we must block out and not yield to the interposition of negative people and naysayers who advise an altogether different course. Many people that tell you something won’t work or otherwise attempt to divert you from pursuing your goal, only do so because they too would like to attempt the same or a similar goal - but do not have the will power strong enough to overcome their fear of failure.
Procrastination
The fatal habit of procrastination should be fought persistently. You must do things promptly, clearly, and systematically! Instead of permitting ideas, plans, and goals to lie about the mind in confusion, like scattered papers on an untidy desk, they should be classified, “pigeon-holed,” and put into their proper places. Then take them one at a time; give them due consideration, and complete them in a satisfactory and orderly fashion. Doing things gradually in this way, strengthens the will power and, at length, renders it capable of great achievement.
To begin is often half the battle. Don’t say “I shall start tomorrow,” forgetting that “tomorrow” never comes. For many people, procrastination has conspired to fritter away a whole lifetime in needless and unproductive tasks - due not to lack of ability, but due to weakness of will power. Goethe says:”Seize this very minute. Whatever you can do or dream - you can begin it.”
“Where there is a will, there is a way”
It is surprising how difficulty yields before a strong and earnest will power. A little more resolution and effort, a determination “to do or die,” and the seemingly impossible is accomplished. No one should allow temporary failure to disarm or discourage him or her. A “too easy” success would hardly be worth the winning. It is the realization of difficulties overcome, of opposition conquered, and of great heights scaled that bring satisfaction to the mind and joy the heart of the victor.
If you have read this far, then you definitely realize that developing your will power is a fundamental requirement for increasing the mighty power of our self confidence.
-How strong is your desire to acquire this great power?
-Is it strong enough to lead you carefully to read more suggestions and to put them into actual practice?
-Will you enter upon this study with intense earnestness and perseverance?
-Will you make reasonable sacrifice to achieve this great end?
Your answers to these questions will largely determine what your success will be. In fact, I have come to believe that without strong will power and self confidence, it will very difficultlt to be successful at anything.
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Your success at anything depends on your own efforts;
not luck, chance, or fate. You are in charge of your
destiny.
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My daughters are sailors. (This is one of many clues indicating a rich gene pool.) They have taught me the concept of wind change, which I find gorgeously useful as a metaphor for dynamics that show up in everyone’s life.
Here’s how it manifests in sailing, as described by an entrenched landlubber. You’re tearing through the water like nobody’s business, knowing what you’re doing, and feeling totally on top of things. You’re doing some of the best sailing you’ve ever done. Life is grand. But now, suddenly, you’ve slowed down to a pathetic little crawl, and none of the brilliant maneuvers you’ve been wielding all afternoon are making any difference at all. “Huh??” you ask. [This is the tip-off — this “Huh??” — that you may be in that personal and cosmological experience of wind change.] The wind’s been taken out of your sails, and not just for the moment - for the day. But you’re so preoccupied with trying to CATCH that wind at you don’t really get it. It’s time to shift your expectations and sail differently. Even the best skippers, my daughters tell me, sometimes need to hear it from their crew: “The wind changed.”
How does this look outside of sailing? It happens when your context environment changes, but you’re so entrenched in day-to-day activity that you don’t notice the big picture change. The shift might be something as large scale as international economic conditions or as personal and individual as your own physical state, or anything in between.
I once worked with a client who owned a recruiting company that had been extremely successful but was now foundering. This dynamic entrepreneur had been working extremely hard to turn it around, using all the strategies and methodologies that had worked for her in the past, but to no avail. “Huh?” she was asking, “I just don’t get it.” She was disheartened, exhausted, and felt like a failure. She was like a sailor who keeps trying to catch the wind, but there isn’t any wind!
She had learned her business and brought it to success during years when there was very high unemployment both in her geographic region and in the industry where she concentrated. Over the years, the economy had shifted - there was now virtually no unemployment in that industry or in her region. The wind had changed. Her market had altered dramatically, and her business would have to change dramatically in response if she was to succeed. She hadn’t seen this larger context because she was so preoccupied with her day-to-day challenges. Grasping that the wind had changed allowed her to shift her approach.
One of the ways wind change impacts me is in the context of my physical state. When I enter into a period of flow in my work, I just let her rip - I open up all my biggest sails, and let that energy propel me. I love that state. When I am in it, I might only need to adjust WHAT I’m working on at any given time (client work? writing? organizing?) or WHERE I’m doing it (keyboard? phone? Staples? meeting?) in order to stay in flow. But inevitably, one morning when I start in again, I’m ineffective and disconnected. In fact, I’m feeling downright lazy! I try different maneuvers, but I remain relatively useless and woefully unmotivated. I berate myself for my inclination to sloth. And then I get it: I’m exhausted. My brain is fried. I’m toasted - used up. The wind has changed! The flow is not flowing any more! This round is over.
At this point, I am learning, I need to scrutinize my schedule to see where I can cut myself some slack. I need to find ways to rest and re-nourish after this wonderful period of exertion. And with any luck, I’ll be out again when the next great wind comes along. I am still very much in learning mode when it comes to identifying a wind change, but the results are very motivating!
Here are some other examples of wind change in people’s lives:
1. Your “little children” have “adolesced”, and the parenting style that has worked so well for so many years just doesn’t cut it any more.
2. Your professional reputation and your organization have grown - and you are flooded with more business than you can handle the way you’re handling it.
3. Your marriage, which has been “on hold” for a few years while you and your spouse focused on kids and profession, needs some real attention.
4. The market where you have been targeting your business has migrated into another sector.
So what’s the drill? How can you effectively deal with a wind change? The hardest part is recognizing it. Notice when you hear yourself saying “Huh??” Look around for evidence of some kind of wind change. Once you recognize it, what’s called for is extremely simple, but not necessarily easy: – Get over it. – Make a course correction based on the new information. – Get back into action. One final point about wind change: don’t process it alone. Pick up the phone, call one of your fans, and get some help understanding what’s true now that wasn’t true before, owning your emotions, and figuring out what to do. The universe rewards action, so the sooner you can get over being stunned by this, change course, and get going again, the better off you are. If you’re considering hiring a coach to help you with challenges like these, contact me at sharon@stcoach.com for an initial consultation at no charge. COPYRIGHT 2001, Sharon Teitelbaum. All rights reserved. Where to Begin? - By Joseph Ghabi Every couple of years another new healing alternative appears in our lives and takes off as if no other alternatives had ever existed! We all believe that this is the one. The one which will change our lives once and for all yet, no one tells us that this new method is just another old alternative which can help by introducing those who choose to use it to a new level of awareness. For some of us, getting into something new can help in terms of handling our personal issues. I would like to make sure that I am being clear from the beginning all these healing ‘tools’ we seek to try to improve our lives are all good in their own ways, however, but there is a catch to this! Very few of the people who introduced us to these tools have had the guts to inform us of our own responsibility when it comes to working on healing ourselves with any method. Maybe this is a marketing scam because, as we know, many people like to have this happen in the easiest way possible and of course, when it comes to working on ourselves, this is the things we are most afraid of! The people who created these healing methods are probably aware of people’s resistance when it comes to them working on themselves and know that their product will not be attractive if people know that before trying it, they must put their own to input into the healing process. Maybe this is so, or perhaps the people who create new types of healing alternatives simply are not aware of our own personal responsibility when it comes to handling our issues, you decide. The truth is YOU still have to do a lot of the work when dealing with your issues. This is so the changes can be physically made to manifest in both you as a person and then in your life as a result. This is the only way in which these healing alternatives can ever produce long term results. This is not an easy catch especially you turned to trying any healing alternative as an escape from not handling the work which you need to do on yourself in the first place. Let me put it to you simply! Healing alternatives are not magic, in a sense that no, the entirety of your problems will not disappear in a magical ‘puff of smoke’! You still have to do the necessary work on yourself. What do we have as tools to work with? I will list just a few examples of what is available for you to try - Astrology, Numerology, Tarot, Healing, Therapeutic Touch, Spiritual Healing, Yoga, Gems and Stones, Body Work, Reiki, meditation and much more! There are so many different types and styles that is not impossible for me to list them all here! I just wanted to give you some examples to get your attention here. Many of us keep going working on ourselves according to what is ‘trendy’ at the time, and that’s all great. But, ask yourself the question, did you have the right intention towards yourself when you did decide it was time to something new? If your answer is it is about time to rearrange your priorities towards YOURSELF by trying to really you as yourself and what it is that you need to heal or improve in your life. Someone is bound to argue by stating that we usually try healing alternatives in order to discover ourselves first. That is fine of course, so long as we do not make it a belief that the healing alternatives will do the job completely for you because it just won’t happen. For the simple reason that in life we can not skip steps in growth. In order for us to move forward, to progress and grow out of our experiences and lessons, we must first be consciously aware of our past and we must understand why we had to go through the experiences that we did. This is a great ideal. However, we have the next problem of handling our ego and pride. When it comes to growing in life, it is not usually the experiences themselves which cause us to become stuck. In reality it is pride and ego which does not allow us to accept humility. Humility is one of the single most important aspects of being able to both grow and heal ourselves in order that we keep moving on our path of growth in this life time. How many of us try healing alternatives only when we got stuck on working on ourselves and in many ways those can enlighten us to a new way or a new vision. Since the beginning of time we have used healing alternatives. When we are in trouble and we pray, for those moments God, if you like that name, becomes our healing alternative. Likewise, churches and temples are other healing alternatives we’ve used to search for answers. This is all very well, but, unfortunately GOD has nothing to do with our problems and the experiences we have in life when we made the decisions of what direction we would take. GOD has always respected our Free Will and even if we do ask for help, GOD will not interfere unless WE make the first step towards helping ourselves, and I don’t mean by just praying! You see, even though you are praying, in reality you are still not trying to do anything from your side to understand your life circumstances. Nothing seems to be moving in your life, you are stuck and everything is stagnating. Why? The reason is very simple because YOU need to take the first step in what direction you want to go even if you are not really aware of what is or what will happen in the bigger picture of your life. Having a clear intention toward what you wish to do and achieve for yourself is a very important aspect for change to take place. After you are sure of your intention, you can be sure that help will come your way in one way or another. Please try to remember that regardless of what you have experienced, it is NOT the experience or lesson itself which is tough, it is our attitude and the way in which we choose to handle it which defines how easy or difficult it will be for us to go through. Think about it! If you ever find yourself in the midst of any problem, before beginning to look outside of world for assistance just step outside of your situation and look at it from that perspective, not from the way you programmed yourself to believe is the right way. You will be surprised at what can discover about yourself in the light of what is really your own reality! >From my experience of working with people, I have come to the conclusion that we are a lazy species and that in reality we do not want to work or do anything which seems like hard work to improve our own lives. I’ll bet that if someone invented a remote control which would zap all of our issues and make them disappear would make good money! No one wants to work on, or even simply understand the source of their problems. What we will do for you here is introduce many different healing alternatives to you, regardless of what you chose to do with them. But always keep in mind will also remind you of your own responsibility towards your work in the end and we can give you some guidance of how to begin doing it. In the end, whatever healing tool you chose to use, a proper investment of yourself is necessary to bring the changes you desire to life and to the lives of the people around you. If YOU are not happy with yourself, how do you expect to make someone else happy? If YOU do not love yourself properly then how you ever give real love to someone else? If you are or are considering using any form of healing alternatives as a means of looking cool or to ’show-off’ to other people then you will soon see that no real benefit will ever come out of that. As I mentioned before, you need to watch your intention and have an open mind when it comes to deciding upon which healing alternative you feel most drawn to using. We are all here working in our own process of growth and evolution in order to reach a higher attainment at the level of our souls growth. Whichever tool it may be that you feel attracted to trying, just go with it. Always remember that whatever you do, you are only doing it for yourself in the end. You are the most important person in your life always should come first will just remember that! So from here on, we will discover together some healing alternative tools and how we can apply them into our lives. My first introduction will be in numerology. This is a tool which is very effective and simple to use. I will go onto explain more of this in my next article. Until then, I wish you all love and peace. Copyright © Joseph Ghabi http://www.freespiritcentre.info
Everyone thinks they can draw to a winner or they think their top pair is always good. It gets even tougher to fold a good hand. When you have the second-best hand at the online poker table you are going to lose more often than not, and there’s no prize for coming in second. Recognizing that you need to fold this hand is one of the strengths of a good player. But generally in Texas Holdem games, you want to play your premium hands preflop. To explain, there are basically two major decisions to be made at limit Texas Holdem. The first happens preflop, whether to play your hand or not, and the second decision is to be made on the turn. The flop decision is not that important because most of the time you will just be making or calling a small bet; you should base this on pot odds. Preflop, if you have just a marginal hand, you want to play suited connectors/small pairs more when it is a multi-way pot and less when it is about three people seeing the flop. For big cards such as AJ or KT, the opposite is the case. Be more willing to play these hands in a heads up or three-way situation. Always fold hands those troublesome hands like J4 offsuit or Ace with a small kicker. The kickers are just too weak to win a late hand showdown. Avoiding playing these starting hands is a good way to avoid trouble and having to fold a good, but not great hand. The second major decision is on the turn. Assuming you call the turn, you should call the river because it would be a disaster to fold the winning hand on the river. Calling the turn and the river means investing two big bets, equivalent to four small bets. Assuming the pot is raised preflop and just one bet is made postflop, you would have only invested three bets to see the turn. Thus, you can fold at the turn and lose slightly less than half the money you would have lost had you called to a showdown. The river is not the time to fold your hand. The only exceptions to this are when you missed a draw (such as a small flush draw) or if there is so much betting and raising that you know you are beaten. Copyright 2005 Daniel N Brown Enjoying a good life is common to us all. We all want the same things, good health, positive relationships, fulfilling career, and enough money to live comfortably. But, there are others that want a life of abundance and prosperity. These are the ones that have dreams of doing great things, having successful businesses, visiting interesting places, meeting extraordinary people, and having the ability to help others financially. If you are going to enjoy a life of abundance and prosperity it will require some action. This should be obvious. But, sometimes the obvious is frequently overlooked. You didn’t get to where you are today without taking some sort of action. So, it makes sense that if you have a vision in your head about where you would like to be in the future, it will require action. The problem with most people is, even though they may have the knowledge to do some particular thing, they lack putting the necessary action behind that knowledge. We often hear that “knowledge is power.” But, knowledge is really only power in reserve. It remains useless if it’s not tapped into by applying action. Knowledge that is not put to action remains just knowledge in your head and provides no benefit. It’s completely wasted. To accomplish results, we must couple our knowledge with the necessary action to attain results. The formula for achieving results is: Knowledge Action = Result. If you were to apply massive action to your knowledge, it would have a faster, and even greater impact on your life. Why is it that most people find it difficult to put the necessary action behind their knowledge? I believe it is nothing more than a lack of belief. Your belief system is the driving force behind your behaviors and your results. If you can change your beliefs, you will change your behaviors. When you change your behaviors, you will change your results. Then, when you change your results, you will change your life. It all starts with your belief system. Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). Now, many things can keep one from believing. But, I think the biggest factor that keeps one from believing is fear. It is a fact that it takes courage to succeed. But, keep in mind that courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the ability to press on despite the presence of fear. Many times, the solution to any fear is simply to do the thing you fear. It’s amazing how the fear will disappear! The smallest of actions, even the ones that seem trivial and insignificant, can lead to great success. It’s been said that, “Actions, like pictures, are worth a thousand words.” Without action, you could have the greatest idea and the greatest plan in the world and you would still fail. Whereas a modest idea and an incomplete plan often produces success when accompanied by enough action. You just got to get moving. Sir Isaac Newton’s principle that states a “body at rest tends to remain at rest and a body in motion tends to remain in motion,” definitely applies to the action principle. Once you’ve taken the first step, the next steps seem easier to take. It’s a natural law that if you do nothing, nothing will happen; if you take minimum action, results are going to be minimal; but, if you take massive action, then you will be rewarded with massive results.Hugely successful people, the kind who go from mediocre to millions almost overnight, know that the major key to their success was taking massive action. If you want to become hugely successful you must start at the beginning. Most beginnings are small, and appear trivial and insignificant, but in reality they are extremely important. It’s not only the right beginning that is important, it’s beginning in the first place. It’s about applying that powerful little six-letter-word called “action.” Copyright 2005 Neil Gordon A lot of people are unhappy in their current jobs. I don’t know whether you’re one of the 25% that are happy. If so, that’s great. Something like 75% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs. There’s a huge pool of wasted talent. Everybody has their own unique skills and experience and it’s not being used properly. Lots of people are just unhappy with where they are. There’s a whole host of reasons why that could be. Just in the last week or so, the person that hired me for a consultant position quit, basically because she didn’t feel valued and motivated by the company. She didn’t get the attention she thought her efforts deserved. That’s just one problem. You might have unreasonable demands placed upon you. You have to work really long hours to get anywhere. The paths to promotion may be blocked. You can’t get to where you want to be because of the view that people have of you, your experience, or your performance in the job. Termination is quite a common one because of downsizing. Your company might have been taken over by somebody else. There are surplus positions and, unfortunately, you’re at the wrong end of the cost savings that the mergers might produce. You may be under too much stress and aggravation which lead to health problems. You may have to take stress breaks, or end up with some serious health issue. Maybe you just find the job that you’re in boring. It’s not interesting to you anymore. There’s no challenge. Maybe there’s just a different sort of work that you want to do. You have no confidence in your boss. You’d rather go out and start something yourself. Maybe you think you’re too old to get a new job. Maybe you’ve stayed in a position too long and other people think you’re stuck and set in your ways. There might be criticism leveled against you that isn’t just. There could be too much politics or backstabbing, you have to grease the right palms to get ahead. The job may just not be what you expected. You were promised one thing, but it turned into something else. You have so much time invested in the company that you don’t have enough time to look after your family or personal issues. You’re not really sure where your future’s heading. Maybe there are others in the company who are creating problems for you. There are a whole bunch of reasons why people are unhappy where they are. There’s another way of looking at, the Top Ten Signs That You Need a New Job. It’s a bit like a Letterman Top Ten. They’re a bit tongue-in-cheek, but there’s a bit of truth in all of them. 10: You’re outgo exceeds your income. You just need more money. 9: The most rewarding thing you did this week was sharpen all 12 of your pencils to the same length. 8: You’re reluctant to be a Career Day speaker at your kid’s fourth grade class. 7: Everyone in your workgroup got a raise except you. 6: Your friends all have jobs that sound more interesting than yours. 5: You were late for work three times this week, but you don’t care. 4: There’s a meeting at 3:00 to talk about the upcoming reorganization, but you’re not invited. 3: Your boss keeps forgetting your name. 2: You constantly daydream about being a forest ranger. 1: Your company was recently acquired and you spent two weeks worry that you’d be laid off. After that, you worried that you wouldn’t be. I may have exaggerated a few things, but I’m sure some of them ring true to many people. Many people just don’t know where to start. You need to focus on what you want, get good advice, and get good coaching. You have to et to the root of what is causing your unhappiness about where you are and what you’re currently doing. The easiest way is The Five Whys. Ask, “Why?” five times. “Oh, I’m not happy.” Well, why? “Because I got passed for a promotion.” Why was that? “Because they didn’t value the project I was working on.” Why not? “Because management changed and they changed the objectives.” Well, why was that? You really sort of drill down to the root cause and find out what the problem really is. You can apply the “5 Why’s” to any problem. It doesn’t necessarily have to be work-related. It’s like your kid saying, “Why, daddy?” What is the real answer? If you could write the answer down, what would it be? Once you decide that you need a change - that’s where the real fun begins. How to go about finding a new job or change careers completely. Keep an eye out for future articles. Do’s and don’ts - debt consolidation You’ve possibly heard all kinds of wives tales about debt consolidation. Some of the tales portray debt consolidation as the simplest and best way out of debt. Other stories paint a scary picture of escalating debt which, leads inevitably to financial disaster. The real situation, of course, rests right in-between. Debt consolidation may or may not be the best way for you to repay your debt. It all depends on a wide range of factors: not just how much you owe, but how much money you earn and what type of debts you’re thinking about clearing, as well as your attitude to debt and to money in general. There are a few rules that apply to most people.Consider these debt consolidation tips. Do consider taking debt advice if you’re thinking about taking out a debt consolidation loan. You need someone who can help you examine your options, so make sure you talk to a debt consultant that doesn’t just provide debt consolidation. Its possible that all you need is some advice on budgeting more effectively, so you can handle your debts yourself. Take time to think carefully about the repayment term for your debt consolidation loan, if you take one. Don’t keep on struggling if you really can’t afford your debt repayments. If it’s obvious you need help, ask for it - a debt adviser should be able to help you decide whether you need a professional debt solution, and if so, which one. The best things in life are free is dead wrong. The best things in life are things that you get paid to collect. For many years I would advertise to pay for broken mowers. Many people saved my adds and would call me months after the adds expired. One day someone called me and asked if I would still pickup mowers,I said I had so many I didn’t need any more. They then asked how much would I charge to pick one up. Bingo, I realised that I should be charging not paying. Immediatly I reran the adds and announced that would pick them up for a fee. I actually got more mowers. I don’t know why but people even treated me better when I went to their homes. I guess they thought I wasn’t under paying them for the mowers or something like that. This was a turning point in my life. I realised that I could collect things I wanted and get paid for it. Like working and enjoying it. I decided that from now on I would make sure that I turn the table on all my problems. I would make the problem a solution. I would make any thing I like to do part of my work. I liked to grow trees and plants. So of course I raise them for profit and here is how it came about…. Of course you have heard that, “Money grows on trees”, or, “Buy land because they’re not making any more of it”. How many times? I first heard about it when I was 5 from my great uncle, Uncle Bill. Uncle Bill was wealthy, retired and living the good life in Sarasota Florida. I was impressed with his big house, boat, and all his toys that successful people collect. He was a forestry graduate of Penn State and had made a ton of money. As I grew up he would visit us once a year. I always listened to his stories and was convinced that he could never be wrong. He had made his fortune selling traffic signals (red lights). High tech for his day. I can remember him telling my father that if he was starting all over he would buy land in Maine and grow Christmas trees on it. Listening in and hearing this I thought it was secret market information that is only repeated to close friends and family. I thought I would never tell anyone for if I did, well, it would lose its value and everyone would be doing it. Sort of like the pig market cycle. One minute trees would be scarce and bingo, the next minute there would be surpluses and the market value would crash. As I grew up, some say I never have, I wanted to do just that. Grow trees and buy land, lots and lots of land, and of course plant lots and lots of trees. In 1973 I graduated from Juniata College in Huntingdon Pa with a BS in Chemistry. It was at Juniata that I met my future wife. I proceded to go out and get a job with in Lahaska, Pa.. I really wanted to start growing trees. So I bought 160 acres of land in the mountains of Virginia in Allegehany County. The purchase price for this mountain land was $150 per acre. I was working in Bucks County Pa. and felt that if I worked day and night I could pay for this property in a few years. The older lady who sold me this property sold it to me for 1/2 down and the balance in one year with no interest. Making about $6.00 per hour and borrowing $12000 for the initial payment, I proceeded to go into debt. During this year I proceeded to start to pay down on the property. I did get married later in the year and my wife and I started our real estate purchases. Within 2 years we had paid off this property. We bought our first house and started saving money for a Bucks County Farm. We both had our day jobs and at night and on weekends we mowed lawns. After 5 years we had enough down money to buy a 38 acre farm in Doylestown Pa. Keeping our first house as a rental, we moved to our farm. This farm had a purchase price of $210,000, and a payment of $1493 a month. We named this property, Highland Hill Farm. It was at this point that we came up with the plan that we followed that helped us to fund the purchases of all our farms and properties. I called this plan,” My dollar a day plan”. We reasoned that each day we should work on projects that will in the future pay off with an income stream of $1 per day or save me $1 per day from my current costs. Each day would be considered sucessful if that goal was met. All costs and all projects and work was measured in that manner. If we could set up a low cost plan that could reap the benifit of $1 a day we would work on it. The goal of the dollar per day was not important, just the attempt. We would work on the idea until it would be completed or given up on. We reasoned that one could spend hundreds of dollars on each idea, because when it would work out, the pay back would be hundreds of dollars per year. After many days my income would be increasing and it would help fund the plan. Our morgage payment was greater than our combined take home pay. This meant we had to bust xxx. So we had to work every night mowing lawns and doing extra work. We started to plant Norway Spruce and White Pine Trees. We started with the smallest and the cheapest trees we could afford. We started with 2-4″ seedlings. Since we felt it would be years before these trees would be saleable we kept up our lawn route. As our children arrived they went with us on our lawn route and we back packed them as we mowed lawns. Within 2 years the first batch of trees were marketable! We sold 2-3′ pines and spruces for $8.00 each deleivered and planted. These trees sold like hot cakes! Thus a few pennies for seedlings could be converted to many dollars within a few years. This would add many dollars per day to our plan. We also rented out barn space. Within one month of ownership we had almost $1500 in rent per month from barn spaces. We purchased Scottish Highland cows.I like to eat and I loved having cows on the farm when I grew up so I figured get paid to raise what you like and eat the rest. These cows would save us from buying meat. We had a garden for vegetables and fruit trees in our pasture. When I cleaned up the dead branches I found a place to sell them for smoking meats. The garden saved on buying vegetables. Being asked to do lawn cleanups and remove items from customer properties, we began to do small hauling jobs. We found that a lot of good stuff is thrown out so we started collecting used lumber, plumbing supplies, and anything we thought we could reuse or salvage. Everything we did was directed towards being self sufficient, cost saving, and income production. (I know if I told you all the ways we saved you would not believe me so I will save the words.) We heated our house with a wood burning stove. The wood burner saved on fuel for winter heating. We would turn the burner on only for hot water for showers. Since our house was old and large, a lot of fuel would be saved in this manner. Within a few months we realized that this plan was working. We saw that in aquiring rental properties and placing them in service, we could buy properties with positive cash flows. A positive cash flow of $100 per month brought in about $3 per day. It does not sound like a lot but when you calculate in expected appreciation of the property and possible rent increases, this plan looked even better. We thus started to look for more properties. We found another farm in Bedminster Township. The cost was $195,000 for 8+ acres, 2 houses, 2 barns and machinery storage sheds. I estimated that there would be $3500 per month in rents that would support this price. After buying this property our first months rent was $3450 !!! With taxes and insurances, we made at least $1000 per month on this farm. We also planted trees and shrubs on this property and put in a few cows. In seeing that this method was working, I went to the public library. We got books on how to buy and manage real estate. I read everything I could. The book,”Nothing Down” by Robert Allen was an eye opener. It confirmed many of our stratagies. Almost every deal on real estate that we did was with nothing down or creative financing. Every property had to make a positive cash flow. We never bought a property to flip. We became a buy and hold persons. We did buy a few single family homes, but concentrated on farms and land. Gradually our gross income and net income allowed me to quit my day job. That took almost ten years. As we had more and more spendable income, we would invest it in more types and kinds of trees. During the early years, we wanted to plant trees that we could market through newspaper ads. Newspaper ads allowed me to have a store without hours. People would call in for information instead of visiting my location. This saves a lot of time. A phone answering machine acted as my secretary. We would take orders over the phone and deleiver and plant nursery stock directly to the homeowner. Our adds targeted customers who wanted screens and privacy fences. They tended to buy large numbers of small pines, spruces, and arborvitae schrubs and trees. One could deliever 20 2- 3′ white pines on a pickup truck and plant them in an evening. At $8 ea we would gross $160 Our tree cost was 20 cents ea. or about $2.00 per order. We all gained valuable lessons in planting trees in a wide range of conditions. Without a doubt I can conclusively say that I now have found that money does grow on trees. My uncle Bill was right. His secret market information was exactly as I had thought when I was 5 years old. Only after enjoying the trees and nurturing them over the years did I realise that it wasn’t for money that he wanted to raise trees, it was for satisfaction in the way of life and quality time that I have been blessed with in following my dream. Bill Hirst P.S. 30 acres being cleared A 30 acre field in Doylestown Has to be cleared this month. We still have about 150 flowering pear trees to be dug. The field next to this plot is the next to be bull dozed. We have app. 60 acres of stock there. Year 2006 Free Stuff: We will be giving away free bibles that we got out of the trash as supply lasts. We also want to get rid of some surplus stock. I will determine how much free stock is given away by the size of your order. The more you buy the more you will be given. I want your trucks to go home full so you don’t waste gas. You can see more of our operations at http://www.seedlingsrus.com or http://www.highlandhillfarm.com In those times when everything seems to be going just perfectly, it is easy to keep moving toward the fulfillment of your dreams and ambitions. You are in the flow. The whole world seems to be conspiring to create your success. You might be inclined to think that this is the way it should always be. Easy. I’ll let you in on a little secret. If the going is easy, it is for only one of two reasons: the first is that you are on the wrong path; the second is that, if you are on the right path, it is because you have already proven yourself worthy by making it through the tough times. Some days, when Tiger is on the golf course, it all goes like a dream…impossible shots end up inches from the cup, etc. Of course, all golfers wish it could be so easy as he makes it look. What makes it easy for him is the countless hours of practice over years going through endless difficulties just to learn how to hit the ball so it could go approximately where he wanted it to. His strength and power comes from the learning he went through when it was tough. It is easy now because he learned how to overcome the difficulties. He persisted; he kept on keepin’ on until his skills developed. He still has bad days when nothing seems to go right, (something other golfers are grateful for), but he knows that he knows how to get it right. This confidence was built by going through and surpassing the obstacles. He knows that if he plays his game, the flow will come back. Of course, Tiger is a gifted golfer and most of us, no matter how hard we might practice, will never get to his level of the game. But, you can always get to the top of your game. You can get to a point where you are in the zone, in the flow and everything works the way you want it to. To get there, you must persist during the times when it is all NOT going right. It is in these tough times where you learn what it takes to be in the flow. More importantly, you also learn who you are and what you are made of. Winners persist. Losers quit. It’s that simple. Persistence pays off. It always does. The ultimate dividends may be obscured while the problems are present, but more than character is built by persisting; skills, confidence, self-esteem, mental and emotional resources are built that would not have been without the difficulties. Be grateful for the tough times. They make you tough. Later, after you have tasted success and tough times return (and they always do to test your resolve), you will be able to smile because you know that you can surmount difficulty by just keepin’ on keepin’ on. So, if you are going through hell, just keep going. Fire bring temper to steel. Fire makes clay as hard as a rock. When the flow comes (and you are on easy street), you’ll know that it was the fire that brought the flow. Purpose plus passion plus PERSISTENCE = Prosperity! Winners persist. Loser Desist. © Leslie Fieger. All rights reserved worldwide. Leslie is the author of The DELFIN Knowledge System Trilogy: The Initiation, The Journey and The Quest plus many more success publications. He also the co-author of The End of the World with Hugh Jeffries and Alexandra’s DragonFire with his daughter Ashley. Subscribe to his free and ad-free eZine at http://www.ProsperityParadigm.com or http://www.LeslieFieger.com. Reprinting and republishing of this article is granted only with the above credit included. Permission to reprint or republish does not waive any copyright.
