December 13, 2014 - Little Bites

Growth is Incremental

I can’t believe how many people are stagnant in their thinking. So many people will not dream because they can’t even BELIEVE they will get there. They do not understand that growth is incremental.

I am going to use me as an example. I had to drive from Brockville to Milton yesterday. I could have looked at it as a 380 km drive. Instead I broke it into several small chunks, Kingston, Napanee, Trenton, Newcastle and then home! Instead of one long drive, I had 5 small drives! 

Right now I am looking at paying off a huge debt, if I looked at the end and only the end, and where I am now, I may not even start. Instead, I look at my decreasing debt each month and my INCREASING net worth each month.

I started with my goal: eliminate my credit card debt. I stopped using credit cards. I looked at my total net worth and swallowed. At the start of each month I review my net worth. As my debts decrease, my net worth increases! At first it crept. Now it is crawling. Soon it will be walking, then running and then disappear, never to be seen again!

So here are some tips:

• Plan out and break any project into smaller, measurable goals 
• Work on that goal - whatever it is! 
• Review your achievements on a regular basis 
• Find any way to IMPROVE what you have done! 

 
This is Darren Hardy’s Plan, Do, Review, Improve from The Compound Effect! 
 
Keep your long term goal in mind and see how it starts too loom out of the darkness toward you!

Have a terrific day!

Matt

November 24, 2014 - Opportunity or Difficulty?

"Do you see difficulty behind every opportunity... or opportunity behind every difficulty?" - Dan Zadra

I am working with a number of people in one of my “time for money” jobs that see challenges only and never opportunities. Its not an easy thing to do but when you are a 95%’r instead of a 5%’r the forest outweighs the trees.

I remember years ago when I was working full time at Plant-Prod. One of the sales guys there, a guy I really respect and remain friends with to this day, always said “within every challenge lies an opportunity.” I used to think – bullshit. Some times there are only challenges.

Over the many years I have been working, my mindset has changed and improved. In fact, I think it changed drastically about 16 years ago when my wife developed breast cancer. I remember lying awake in bed thinking of our two kids – 6 and 4 – and what would happen to them if the worst happened to Linda. Over those few days I completely changed my mindset.

I was determined to be the driving force of a successful family at that time. I went to every appointment with my wife. I used to put a poster on the fridge outlining what she needed to do that day to stay healthy. We worked our way through it all.

In the middle of it all, when Linda was being treated for bacterial pneumonia, I met an elderly couple. We exchanges stories and both said that no matter how bad things got, there was always someone off in worse shape. We were both talking about each other! Linda and I have often talked about what a “good” experience the cancer was.

I recently listened to an interview Darren Hardy had with a veteran of the Iraq war – double leg amputee. Darren asked this guy a tough question and that was would he want his legs back. After a long description, the vet said not if it meant he would not be where he was emotionally and doing what he was doing then. This guy helps house US war vets. 80% of US war vets are from Vietnam, Korea and the Second World War. Is he seeing his difficulty or the opportunity?

I am in a completely different mindset than I was a few short years ago. My co-worker came in today (I am working as a consultant here, building a business plan) and gave me an entirely new business plan template. I’ll be 100% honest with you, I was a little pissed off as I have been working on this for a LONG time. Well, I accepted her request without (I think) showing my “displeasure”. She then explained she was looking for funding and the funder only used this template. Well there you go. Now I am digging in to this and it is a really cool thing!

So my advice to myself is feel anger if you must. But let it go, completely go once you recognize the emotion. Evaluate what you are experiencing and really look to see if there is an “equivalent benefit” as Napoleon hill would say. Today, I found the seed of an equivalent benefit in the new way of looking at business models. Now, I will be able to thank Cathy for showing this to me.

Take care of yourself and be kind to people.

November 23, 2014 - Kind Words Echo

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." - Mother Teresa

This is a very circuitous post.....

I had lunch with a teacher I work with. I teach part-time at Humber College in Toronto. I am teaching a dual credit course at a high school in Oakville. He and I have similar thoughts on the education SYSTEM and the talking heads that are running it. It was a refreshing lunch.

Just in a nutshell, we are ruining the education system by not being dynamic and changing to suit the changing economy. Our education system was designed and built to meet the needs of the industrial revolution. Kids are taught the most inane things….. And some things that were taught are no longer being taught.

Conor and I both agree that we should be focussing on a few key areas. These areas include but are not limited to numeracy, literacy, philosophy, art and science.

Wait a second I can hear you asking – philosophy? Yes indeed. Teaching young people how to think critically is paramount to such things as conflict avoidance and conflict resolution. If people cannot understand how some of the great ideas in this world came about they won’t be able to formulate any ideas of their own.

Numeracy – we do not teach the simple power of compound interest. If young people could learn the art and science of saving money, we would not be in the debt crisis we are now in. Students can`t even check their paycheques to make sure they are being paid correctly.

Literacy and languages. Personally, I took French every year I was in school. I can`t even ask for a hot dog but I bet I could conjugate verbs. We need t teach people how to read first and foremost and then we need to teach people the value of being able to communicate. Communication, clear communication is the key to life. And one of the keys to conflict avoidance and resolution.  Learning more than one language is something I am going to work on.

Art – wow. Well well well.  I cannot tell you how strongly I support expanded art and music programs. Art and music are the easiest way fro human beings to express themselves. Without art the world would grind to a halt. We have cut these programs because the three “r’s” are more important to those in the ivory tower.

With literacy, numeracy , philosophy and art taken care of we can then move to science, history and geography. Both history and geography are important and really can be covered under science. Maybe history under philosophy as well. I do not agree with specializing science too early. I think kids are scared by words like PHYSICS and CHEMISTRY. Just a broad general understanding of science is good.

If young people could enter post-secondary being able to think – the world would be better.

There is a young lad I taught last year. He has profound learning and emotional hurdles. His parents think he will be the next “big thing” scholastically. He is violent. He was in my class and I did not know about his challenges. I gave him a knife and taught him how to take cuttings. He told me that he could take cuttings each and every day but no one would hire him. I told him he was wrong and proceeded to tell him why.

This lad is a victim of the education system. He will be shunted aside by the system being “inclusive”.

I bumped into him last week and he was excited to see me. I guess the kind words I offered him were echoing in his mind. Conor is trying to get his parents to leave him in the horticulture program. Let’s wait and see.

Be kind to everyone you meet. You never know. You just never know.

November 22, 2014 - Never Stop

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”  - Confucius

I am building my ACN business  v e r y  slowly. I am not discouraged but others have looked at me and become discouraged on their own. I am not even close to discouraged. Why?

1.       I KNOW that I will succeed. How do I know that? Every morning I review my top 10 goals for my life. Robin Sharma talks about the top 5 or the big 5. The thought is, on your last day on earth,  what do you want to look back on with pride and conviction? Use those ideas to build todays goals. I am not going to tell you my goals and I am not going to ask for yours. Each morning, after taking the dog for a walk, I review my goals. Then I spend time building my day (again) and formulating how I can fit what I am doing to meet my goals.

2.       Every little thing I do to reach my goal is noticed. By me. It may not be evident that I am moving forward to others, but it is completely obvious to me. Why? I use Dennis Waitley’s technique of ratcheting success. Its important, no it is critical to have long term goals. It is important to have BHAGs. Darren Hardy’s BIG HAIRY AUDACEOUS GOALS. But in order to not become discouraged, it is important to have a series of small steps to get to your BHAG. I have a series of small steps I take every day to reach both my small goals and  my BHAG!

3.       I am growing as a person. I am using my ACN business opportunity to grow. My back office is amazing. Every morning I do about 20 minutes of personal growth. I read and I watch videos. I am amazed at how my thinking has changed over the years. I drive a van for my trading-time-for money work. The antenna is missing form the radio so every time I am in the van – about 20+ hours a week – I am listening to success oriented audio.

4.       I look back on the old me and know that I am never going back to what I was. I am only going to become the person I need to be to accept the success that is coming my way. You see, you cannot have success unless you are a successful person. Who can be successful? Anybody. Absolutely anybody. I also believe that the person you want to be has to be grown into. Jim Rohn says that the first thing you need to do if you win a million dollars is become a millionaire. It is the same with any large achievement you want to make. You must become what you want to be. A good example is I want to loose weight. I have tried many many times to do so. Now I am starting and I am being successful. How? I am changing my thinking from one of being deprived of things I want to eat to one of looking forwards to eating well. I am becoming a healthy eater.

So don’t quit. That is the simple take away from this.

And when you miss. Don’t quit. We are frail beings, us humans. We need to recognize that we will fail. We must just get back up and start again. It is a daily process and it is a hard process. Never give up.

2014 11 12 - Squandering Time

"Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of." - Benjamin Franklin

Here I am writing a blog. Some people would look at me right now and think I was squandering time. But I am not. I believe that time spent well is any time used to further your cause to success. I really like Earl Nightingale’s definition of success – “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” It is up to the individual to determine what the worthy ideal is.

I have my own definition of success. I won’t share it all with you here – but as you know, it is success in my own ACN Business PLUS the determination to become and constantly, and consistently work at being a better person. Part of my improvement journey is to organize my thoughts into worthy notes.

So that is why I am writing my blog….

And today’s topic. Let me look at yesterday. I was productive for part of it and squandered the rest. I work part-time for a brewery so I made sales calls. I taught at White Oaks Secondary School in Oakville and went to their Remberance Day Ceremony. I made lunch. I made dinner. I pissed the rest of the day away.

My weaknesses are many and I really need to work at curbing them. Darren Hardy talks about going on 30 day vice checks. I drink too much. I eat too much and I watch Netflix too much! I am working on a success path that Robin Sharma outlines. But today I couldn’t cause I was too tired.

So here is my commitment to myself and the memory of Benjamin Franklin – I will no longer squander time. Period. Full stop.

Now how to define squander? Sitting and reading a book and enjoying a glass of wine is not squandering time IF the work I need to do is done. Instead of watching a mindless movie for the third time (Which I did last night) and drink a bottle of wine and eat a panzerotti, that is squandering. I would be far better off to throw an ACN training video on, or something from Earl Nightingale or the like.

What pisses me off is the negative impression I am leaving with my kids and others like Sam and Mack. I am going to finish this post and head to the shower and then clean until I have to leave for Kayanase.

Tonight, I will get my beer, and come home and clean the bathroom. Hit the sheets and off to Ottawa tomorrow.

It is said that your success can be found in the pages of your journal and daytimer. Starting immediately and forever more I am going to get up at 5 am, walk the dog, do my self improvement and get my life going. Except Thursdays as I am usually up at 3 am and Fridays when I am in Ottawa.

Friends, squandering time is a hateful thing to do to yourself. I hope I am able to be a role model for good from today on. I will only partake in things that are moving me closer to my goals. And that INCLUDES blogging every day!