Monthly Archives: November 2015

Are You Stealing From Your Future?

Which One Of You Benefits?

Some of the most helpful questions come from the field of economics.

Now, most people imagine that economics is some kind of advanced mathematical study.

And if you listen to the economists who work for the government, they sure try and make it seem like this.

I even read an article (written by an economist) who tried to get another article published in some of the mainstream economic journals, with no success. He’d written the article in very simple terms, so that anybody could understand it.

And it was rejected by all the publications.

Then he took the SAME article, the SAME ideas, and made them sound incredibly complicated and used a bunch of unneeded mathematical formulae.

And it was ACCEPTED by the same publications.

To understand why, here’s a joke:

A hiring manager interviewed three people, a mathematician, an engineer, and an economist. He asked each one what “one plus one” was.

The mathematician looked at him like he was crazy and said, “two.”

The Engineer stroked his chin and said, “Hmm, well that depends on the constraints of the system and various other unknown variables.”

The economist smiled, looked at him and said, “Well, what do you WANT it to be equal to?”

The joke being, of course, that economists can use all kind of mumbo jumbo to make up a bunch of intelligent sounding bullcrap.

But back to the original questions.

Or the original idea. That REAL economics is always based on human action.

And human action is ALWAYS subjective, and ALWAYS involves choice.

And one of those questions is, “At what cost?”

Politicians HATE this question.

But as individuals intending on creating the best life we can, we MUST ask ourselves this question, if we want keep ourselves honest.

Sure, it’s fun to sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat ice cream. But at what cost?

What are you missing out on? What OTHER things could you be doing? How would THEY benefit you? Would they benefit you MORE (in the long or short run) than sitting on the couch?

And famous economic question is, “Who benefits?”

If there’s any funny stuff going on, a good way to find out what’s REALLY going on is to ask, “Who benefits?”

How can you apply this to yourself?

Imagine yourself today, or over the next week.

Imagine yourself a year from now. Five years from now. Ten years from now.

Imagine all of your selves, now and in the future.

Next time you are thinking of doing something (sitting on the couch or building your empire), ask yourself:

“Who benefits?”

The NOW you, or the FUTURE you?

Few people make an effort to plan their future with any conscious or rational thought.

But those that DO, generally have MUCH better lives.

Get Yours:

Subliminal Programming

Go Out On A Limb

Use The Right Tools

Once I had to take apart this small mechanical thing on my bicycle.

I’d lost the key to the lock, which was part of the bike, so I needed to disassemble the lock mechanism.

I didn’t have the right size screwdriver, so instead of walking to the hardware store, (since I couldn’t use my bicycle) I used a butter knife.

Kind of clumsy, but it worked.

Another time, WAY back in 3rd grade, I was giving a demonstration on how to make peanut butter. The Grand Finale was to give everybody a cracker with some homemade peanut butter on it, but I’d forgotten a knife.

So I used a spoon instead. My teacher was impressed with my on-the-spot thinking.

Clearly, it’s important to have the right tools. However, having something that’s “good enough” is usually just as effective. Sure it may look silly, and you may FEEL silly, but so long as you’re focused on getting your outcome, it’s usually all good.

Sometimes, though, the “wrong” tools are the things we’re carrying around in our heads.

For example, we’ve still got a lot of instincts left over from our hunter-gatherer days that don’t serve us so well today.

Back then, it was a REALLY good idea to eat as much as you could any time you had a chance.

Today, not so much.

Back then, it was a good idea to follow the crowd without thinking, and be VERY risk averse.

However, in today’s fast changing world and economy, if you wait around for enough “social proof” so you’ll feel comfortable making a move, you’ll miss out.

Obviously, this isn’t easy. Not any easier than sitting in front of a delicious pile of nachos (or your favorite fast food) and NOT eating.

But guess what? Those that create huge empires and fortunes and world changing inventions learn to ignore their primitive urges. They know that part of genius is doing something completely DIFFERENT than everybody else, especially while others are talking smack behind their back.

Nobody every created greatness by playing it safe!

Often times, great ideas that moved the Earth got people killed!

Now, I’m saying you need to go out and be persecuted to death for your great ideas, but you’ve GOT to be willing to experience just a LITTLE bit of discomfort.

Think of whatever you’d like to have, right now. The biggest, most amazing thing you can conjure up.

If getting THAT was easy and comfortable, then EVERYBODY would have it, RIGHT NOW.

But you KNOW it’s not. You KNOW it will take some effort.

Some of THESE may help you get going:

Subliminal Programming

The REAL Golden Rule

Unlimited Opportunities

I used to have this friend that was an on-purpose polarity responder.

Meaning he would always say and do the opposite of what was socially expected.

If a sign said “Do Not Enter,” he would enter.

If somebody told to “wait here,” he would wait over there.

Now, sometimes it was cool to hang around this guy, but most of the time it was kind of annoying.

It was like he couldn’t shut it off. You’d try and have a normal conversation, and he would always say the opposite of what you would expect most normal people to do.

On the other hand, most people are the opposite of “opposite-man,” meaning they ONLY do what is socially expected.

To be sure, this is definitely a safe choice in most situations. Most of us don’t like calling attention to ourselves when we don’t need to.

The trick is knowing WHEN to break the rules, and WHY to break the rules.

Sure, most rules are set up to keep everybody safe and happy. But plenty of rules are set up to protect “some” people at the expense of others.

When you encounter THESE rules, the REAL rule is to “not get caught.”

When I was a kid, we were all taught the “Golden Rule” in school.

“Do Unto Others As You Would Have Done Unto You.”

I had a buddy who had a beach towel that said, “Do Unto Others…Then Split!”

Meaning do what you want, then get the heck out of town before the cops show up!

The other day, however, I read an interesting article regarding the secrets of charisma.

It said the Golden Rule is bogus.

Because if we treat others the way we want to be treated, that’s actually pretty selfish.

Instead, we should treat others the way THEY WANT to be treated.

Problem is, most people don’t ask. They just “do unto others” and assume it’s OK.

Often times it’s not.

Now do you know how to treat others?

Ask them!

(I know, stunning realization!)

Funny thing is that even though this is pretty obvious, most people walk around talking about themselves.

Next time you’re in a group of friends, turn off your yap for a little bit, and listen to the flow of conversation.

Chances are it will be everybody taking turns talking about themselves. Their wants, their needs, their opinions.

At first glance, this seems pretty selfish of them.

But it gives YOU a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY.

Since they’re saying pretty much EXACTLY what they want, you know EXACTLY how to talk to them, in order to get what you want.

Just take whatever you want, and put it in their terms, and they’ll be glad to give it to you.

What’s more, they’ll think it was their idea!

Learn How:

Interpersonal Resonance

Love The Rough Parts

Ups and Downs

Many people start off with a strong goal, and then lose motivation later on.

For example, if you go to your local gym a week after New Year’s, you’ll see that it’s packed with people.

But if you show up a month or two later, you’ll see far fewer.

If you can recall many of the projects you’ve started off in the past, you may notice a similar pattern.

One of the reasons for this may your particular Meta-Program when it comes to motivation.

Some people are motivated to move away from pain. Some people are motivated to move towards pleasure. Most are a mixture of both.

So anytime you start off a project without understanding and addressing both ends of the spectrum, it’s easy to lose motivation.

For example, if you looked at yourself in the mirror and didn’t like what you saw, you’d be motivated.

But as soon as you made a little progress, that negative feeling would have less of an effect. You’re replacing that negative feeling with positive action.

In this case, it’s best to acknowledge that the INITIAL motivation is to move away from something negative, but to keep going, you’ll need to create something positive to pull you forward.

It’s also common to be in a good rhythm, and then get stuck in a rut. Or even take a few steps back.

You’re jamming along, getting small success after small success, seeing that big goal getting closer and closer and BAM!

Something happens, and it seems as though everything’s falling apart.

During these periods, it’s really easy to get discouraged.

However, it’s important to understand that this is part of the process.

One of the tests of “randomness” in any system is whether or not there are “runs.”

Meaning if you flip a coin a thousand times, you’re going to get times when you get ten heads in a row, or ten tails in a row.

This is a statistical requirement. In fact, if you DON’T have runs, then something’s wrong.

So on your way to your goal, you should fully EXPECT to have rough patches. You should only start to worry if you NEVER have any rough patches.

Even in the movies, when things are too easy, the hero or heroine realizes something must be wrong.

Because it’s NEVER easy.

Remember this next time you hit a rough patch. It’s perfectly natural. It’s expected. It’s nature’s way of FORCING you to dig deep and reevaluate your strategy, so you can come up with something even BETTER than what you’ve been doing.

As the founder of Sony famously said, if you want to double your success rate, all you’ve got to do is double your failure rate.

Get Started:

Mind Persuasion

Do You Feel Trapped?

Keep Wanting More

The other day I watched a movie at my local theater.

Pretty funny, but because I showed up a little late, I had to sit in the front row.

Got used to it after a few minutes, but at first it was pretty strange.

I remember when I was in high school I got a “hand me down” pickup truck from my brother.

I was kind of hard to park, but my friend said, “don’t worry, you’ll get used to it after a while.”

If you’ve ever moved into a new place, you know the first couple nights are pretty weird. If you wake up, you’re a little disoriented. You don’t know where anything is. But after a week or so, it starts to feel like “home.”

It’s been said that the older we get, the harder it is to change our routine. Several marketing studies have shown that people in older age groups are much less likely to switch brands unless something drastic happens.

Young kids, on the other hand, are much more willing to try new things.

No matter who you are, or where you are in life, there are things that you still want, need and desire.

Programmed into your DNA is the desire for more. Even just sitting in a chair, you won’t be comfortable for very long.

Our subconscious minds are always looking out into the future in order to try and improve our “state.”

Sometimes this means a small shift in posture. Sometimes this means a dramatic change.

One thing that can trap is oscillating between states of comfort.

It feels like you’re “improving” but all you’re really doing is shifting back and forth.

Sometimes it’s a good idea just to do something different, just for the sake of being different.

One way to avoid the trap of falling into complacency is always reviewing your goals. Make sure you’ve got at least ONE big goal that is AT LEAST a year out. And make sure you’ve got a few “milestones” in between where you are now, and where you’ll be in a year.

So you can actually look at each day as an opportunity to get a little bit closer.

Anything will work. So long you are doing SOMETHING to move closer, you’ll avoid the complacency trap.

Taking a walk, writing a few words in your journal, talking to one new person a day, ANYTHING is better than sitting around waiting for something to happen.

Once you start taking daily ACTION, then your subconscious will know you’re serious, and start showing you many more opportunities. THAT is when life becomes exciting again.

If you don’t have a goal, choose one. Any one. And get started.

These will help:

Mind Persuasion

Seek and Destroy Limiting Beliefs

Flip Your Beliefs

I learned this cool thing about light when I was in college.

When light comes from the sun, it’s in all different directions.

Meaning a beam of light has these oscillations, positive and negative.

But they are in all different degrees. It has a pure vertical component, and a pure horizontal component, and everything in between.

To see this in action, get a couple of sunglasses that are “polarized.” The polarization of the sunglasses is to reduce the glare. It does that by ONLY letting through the vertical component of the light.

Since glare is usually horizontal, as it’s reflected off flat surfaces, having a vertical only filter will eliminate those.

So if you take two glasses that are polarized, and rotate them, you can get it so NO light is passed through.

This is precisely how our beliefs work. As you know, the conscious mind can ONLY perceive of about 1/25,000 of what’s really going on. Everything else is filtered out. Filtered out by our beliefs.

So all you’ve got to do is identify your self-limiting beliefs, remove them, and you’ll see all kinds of stuff that didn’t seem like it was there before.

This is one way the Law of Attraction works. You start to BELIEVE, then you’ll start to see.

Stuff isn’t magically showing up, it was there all along. But you didn’t see it before.

Kind of like a magic trick. That magician isn’t REALLY pulling a rabbit out of some magical doorway into the space-time continuum, you just don’t see it, then you see it.

Poof! Magic!

So, how do you find and eliminate your limiting beliefs?

One way is to take a look at your life now. The way it REALLY is. Take a good, hard, honest look.

Then write down what beliefs MUST be true in order to support this reality you’ve created for yourself?

I must warn you, this won’t feel good. Because ANY method that uncovers limiting beliefs is NOT going to feel good. You’re going to have to find really CRAPPY things you believe about yourself, and elevate them up to the conscious level. (Kind of like vomiting up some gross moldy cheese you ate by accident!)

But once you flip it around, and let the new, POSITIVE believe sink back in, you’re life will change.

How do you do that? Take whatever NEGATIVE belief you’ve found, and just flip it around to it’s grammatical opposite. OR change it however you like.

For example, if you find one of your beliefs, based on your REALITY is that “I’m only worth $10.25 per hour,” then simply rewrite it:

“I’m worth $500 per hour!”

Then get busy programming THAT belief into your subconscious.

Like This:

Money Love

Beliefs and Tools and Rocks

It’s Easier Than You Think

Long time ago I used to go rock climbing with a buddy of mine.

He was MUCH better at it than I was, so he would always “lead.”

This meant he went first, put in the pieces of protection that the rope would go through as he climbed up.

My job as the “follower” was to slowly lead the rope up as he climbed. If he fell, he’d fall past the last piece of “protection” he’d placed in the rock. If that happened, I’d catch him.

Then when I went up, I had to “clean.” Meaning I had to take each piece of protection out of the rock, and put it on a sling. By the time we’d get to the top, all the pieces of “protection” would have slowly moved from his sling to my sling.

The pieces of “protection,” or “pro” were works of art in and of themselves. All different kinds, designed to fit in small cracks, wedges, and ledges. Some were pretty hard to get out, so I had to carry a “cleaning tool” which was kind like a long flat piece of metal with a small hook on the end.

I’d use it to reach into cracks to pry loose the pieces of pro.

Once, we’d done a bunch of short climbs, and we had about two hours left. He wanted to try this “face” climb. Face climbs are particularly difficult, because there’s not a lot of ledges or cracks to hold onto.

Just small smooth protrusions in the rock. You have to see them, and balance on them, and move fairly quickly.

Compared to big cracks or ledges, where you can get a good hold and hang there all day if you wanted to.

Faces, on the other hand, you had to keep moving. You always had to look a few moves ahead, see the small hand holds and foot holds, and just keep on climbing. If you stopped, you’d slip, and if you slipped, it was easy to lose your nerve.

So he tells me that this particular face was pretty easy. Much easier than the climbs I’d already done that day.

So he led, and I followed. When I followed, I walked right up, no problem. It was easy like he said it was.

Only he kind of tricked me. It was much harder than he’d told me. He figured if he told me the REAL rating, I’d chicken out, or take too long climbing up. So he said it was a lot easier than it really was.

Since I believed him, it was.

Funny how that works. Once you change your beliefs, and trust yourself, you’re good to go.

Grab yourself some tools, and make a pretty good life for yourself.

Learn How:

Money Love

Do You Have Closing Anxiety?

They Want You To Ask

The hardest part of the sale is asking for the order.

The reason why is pretty interesting, even if you aren’t in sales, or don’t ever plan to be.

Imagine a salesperson, who knows his or her product very well.

They talk to the customers, find out what they want, and show them that the product is a perfect match.

Only when it comes time to seal the deal, they get nervous.

It’s kind of the same when meeting somebody socially, who you might think may make a decent relationship partner.

So when it comes time to seal the deal (ask for the number, lean in for the kiss, whatever) that same feeling of anxiety pops up.

You might call this “closing anxiety.” Many salespeople are fantastic at greeting customers, creating rapport, but when it comes to talk turkey, they freeze up.

Guys do the same thing. They approach a girl, get her laughing and feeling good, but for some reason they have a hard time asking for the number.

The problem is the same for both cases.

The fear of rejection runs very deep. It was built into our brains BEFORE we learned any words, so it only exists as a feeling. A raw sense of insecurity.

Here’s one trick that can help. Next time you’re going to “seal the deal,” whatever that means to you, think of it as an actual object.

Some imaginary “thing” that you’re holding off to the side. An idea that’s floating out in space.

So if they “reject” that “thing” they’re not rejecting you, just an idea that’s kind of floating off to the side.

If you’re getting somebody’s number, instead of saying, “Can I have your number,” or something similar, actually hold your phone off to the side, and say something like, “Why don’t you put your number in here so we can hang out later.”

Same with a sales situation. Have the contract or the information on a piece of paper, off to the side. Look at your clients, and motion “over there” to the idea of buying the product. “Well, I think this looks pretty good, what do you think?”

Another way to think about this is that person you are talking to, whether it’s for sales or romance WANTS the conversation to end with the sale or the number.

Nobody likes going home empty handed, shoppers or otherwise. Nobody likes going from shop to shop only to find out that they can’t find what they want.

They WANT to come to an agreement with you. They WANT you to have the product they want, or you to be the person of their dreams.

Nobody goes shopping with the hopes of rejecting a bunch of salespeople!

When you understand the true meaning of money, and that people LOVE buying things they need and want, it will be much easier.

Learn How:

Money Love

Tap The Energy of Earth

Grab This Now

Once I was at this goofy real estate seminar.

The guy on stage was talking about taking action.

Then he stopped talking, and held out a $100. Said nothing.

Finally a young girl went running up to grab it, and he gave it to her.

The point (at least in the beginning) was that when you see an opportunity, you should grab it before somebody else does.

However, the way he did it was a bit underhanded.

One, because there are plenty of opportunities to go around. You don’t really need to elbow past people and run somewhere before everybody else does.

Sure, sometimes there really IS only one or two things available, but that’s generally by design.

Because this guy did the same thing a few minutes later, by pulling back a big sheet over a stack of products. Boxes of DVDs and training manuals. Maybe fifty of them.

Everybody rushed the stage again, and they vanished pretty quickly.

Of course, later, when he offered them for sale, he got WAY more sales than he would have.

Which is why this was a pretty sneaky way to generate sales. He TWICE created a sense of urgency, and a sense of “hurry up before I miss out.”

One the one hand, this is true. You only can live every day once. It’s never ever going to come again. You only get one shot at life. (At least this one). The longer you wait around, the less time you’ve got left.

On the other hand, just walking down a busy street will present TONS of opportunities. Things you never would have dreamed of before.

Every single person you meet has a HUGE amount of unfulfilled wants, needs and desires.

If you figure out a way to get people what they want, in a way that they want it, you can make a TON of money.

Think of the last time you bought something, anything, that you wanted.

Before, all you had was money. Then you traded money for whatever that was. Maybe a cup of coffee. Maybe a cheeseburger, maybe a move ticket with your partner.

You likely felt pretty good making the purchase, right?

Most people do.

Think of all the BILLIONS of people on Earth, many of them making purchases like that EVERY SINGLE DAY. Buying something with money, and feeling GOOD about it.

Think of that never ending flow of money going around and around like the ENERGY of the Earth. People making stuff and selling to people who want stuff. The cool thing is that EVERYBODY is both buying AND selling stuff, all at the same time.

All you’ve got to do is figure out a way to get in the game, and you’ll be set.

Get Started:

Money Love

Where Money Beliefs Come From

Three Evil Twins

I remember a long time ago shortly after I graduated from college.

It was before got a job, so I was still VERY wet behind the ears.

I was at some wedding of some distant relative, and I met this guy who was a preacher. I think he was dating another distant relative at the wedding.

Anyhow, when he learned that I’d just graduated and hadn’t found a job, he asked me what I wanted to do.

Half jokingly, I said, “I want to make as much money as I can.”

This preacher was pretty shocked. He launched into some long lecture about how money is bad, chasing money is bad, it’s better to serve your fellow man, etc., etc.

He seemed to enjoy lecturing me so much I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was only kidding.

But this is not an uncommon response. If you told you’re friends and family your main goal in life was to make huge piles of cash, they would immediately think you were evil, or didn’t care about people, or were going to somehow “exploit the poor” in order to get rich.

And to be sure, lately it seems plenty of people ARE getting rich (and staying rich) that way.

But the idea that money, or making money is “evil” has been around a long time.

Why is that?

One of the reasons may be that people in power (those who have money) want to keep it that way.

After all, if everybody were rich, they wouldn’t feel so special.

Another reason is that most people simply aren’t very good at making money. So when you tell your buddies you want to learn HOW to make money, they suddenly feel as if they are going to be left behind. So they say money is bad.

Another reason is a lot of people associate the idea of making money with presenting themselves to the world.

After all, if you really DID give it your best shot, and failed, what does that say about you?

These three reasons, combined together, make it pretty fricking easy to convince ourselves that money is bad. It keeps us safe. It keeps our friends from thinking we’re going to leave them. And those that are in power don’t need to worry about us challenging them.

Luckily, all of these reasons are absolute NONSENSE. Lies we tell ourselves to protect our egos.

The bottom line is that money is FANTASTIC. Making money is FANTASTIC.

Because the ONLY WAY to honestly make money is to make (or help make) something (product or service) that other people WANT.

So in reality, when you say you want to MAKE A TON OF MONEY, what you’re really saying is that you want to figure out how to help as many people in the world get what they want.

And that is anything BUT evil.

Learn More:

Money Love