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Going Into Labor

September 7, 2010 in Business, Life, Linchpin with 2 Comments

No, my wife isn’t going into labor 13 weeks early.

Instead, it’s time for me to truly get down to work. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Labor Day in my eyes is viewed as a fresh start. It’s the first day of the rest of your working life, regardless of what happened yesterday.

The main intention of this blog over the past six months has been to inspire. I’ve wanted to inspire others to take the big leap. My goal has been to inspire those standing on the edge to take that next step, that step we’re all afraid of.

For me to take the next step in my own life, I first had to conquer an evil lizard. At this very moment, after months of hard work, the lizard has been subdued. And because of that, I need to make my move.

My blog posts may become less frequent in the coming months. I’ll do my best to continue to post often, and maybe still daily, but I’m not making any promises.

I’ve got a lot of exciting things in the works. I’ll keep you posted.

Noah

Learning To Swim

September 3, 2010 in Business, Fun Stuff, Life with 0 Comments

Have you ever bought a product from someone that promised something like instant wealth and business success in a short period of time?

We’re willing to invest insane amounts of money into products and training programs that promise immediate and instant results.

This is the reason the entire late-night infomercial world exists. It’s the reason you can supposedly make a couple of payments and transform yourself into a real estate investing expert instantly.

The realty is, and we already know it, that nothing happens instantly. We know that most of these programs are designed to make the creators rich, and make us feel better about ourselves, but only slightly and for a short time.

If a program promised you the skills of a piano virtuoso without any work, you’d know it was a scam. We understand that most things in life require constant practice and experience.

Any type of self-development is the same. Upping your game requires constant practice and experience. Malcolm Gladwell said in his book “Outliers”, that expertise and proficiency in any subject was found only after about 10,000 hours of practice.

You learn to swim by getting in the water, taking lessons, and practicing. With more and more experience, you’ll become a good swimmer.

If someone said they could turn us into Michael Phelps overnight, thousands would buy into it, and thousands would drown.

Get in the water and learn to swim. I’m on the diving board and about to take a swim. Care to join me?

Have a great weekend!

Noah

Happiness Now?

September 2, 2010 in Ideas, Life with 7 Comments

Here’s something interesting I recently read about happiness.

About a year after winning the lottery, the person who won the money will come down from all the hoopla and experience, roughly, the same level of happiness they were experiencing before they won the money. One year.

Subsequently, if you were to lose both your legs, you’d be depressed and unhappy, but eventually you’d get your happiness back at your “pre-leg” levels.

I find the whole idea extremely interesting, especially the part about losing one’s legs. We often hear about lottery winners and the extremely wealthy being no happier or better off than non-winners. Maybe, in extreme examples of pain and despair, it could have the same result.

Of course, being blessed and fortunate to have both my arms and legs, I’m not willing to say if this is particularly true. I can’t imagine what that would be like.

But…

Here’s the thing. You’re happiness level here and now, at this very moment, might be the best it’s ever going to get.

The key is, are you allowing yourself to see the beauty in the present moment – not something down the road, or tomorrow, or next year, but now?

Remember when we were kids and we could spend hours not worrying about time, or looking at the clouds, or splashing in the water, or playing with our toys. It’s that sense of contentment we need to get back.

Many of us are trapped on the hamster wheel, chasing something that’s always just around the corner. We never seem to actually get around the corner. Maybe instead of chasing, you could simply stop, get off the hamster wheel, and start seeing things a little differently.

Imagine if this was your peak moment, here and now. Nothing more or less was going to make you any happier then you are now. What would you do differently?

What would you change?

Weak and Powerless

September 1, 2010 in A Typical Wednesday, Fun Stuff, Life with 0 Comments

On Wednesdays, I always seem to write just whatever pops into my head – or go off on a bit of a tangent. I’ve created a new category for these posts and I’m calling it “A Typical Wednesday.”

Hope you enjoy them.

Somewhere along the route of history, we sold ourselves out.

We gave into all kinds of fear. We created things like the all-inclusive travel industry – a farce of a way to “find yourself” and rid yourself of your problems, even if it was for only a week or two at a time. We’ve created entire industries that act as coping mechanisms for our addictions.

We’re addicted to a drug called security.

But we’ll often chalk it up as “just the way things are.”

This is what Seuss called the Waiting Place. It’s the place where most of us go as a crutch. It may be dark and dreary, but it’s the safest place to be, after all – you just wait.

We’re so dependant on the drug that even when an opportunity falls right into our lap, we often miss it. We’re blind to it. We’re paralyzed by it. We’re so weak and powerless that at that moment, we have nothing to rely on. We’re locked in a mental prison and we built the walls.

But realistically, we’re just so damn scared of going off the drug, or peaking beyond the curtain of the Waiting Place, we give in, give up, and wait.

The key is to start looking beyond the curtain even if it’s just a peek here or a peek there. It has to be an ongoing process. You’ve got to start now.

Then one day, when nobody’s looking, you quietly slip behind the curtain and you’re off. Never to return to that damn place again.

Start peeking now.

The Dreamer

August 31, 2010 in Fun Stuff, Life, Linchpin with 3 Comments

Directly under my name on my business card, I’m using three words to describe myself. They are:

Marketer ~ Entrepreneur ~ Dreamer

The first two are easy. It’s the third one that poses a problem for some. It’s the third one that makes people take a second glance. It’s that one that irks a few people.

You see, businesses and organizations have told us they don’t want dreamers.

We bought into it. And, because they told us they didn’t want dreamers, we listened. We stopped dreaming and stopped allowing ourselves to dream.

You’d never get past the interview stage, if you told them you were a dreamer. That’s the biggest mistake businesses and HR people make.

The people they actually want to hire are the dreamers. It’s your job to show them why.

The business started with a dream. Their profit projections were part of a dream. Their new products and service offerings were the result of the dream. Everything that has breathed life into any business or organization is the result of a dream. Dreamers are the reason you’re at the interview in the first place.

And even though they say they don’t want dreamers, profits are declining, businesses are closing, jobs are being shipped elsewhere, and creativity is stagnant. Deep-down the world is begging for dreamers. The next time you have a job interview, let them see who you really are, not the person that the 101 Job Interview Tips book told you to be.

You have a choice. You can choose to be just another cog in the machine, or, you can choose to be dreamer. If the job you’re interviewing for doesn’t believe in dreamers, then move on.

You’re dreaming. They’re in a coma.

Eight Secrets

August 30, 2010 in Fun Stuff, Life with 2 Comments

Buying into a secret that promises you you’ll get rich or be successful is a waste of time and money.

Here are eight free secrets I was thinking about this morning. There are more, but these are eight that have been pretty darn good to me over the past few years.

  1. Figure out what it is you actually want.

  2. Avoid negativity. Negative friends, negative family, negative influences (books, movies, TV, co-workers)

  3. Don’t think about the next big idea. Everyone has great ideas in the shower. It’s those who take action that will succeed. Think about taking the next small action towards the next big idea. Small actions can compound and snowball quickly. Even small insignificant ideas, which are acted upon, make millionaires.

  4. Outsource when you need to. Don’t waste your time on something you could easily pay to have done cheaper, faster, better.

  5. Keep your eye on the ball. Do you remember growing up and learning to play baseball? They taught me to play baseball with T-Ball. The idea was to teach us to keep our eye on the ball. The best way to teach this was to put the ball in a single position so it wouldn’t move.  Once we could hit the ball, it was time to graduate to the real world. In the real world, the ball is always moving.

  6. If you miss the ball, just keep swinging. You can have more than three strikes in the real world. Some would argue that the more you strike out, the better you’ll get. Keep swinging.

  7. Realize that none of it really matters in the end. Paralysis by fear of failure, fear of success, fear of what others might think, are all real fears. I’m not going to deny that. The big realization comes when you see those fears really mean nothing. What’s the worst that could happen?

  8. Have fun. If it isn’t fun, what’s the point? The moment something becomes not fun, that is the time to look at changing the situation. So many problems are created because we remain in situations that aren’t fun. Change it.

Have a great Monday.

The Path

August 27, 2010 in Life with 0 Comments

Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pretty straightforward. Life gives us the choice to either follow a clear, distinct, and well drawn out path, or we can create our own path.

The first path is the one most people take.

This is the option that school taught us. This is the option your parents most likely took, this is the option they want you to take. After all, it was the safest, surest bet. Sure, there were some hardships. It was a lot of work. But they got the two weeks a year to take the ole family fun wagon down to Disney. Space Mountain was closed for maintenance, but that’s OK. There’s always next year. Maybe.

I’m a believer of taking the route without the path. The rewards are far greater. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. (hint: the rewards have absolutely nothing to do with either more money or more stuff – so if that’s what you want out of life, take the first path)

And don’t get me wrong, when I refer to taking the route without a path, this doesn’t mean, don’t get a job, or become an entrepreneur. It doesn’t mean that at all. Along your trail, you can have jobs and/or a career – great jobs and a great career, just leave a trail of breadcrumbs along the way.

The fact that we even have to think about which path to take is crazy. In my opinion, giving it all away to follow someone else’s path, because it’s supposedly going to be “easier,” sheesh… What a crock.

Which path are you going to take?

Ralph Waldo Emerson wanted you to take the route without the path – but I believe he also wanted you to have an idea of where you wanted to go. Aimlessly wondering in the wilderness never did anybody any good. All you really need is a compass. (See post below)

My Daily Workout

August 27, 2010 in Creativity, Life with 2 Comments

For the past few years, I’ve been following Crossfit and doing the daily workouts. I’ve spoken of this on a few occasions here and here. It’s been life changing, but it’s also been a lot of hard work.

That’s what I do for my physical exercise.

There’s another type of exercise that holds the same importance in my daily routine, if not more. It’s a mental exercise.

There’s a few ways I accomplish that, but one of the best and most important ways is with this blog.

This blog has acted as my personal diary, so-to-speak, over the past few months. It’s allowed me to clarify my thoughts and document my thinking. It’s also allowed me to focus on my future life and where I want to go – my ideal life situation.

But like my physical exercise, this mental exercise is hard work. It’s training my mental muscles and allowing them to grow and expand. This, in turn, is expanding my mental fitness and the benefits are showing up on a daily basis.

Here’s the thing. Doing something similar in your own life could have the most amazing and profound effects. I’m not saying you need to start a blog.

I’m saying, the act of writing and expressing your thoughts in some manner (publicly or privately) could potentially change your life. Just like the physical stuff, it’s a good idea to exercise your mind.

Here’s something I’ve said again and again and again, and I keep saying it again and again for a reason…so take note.

Take some time and write what your ideal life situation looks like. Next year, or the year after that, and maybe even ten years down the road.

Feel free to be specific. Write about your lifestyle, your relationships, your possessions, and just about everything else.

Give yourself a good solid mental workout. I want you to work up a sweat.

If you’re creating your own path, you might as well have an idea of where you want to go instead of just walking aimlessly.

The Dress Rehearsal

August 26, 2010 in Life with 0 Comments

When confronted with death, even after a long-lived life, we’re reminded of something that we often lose sight of.

We’re reminded that this is the one and only time you’ve got to have the stage all to yourself. You’re the star of the show.

Can any amount of drudgery really be worth it?

I don’t care what the naysayers say – we’ve bought into a lie in western societies that the ideal situation, the ideal life, and the ideal circumstances are always just around the corner.

Few of us ever get around the corner.

We lose sight that the ideal situation is right here and right now. If you’re constantly looking for life in the fun lane, realize that you might just need to turn on your blinker and switch lanes.

We often forget that the curtain can close on this play at any time, so you better make this your best damn performance.

There’s no dress rehearsal for this play, and we want to give you a standing ovation.

Give & Take

August 25, 2010 in A Typical Wednesday, Life with 0 Comments

It must be Wednesday. Here’s what I was thinking about a few minutes ago – I  figured two short posts in one day was OK. :-)

The more you give to the world, the more the world will give you in return.

And the more you take, the more the world will resist.

Most of us live our lives as takers. We are always striving to take a bit more here and there to further ourselves. Of course, we’re not really furthering ourselves. We’re furthering our egos and the representation of what we call “ourselves.”

And when we choose to live this way, the world constantly resists our efforts by knocking us down and presenting us with new challenges. The harder we push, the stronger the resistance gets.

But when you let go and start giving instead of always taking, something interesting starts to happen. The world starts giving back. It starts rewarding you in various ways. Things suddenly start going your way.

Let go and give. Give unselfishly.  Give without the desire to receive something in return. Give anything. Try it and see what happens.

Are you a giver or a taker?

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