What If Your Dreams Came True?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 25, 2011
Last week I listened to an interview on a blog by Ray Edwards with Carrie Wilkerson, whose new book called The Barefoot Executive has just come out. I bought it and I’m about 1/4th of the way through and it’s very good, so I’m recommending it to you as a great business purchase.
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Anyway, I was drawn to one particular point where she talked about dreams and how people will have dreams of things they want to achieve, yet sometimes it scares them to think about getting there and then, if it comes, what to do about it or where to go from there. She used two great examples from two of my favorite movies (y’all know I’m just a big kid, right?), Tangled and Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
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From the first movie, the main character is about to experience something she’s dreamed about from the time she was a child, and she’s somewhat sad. When asked why she’s sad she answers “What if it’s not everything I dreamed it would be?” His response is “It will be.” Then she asks “And what if it is; what do I do then?” His response is “Well that’s the good part. You get to go find a new dream”. From the second movie we remember that Snow White is singing a song about wanting her Prince Charming to come, and when he actually shows up she runs into the house and closes the door.
I tend to be a dreamer, but I’m also a realist. I know that if any of my major dreams ever do come true that my life would change. I believe that many people who end up being rich and famous, or even just rich, haven’t prepared themselves for what’s potentially coming. That’s why do many people who win the lottery end up broke, and so many people who end up famous go to rehab, or at least get counseling. All of them know the hard work it took to get there they got, but once there, how many of them have built a foundation to help them keep some of that money and prestige? I mean, how many professional athletes have to end up losing all their money for whatever reason before someone sits back, thinks about it, and realizes that just getting there isn’t enough?
I think it’s this fear that has so many people leaving comments on this blog whenever I talk about striving for the top saying they’d rather make enough to be comfortable, whatever that means. There has to be a fear of getting rich, of being famous, of suddenly seeing your friends change their behavior towards you or you changing your behavior and your friends, of spending money on things you’d have never bought before just because you can, and the fear of what happens if you lose it all and have to start all over again, yet can’t capture what you had.
Two quick stories, if I may. First story, I used to play piano and sing at weddings. Back in 1999 I performed my last wedding. I got to sing a song that I’d always hoped I would sing at my wedding, a song I wrote. It was the final song I ever sang in public, in a church, and I got my one and only standing ovation. I decided that day I was done, that it wouldn’t get any better than that, and I’ve almost never played the piano or sang again, even in the shower. It was a dream I had, though not quite how I saw it coming, but I accepted it and moved on.
Second story is one about weight. I’ve always had a weight issue, I hate to admit. When I first went to college I was probably in the best physical shape of my life but still slightly big. I wouldn’t eat my first semester in college because I couldn’t get used to the food, and I lost 26 pounds. I kept that weight off 2 years and though I’d always keep it off. Gained it all back and more my third year and didn’t lose it again until 10 years later.
Then I lost 66 pounds and was down to what I considered a great weight. Thing is I never believed I could hold that weight, as I thought I’d lost way too much, and two years later I’d gained that weight back and then some.
One more time I lost 50+ pounds and finally I was at the weight I thought would be perfect. This time I held onto it for 9 months, then things started heading south again. See, with my weight, I’ve always dreamed of a size I wanted to be, but I’ve never been able to prepare myself mentally to stay there, and thus I’m back on the losing weight thing again.
Think about this and let’s see what you have to say; what if your dreams came true? Would you be prepared? Would you be ready for another dream, or would you say “it can’t get any better than this?” Or are you fearful that you’d hit your dream and that you couldn’t sustain it and thus would rather not even dream, not for fear that you couldn’t get there but for fear that you might get there?
If you’ve never seen Tangled, enjoy this little clip from the movie, apropos to this topic called I’ve Got A Dream:
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Sunday Question – What’s Your Most Audacious Wish?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 23, 2011
You know, most of the time when a question like this is asked of someone, they give one of those politically correct answers that we all know is a lie. Come on now; I mean, you’re going to tell me that if you had the opportunity for anything you ever wanted the one thing you’d wish for is world peace?
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Nope, not buying it. Few people are that magnanimous in life. And truthfully, it’s not even number one at the top of many lists for people who want to help others. For instance, world peace doesn’t cure hunger. It doesn’t kill pollution, nor clean waters. It can’t stop disease. These are great goals, and there are some folks who might wish for these things. Yet I’d be hard pressed, if I were honest, if I had one audacious dream, something I really wanted, and I gave it away like that. It’s not a tangible wish; how would any genie or whomever even be able to determine what that was?
Instead, I ask this question because I want you to be selfish. Not necessarily because I want it to totally be about you, but because reality states that when you have what you need to reach your ultimate dream, you actually have enough to help take care of some of those other things that might be on your mind. If you’re wealthy, you can have anything you want, and also give whatever you want to others to help them without hurting yourself. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Back to the question. This one wasn’t really easy for me way back when. I couldn’t really think of anything I wanted other than money; isn’t that a shame? It actually took me about a month to come up with something that, at the moment, is kind of unreachable. I mean, I started out by wanting a soda fountain machine, but those don’t cost much. Then I said I wanted an Aeron chair, and it turns out that in the scope of things that wasn’t all that expensive either (though I just couldn’t bring myself to spend $1,300 on one).
Then it hit me; I want a big, expensive home that I get to help design and that I get to pay off immediately and just have my peace of mind. Oh yeah! Then I ran into a snag that I still have, that being I have no real vision of what I want it to look like on the outside. The best I have is that I want it to be a one-story home; no steps for this guy. I don’t have any steps for my house now except 4 little steps from my deck in the back. I’d eliminate even that in my dream house.
Ah, but what do I want in my dream house? I want space! I want an extra large bedroom. I want an extra large master bathroom, with a separate urinal; come on guys, who wouldn’t want a urinal if you had the space? I want a hot tub or Jacuzzi room with an extra large TV in it so I could possibly see it without my glasses.
I want an extra large kitchen with an island that has the sink in it instead of on the counter, although since I tend to splash a lot I’d probably have to have a panel I could pull up so I’m not always getting water on the floor. I want sound wired through the entire house.
I want solar panels to help conserve my utilities. I want heated coils under the driveway to melt all that snow so that I never have to shovel again, nor pay anyone to clear it, and I want it to look like a brick driveway; heck, it might be a brick driveway. I want the ability to open up my roof and let sunlight in whenever I’m in the mood, although I’d live with skylights.
I want an exercise room and a sewing room for my wife; I know she’d also like a greenhouse. I want a playroom or entertainment room with a large pool table, and I want that room to be able to convert to a media room where, if I’m inclined, I could invite people over to watch special events. I want special lighting where everything can be bright but there are no bulbs shining in anyone’s eyes.
And I want a closed in area that’s actually still outside with comfortable lounge chairs and a fountain where I can go to relax and still enjoy nature in my own way, peacefully and by myself, since I really don’t like being in the backyard.
That’s all I have; I’m sure I could come up with more things later, but truthfully, I’d be happy with just that stuff. So, what are your audacious dreams? Go ahead, share!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
The Term “Influence” Does Mean A Lot
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 5, 2011
Last week I was reading a post by Chris Brogan titled Improve Your Influence. The most interesting thing I found in the post was actually the first line, where he stated “The term “influence” doesn’t mean a lot, and yet, it seems to be the holy grail for online social media people“. The reason it was so interesting is that the rest of his post indicated that he pretty much understands how influential he is, whether he was trying to get there or not, and some of the name dropping, which I’m going to do some day (smile), shows that he knows and has talked to some fairly influential people.
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Being more influential in 2011 is one of my goals for the year, and I figure this blog is probably the one that’s going to help me get there. It was actually because of a comment made by Chris on one articles that prompted my post asking how I could be useful to some of you, and I thank those of you who responded. It pretty much gave me permission to be, well, more of me this coming year, which in turn helps some of y’all be more of you. In a way, it made me think of two lines from the movie Happy Feet, both of which most of us should have in our repertoire of favorite lines, even if we keep them to ourselves; to whit:
“Thank you; I’ll take a moment for myself.“
So far I’ve followed some bits of advice in working on that influence thing. I wrote a post where I pretty much showed every link I knew of that talked about me in some fashion.
I’ve given thoughts to the messages I’m trying to project with this blog an realized that me talking about, well, pretty much everything, seems to work for me here, as long as I don’t deviate too much from the norm too often; no promises on that one, but it does prove to be a good thing that I have that other blog to keep me grounded somewhat.
I’ve set up ways for people to like me on Facebook or retweet posts they like. And I’m still figuring out new ways to use social media to work on that influence thing.
In the end, I’ve come to the conclusion that a big part of our becoming more influential with our blogs or social media actually coincides with three of our favorite characters from the Wizard of Oz. Let me explain; stay with me on this one.
The Scarecrow said he needed a brain. The Wizard gave him a diploma. If you check your thesaurus, another word that can be used for diploma is “credentials”. Those of us who write about things that we have the credentials for and can prove it on a consistent basis have a great opportunity to increase our influence as we go along.
The Tin Man said he needed a heart. The Wizard gave him a testimonial, which meant that he honored the Tin Man in a way that others could see the type of person he was. When we acknowledge others at times, like I did in my 5 Top 10′s post, he not only help boost them but we boost ourselves because we show that we know it’s not only about us. Very few people succeed on their own; that’s a hard lesson to learn. Touting others helps your influence because it will come back to you in spades (I wonder what that phrase actually means).
The Cowardly Lion said he lacked courage. The Wizard gave him a medal and called him a hero. I tend to believe that every person that writes a blog and continues writing, even when it seems somewhat fruitless, is a hero, and eventually heroes are noted by someone for their contributions. Heroes also help other solve problems, or gain perspective about things, and that’s also a big part of blogging. Become a hero and your influence will definitely grow.
I don’t try to make my bones by disagreeing with someone whose words I’ve come to enjoy reading (but rarely comment on his blog because it’s a Disqus blog, and you know how I feel about that. In this case, I really don’t think I’m disagreeing with him overall, except for the perspective of the first line of that particular post. It just seems so obvious that whether one wishes to be influential or not, if they provide what he’s said and what I’ve written here, how can anyone not end up being influential? And if that’s occurring, then the “term” does mean a lot, as well as the actions that get us there.
Your thoughts on all of this?
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
My 2011 Goals And Other Stuff
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Dec 28, 2010
About a week and a half ago I took a look at my 2010 goals to see how well I’d done and found that I had done better than I expected to do for the year. Unlike Sire, I like setting goals so I have something to measure myself against later on. I always believe that if you see progress that it inspires you to try new things, and if you don’t then it might give you impetus to try harder. It might; we’ll leave it at that for now.
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I’m not going to go back over last year’s goals again, since they’re at that other link. Instead, I’m going to list my five goals for this year, not only for this blog but for my internet life as well:
1. Earn $5,000 on the internet overall. This is always a tough one, but when I look back at this year I know that I’ll have come close to making $2,000, if not more. So, maybe it’s attainable; who knows. My only question is whether I’ll count webinars in there. After all, they’re done on the internet, although they’ll be representing my overall businesses so it might not count.
2. Earn $500 on this blog. That will definitely be difficult. I made less than $50 from this blog in 2010 and it was my best year. It’s one of the things on my mind when I was writing the post about what people want for their blogs. There will be more on this subject later on.
3. Get this blog up to around 50,000 on Alexa. Heck, it crossed a major threshold this year, although actually just in the past month, and it’s steadily gone up. I see the relationship between writing more posts, or at least consistent posts, and the ranking, so I think this one will be attainable as well.
4. Write at least two pillar articles. What’s a pillar article? Well, Yaro Starak defines it, in my words, as a long article that actually details a process for something that will have residual benefits over time. His initial post on the subject said articles more than 500 words, but it seems some folks believe you need to get to at least 3,000 words for a real pillar article. I’m not sure I want to go that far with it, but who knows, right? I know it’ll be an article my buddy Beverly probably won’t be reading, but it’s an interesting concept over all. And heck, it might be what I need to have an article that can surpass the infamous cleavage article. Turns out that was probably my pillar article for 2010; I’m so proud. lol
5. Increase my influence through this blog towards helping other business goals long term. I think that’s fair overall; a little something for you, a little something for me. What kind of business am I hoping to create? First, my professional speaking business. I already have two scheduled locally this year, but those aren’t paying so they don’t count. I thought about adding a new blog to my SEO site but that would be starting something from scratch that I already do here, so I’m not going that route. Instead, I’ll work on finding new ways of creating interest in this blog, especially locally, in my quest to increase my influence, which I wrote about a lot this past year.
Okay, there are five goals I’m shooting for. But I did add “other stuff” to the title of this post, didn’t I? One of those things is that I’m not going to be adding a product to the end of every single post in the coming year. Over 3 years I’ve made two product sales, and both of those came via a post that talked specifically about that product. Dennis once questioned this process of mine, and though I don’t think it’s such a big deal overall, I figure I can use my time in other ways. The images will be staying, though. I think an image breaks up my posts nicely, and sometimes I get to add a second one. By the way, today’s image is a gift I got from my friend Scott this holiday season, a lava lamp, something I’ve always wanted; thanks Scott!
Talk about advertising on this blog has been a topic over the years. I’m not going to stop advertising, but a few things will probably be eliminated. The affiliate ads on the side might go. Some of the products might be added to a sales page on this site that will have links to products I’ve talked about that I market, like that book to the left on 20 Ways To Make $100 A Day Online, which actually helped me figure things out and was worth buying. I’ve also talked in the past about my Services & Stuff site and things I need to change about it, and I think I’m going to work on setting it up more as an online store while still retaining some of what I’d originally set out to do.
One thing I’m going to do is more reviews of stuff such as books that I think would be of interest to some folks here. After all, I do read enough, and I’m planning on creating a sales page of only books I’ve read and recommended in some fashion on my S&S site, and I’ll probably link to it from this site as I have some of those other links to the right for specific affiliates.
All that, and hopefully I’ll still be entertaining, thought-provoking, educational, and all around unpredictable in the coming year. My hope is that you’ll benefit more than I will, but I want to benefit as well.
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What Do You Want For Your Blog?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Dec 22, 2010
Last week I was reading a post on Mike’s Life blog titled Why Businesses Should Blog Outside The Box. It was written well, and it made an interesting point in saying that once he was able to convince a friend of his to find a way to convince people who didn’t know they needed him and his business that his friend’s business skyrocketed once he figured out how to reach that particular market.
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It was interesting to think about because I believe most of us really are searching for those people who we believe need us or want what we have to offer in some fashion, and we don’t really think as much about reaching out to those people who may not know they need us. Of course, that really would be thinking outside the box, and I’m unsure how we’d get it done.
Actually, that’s not true at all; at least for me. I find myself always trying to convince people I meet to stop by my blogs. Most of them aren’t really interested in many of the things I talk about… at least that’s often my first thought. Then I start thinking that there are people who visit this blog because one never knows what the heck I might be talking about, and I invite people to stop by once I’ve had a chance to talk to them. I often find that I’m talking to someone that mentions something I’ve written about on this blog, and I’ll say to them “hey, I wrote about that; you should check out my blog.”
Of course, just because I get people here doesn’t mean I know what I want for this blog. It’s something I’ve been thinking about as we get towards the end of the year, and as I start the creep towards post #1,000. Some think I should talk more about myself; some think the path I’ve undertaken in the previous posts over all these years is sufficient. Frankly, I haven’t fully come to grips with what I want for this blog.
So I dream and think, and in sharing it maybe you’ll dream and share. I’m not about to lay out my goals for 2011 on this post; that’s later. But here are things I’m thinking about. Do I want to make money on this blog? Do I want to increase my overall influence through this blog? Do I want to keep increasing all my measurable numbers, as in more subscribers and a lower Alexa ranking? Do I want to talk more tech or talk more blogging and writing or share more stories or add more motivational stuff? Do I want to add more video (can’t just yet) or audio? Do I want to use this blog to get more business overall?
What do I want for this blog? I’ll be thinking about that over the next few days. What do you want for your blog? Have you thought about it, and if not, will you?
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mitch Mitchell
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