Category Archives: Motivation/Inspiration

Blogging, Motivation/Inspiration

Are Your Views On Money Holding You Back?

33 Comments

A few days ago I introduced a guy to you named Brendon Burchard, who wrote a book I recommended called the Millionaire Messenger.

Over the course of signing up for some of his free videos, I have had a chance to check out some of the comments after the videos. Most have thanked him for the information he’s given and have written that they felt inspired to look at things in a different way. But what has surprised me is how many people are put off because he talks about how much money he’s made in such a short period of time, saying it’s distasteful.

I often wonder if some of us are kept from success because of our beliefs about money. In another book I’ve talked about here, T. Harv Eker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, he talks about how he would make a million, then lose a million, and how this pattern was perpetuated a few times before he realized that, because of how he was brought up, he was equating wealth with being evil, and since no one wants to be seen as evil he’d then lose it all each time. Once he came to grips with the inaccuracy of the belief he started holding onto his money and life improved dramatically.

Let’s get this one out of the way; there is no such phrase in anyone’s Bible that says “Money is the root of all evil.” No matter which Bible you believe (if you do), every time the statement is used in 1st Timothy, it begins “The love of money…”, and then goes on to explain what it means. Basically, it’s not the idea of having money or being wealthy it believes is evil, it’s how one gets that wealth that might be evil.

I don’t think anyone can gripe with that one. We’re allowed to applaud titans of industry who saw a lack of something, created what was missing, and made millions of dollars. Anyone who faults these people for filling a void, no matter what it is, and making lots of money from it is a hypocrite because all of us probably wish we could do the same thing. How many of us see something and say “man, I had that as a thought years ago; I wish I’d followed through on it”? I certainly do, and often; ugh.

The fact is that most of us don’t have a love affair with money; we can’t because we never seem to have enough of it If we did most people wouldn’t fall for the scams I talked about. We’d already have the money we needed and wouldn’t give these things a second look.

Think about it another way; why are there so many “make money now” blogs? Or so many posts, including many of my earlier ones, about making money in some fashion? Because we don’t have enough, and we want more.

Some of you have seen my buddy Sire and I debate the merits of those people who promote themselves and talk about themselves because they’ve made money, and they want you to know it. He sees it as bragging; I see it as telling it like it is. If I’ve succeeded I want to tell you I’ve succeeded and I want to tell you how I did it. Who wants to follow someone that hasn’t succeeded if the intention is to make money? And if we have the big name bloggers that we know have done it and achieved financial success, what’s so wrong with them letting us know about that success?

I say all of this as I celebrate my first $600 month blogging income. It may be a fluke but it was the next step up after mentioning my first $500 month some time ago. No, it’s not enough to live off just yet, but at least it’s moving forward. Of course I’m looking for other ways to make money because I have things I want to do, things I need to do. All of it takes money.

And if I have to find and listen to the guys who can tell me how much money they’ve made, I’ll do that.
 

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
Motivation/Inspiration

Only Concern Yourself With What You Can Control

28 Comments

I was on a roll last week. After reading a post on Ileane’s Basic Blog Tips I was inspired to write a post titled Is Your Work Worth Nothing. It seems that, for this person, just because he didn’t understand something he felt it prudent that the people doing SEO work for him should be paid based on results and not based on the fact that they did the work. Of course when I asked him if he wanted to be paid that way he said no, but that SEO work is different; no it’s not.

My comments on that post and then my post here got me an invite to write a guest post for Ileane, which I’ll do when asked, and I came up with one I called 5 Ways Your Blog Might Be Irritating People. That post got a lot of responses, and I appreciate everyone who participated; it was a lot of fun. And I didn’t gripe about anything I haven’t griped about here every once in awhile, but it ended up being a pretty long post; I’m glad Ileane was okay with that.

I had been on a pattern of criticism, all of which started with how my grandmother was treated while a patient in the hospital. Oh, people were nice, but overall competence wasn’t up to standard; being a health care consultant, I know. I even wrote a small bit of that criticism here.

Funny thing about criticism; once you’ve opened up your eye and started looking for things that aren’t going well, you get really good at it, focused on it, and suddenly all it seems you’re seeing is incompetence everywhere. And man, it’s easy to find. It’s a place that’s easy to get into, but in the long run it might not be all that much fun.

Hence, the day after writing that post, being on Twitter and complaining about the weather. Yeah, the weather. lol In central New York, it’s like we jumped from winter to summer and totally skipped spring except for the rainy part. The temperature hit 92° (33C), and I’m sorry but that’s just way too hot for me. It was already over 80° around 9:30, and I was griping about that as well because I had hoped to cool the house off before it got really hot.

That’s when one of my online friends, Shirley George Frazier of Solo Business Marketing said: “Concentrate on the things you can control, and the rest will fall in line”. Goodness, what a thing to say to me at that moment. She hadn’t known what I’d been going through and what I’d been like, yet it was a very timely statement. I needed to see it and hear it; heck! Of course, being cool, I wrote back with “You mean I can’t control the weather?” She wrote back “Controlling the weather — something to add to your wish list!”

Funny lady, but the point was taken. It’s easy to complain about things, but harder to think about those things that we could actually do something about. There were a lot of things I was complaining about that I actually did something about, but others that I knew there wasn’t anything I could do. In an odd way I didn’t get all that depressed about any of it, but I also wasn’t as content and happy as I could have been, as I had been before my grandmother got hurt.

An important lesson for those of us who blog is to not get so into complaining about things that we don’t try to fix and resolve what we can. For all the complaints I wrote in the post on Ileane’s blog, I could control only what I do on my blog, and I don’t do any of the things I find irritating. For what happened to my grandmother I had a meeting with a representative at the hospital, and so far have also ended up talking to a couple of department directors on how things could have been improved. I feel good about that because I know that everything I say, if they fix it, will help the next patient that they encounter.

If you’re going to complain, do something about it as well; otherwise, maybe channel those thoughts towards something more positive. I think I can say that most of the time when I complain about something I’m also about to do something about it as well, or have done something about it, like when I talked about our smartphone issues. Are you making sure you’re doing something about those things that irritate you? Are some of those things on this tolerations list (it’s a pdf)?

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
Motivation/Inspiration

Keep Hope Alive

10 Comments

“I don’t believe it.”

“And that is why you fail.”

Luke Skywalker & Yoda, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

Well, those last two posts were really long, so it’s time to slow down just a little bit. You know, this has been an interesting week for me, one that immediately seemed like it wasn’t going to be all that good that blossomed into something much better. Those are great weeks, and I believe we all could use stuff like that.

On Monday, I had a guest post that I wrote show up on Rachel Lavern’s blog Fearfully ‘n Wonderfully Made titled Motivated To Get Things Done. In that post I talked about the different reasons, both positive and negative, that motivates people to do things, get things done, and determine what outcome they want. It’s kind of like being online; you can decide to use your talents to create spam and be loathe by everyone except other spammers, or you can use your talents to try to improve your lot and everyone else’s lot in a positive direction.

I was thinking about this concept of being motivated to do better things, and I happened to remember one of the best times I was ever motivated when I was a little younger. Back in 1988, Jesse Jackson was running for president of this country, and even though he didn’t win, he was the highlight of that entire political season, which culminated in his great speech at the Democratic National Convention.

What you see below is the last 8 minutes or so of that speech, which captured the imagination of everybody and had many of us looking for ways to affect the world positively the next day. Whether you like the man or not, you have to admit that this was inspiring in some fashion. Even if you decide you just can’t do it… well, it works for me. 🙂 Keep Hope Alive!

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2011-2015 Mitch Mitchell
Motivation/Inspiration

What is on Your Mind? – Guest Post

18 Comments

I’m not sure when I met Rachel but my mind thinks it was possibly on Facebook. Anyway, she’s big into motivation, and she’s involved with the Bob Proctor Life Success program. Some of you remember him as the guy in The Secret with the white hair and glasses. Anyway, I asked her to write a guest post, and this is it:

Have you ever attempted to create a fulfilling life, become more successful, or reverse the course of events in your favor only to end up feeling taxed and out of energy because things are not working out? I suppose we all can feel thwarted.

We often miss the notion of “scarcity consciousness” and how it shows up in our life. Scarcity consciousness can be simply defined as “a belief in lack”. For scarcity to appear in your life, you must think on it, believe in it, and allow it. It may sound something like this:

* I am living paycheck-to-paycheck
* I do not have any money
* There is not enough to go around
* I cannot afford that
* I do not have control
* It is all about luck

According to the Law of Attraction, scarcity appears in your life when you consciously or unconsciously project a belief in “lack”. Let’s say that you are driving around town and you notice yourself focused on all of the beautiful homes you are seeing. You love to look; however, you believe and project from within “I will never be able to afford THAT kind of house”.

This is an example of a lack mentality and this is a belief and focus that will draw that experience to you. It is the Law of Attraction. You will attract into your own experience what you think about and put your attention on.

If you did not have a scarcity consciousness, you would believe that all things that you desire are available for creation — hence a “prosperity consciousness”. Prosperity consciousness is present when:

* You know and feel that you have more than enough right now
* You take total responsibility for what you have created in your life
* You are flexible and open to life’s changes
* You see abundance all around
* You know that life is a feast

You will attract more abundance and prosperity when they are your focus and you feel good about them. Conversely, if you are holding thoughts, ideas and an outlook that focuses on lack and scarcity, you will create just that as well.

I occasionally speak with people who say, “I am focusing on the things that I want to create in my life; however, I still am NOT creating what I want.” If you desire something and are not receiving it, then you are not aligned with it. You are out of alignment with it because something is blocking your access to create that “desire”. The main thing that prevents your from being in vibrational alignment with your desires is your belief in scarcity and lack.

Example: You may state that you want to earn $1,000,000; however, you really do not believe that you are worthy or wise enough to earn $1,000,000. With conflicting attitudes, wants and beliefs you most likely will remain right where you presently are. Your wants and desires must line up with what you believe is true. If they do not, you should start the inner work to make this happen. You must be aware of your larger belief system and recognize when it is not serving you.

Always be aware of the Law of Attraction. Ask yourself “Do I want to generate more of this thinking? Do I want to generate more of this belief in my life? Do I want to generate more of this result? If not, make the switch and focus on the things that you do want.

Formerly an IT Consultant designing and implementing global enterprise solutions for Fortune 500 organizations, Rachel Lavern is a Certified LifeSuccess Coach and a business partner of Bob Proctor. She specializes in using success principles to help people live without limits via workshops and keynote speeches across the country. Her mission is to teach women entrepreneurs and business owners wanting to earn a six- or seven-figure income how to become WILDLY SUCCESSFUL at selling. You can find here at her site Fearfully ‘n Wonderfully Made.

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2011-2015 Mitch Mitchell
Motivation/Inspiration

Groundhog Day Your Way

18 Comments

Last week on my business blog I wrote a post called There’s Always A Chance To Start Again. The basic premise of that post was to say that no matter how many bad things happen in one’s life, you always have another chance to put it right, to start anew, and strive for better things. But I wondered a few days ago as to why one needs to wait until bad things are happening to start again.

I’ve never seen the movie Groundhog Day, but I know the premise. Basically the main character keeps reliving the same day over and over, Groundhog Day. Once he recognizes it he starts trying out all sorts of things, some crazy, some just plain stupid, but he doesn’t worry about it because he knows that when he wakes up again it will be Groundhog Day all over. Eventually he figures out that he needs to get on the straight and narrow and starts working his way towards things that will have a more positive effect on his life, even if it’s the same day all the time, because though no one else notices it, he starts growing within himself.

Life can be a lot like that if most of us give it a chance. I look at my life, for instance, and see how I’ve transformed myself many times over, and how I work on learning more and more because I know that every day really isn’t the same day, even if many other people live like it is. I see so many things as “today’s adventure” and I try to chronicle those things. Sometimes I end up writing about them, while other times I just let it roll around in my head to see if there was a lesson in there somewhere.

Where have I gone? I used to write music and now I write blogs and other items of nonfiction. I used to only read biographies, autobiographies, history and books on science and suddenly I’ve discovered the world of fiction, detective stories, Harry Potter, science fiction. I’ve been in health care for over 25 years, yet these days I’m as apt to work on social media and, of course, blogging.

I often wonder what the heck I’ll be doing 4 or 5 years from now that’ll be any different than what I’m doing now. I hope I’ve progressed in some fashion, but at least I know there will be something new going on.

Lately I’ve written about how blogging isn’t easy and how social media is a process. I needed to add something to the mix; actually, two somethings. One, as long as you can find a way to have fun with it, instead of making it a chore, it doesn’t matter if it’s hard or easy. You’ll at least love what you’re doing. And two, if you know what it is you hope to eventually be doing, then the process of getting there isn’t so bad at all because as you push forward you’ll start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Or in this case the shadow that the light creates, because we all know that Punxsutawney Phil is seeing that shadow today, and we’re having six more weeks of winter. Where I live, that actually means we’ll have a spring, since our winters have a nasty habit of lasting into April, sometimes into May. Talk about your extended Groundhog Days! 😉

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell