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Steps To Success

 

Independence

Vol. 3 July 2009

 
 

Happy Independence Day from Nerd Enterprises, inc.     Call us today (866) 945-8070 for information on this month’s live webinar. I will be expanding in great detail on what you are about to read in the next section and I am offering several times to accommodate schedules and time zones.     Click here for registration: Steps To Success     Independence We experience true independence as individuals when we identify with similarities and respect people’s differences.     There are two important forms of independence that I think about when I think about my life and how I have developed as a person today – financial independence and personal independence. I began to find personal independence when I started to learn to look for the similarities in people while also respecting their differences. I began to feel financial independence and still more personal independence when I started my own business. People have read this on my blog and heard me share about my experience in person. I came to California when I was 28 and had nothing. My net worth was definitely in the red financially as well as spiritually. I know this part of my story is not unique. What is also not totally unique, but definitely uncommon in my experience was that I was not willing to settle. I kept pressing on and today I have a wife, 3 dogs, a home, and a nice 6 figure business and growing. I did this by learning to develop a very positive mental attitude and by not letting go of my instinct that I was not going down without a fight. I was definitely down when I came to California. Then I learned it wasn’t about “fighting”. It was about visualizing and realizing who I wanted to become. The great part was I did not need to concern myself with how I would get there. I just had to know I would get there. Today I still know where I want to be and I don’t care how it happens. I just know it will happen. I cannot fail. This is the attitude that is necessary for true independence on all levels and below are some steps describing how I have done it so far.     I want to show you how to work with what you currently have doing what you presently do in order to build more of the life you want for yourself. I’ve learned that at any given moment the real “Secret” to life is based on finding out who I really am and following that up with a sincere attempt to become what I’ve always wanted to be. Too many seminars give you the concept alone and leave you wondering about the implementation. This is by design so you have to sign up for more seminars. I am going to give you the application – in other words how you can actually implement these ideas.
Save money – Easier said than done, right? When we get money in, when that paycheck comes or that big deal closes it’s tempting to start thinking about all of the things I’ve been waiting to get just until I had some money. Then we go and spend it all and wonder how we got back in the same position again. I’ll expand upon this and show you some simple things that my wife and I do (some of them her ideas, not mine) to save money. Get yourself out there on the web – use free blogs and offer your services. Find a skill and offer it on the web – even if you’re employed full time. See if you like the entrepreneurial life. This will also hedge you in the event you are “down-sized”. By doing this you can bring in an extra stream of income. Spend a lot of time thinking about this, just in concept. You will attract the things to your life that will bring about the desired outcome – whatever that is. If you already have a business with a presence on the web – great! I’ll show you briefly how to begin to get more out of if and I can refer you to the people who can really help you take this to a new level! Write – even if you think you are not a good writer, writing helps make the thought process flow. You might find out you are a better writer than you imagined. As you write ideas will develop and your thoughts will be focused on what you choose to write about. Write about the kind of life you want to have. As you are writing you can imagine what it will feel like to have that life. You’ll find you get a good positive feeling right now based on what you want for yourself. That should tell you that you can have that feeling right now. The universe will catch up to your feelings, and your feelings are a reflection of your thoughts. So if you think about the life you want – whether it’s more time with your loved ones, or more money or both, your thoughts will bring about the feelings and the feelings will attract the people and events that will bring those thoughts to reality. This is the essence of The Secret. Learn – always be willing to learn new things, don’t be afraid to. This is how we discover parts of ourselves that we never knew existed, but were always there, just waiting to come out. These things we learn give us ideas, which bring about new thoughts, which bring about new feelings of excitement. Then we go back to our web presence and incorporate these things into our representation of ourselves. Then if financial security is what we seek it comes down to looking for ways to increase income as well as managing what we have. This brings us to step 5 in Steps To Success. The often feared and ever important Budgets. There are two important types of budgets that have become important to me. Of course you know I am going to talk about the financial budget. The other one is the time budget. We have to manage our time well in order to achieve the right balance in our lives and also to make sure that we are making the most effective use of our time.     Click here for registration: Steps To Success

Conditions – a previous newsletter we sent out from our parent site

People sometimes ask me. Seth why is it so important to you that you and for that matter others have a good handle on their finances? Isn’t it true that money can’t buy happiness?

My initial response is usually something like… stand outside of a car dealership and look at the faces of the people who are driving out in their brand new cars? A chuckle follows and then I explain that of course money doesn’t buy happiness. I have a theory though in terms of how money and happiness are related.

True happiness comes from being able to live truly in the moment. When I am spending time with friends, family – people I love I want to be able to be present. This means that both mind and body are right there with the people. I am paying attention and getting the most out of my time with them. It is when I am truly in the moment that I am the happiest. Usually when I am worried I am thinking about tomorrow. Most often when I am sad, I am thinking about something in the past. There can be exceptions, but the truth about this is where the expression “Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, but today is a gift. That’s why we call it the Present.” comes from. Think about the last time you were upset about something. In that moment were you thinking about what was happening at that moment? Now think about the last time you felt really happy. I know for me at that moment I was thinking about how good life was and how good it felt. My mind wasn’t wandering, worrying about what might be or regretting what did or didn’t happen that I was disappointed about.

Aren’t finances one of the biggest causes of people’s worries? How many marriages break up over finances? How many times when things were tough financially were you able to go out and enjoy yourself? Imagine being worried about your finances and then going out and spending money. So no, money can’t buy happiness, but it sure can cause trouble when things are tough. If times are tight and I am out with friends and family how much of that time do you think is really spent enjoying the moment and how much time is spent worrying about finances? Out of 100% of maximum potential happiness during those moments, what percent do you think you get when your mind is wandering and wondering about the bills you have to pay?

So my theory is made up of 2 parts essentially. First, that if you have a good handle on your finances you can enjoy your downtime that much more because you are more able to be in the moment when you are with loved ones. Second, you don’t have to make a lot of money to be able to have a good handle on your finances. The second part often baffles people so let me explain because I have experienced it first hand. Good financial management starts with application of two principles. Organization and planning. Whether I make $30,000 or $300,000 or $3,000,000 really doesn’t matter. Bottom line my starting point in general terms is the same at any level of income. Income has to be higher than expenses. How many of us really know this for sure about our own situations? Unless you have actually sat down and drafted a budget, you can’t know. Not for sure and this is where the worries come in. My own direct personal experience has been that when I sit down and start this process I feel better within minutes. The reason is that the cure for the worrying is in the knowing. Worry comes from not knowing what the outcome will be, so our minds speculate and many of us have a natural inclination for speculating the worst. When you have a detailed financial outline in place then you know pretty much exactly what you can afford and what you can’t. Then it’s just a matter of living accordingly. The knowing will lead to a built in barometer for this. When I am spending money I know I can’t really afford to spend I am uncomfortable. When I know that I can afford to spend it, I am at peace and able to live truly in the moment – worry free. When I don’t know whether or not I can afford it, I worry.

So I am going to leave you all with this. Once I know what the conditions are I can change myself to meet the conditions. If I try to change the conditions I will likely only meet with frustration. This doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be ambitious and strive to earn more income – if anything the opposite is true. In fact knowing exactly where I am right now is the best possible starting point for planning the future and then setting and reaching new goals. It goes back to the planning and organization.

There are so many tools out there that you can use to help you keep the information you need organized so that it is easy to create and maintain what you need to find the peace of mind I am talking about. I have re-constructed my own budget at least 3 times this year and each time within a day. Partly because that’s what I do, but also because I am organized and I have everything I need right at my finger tips.