Life

"Your life is the sum total of your choices. Wherever you are is exactly where you deserve to be." ~Shane Perry

In life there are only 2 things you can control. Your attitude and your activity. Everything else is outside of your influence.

Prickly

This needs to be your heart to make it in this world. :) another example of mother nature showing us the way.

Reinvention

I realize that only like 4 people ever look at this blog, and I make some very long posts that I am sure they dont read all the way. :) If I can impact or change just one of your lives for the better by what I write then it is all worth it.

At a convention one of the speakers talked about reinventing yourself and getting past all the negative crap in the world to reach your dreams. Jim Kocher, Senior National Sales Director, said it is all about release.
Release yourself from your fears. Fear that you arent good enough; dont know enough; of failure; of commitment; of people; of people depending on you; speaking. All of these things are small flashing in the back of your mind that can end your pursuit of your dreams.

Release your past. Everything bad in your past like bad relationships; failures either business or academic; bitterness or anger and malice towards people; and most of all your successes could be holding you back from truly trying. I know myself I was in that boat. I felt like I was on top of the world and had everything going for me and I stopped trying to better myself. I became content and stagnant. Drop your past and start over be a new better person.

Release your guilt. Feelings of guilt over missed oppurtunity; failures; letting people down; bad decisions; of false guilt laid on you by your friends or family. No person has the right to judge your priorities. You have done what you have and it has made you the person you are today. Either people can accept that or they can find someone else to bombard with negativity.

Release your limiting beliefs. Thinking that you cant succeed because of language barriers; you have been here to long to move on; you arent a good speaker; you havent been here long enough to learn everything; might give bad advice; or that money corrupts and to set a goal on having money is the root of all evil.

Release the brakes. What is your best? Discover your best and see how great you can be.
Think of yourself less and not less of yourself. Good, better, best. Never let it rest, untill your good is better, and your better is best.

If you pull out all the negative things holding you back from reaching your dreams there is no limit to how high your dreams can be. Without a doubt you will reach them and exceed them beyond anything you could wish for.

-Jim

Pumped

You know you really love what you do when you get so excited from sitting in a two hour class about mortgages. I know right. So I spent the weekend in New Jersey at a conference for Primerica. There were around 2000 positive and motivated people there. It was intense and I only slept like 4 hours. You know you are in a great group of people when everyone in the room is standing and shouting and using air horns when they call the people who get promoted. Even if it is only one person, or when the man giving the speech starts to cry while talking about how his income went from 140k to 400k this year. It isn't easy but its great.

So I got promoted I am now a Senior Rep. and am more than ever pumped and positive about starting my team and building a business.


See you at the top
Jim

Favorite

My most favorite picture ever

4 Keys to personal growth

So I said I would write something on personal growth a little while ago and am just now finishing it up.

First off your personal income will hardly ever surpass your personal growth. So to become wealthy you must also become a more developed person inside.

There are four keys to personal growth. Stepping stones to success if you will.

The first key is increasing your awareness. What was confusing is now clear. We have them on some days, the moments of crystal clear thought where something we had been thinking about for awhile becomes almost glaringly obvious. The first step in changing your reality to match your goals and dreams is to know your reality. First off you need to acknowledge that no one owes you anything, there are no freebies in life. Nothing ever worth having comes for free. Secondly there is no one else to blame for how your life is today. An easy motto for this is “admit it you did it” The greatest thing about this is no matter where you are you got yourself there, you can get yourself out. The easiest way to become aware is to ask questions all the time. Don't sit on the sidelines of a conversation and nod your head ask what things mean if you don't understand. And lastly get advice. Problems are usually 80% your cause and 20% a test of your conviction.

The second key is increasing your tolerance. Problems that were big are now small. You have build a tolerance to distractions. Be aware of yourself, know yourself, and protect yourself from yourself. If you know you have a weakness for something in particular be it chocolate or video games, remove these distractions to protect yourself from yourself. It doesn't have to be a permanent removal but just enough so you can do what you need to do. You have to build a tolerance to emotional pain. Things in life aren't always rainbows and and singing flowers. Bad things are going to happen you need to compartmentalize your problems so that your emotional problems do not effect your other problems. The prioritize and solve your problems individually and in the proper order. Don't procrastinate, this is probably the most important part of this key. Don't wait till tomorrow to do what you should be doing today. I myself am guilty of this on a huge scale, but I am working to knock it out of my life. Think of a number from one to ten that represents your frazzle factor. How much stress you can be under before you become cranky or snappish. Mine is a 6 most people are a 4-5. You need to make that number greater. Know the point at which you lose patience and stop being kind. And then grow so that that point is no longer your threshold.

The third key is to develop your abilities. What was hard is now easy. The shorter the time frame that things become easy the faster your rate of growth. There are many abilities and many ways to make yourself better at them but it always requires time. Therefore one of the first abilities you should work on is time management. Most normal people divide up their time into 3 categories. Work, sleep, leisure, this is fine if you want to be normal. Persons like Einstein divide their time up and have a plan for each time of the day. Even if that plan is to sleep or take a nap a plan makes the time so much more manageable and when you think about it and work it out on paper. Not having enough time to do something is a ridiculous excuse.

The third key is to increase your standards. What was once acceptable is no more. There are a few tips to allow you to accomplish this by staying positive.

-Never go to bed mad, always resolve your issues that day.

-Never leave the house mad, You wouldn't want your last words to someone you love to be harsh. Or to the person you just met on the street.

-Never name call, it is the biggest sign of disrespect.

-Never end things on a bad note, stay positive.

-Forgive quickly, the longer you hold a grudge in your heart the more it brings you down.

-Never lie, this is harder to do than it is to write.

-Never say I don't have time, there are more hours in your life than you know what to do with.

-Never talk about what you don't want, talk about what you do want.

Every challenge is an opportunity in disguise. Often times our greatest times of growth are during particularly hard times in our lives because we are forced to grow. The most successful way to become successful and positive is to surround yourself with these people. It has been shown that people take on the attitudes and behaviors of those that they associate with. Hang out with negative people or people of immoral character and you will act this way. Surround yourself with positive honest people and you will begin to act that way as well. In effect you choose your attitude and character by who you are around. “Admit it you did it”

Growth is inevitable you cant stop it. It is wired into our DNA. God made things to grow. You can burn a place down and grass grows almost instantly. You can always find a tree grabbing a foot hold on the side of a cliff daring the wind and rain to rip it out. You find buildings overrun with weeds and trees after a few years. Nature grows always and so do we.

Sorry it was so long. Took a few days of putting my thoughts down. I usually don't draft something first I just write what I am feeling at the time, so this was a different experience for me.

Rascal Flatts

Baby look here at me, have you ever seen me this way?
I've been fumblin' for words through the tears and the hurt and the pain.
I'm gonna lay it all out on the line tonight,
and I think that it's time to tell this uphill fight goodbye.

Have you ever had to love someone that just don't feel the same?
Tryin' to make somebody care for you, the way i do,
is like trying to catch the rain.
And if love is really forever, I'm a winner at a losing game.

I know that baby you're tryin' to find me somewhere inside of you,
but you know you can't lie, girl you can't hide the truth.
Oh no,
sometimes two hearts just cant dance to the same beat,
so I'll pack up my things and I'll take what remains of me.

Tryin' to make somebody care for you, the way i do,
is like tryin' to catch the rain.
And if love is really forever, I'm a winner at a losing game.

Have you ever had to love someone that just don't feel the same?

I know that I'll never be the man that you need or love,
yeah baby,
its killin' me to stand here and see I'm not what you been dreamin' of,

Have you ever had to love someone that just don't feel the same?
Tryin' to make somebody care for you, the way i do,
is like tryin' to catch the rain.
And if love is really forever, I'm a winner at a losing game.
Oooooh if love is really forever, I'm a winner at a losing game.

ooh i'm tired of losing.
ooooooh ooooooooh ohooh
mmmmmmm

[Winner At A Losing Game lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com]

Heard this on the radio and it was totally how I felt at the time so I had to write down the name.

Regret

At the end of your life you wont regret the mistakes you made as much as the opportunities you miss.

QC

Which Questionable Content Character Are You?

You are Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham! You are a little bit creepy. You tend to be shy, so you don't know how to go about things in life. For example, don't stalk the boy you like before you meet him, or it could end up being a little scary. Chances are, you have severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. You should probably get more sleep and get out of the house more.

I am Hanna rofl.

Fake

I find myself shocked at how fake people can be. More how people can be fake and I see right through them and other people are blind to the facade. It maybe because I spend a lot of time observing people or maybe it is because I am so bitterly, "pure" I guess would be a word for it, that when someone I meet isn't It rubs me the wrong way. I am a respectful person and I don't press people against their will unless I feel very strongly about something. Like I have said I am a nice guy, too nice, I stand aside and give up without a fight I guess. Some things worth fighting for really aren't in the end. Better off to let fake people have what they want.

Stess

I have seen you at you best, I have held you at your worst

I have loved you all the while. This is my curse.

I could say a lot of things but I am too nice and too honest for my own good. I open my mouth and it just gets me more and more into trouble. Seems like I cant go a day without shooting myself in the foot. I have thought a lot about what to do with my life, some good, mostly bad. I cant bring myself to do anything bad because I know if something happens to me now that it would totally ruin things in your life, or at least I would like to think so. The good are all there and are lining themselves up for me. All my success and accomplishments feel tainted or missing something in some way. I guess I am just not myself. It is far harder to be sad and act happy than I thought

Passion

Passion, why passion? I have many passions in my life, all to varying degrees, but one of them is overpowering and circumvents all else. I cant turn it off or give it up. It just sits there churning, driving, leaving me feeling unfulfilled and dissatisfied. It is hard to sleep and eat because it is always there driving me to do something. Things I know I shouldn't do. Things that drive those closest to me away. Not evil, just illogical and sometimes immoral. Afterwards I think back and the things I have done to satisfy these urges make me sick to my stomach. It is a clever and crafty desire and it hides in waiting until my defenses are down before pouncing on my soul and making me into it's marionette. Why cant passions be like skittles. Little colorful things you can carry in your pockets and give the ones you don't like to your friends that do like them for a few that you like that they have and don't care for. It is too bad we cant choose the things we are passionate over for then Life in its entirety would be simpler.

jim

the marionette