Struggling can be good for kids (or anyone)

Many parents will try to help their child with a school project by doing the project for them.
Doing the work of someone else does help relieve some of the struggles but it also takes away the victory.

"It is possible to win a fake "success," but when you do you are penalized with an empty joy." -Maxwell Maltz

A real defeat is better than an empty victory. Keep it Real!

A job is not designed to make you rich

Ever heard of the “Golden age” of retirement? There’s nothing “Golden” about it. Most people, who will be lucky enough to get a retirement, will get half, or a third, of what they couldn't live on while they were working. How is that being the “Golden Age”? Is it worth giving your best years of your life for?

It didn’t take me long to realize that I would never get rich for as long that someone else is in control of my paycheck. I’m worth a million buck, who ever hires me knows that, but they get me for cheap.

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Originally posted - November 2010

Cost of Failure VS Cost of Success

“People wonder if success is worth it. I think that is the wrong question. Instead, they should be asking is failure worth it.” -Orrin Woodward

Is the cost of Success so great that we willingly surrender it for failure? We know that in order to be successful in anything, it will take extra effort. We will do the work of a millionaire whether we become one or not. We will either work on someone else’s asset or ours.

My friends, I am in no way shape or form successful like Orrin Woodward. But after a while of reading his blog, reading leadership books, listening to cds, I’m just now beginning to see, ever so clearly, the path that I need to take in order to be successful in my Network Marketing journey.

If someone else was able to do it before me, there’s no reason why I can’t.

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Originally posted - October 2010

Hypnic Jerk – Feeling of falling when sleeping.

A Hypnic Jerk is “a feeling of falling” we get sometime just before we fall asleep.

"According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine there is a wide range of potential causes, including anxiety,caffeine, stress and strenuous activities in the evening. Another theory often cited as a cause, is an evolutionary trait found in most primates; the brain misinterprets muscle relaxation and onset of sleep as a signal that the sleeper is falling out of a tree, consequently awaking suddenly. The reaction may have a selective value, prompting the sleeper to readjust position to ensure a fall did not occur." -Wikipedia

Now you know.

Being too Careful makes us Fail

"The reason some people are self-conscious and awkward in social situations is simply that they are too consciously concerned, too anxious to do the right thing." -Maxwell Maltz

This does not only apply in our social life but in everything that we do.

It hit me the other day when I was trying to draw a comic. I wanted to do good but the end result look "shaky". It's then that I understood that I was too consciously concerned about it. I lacked confidence due to lack of practice.

"Masters are successful because they've mastered the basics." - Orrin Woodward

Those who master the basics are no longer consciously concerned about what they do and produce better result because of it.

Making More Money is NOT the Answer

There’s 2 ways to have more money in your pockets. You can either make more money or cut down on expenses. The way we all prefer (that includes businesses) is making more money but it’s also the least profitable one. If you live in Canada, you pay taxes on every dollar you make and it’s easy to spend the extra income.

It’s okay to finance a necessity* but it’s not okay to finance a luxury**.

*A necessity can be something like a car. It is very important to take into account that somethings, like cars, depreciate in value and should therefor be bought used. A car, that’s 2-3 years old, lost around 40-60% of it’s original value due to depreciation.

**A luxury is something you don’t really need (Cable TV,entertainment etc.) Due to constant improvements of technology, depreciation can be found with things related to entertainment as well like video-games, TV etc.. and is therefor not recommended to buy new or at all.

If you have to finance activities, you shouldn't be doing them in the first place.

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Originally posted - October 2010

Slaves and Prisoners

Inspired by Jim Martin’s “Fuel Your Hunger” talk

There’s 2 major type of people in the world. The slaves and the prisoners.

The slave is happy where he’s at, happy to serve his owner. The prisoner, on the other hand, wants an escape.

Which one are you?

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Originally posted - October 2010

Character Alignment

Based on Chris Brady’s talk on Character

If there’s a little girl being bullied. Integrity is not joining in to bully the little girl. Character is not only not bullying the little girl, it’s also attempting to stop the bullying because it’s the right thing to do.

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Originally posted - October 2010

Being Attractive

Being attractive is more on how you see yourself than about the physical aspect of your body.

What is it with attractive people that’s so attractive? It’s, what I like to call, a strong “Back Bone”. It’s someone with a purpose that makes him hard to “shake”. It’s someone who give you the impression that no matter what he’s doing, he’ll win and they usually do.

It’s a look in the eye that says “I know where I’m going and there’s nothing you can do stop me.”

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Originally posted - October 2010

Archive

I've been blogging on and off since 2008 and I've picked up good and bad habits from it throughout the years. Since I've updated the layout recently, I thought It would be a good idea to go back and streamline everything. (Same font, less, more meaningful, labels, better formatting, etc...)

For the blogs that requires HTML changes, it's just easier for me to copy/paste it into a new post than to modify them. Those blogs will have a "Originally posted on "Month/Year" at the end.

Mind: A powerful tool to predict the Future

“You first have to picture it in your mind before it becomes a reality. Vision is tomorrow’s reality expressed as an idea today.” -Orrin Woodward

Advertisers know that in order for us to buy their product, they have to put it in our mind first. That’s why there’s so much publicity out there. How would I buy a new game if I didn't know it was coming out? Publicity create the picture and try to provide the need for us to go out of our way and buy their stuff.

In other word, they provide a vision for us, that has the potential to become a reality if shown in a way that’s appealing to us.

The bible also put emphasis on the mind as well. Those who read it know what I’m talking about.

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Originally posted - October 2010

I don't wake up thinking I'm wrong...

Why would I wake up in the morning and tell myself “I’m going to be wrong today”? While it’s true that I can do wrong, I don’t do it on purpose. Nobody does.

The only way I can be right all the time is by knowing what are the wrong things I do.

Only doing is learning. In other words, I have to do wrong and learn from it.

I’m not afraid to fail. I failed college, I failed a math course in high school, I have failed relationships.... my list of fail/wrong is really big.
Now that I know how to fail, there’s 2 things that I can do. I can either let it eat me the rest of my life or learn from it and make it push me forward.

“There’s so many mistakes to choose from, don’t always do the same ones!” -Orrin Woodward

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Originally posted - October 2010

Become Better for your Relationships

“If I have to change in order to be with that person, it means that it’s not meant to be.” It’s not about changing ourselves, It’s to become better.

Every 2 words, that used to come out of my mouth, was a swear. I stopped when I finally realized that my dad didn’t like it. How many people is there out there that don’t like when people swear? Would you say that I became a little bit better in the process?

You can’t change what you don’t know and conflicts brings clarity. When you have conflict/arguments it will sometime identify things that you do wrong. You know the kind of arguments that goes like this:
-“You always do this!”
-“Oh yeah? Well I wouldn’t do this if you would do that instead!”

“There’s so many mistakes to choose from, don’t always do the same ones!” -Orrin Woodward

When it becomes clear to you that something you’re doing affect negatively someone you love, make a goal of not having the same issue pop up about you again.

Of course, only work on things that you know will make you better. If someone tells you they don’t like it when you smile, it doesn’t mean you should stop smiling.
If you’re not sure about the issue, find yourself a mentor who wants what’s best for you and ask him/her questions about it.

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Originally posted - October 2010

Pride

Inspired by Terri Brady leadership cd called “P.r.i.d.e.”

What is Pride? Pride is the opposite of humility. It’s the fear to loose face, it’s to try to look good regardless of the circumstances that might not be good. John C. Maxwell says that pride is at the root of every relationship problem.

P - Personal, a prideful person wants all the credit.
R - Right, they don’t like to be told they’re wrong.
I - I, prideful people come across as selfish (Me, myself and I).
D - Describing other people negatively. A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's.--Jean Paul Richter
E - Ego, people who have their own set of rules. They can be late for events and think that everyone will wait for them. Expecting credit, secretly jealous of other people's credit.

How many of us can come up with a list of 50 names of Prideful people that we know? Just that very thought means that we are prideful people ourselves. We all have pride, it’s impossible to not have any.

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Originally posted - October 2010

Death Ground

Being on death ground means that what ever you do is the last thing you'll do before you die. Everybody should be on death ground every single day of their lives. There's no force in the world that can guarantee that we'll live another minute.

Society seems to be made up in a way that death is several step away, it seems to be required in order for people to live comfort lives. In a way, it's like trying to ignore death because of fear. That ignorance makes people not live lives of urgency.

Death should not be something to fear but embraced.

I’m Right Until Proven Wrong...

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Originally posted - October 2010

Scholarpedia - The expert approved wiki

I never felt I could take to the bank what I was reading on wikipedia. It's hard to trust authors you don't know.

Scholarpedia uses the same idea as wikipedia but is updated by experts in the given field rather than "regular Joes" like me. "Regular Joes" can still modify the content of the website (just like in wikipedia) but it must first be approved by an expert prior to being published.

At least that's how they advertise themselves. Have a look here:

http://www.scholarpedia.org

Loneliness

Loneliness is a lack of social interaction due to being aggravated by others. The annoyance first originated from the fear of meeting new people.

"Do what you fear and the fear disappear." -David Joseph Schwartz.

If you suffer from this, put yourself out there. Pick up a new skill that will aid you make friends (Martial Arts, Piano Lessons, Learning a new languages ...etc).

New Layout

The first thing I've noticed when logging in my account this morning was that the layout of my blog had changed (probably due to Google). Since the old layout was no longer supported by Google and that I didn't know how to get around it I decided to upgrade to a new layout.

I'll be playing around the customization for the next couple of days to find something that suit me. I'm looking for a simplistic but professional look.

Stay Tuned :)

We don't like change unless we pay for it

Every change done in the workplace is seen as another obstacle to overcome rather than an improvement. On the other hand, if we buy a phone, we expect for it to be better than it's predecessor. Why?

When we think about it, both required work but only one was a choice. Buying a phone is a choice which explains why we welcome the improvements. We paid for it, we've agreed of the change/improvements.

If the changes at work was forced unto us, we will be more likely to resist it.

If you're not Religious then you better be Educated

I do agree that religion provides a simple explanation to things that we don't understand. By saying "God did it" we can dust the problem off and move on to something else.
Science, on the other hand, is trying to understand the problems rather than giving the "God Excuse". However, someone who says "I believe in science" but does not know anything about the problem is not better off than the person who simply said "God did it".

"The important thing is not what you believe in but knowing why you believe what you believe." -Tim Marks

In my head, science and religion are both valid. Science is to understand the universe while religion contain principles worth following in order to live in harmony with others.

Limited amount of Thoughts

Since our time on this earth is limited, only an equally limited amount of thoughts will spur in our minds. Wouldn't it be wise to make sure those thoughts are of the highest quality?

"... Socrates mentored Plato, who then mentored Aristotle, who then mentored Alexander the great..."
-P.11 from "Mentoring Matters" book by Orrin Woodward

The quality of education is important since future thoughts will be based of it. Kings of antiquity understood this which is why their sons and daughters were assigned quality instructors.
While it's true that our education is better now than it was then, most of it is shared by teachers who do not care enough. A good teacher is someone that is able to make students enthusiastic about learning.

"Go first class when you have questions. Seeking advice from a failure is like consulting a quack on how to cure cancer." -David J. Schwartz

Seek out quality instructors and education.