#convenience #inconvenience #tooconvenient
Is there such a thing as being “too convenient?
Eric Weiner refuses to buy an Apple Watch because it would make his life too easy.
Weiner, author of the forthcoming book, “The Georgraphy of Genius: A Search for the World’s Most Creative Places From Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley,” discussed this in a column he wrote for the Los Angeles Times, published in the June 7, 2015, edition of the News Sentinel in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Though he is not advocating the return of the inconvenient Paleolithic Era, he writes that too often we fail to recognize the full cost of our convenient lives. He cites all the plastic K-cups clogging the ecosystem, as well as personal and social costs of convenience.
The cost to workers of convenience can be harsh. A company can find a machine, or mechanical process, to do the work once done by humans. When that happens, humans lose their jobs and, in today’s world, may not be able to replace them.
Think, too, of all those disposable diapers, which Weiner cites. Yes, diaper pails and laundering cloth diapers is very inconvenient, and can be smelly, too. But those disposables s don’t recycle, though there are experiments around the world attempting to recycle them. Usually, though, they just go into the environment and, hopefully, degrade eventually.
Weiner also cites the convenience of shopping at Amazon. Point, click, enjoy, he says. Online shopping has led to the closing of many stores and placed store clerks, managers, shelf stockers etc., out of work.
Weiner says we, as humans, crave boundaries, obstacles and inconvenience. Buddhism is not an easy religion, as anyone who has attempted to meditate for five minutes can attest, he writes.
Yet, it’s an immensely popular religion worldwide, he says.
If, as Weiner quotes the late philosopher Robert Nozick’s notion that, we could imagine a happiness machine, would we want to be hooked up to it? Though the instinctive answer might be yes, the actual answer is no, because we want to earn our happiness, he says.
That brings to mind the notion that we appreciate more the things that we earn, than those we are given. If a college student has to pay for his own education, the thought goes, he will work harder in school. If the student is given a full scholarship, he may not work as hard.
Obviously, that doesn’t apply to everyone. Those with real gratitude are thankful for any blessings they are given. They will work to ensure that those blessings are not wasted, and will pay it forward as opportunities arise.
If you are looking for such a blessing, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll see stories of others, perhaps like you, who have been blessed beyond their wildest imaginations, realized it and worked not only to help themselves, but also to help others take advantage of those blessings.
Yes, our lives are certainly more convenient than those of our parents, grandparents and other ancestors. If you believe your forebears were happily inconvenient, perhaps they were. But true happiness has to start from within, and not necessarily be influenced by the things around us.
So be happy, healthy and prosperous. Choose your conveniences wisely.
Peter
Author Archives: pbilodeau01
RETIREMENT PROSPECTS DON’T HAVE TO BE GLOOMY
#retirement #SocialSecurity #employment
It’s been said many times, in many ways: many of us don’t see how we can retire.
Perhaps we haven’t been able to save enough. Perhaps we won’t be getting the pension we were promised. Perhaps we believe Social Security will be tapped out before we can tap in. Or, perhaps we’ve been put to the curb by our employers at middle age, can’t find a comparable job and have to “retire” before we want to.
Robert Powell, editor of Retirement Weekly, discussed some of these issues in a USA Today column, published June 1, 2015.
Powell talks about postponing retirement until age 70. That’s fine, if you like your job and are able to do it. Bob Schieffer, the longtime newsman with CBS, had recently retired at age 78. But, most employers won’t exercise that much patience. Once an employee hits middle age, he or she usually begins to get messages about “early retirement.” For many employers, a middle-age worker, particularly one who has been with the company a good number of years, is taking a lot out of the company in salary and benefits. If that position is vital to the company, then it can be more economically filled with a younger, less senior person, who may bring some new energy to the company.
Now, if you are able to extend your employment, there are great benefits to waiting until age 70 to collect Social Security. Powell says your benefits could go up by 76 percent by waiting. Basically, delaying Social Security should be a no-brainer for anyone who doesn’t need the money in retirement. It’s a whole different matter if you NEED the Social Security money to survive.
Powell also talks about the longevity risk. Will you outlive your money? One way to avoid the longevity risk, assuming you’ve been able to save some money, is to only tap the dividends, interest and other earnings your money generates, without dipping into your principal. Certainly, people are living longer and the longevity risk is real. If you are already middle age, your parents and grandparents would envy the longer average lifespan you now have. If you are young, presume your average lifespan will increase further. Start saving whatever you can TODAY, and don’t touch it until you retire.
Again, this is easier said than done when you don’t earn enough at your job, your employer doesn’t offer retirement benefits of any sort etc. Take this hint: live within or below your means. If you aren’t making much, look at what you spend your money on. Buy what you can afford, when you can afford it.
If you are married, postpone having children until you are financially ready to care for them. If you are single, look to share a household with friends to lighten individual expenses.
Powell also talks about home equity. There are some famous people out there touting reverse mortgages, which are a fine solution for the property-rich, cash-poor retiree. Perhaps it’s best to consider this option a last resort. Some of the ads say you retain “complete ownership” of your home as you draw cash from the equity. Your name is on the deed still, you are responsible for all the maintenance of the home, but the lender owns whatever chunk of equity it has turned into cash for you. If that doesn’t matter to you, then check out the reverse mortgage option as a last resort.
One thing Powell doesn’t mention is the idea of re-inventing oneself. If necessity is the mother of invention, then retirement, for some, is the mother of re-invention. There are multiple ways out there to make an income, perhaps even a great income, without having a job, pension or other source of funds. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You have to be willing, perhaps, to re-invent yourself. Or, you have to be looking for a way to cut spending and earn more money. But a retirement solution could be waiting for you, if you are willing to look at it.
The retirement picture doesn’t have to be gloomy, particularly if you are young. But it does take some thought, perhaps some habit changes or courage to re-invent. It’s OK to be afraid, but sometimes we have take action while afraid. That action, gradually or quickly, can ally our fear.
Peter
STOP, LOOK, FIND THE ANSWER
#stop #look #findtheanswer
If you know what you have is good, it doesn’t matter what others think.
Don’t be quick to judge others, though they may think differently from you.
Work hard, work smartly, don’t give up!
If others don’t see what you see, don’t tell them they are blind. Find those who do see.
If what you are doing isn’t working for you, look for something that will work. Don’t necessarily give up what you have.
When circumstances turn ugly, turn the energy you would use to complain about it into vision to solve the problem.
Sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone to step into something good.
It’s not what you have, in relation to what others have, that matters. To borrow from the late Zig Ziglar, it’s whether, and how much, you can help others get what they want.
When you step forward, don’t carry your troubles with you.
However, helping others carry their troubles is noble.
The more you give, the more you will get.
The more you take, the more you will lose.
If any of these words speaks to you, you are probably someone who has seen difficult times, even overcome them. Yet, another challenge has come.
You might be someone who knows he or she wants something different, but may not know yet what that is.
You might be someone who has spent his or her life working hard, but don’t have what you believe you deserve to show for it.
You might be someone who needs something, but is never needy.
You might be someone who craves independence, but feels boxed in.
You might be someone who feels the world has much to give, but you would love to give even more.
Perhaps you are someone who would never take advantage, but would instead empower others.
Don’t let others tell you what’s best for you. Only you know that.
At the same time, don’t tell others what’s best for them. Try to show them what might be good.
If any of these words has meaning to you, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. Perhaps you will find what you are looking for. Perhaps you will solve a current problem. Perhaps you will find something to give.
Looking back has seldom paid dividends. Looking forward always does.
So love, give, look until you find and drive until you thrive. Then, you will have all the best.
Peter
SERVANT SELLIING AND INCREASING CONFIDENCE
#servantselling #sellingoneself #increasingconfidence
Do you ever think of salespeople as servants?
Perhaps you are more likely to think of them as self-servants.
Rory Vaden, cofounder of Southwest Consulting and a self-discipline strategist, discussed the concept in a column published May 17, 2015, in The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
Vaden sees servant selling as, rather than trying to persuade a stranger to buy something, helping a friend get the confidence to make the decision to buy.
Usually, good salespeople are confident. Buyers can tend to be skeptical. It’s OK to be skeptical. Servant sellers, Vaden says, don’t answer objections, as in, doing something TO someone. They increase confidence, as in, doing something FOR someone.
We all, at some time, have to sell something. If not a product, ourselves. We sell ourselves to a potential employer, date, friend, mentor etc. We sell ourselves at work, trying to do the best job we can while making sure the right people notice.
When we sell ourselves, do we help “buyers” by increasing their confidence to buy us?
To turn it around, are we confident enough in ourselves to help others have confidence enough to buy us?
Many of us hate to be sold to, but love to buy. When someone is trying to sell something to you, perhaps themselves, are you confident enough to decide to buy? How much are they helping you be that confident?
It’s OK to have confidence to buy something. Not everyone is out to “sell” to you. A good salesperson WANTS you to like what they have, at the same time understands if you don’t.
He or she will help you have confidence not just to see what is being sold, but also to see how it can help you solve a problem, complete a task or be a better person.
Some of us hate to sell. If you are one of those, do you like to SHOW to people? Do you like to tell a friend, or even a stranger, about a good book, movie, TV show or restaurant you’ve had the pleasure to witness? Would that person have the confidence to read, see or eat at what you’re bragging about?
If you like to show, rather than sell, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. See the stories of how people learned to show something they like, and help others have the confidence not only to try it, but to increase others’ confidence to do the same. You might even see true servant selling.
Think of it this way: if what you have is good, and you know it, it’s others’ loss if they don’t see it, too. The word “no” usually comes from someone with no confidence in themselves to try something that could really benefit them.
In other words, it’s not about you. When one approaches selling as, “it’s not about me,” he or she is likely to find success eventually. He or she is likely to have enough confidence in himself or herself so help increase others’ confidence.
“It’s not about me” is true servant selling.
Peter
THE DISAPPEARING AMERICAN DREAM, PART 2: RETIREMENT PREPARATION ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE
#AmericanDream, #disappearingAmericanDream, #economicgrowthrates #retirementplanning
Retirement planning is complicated for Americans of all ages.
So says Jeff Reeves, editor of InvestorPlace.com, who wrote a column for USA Today. It was published in the May 10,2015, edition of The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute, in a 2014 survey, found that only 64 percent of Americans have saved any money for retirement to supplement Social Security benefits. It says that roughly six of 10 Americans have less than $25,000 saved for retirement, according to Reeves’ article.
Certainly, if you are young – say, in your 20s and 30s – retirement is a long way off. Or, so you think. Time travels with break-neck speed, and 30 years can go by very quickly. It’s never too early to save, even if it’s only, say, $5 a week. That may be one visit to Starbucks that you would be sacrificing.
Your parents and grandparents probably were diligent savers. Perhaps they were disciplined and never touched their retirement money.
In their day, perhaps, jobs didn’t disappear more quickly than cake at a child’s birthday party.
If you are young, you face a daunting task of keeping a good job for as long as you want it. If you are older, say, in your 40s and 50s, perhaps you had a good job for a long time, and it’s now gone.
All this complicates saving for retirement, so that task requires extra discipline, perhaps more than your parents or grandparents had.
Despite all the gloom-and-doom reports, Social Security is likely to survive. Benefits could be reduced a bit, but it should survive. The question to ask yourself is, what kind of lifestyle will I have on Social Security alone? Even if you add in a pension, should you be fortunate enough to have one, it’s still not going to be that much. If you are a careful, disciplined person, you would have spent your whole life watching every dollar. Your retirement years should be enjoyable, not ones of deprivation.
Well, one does not have to rely on a job, pensions etc., to have a good retirement. One does not have to engage in risky, unsafe investments to get a decent return.
But, to achieve that, one has to be motivated to want to change his situation, rather than accept it and complain about it.
If you are that type of person, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. Check out how many people from all different backgrounds, education levels and skills are not only securing their retirement, but helping others do the same.
Many of us do not want to take handouts, but want to get what was promised to us. Promises can, and often are, broken. That’s why motivated people look outside what they are used to and find a new way to prosperity.
Now, if you are indeed young, you can save your way to prosperity. Reeves quotes John Sweeney of Fidelity Investments as saying, “we are seeing many examples of people who have $1 million in a 401(k) because they started early, they diligently contributed and kept to it.”
That’s more difficult to do as jobs come and go, and jobs, if they are replaced, are often replaced with ones paying and providing less.
But the discipline you will acquire if you diligently save and not touch those savings until later years, and put those savings in the hands of a trusted financial adviser that won’t gobble up too much in fees, you can secure potentially great retirement.
The new Voya ads talk about “orange money,” that one must put away for retirement and not spend. Designate your own “orange money,” or whatever color you deem it, so you won’t have to scrape together an old age of deprivation.
Peter
THE DISAPPEARING AMERICAN DREAM, PART 1: NUMBERS TELL PART OF THE STORY
#AmericanDream #disappearingAmericanDream #economicgrowthrates
The American Dream is disappearing, by many accounts.
America needs the 3.5% solution.
No, it’s not a chemical that will magically remove all our country’s woes.
It an economic growth rate we once saw as a nation, but for which there is no projection to ever achieve again, under current circumstances.
That’s the premise of an article by U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Louis Woodhill, an economics writer and venture investor. The article was published May 1, 2015, in The Wall Street Journal.
Then, on May 3, 2015, Michael W. Kraus, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, Shai Davidai, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at Cornell University and A. David Nussbaum, adjunct assistant professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago published an article in the New York Times that says we vastly overestimate the amount of upward mobility in our society.
Finally, Peter Morici, professor of economics at the University of Maryland, says the slow job growth and low interest rates are decreasing the number of “safe” investments for savings, while allowing big companies cheap money for mergers and acquisitions. Morici’s column appeared in the May 12, 2014, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
What does all this mean for the average working person – or, perhaps, the average person who is no longer working? If you get a new job, it will likely pay less than the one you lost. You’ll struggle to get any kind of return on what little you are able to save, if anything at all. And, the big companies will combine into entities that will put more people out of work.
Cassidy and Woodhill say the Congressional Budget Office projects a meager growth rate of 2.3% for the gross domestic product over the next decade. Meanwhile, from 1790 to 2014, the average growth rate was 3.73%, they say. However, the two men have a way they believe will help generate the kind of growth the U.S. needs to prosper: allow oil exports, and not taxing repatriated overseas profits of U.S. companies.
Cassidy and Woodhill point out another fact: had the GDP grown from 2001 to 1014 at the 3.87 annual rate it had grown between 1993 and 2000, the federal government would have had a $500 billion surplus in 2014, instead of that big a deficit. Certainly, a 1 percent difference in the economic growth rate makes a big difference in the outcome for all of us. The writers also point out that current GDP growth per person is $2,433, lower than Papua New Guinea’s.
If we are truly in for growth rates in the 2s rather than the 3s, we will certainly see a decrease in upward mobility, as the trio who wrote in The New York Times suggest.
To extrapolate more on Morici’s column, low interest rates cannot be sustained forever. Average people usually can’t go looking for riskier investments at higher returns, lest they get burned. Yet, Morici says that is what some are doing.
Let’s look at Cassidy’s and Woodhill’s recommendations. Oil-company TV ads are telling us that the U.S. is currently the No. 1 producer of natural gas, and soon to be No. 1 in oil. The tendency, after decades of buying energy ingredients from countries who hate us, is to keep all that oil and gas we are now producing to ourselves.
But Cassidy and Woodhill say we should sell some of it. Perhaps we should analyze what it would cost us to ship the oil and gas elsewhere, vs. distributing it domestically. It’s cheaper, for example to ship Alaskan oil to Japan and other Pacific nations, rather than getting it to the U.S. mainland.
Then, there are the profits U.S. companies make overseas. There are trillions of U.S. assets awaiting repatriation. But, much of that would go to taxes in the current milieu. One has to analyze whether it’s better to bring the money home, tax-free, and put it to work here, vs. allowing it to sit in foreign institutions while we still collect no taxes on it. That’s certainly worth a full vetting.
As for our own prosperity, you may be among those who have given up looking for work, or who has been forced to take a job that pays less than the one you lost. The good news: there are many ways out there to make incomes without having to have a traditional job. Sure, there is work involved, but no boss and no threat of layoffs. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Sometimes, when all looks bleak, there’s a huge ray of hope that will guide those who would go for it. It may require new thinking and motivation, but sitting around complaining of bleakness and wishing ill on those who have it better than you accomplishes nothing.
Peter
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WORKERS, CONSUMERS, VOTERS AND POWER
#workers #consumers #voters #power #RobertReich
As a worker, consumer and voter, do you feel powerless?
Do you feel that the world favors those with more than you, and tramples you because you might be in their way?
Robert Reich, the former U.S. secretary of labor and current professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley – and a frequent commentator on TV news programs — discussed this in a May 3, 2015, column in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“A large part of the reason” that people feel their voices don’t count, “is we have fewer choices than we used to have,” Reich writes. “In almost every area of our lives, it’s now take it, or leave it,” he continues.
Companies are treating workers as disposable cogs, and most working people have no choice, he says. The once-powerful private-sector unions have lost much of their clout, he adds.
As consumers, we find that as companies merge and deliberately create fewer choices, we pay the price. “U.S. airlines, for example, have consolidated into a handful of giant carriers that divide up route and collude on fares,” Reich writes. In 2005, there were nine major airlines. Now, there are four, he adds.
Even in the political arena, there is less competition because so many districts have been gerrymandered to be safe for the incumbent – or at least the incumbent’s political party. “(More than) 85 percent of congressional districts are considered ‘safe’ for their incumbents in the 2016 election,” Reich says.
What’s the average person to do? Certainly circumstances have occurred that are beyond the average person’s control. But there is also good news: the average person can take advantage, if he so chooses, of ways to combat the apparent lack of choice.
As consumers, we can, as individuals, adjust our behavior to fight the put-up or shut-up attitudes of the companies that serve us. Using the example of airlines, there isn’t much an individual can do about delays, whether they be caused by a mechanical problem, weather or some other issue. No one would want to fly unsafely just to get to a destination sooner.
But, as an example, to combat the big airlines’ recent policy of charging a fee to check a bag, we can learn to pack more carefully, so that everything fits into smaller luggage that can be carried on the plane. On full flights, if people come prepared to carry on their luggage, airlines will ask that some of the suitcases and other items be checked. Then, they cannot charge you.
As voters, we can vote defensively, if we don’t like the ideology of the candidates most likely to win. How? If your state laws allow, vote in the primary of the political party whose ideology is generally opposite yours. Find the candidate(s) with records of statesmanship, i.e. working with the other party to get things done. Vote for those candidates, even if they would not be your choice in a general election. Negotiation and compromise are the essence of governing. The problem in politics, regardless of one’s political beliefs, is too much ideology and not enough statesmanship.
Finally, as workers, we need not to think of a job as the only way to make an income. There are many other ways out there with which people, regardless of education, background or skills, can earn substantial income without having to put up with an employer’s whim. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau
As for unions, they did wonders for workers and the middle class many decades ago. However, today’s global business world requires companies to have extreme flexibility and efficiency. Unions decrease both of those things, but years ago, productivity gains and other business progress occurred much more slowly. It’s best to presume that no matter what your job, and no matter how good you are at it, it will probably go away before you want it to.
In conclusion, Reich is largely correct about the state of the world, and our place in it. But, just as circumstances we can’t control can hurt us, the world has provided more options for those who choose not to tolerate those circumstances, and want to make their lives much better.
Peter
WHO’S CADDYING FOR YOU?
#innercaddy, #JordanSpieth, #TheMasters #positiveinnercaddy
A professional golfer routinely has a caddy to help advise him on what club to use for a specific shot, what type of shot to make etc.
In the example of young pro golfer Jordan Speith, who won The Masters tournament in 2015, and his caddy, Michael Greller, there is also positive motivation.
Gregg Steinberg, professor of human performance at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, and author of the best-selling book “Full Throttle,” discussed the “inner” caddy in a column in the April 26, 2015, edition of the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
As Steinberg points out, Greller probably would be out of a job if he kept telling Spieth things like, “don’t hit it right again,” or don’t leave it short.”
Steinberg says that if one’s “inner” caddy is giving him negative information, or keeps berating him, it’s OK for that person to fire his inner caddy.
The point here is that you, and your inner caddy, should only have positive interaction. Perhaps you have gotten complacent, or your inner caddy is a bad habit that you have way too frequently.
Steinberg says that one aspect each successful athlete and business person has in common is that he has fired his bad inner caddy, and keeps training and retraining his good caddy daily.
How do they do this? Steinberg offers three ways. First, develop a good inner caddy book filled with positive affirmations, such as, “I really feel it, today.” Secondly, like Bruce Lee write down any negative thoughts on paper, and visualize crumpling it and throwing it into a fire. Third, Steinberg cites the tried-and-true rubber band trick. If you start thinking negative thoughts, have a rubber band on your wrist that you can snap, and that will snap you out of those thoughts.
To some, this may sound like psychology 101. We’ve all learned along the way that thinking good thoughts is always better than thinking bad ones. But, bad things often happen to good people, no matter what they are thinking about.
When that occurs, instead of thinking about more bad things that could happen, think of the good that will come after you’ve dealt with a bad circumstance. Bad circumstances often are our greatest teachers.
Circumstances you can’t control are not inevitable, but they can and do occur. We must use whatever methods at our disposal, and within our personalities, to make sure the bad things don’t get to us, or, at least, only get to us for a short time.
One must believe he is a better person than the bad circumstances he’s been dealt. He didn’t deserve what he got, but he can overcome it.
Sometimes overcoming bad circumstances may require us to step outside our comfort zones. Jordan Spieth, in his very early 20s, could have found it difficult to compete against players more accustomed to pressure-packed tournaments. Instead, undoubtedly with the help of his real caddy, he hit shot after shot over four days, overcame the bogeys that came his way, and won The Masters.
If you, no matter what your age, have the determination of Jordan Spieth, are willing to fire your negative inner caddy and hire one that gives you the strength and grit to win, power to you. If you are looking for something outside your comfort zone to help you win, and help you help others win, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Spieth had dreamed about winning The Masters since he was 14. What are you dreaming about? It’s there for you, if you find the right reinforcement, and the right vehicle, to take you to it.
Peter
REPENT, FORGIVE AND REVERSE
#repent #forgive #180degreeturn
When we think of repentance, with think of the religious context of sinning and repenting.
Certainly, when we sin, it should give us pause.
But repentance has two parts, according to Rory Vaden, a self-discipline strategist and cofounder of Southwestern Consulting. He discussed repentance in an April 19, 2015, column in The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
The first part of repentance is apology. You’ve done something wrong and you beg forgiveness. But it’s the second part that we often forget about, Vaden says. That involves a 180-degree turn away from the actions from which you are repenting.
In other words, don’t just say you’re sorry and go back to doing the wrong you did. Addicts can apologize all day long, but unless they beat their addiction, they have truly not repented.
What could this mean for you? Perhaps you’ve done nothing “wrong,” yet your life does not seem right.
Perhaps no one but you notices. Perhaps YOU don’t even notice. Perhaps you’ve done everything you were told was right, yet something is missing.
That might make you ask yourself: if I’ve done everything the way I was told, why am I feeling this way? Why SHOULD I feel this way? What could possibly make me feel this way?
The feeling gnaws. One cannot control feelings. You believe there is something better out there for you, but you may not have a clue how to find it.
Yet, you rationalize, and tell yourself that mom, dad, your family and friends are still proud of you. In fact, you may have accomplished a great deal, yet you are still unfulfilled.
You may feel you have nothing to apologize to others for, for you have not sinned against them. They may even tell you how great you are, and that you are doing the right thing.
Still, you dream of better. Your family and friends may laugh at those dreams. They may encourage you to stop dreaming and get real.
Yet, your dreams are real. They come from deep inside. You know what you want, but not quite how to get it.
It may be the time to apologize to YOURSELF, then make that 180-degree turn in your life.
Your life may be like a big ship. It may not turn quickly. But it certainly can turn gradually.
The great news, if you have dreams you would like to fulfill, is there are many ways of doing so.
If you have big dreams, you may need to look for ways to fulfill them. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
There, you will find others like you who had good lives, yet wanted more. Then, they found the way to get what they wanted, and helped others like them do the same.
The movie “Love Story” has a famous line that says “love means never having to say you’re sorry.” But telling yourself you are sorry, and fully repenting by making that 180-degree turn, can fulfill the need you have inside.
Your dreams are real. They can be fulfilled. Never, ever be sorry for dreaming.
Peter
WHEN YOU FALL, GET BACK UP
#downisnotout #getbackup #anenemycalledaverage
“The most natural thing to do when you get knocked down is get back up.”
So says John Mason, executive coach and author, who wrote the book, “An Enemy Called Average: The Keys to Unlocking Your Dreams.”
There’s always something out there either trying to take you down, or that will take you down by accident.
Perhaps you are in a job, and all you can think about is trying to survive a bad manager, or that next reorganization.
Perhaps you have a friend or relative with a horrible disease, and all you can think about are the horrible things that would happen to you if YOU got the disease.
Whatever the situation, there is probably something good to come of it. You just may not be seeing it.
In fact, there may be something even better down the road that you are not seeing, or may not even be looking for.
But you have to start with getting back up if you are knocked down, or standing tall in the face of what appears to you to be a dismal future.
Something in each of us will tell us to give up when the chips are down. Some of us are naturally optimistic. Others have to work at it.
We all have to realize, too, that we need to always be looking. Not looking, as in window shopping. Not looking, as in browsing the Internet for a magic solution. Instead, we should realize the myriad opportunities out there that we may not know about. When someone brings one of those to you, check it out.
It’s OK to say, no, that’s not for me. But to say, no, without looking is to say, “woe is me,” and giving up.
As Mason says, “average” is your enemy. Greatness is your friend. And, great is something EVERYONE can be, even if your current circumstances will not get you there.
Certainly, your current circumstances may be putting food on your table, a roof over your head and giving you other necessities in life. Don’t hastily throw that away. But, when you are not helping someone else line his pocket, take a little time to find something that will line yours.
That doesn’t necessarily mean taking a second job, though many do. A second job usually means lining yet another person’s pocket. Make sure that whatever you do in life has something wonderful at the end for you and, as a bonus, allows you to help others find their own dreams.
OK, how does one find what one is looking for? First, one has to be actually looking. And, one has to have a dream big enough to want to not just look, but act when he finds what may give him that dream. For a great place to start looking, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You may not see all your answers there, but you will see ingredients that could give you what you are looking for.
So, when you fall down, do you just lie there, cry, whine and say “woe is me.” Or, do you get up, dust off and carry on? Do what Mason says is the natural thing. Don’t let what may take you down, keep you there. Get up, look around, know that the future is bright, if you make it so.
Peter