Sometimes, serious is for the birds. I've decided today is one of those days. Because I have this theory. And it will probably make you laugh.
You know how when we make fun of how old a person is we talk about how, back in their day there were no buses and they had to ride a dinosaur to school? Or sometimes we might actually call an old person a dinosaur or a fossil. I know it's ridiculous. But what if? What if?
We tend to associate dinosaurs with wild chaotic cranky attitudes when they are portrayed in books and movies. They are always angry and violent. Don't older people tend to be more frustrated, jaded and angry at life than us young ones? For most people, the longer their lives go on the worse they seem to get. With hardship after hardship is it any wonder that they become bitter and cranky? They look out for themselves and could care less about the rest. One might go so far as to say as time goes on that they start to become a bit cold blooded, like a reptile even.
As people get older their posture and bone density begin to change. The skin takes on a rough leathery appearance and feel, almost like scales. The eyesight and hearing tend to diminish and many older people become more sensitive to smells, also like many reptiles.
For some of the truly ancient among us, all of the bad experiences of their lives have warped their fragile little minds until the only things that come out of their mouths are horrible acidic declarations filled with vitriol and hate. Rather like the bite of some poisonous snakes or some other reptiles that spray their prey with poison to help take them down.
I know it is ridiculous, but what if humanity is but the first stage of our lives? What if we are all meant to be dragons, and would one day become such but for the fact that for some reason we no longer survive the process of change? What if conditions on Earth used to be different and instead of dying the old would go off to be by themselves to complete the transformation?
First we are humans, then a reptile human hybrid(this is where most of us today die) and then we become dinosaurs, before finally emerging from our evolutionary process as the perfect form, the awesome, majestic, hyper-intelligent, killing machine known as a dragon.
There are no dragons around today. But, I believe that at one point, there used to be. We know dinosaurs used to exist. There is plenty of evidence of that. Maybe they saw that conditions were changing, changing in such a way that they could no longer exist here, and they left.
There are no remnants to prove the existence of dragons,no fossils and no tar preserved corpses.But what if we, humans, are the remnants? Yes, it's insane, but what if it's true?
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
Set expectations
Have you ever seen one of those episodes of Star Trek where the Enterprise is in seriously deep trouble and the captain calls on the head of Engineering to come up with a miracle? It happens quite often. If you've watched more than four or five episodes you probably know what I 'm talking about. And each time the response is something to the effect of "I'll do my best captain but even under normal circumstances it would take twice as long as the amount of time that we have in order to get it done"
But every time, Engineering pulls through and gets the job done in the nick of time. How does that happen? Well, because that's how the script is written of course, but what's the "real" reason?. In one of the movies though, the secret is explained. And the answer is to always overestimate the amount of time that it takes to get the job done by twenty to thirty percent. That way when you get it done in less time, you look like a miracle worker, especially if you managed to pull through in a highly stressful situation.
There is a powerful lesson to be learned here that we can use in our everyday lives. People have expectations. If you fail to meet those expectations, they find that they have less and less need or use for you. If you meet their expectations, the status quo is maintained and they continue to have use for you, until someone who comes along that is better. But, if you consistently blow their expectations away, they will be so pleased with your work that they will actively advertise your services to others and do everything that they can to get you to keep working for them as well.
So, set their expectations. Tell them what the average amount of time to do the job is. Tell them that you can probably do it in ten percent less time and then do it in half that amount of time. Or throw in a couple of optional things as freebies. It's a little balancing act. You want to make it look like nobody can do what they want done in the time available, but that you are still the best man for the job. Whatever it is, go over the top. Do it better and faster than your competition can. And then, don't brag about it, but do let your customer know, that you did the best job possible because you value them as a customer.
It doesn't matter if you are an auto mechanic, if you run a print shop or if you do telemarketing for a living. No matter what product or service you provide the community, if you do a higher quality job, in less time at a competitive price, your services will always be in high demand.
If you don't go out of your way to set up the expectations that other people have of you, people will make up their own based on assumptions that they have about you and they will hardly ever be as good for you in the long run. And this works in every area of your life of course, not just work. People should know ahead of time what to expect from you in a given situation so they know whether or not they can count on you for whatever it is that they happen to need at that moment.
But every time, Engineering pulls through and gets the job done in the nick of time. How does that happen? Well, because that's how the script is written of course, but what's the "real" reason?. In one of the movies though, the secret is explained. And the answer is to always overestimate the amount of time that it takes to get the job done by twenty to thirty percent. That way when you get it done in less time, you look like a miracle worker, especially if you managed to pull through in a highly stressful situation.
There is a powerful lesson to be learned here that we can use in our everyday lives. People have expectations. If you fail to meet those expectations, they find that they have less and less need or use for you. If you meet their expectations, the status quo is maintained and they continue to have use for you, until someone who comes along that is better. But, if you consistently blow their expectations away, they will be so pleased with your work that they will actively advertise your services to others and do everything that they can to get you to keep working for them as well.
So, set their expectations. Tell them what the average amount of time to do the job is. Tell them that you can probably do it in ten percent less time and then do it in half that amount of time. Or throw in a couple of optional things as freebies. It's a little balancing act. You want to make it look like nobody can do what they want done in the time available, but that you are still the best man for the job. Whatever it is, go over the top. Do it better and faster than your competition can. And then, don't brag about it, but do let your customer know, that you did the best job possible because you value them as a customer.
It doesn't matter if you are an auto mechanic, if you run a print shop or if you do telemarketing for a living. No matter what product or service you provide the community, if you do a higher quality job, in less time at a competitive price, your services will always be in high demand.
If you don't go out of your way to set up the expectations that other people have of you, people will make up their own based on assumptions that they have about you and they will hardly ever be as good for you in the long run. And this works in every area of your life of course, not just work. People should know ahead of time what to expect from you in a given situation so they know whether or not they can count on you for whatever it is that they happen to need at that moment.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Hypothetical question
Hypothetical question.
Would you rather pay ten thousand dollars for a new car or get that very same care for five thousand dollars. It seems like an easy choice right? Why pay twice as much if you don't have to? But what if instead of being cut and dried like that we complicated matters a little. You can pay 10k for the car all up front. Or have 1k withdrawn from your bank five separate times at random intervals, sometime over the next six months?
Suddenly, it's not so easy anymore? Why is that? Logically if you have the ten thousand now you could just leave at least half of it in the bank so that no matter when the 1k payments come out, it is covered. But, logic isn't home right now. It is being chased away by fear of the unknown. We added one random variable and suddenly the illusion of control is gone.
The mind just won't shut up about it. It comes up with all kinds of excuses and nightmare scenarios for how this is a bad idea and how we should either just take the ten thousand dollar deal or just go somewhere else.You would be amazed how often someone gets confused, frustrated or angry with you anytime you make something more advantageous for them but throw in some sort of unknown as part of the mix.
How about punishment? There was an episode of How I Met Your Mother, where there was a bet going on and the winner got to slap the loser, either ten times, right after the winner was determined or five times throughout the rest of their relationship. The loser ended up choosing the more logical 5 slaps, but regretted it due to being in constant fear of the future slaps.
What about in your personal life? In general you know the rules and laws of your surroundings and you know the penalties if you start breaking them. You can consciously choose to do the wrong thing and take the penalty. But what if you didn't know what the penalty was? You couldn't gauge whether or not it was worth it to do the crime. What if the punishment for everything was somewhere random in between a ten dollar fine and the death sentence? Would you be more careful about what laws you broke?
Are you more scared and intimidated by an angry man that is going to break your arm or by the same angry man when you have no idea what his intentions are? The latter of course. You have no idea what is going to happen. He might want to kill you or he might just intend to give you a stern talking to.
Everything we learn about the world and the people around us is a tool, one that can be used for or against us. How can we take advantage of this knowledge in our lives? How do others use it to take advantage of us?
Would you rather pay ten thousand dollars for a new car or get that very same care for five thousand dollars. It seems like an easy choice right? Why pay twice as much if you don't have to? But what if instead of being cut and dried like that we complicated matters a little. You can pay 10k for the car all up front. Or have 1k withdrawn from your bank five separate times at random intervals, sometime over the next six months?
Suddenly, it's not so easy anymore? Why is that? Logically if you have the ten thousand now you could just leave at least half of it in the bank so that no matter when the 1k payments come out, it is covered. But, logic isn't home right now. It is being chased away by fear of the unknown. We added one random variable and suddenly the illusion of control is gone.
The mind just won't shut up about it. It comes up with all kinds of excuses and nightmare scenarios for how this is a bad idea and how we should either just take the ten thousand dollar deal or just go somewhere else.You would be amazed how often someone gets confused, frustrated or angry with you anytime you make something more advantageous for them but throw in some sort of unknown as part of the mix.
How about punishment? There was an episode of How I Met Your Mother, where there was a bet going on and the winner got to slap the loser, either ten times, right after the winner was determined or five times throughout the rest of their relationship. The loser ended up choosing the more logical 5 slaps, but regretted it due to being in constant fear of the future slaps.
What about in your personal life? In general you know the rules and laws of your surroundings and you know the penalties if you start breaking them. You can consciously choose to do the wrong thing and take the penalty. But what if you didn't know what the penalty was? You couldn't gauge whether or not it was worth it to do the crime. What if the punishment for everything was somewhere random in between a ten dollar fine and the death sentence? Would you be more careful about what laws you broke?
Are you more scared and intimidated by an angry man that is going to break your arm or by the same angry man when you have no idea what his intentions are? The latter of course. You have no idea what is going to happen. He might want to kill you or he might just intend to give you a stern talking to.
Everything we learn about the world and the people around us is a tool, one that can be used for or against us. How can we take advantage of this knowledge in our lives? How do others use it to take advantage of us?
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Never give up. Never surrender
So, you take the time to sit down and plan out the life of your dreams. You get every detail of what you want down to the very last chandelier and garden gnome. Once you know what it is that you want, you spend days or weeks even planning all the steps you are going to have to take to get there.
Then you decide to start following the plan. You plot out your course and put yourself on autopilot. Several weeks or months later, you put life a on hold for a few minutes and check to see how you are doing. You find, somehow, much to your chagrin, that you are way off course.
What happened? After all you had a plan. Why didn't it work? If the plan isn't going to work, why bother? Should you just give up like everyone says? Throw the plan away? Maybe it'd be better to just let whatever happens happens. This working for a goal thing is just too much.I should give up.
Don't you ever make that decision.Because the moment you do, all of your hopes and dreams for the future die. While it is not pleasant, it is both okay and expected for you to meet with obstacles and ,yes, even failures on your journey to the life of your dreams.
None of us has ubiquitous vision. It is impossible to foresee ahead of time all of the curves that life is going to throw your way. Anyone who has ever been in the military or part of any professional sport knows that even the best made plans only survive until it is time to put them into action. Then theory and reality clash and in most cases reality wins.
Left to fend for themselves most plans will wither and die shortly after implementation begins. But, if you really care about the results, you won't let that happen. If you truly desire success, you don't get to leave things on autopilot. The reason for this is because you need to be constantly checking to see how things are going. If everything is on track keep following the plan.When life throws you an obstacle or teaches you a lesson modify your plan accordingly.
In the beginning example the only problem was you weren't checking often enough to see how you were doing. And in all fairness it can be hard to do something new or to do old things a new way. You have to learn to get past not just the resistance of others but your own resistance to doing things differently.
Failures in your day to day life are fine. They are learning experiences that you can use to more accurately tailor your success plan. Don't beat yourself up about them. Learn the lesson and move on. When you find you are off track, for whatever reason, refocus,recommit and get back to work.
Remember, you can have anything you want. If you are willing to do the work to get it.
Then you decide to start following the plan. You plot out your course and put yourself on autopilot. Several weeks or months later, you put life a on hold for a few minutes and check to see how you are doing. You find, somehow, much to your chagrin, that you are way off course.
What happened? After all you had a plan. Why didn't it work? If the plan isn't going to work, why bother? Should you just give up like everyone says? Throw the plan away? Maybe it'd be better to just let whatever happens happens. This working for a goal thing is just too much.I should give up.
Don't you ever make that decision.Because the moment you do, all of your hopes and dreams for the future die. While it is not pleasant, it is both okay and expected for you to meet with obstacles and ,yes, even failures on your journey to the life of your dreams.
None of us has ubiquitous vision. It is impossible to foresee ahead of time all of the curves that life is going to throw your way. Anyone who has ever been in the military or part of any professional sport knows that even the best made plans only survive until it is time to put them into action. Then theory and reality clash and in most cases reality wins.
Left to fend for themselves most plans will wither and die shortly after implementation begins. But, if you really care about the results, you won't let that happen. If you truly desire success, you don't get to leave things on autopilot. The reason for this is because you need to be constantly checking to see how things are going. If everything is on track keep following the plan.When life throws you an obstacle or teaches you a lesson modify your plan accordingly.
In the beginning example the only problem was you weren't checking often enough to see how you were doing. And in all fairness it can be hard to do something new or to do old things a new way. You have to learn to get past not just the resistance of others but your own resistance to doing things differently.
Failures in your day to day life are fine. They are learning experiences that you can use to more accurately tailor your success plan. Don't beat yourself up about them. Learn the lesson and move on. When you find you are off track, for whatever reason, refocus,recommit and get back to work.
Remember, you can have anything you want. If you are willing to do the work to get it.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
How could you possibly know?
Every person has their own interpretation of the events that happen in life. What is excruciatingly painful for one person might be only a mildly bad thing to someone else. Each experience is our own and unique. Nobody else will ever feel exactly the same thing about the same event.
That's why it's so common to feel alone when a negative experience happens. You are alone in your own little world surrounded by pain and suffering. Nobody else is having YOUR experience. When this happens we want to shut everyone out and not let them in. We feel that nobody can help us or give us useful advice. No one can have our experience so how can they help us?
Maybe it hasn't happened to you personally. Maybe you have only seen this type of thing in the movies or in books. But, I am sure you know what I'm talking about.
They make that "mistake" of saying I know how you feel and suddenly you explode. You rail out at the other person screaming and kicking and punching, bellowing forth at the top of your lungs how there is no way they could every possible understand what you are going through.
At different points in my life, I have been both the person who was suffering and the person who was offering their condolences.When I was suffering, I was unreasonable and would not let others in. And when I was offering my assistance it was rebuffed by people acting the same way I had in the past.
I learned at some point how stupid it was to push other people away when all they wanted to do was to help me feel better. My lashing out, cursing and swearing at the people that wanted to make things better was childish and illogical.
Often, when we are in the moment, logic is not present. It is all about what is happening right at that second and how we feel about it.We can't see past that moment. But eventually that moment ends. Life goes on. You either find a way to heal, you go crazy(the dangerous kind) or you die.
I'm not fond of being dead or that other kind of crazy, so after my seriously bad moments I had to find a way to heal. I learned through experience that it doesn't matter that our experiences are different.
The bottom line is no life is without pain and suffering at some point. Just because a person has not gone through the exact same experience does not mean they have no knowledge of what it is to suffer. People that care about you are going to offer their sympathy simply because they see someone they care about in pain.
It really doesn't matter that your particular situation isn't as bad for them as it is for you. It doesn't matter if they have never been through a similar situation. They have been in pain and they see that you are in pain.
So, yeah. How could they possibly know what it is that you are going through? They don't. But they don't need to. Just accept that your friends and family, one do know what pain is like and two want to do their very best to make yours go away. Let them in. Let them assist you in starting to heal.
because the other options just aren't worth it.
That's why it's so common to feel alone when a negative experience happens. You are alone in your own little world surrounded by pain and suffering. Nobody else is having YOUR experience. When this happens we want to shut everyone out and not let them in. We feel that nobody can help us or give us useful advice. No one can have our experience so how can they help us?
Maybe it hasn't happened to you personally. Maybe you have only seen this type of thing in the movies or in books. But, I am sure you know what I'm talking about.
They make that "mistake" of saying I know how you feel and suddenly you explode. You rail out at the other person screaming and kicking and punching, bellowing forth at the top of your lungs how there is no way they could every possible understand what you are going through.
At different points in my life, I have been both the person who was suffering and the person who was offering their condolences.When I was suffering, I was unreasonable and would not let others in. And when I was offering my assistance it was rebuffed by people acting the same way I had in the past.
I learned at some point how stupid it was to push other people away when all they wanted to do was to help me feel better. My lashing out, cursing and swearing at the people that wanted to make things better was childish and illogical.
Often, when we are in the moment, logic is not present. It is all about what is happening right at that second and how we feel about it.We can't see past that moment. But eventually that moment ends. Life goes on. You either find a way to heal, you go crazy(the dangerous kind) or you die.
I'm not fond of being dead or that other kind of crazy, so after my seriously bad moments I had to find a way to heal. I learned through experience that it doesn't matter that our experiences are different.
The bottom line is no life is without pain and suffering at some point. Just because a person has not gone through the exact same experience does not mean they have no knowledge of what it is to suffer. People that care about you are going to offer their sympathy simply because they see someone they care about in pain.
It really doesn't matter that your particular situation isn't as bad for them as it is for you. It doesn't matter if they have never been through a similar situation. They have been in pain and they see that you are in pain.
So, yeah. How could they possibly know what it is that you are going through? They don't. But they don't need to. Just accept that your friends and family, one do know what pain is like and two want to do their very best to make yours go away. Let them in. Let them assist you in starting to heal.
because the other options just aren't worth it.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Hunger is an awesome tool
Let me say that again. Hunger. Is. An. Awesome. Tool.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not in any way making fun of those that cannot afford to feed themselves or saying that we should take advantage of them. I am talking about your own personal hunger and what it can do for you.
Think about it. What are you like when you are hungry? I don't mean like breakfast was two hours ago and lunch is still a couple hours away and you are just a bit snacky. I mean full on raging bear willing to eat a horse if it's put in front of you kind of hungry. There are some Snicker's commercials out there that have some silly but somewhat accurate examples of how people stop being reasonable when they get hungry.
I can't speak to anyone's experience but my own. Though, I imagine, it is not all that different for other people. If I get deeply involved in some game or project and miss a few meals in a row, there comes a point where my body reminds me that it is time to eat. And yeah, I can push it back or ignore it for a little while, but there comes a point where that is all over.
It's like there's an animal inside controlling me. And it takes over. Then no matter what I was doing I'm done and it is time to go get something to eat. All rational thought not leading to acquiring food gets temporarily shut off.
IT IS TIME TO EAT! No other conversation holds my interest or in fact even penetrates my brain. All focus and desire is on food. I am willing to do whatever it takes to sate this hunger. I will move or destroy obstacles. I become an awesome juggernaut of will, laser focused on my goal. Woe to he or she that stands in my way. Nothing, this side of death will stop me.
By now you may be thinking, so what Jim, that's an interesting experience. But how does your odd mealtime behavior benefit me? Well.Think about it like this. What is this hunger that I am talking about? It is an all consuming fire, a burning ambition, an impassioned drive to succeed at accomplishing a goal no matter what obstacles may be in the way.
In all fairness a hunger for food will build on its own over time with no actual effort involved on your part. In other areas of life like business goals, family or relationships you have to stoke those fires intentionally. But it can, and should be done. You can have a powerful,passionate, driven hunger for anything that you decide to.
By comparing what you want with what you have, and getting excited about getting what it is that you want, you can build that fire from just a tiny spark to a raging forest fire. A forest fire that blazes in whatever direction you choose, melting all obstacles in your way, until you reach success.
Imagine how different your life will be once you starting treating all your goals the way I treat the obtainment of food when I am hungry.What new things will you do with your unstoppable will, laser focused for success?
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not in any way making fun of those that cannot afford to feed themselves or saying that we should take advantage of them. I am talking about your own personal hunger and what it can do for you.
Think about it. What are you like when you are hungry? I don't mean like breakfast was two hours ago and lunch is still a couple hours away and you are just a bit snacky. I mean full on raging bear willing to eat a horse if it's put in front of you kind of hungry. There are some Snicker's commercials out there that have some silly but somewhat accurate examples of how people stop being reasonable when they get hungry.
I can't speak to anyone's experience but my own. Though, I imagine, it is not all that different for other people. If I get deeply involved in some game or project and miss a few meals in a row, there comes a point where my body reminds me that it is time to eat. And yeah, I can push it back or ignore it for a little while, but there comes a point where that is all over.
It's like there's an animal inside controlling me. And it takes over. Then no matter what I was doing I'm done and it is time to go get something to eat. All rational thought not leading to acquiring food gets temporarily shut off.
IT IS TIME TO EAT! No other conversation holds my interest or in fact even penetrates my brain. All focus and desire is on food. I am willing to do whatever it takes to sate this hunger. I will move or destroy obstacles. I become an awesome juggernaut of will, laser focused on my goal. Woe to he or she that stands in my way. Nothing, this side of death will stop me.
By now you may be thinking, so what Jim, that's an interesting experience. But how does your odd mealtime behavior benefit me? Well.Think about it like this. What is this hunger that I am talking about? It is an all consuming fire, a burning ambition, an impassioned drive to succeed at accomplishing a goal no matter what obstacles may be in the way.
In all fairness a hunger for food will build on its own over time with no actual effort involved on your part. In other areas of life like business goals, family or relationships you have to stoke those fires intentionally. But it can, and should be done. You can have a powerful,passionate, driven hunger for anything that you decide to.
By comparing what you want with what you have, and getting excited about getting what it is that you want, you can build that fire from just a tiny spark to a raging forest fire. A forest fire that blazes in whatever direction you choose, melting all obstacles in your way, until you reach success.
Imagine how different your life will be once you starting treating all your goals the way I treat the obtainment of food when I am hungry.What new things will you do with your unstoppable will, laser focused for success?
Saturday, February 15, 2014
A new way for success
In olden times, long long ago, when the Earth was still old and the race of man was new, things were different. Back then, in order to insure success, one just needed to show a little dedication or some discipline, or willingness to work towards a goal. In modern times, none of those alone will make you successful.
You have to have dogged determination, fanatical dedication and a willingness to work harder than anyone else to meet your goals. And with many business, both on or offline, even then, sometimes that is not enough.
For a long time now, in the online marketing space, people have been selling how to courses. These things are great. You pay a little money and learn a new marketable skill, something that can help you make even more money in your current business.
There are a lot of online geniuses or gurus that are willing to share with you all the secrets to making a fortune online. The problem with these things is, in almost every case it is someone who is just as broke as you are, "teaching" you how to make money. The only money most of them have ever made is from the sales of the lesson they are teaching you.
Even if they do have a lot of good ideas and strategies on what might work, how is someone who has never made $100,000 a year going to teach you, with just a few short videos all the steps necessary to get you making that kind of money? They aren't going to. They can't.
If someone can't prove to you that their system has done for them what they say it will do for you, don't listen to them. It's probably just smoke and mirrors. There's a somewhat new concept that is catching on like wildfire. It's called selling your results.
First do something that other people are struggling with. Then share your results with other people. And then show them how they can get the same results as you. Make it clear that if you can do it so can they. Other people want to be successful. They, generally, don't really care about your success. The only reason that it matters to them is that it is proof that what you say works.
I can not show you how to make ten thousand dollars a month with a home based business. Hell, I can't even show you how to make two thousand dollars a month. I have never done either of those things in a home based business. But I can show you how to make your cell phone bill disappear. In the past thirty days, I've cut my monthly cell phone bill by more than half. Soon, it will be gone entirely. And then every month afterwards my phone will pay me.
Out of the top four carriers in the USA, Verizon has the highest national average, coming in at $148. Sprint and AT&T are in the middle with, $144 and $141 respectively. And T-Mobile has the lowest national average, out of the four, with $120.
My bill this month, including all taxes and fees, is under $32. How does it work you say?
There's a relatively new nationwide phone service that cuts out most of the fees and taxes and just charges a low flat rate for the services you actually need. Their cheapest plan that includes unlimited talk, text and web, is $39 per month or just over $46 bucks total, all taxes included. Why pay 120 bucks when you could pay less than $50?
But what's even better is that they offer an incentive plan for you to share this awesome savings with others. For each person that you get to switch to their service, they reduce your monthly bill by $5. You don't get that with any of the Big 4.
Think about it. Practically everybody has a cell phone. Some of us have more than one. Just a few short weeks from today, you could go from paying over a hundred dollars a month , to never having to pay your phone bill again.
Get started right now by going here.
You have to have dogged determination, fanatical dedication and a willingness to work harder than anyone else to meet your goals. And with many business, both on or offline, even then, sometimes that is not enough.
For a long time now, in the online marketing space, people have been selling how to courses. These things are great. You pay a little money and learn a new marketable skill, something that can help you make even more money in your current business.
There are a lot of online geniuses or gurus that are willing to share with you all the secrets to making a fortune online. The problem with these things is, in almost every case it is someone who is just as broke as you are, "teaching" you how to make money. The only money most of them have ever made is from the sales of the lesson they are teaching you.
Even if they do have a lot of good ideas and strategies on what might work, how is someone who has never made $100,000 a year going to teach you, with just a few short videos all the steps necessary to get you making that kind of money? They aren't going to. They can't.
If someone can't prove to you that their system has done for them what they say it will do for you, don't listen to them. It's probably just smoke and mirrors. There's a somewhat new concept that is catching on like wildfire. It's called selling your results.
First do something that other people are struggling with. Then share your results with other people. And then show them how they can get the same results as you. Make it clear that if you can do it so can they. Other people want to be successful. They, generally, don't really care about your success. The only reason that it matters to them is that it is proof that what you say works.
I can not show you how to make ten thousand dollars a month with a home based business. Hell, I can't even show you how to make two thousand dollars a month. I have never done either of those things in a home based business. But I can show you how to make your cell phone bill disappear. In the past thirty days, I've cut my monthly cell phone bill by more than half. Soon, it will be gone entirely. And then every month afterwards my phone will pay me.
Out of the top four carriers in the USA, Verizon has the highest national average, coming in at $148. Sprint and AT&T are in the middle with, $144 and $141 respectively. And T-Mobile has the lowest national average, out of the four, with $120.
My bill this month, including all taxes and fees, is under $32. How does it work you say?
There's a relatively new nationwide phone service that cuts out most of the fees and taxes and just charges a low flat rate for the services you actually need. Their cheapest plan that includes unlimited talk, text and web, is $39 per month or just over $46 bucks total, all taxes included. Why pay 120 bucks when you could pay less than $50?
But what's even better is that they offer an incentive plan for you to share this awesome savings with others. For each person that you get to switch to their service, they reduce your monthly bill by $5. You don't get that with any of the Big 4.
Think about it. Practically everybody has a cell phone. Some of us have more than one. Just a few short weeks from today, you could go from paying over a hundred dollars a month , to never having to pay your phone bill again.
Get started right now by going here.
What would you do if this were your dream?
You are going about your normal routine, just going through an average day. You blink.
Your eyes open. Suddenly, you are on one of the streets of New York City. It's chaos. Even more than usual. The ground is shaking. There are animals everywhere. It's like Noah's Ark just deposited its contents at your feet. There are people everywhere screaming, some in confusion and fear, others in exultation. There is looting and rioting and partying all rolled up into one massive event.
The End of Days has come. This is Judgement Day.
You blink again.You are still somewhere in New York City. You can sense that, just as you can sense all that other stuff still going on in the background. But now, you are in an impossibly large cathedral with an immense vaulted ceiling, possibly a Christian church of some type, though you can't tell for sure.
And it is starting to fill up. It is just a little at first, people and animals coming in twos and threes. Then more and more till it seems as if the entire population of the Earth is trying to squeeze inside these walls.
You stand before the altar and a soft golden white light starts to emanate from you.Well, it starts out soft but begins to get brighter and brighter. As time goes on it becomes as bright as the noonday sun. A gentle warmth begins to flow from this aura. It caress and heals the good souls around you. For the wicked, this aura becomes an unbearable harsh burning sensation.They can't even look your way without cringing in pain. Your aura blisters their skin and sends them,literally, screaming from the building.
Voices begin proclaiming you The One. The Prophet. The Messiah. You shake your head. You tell them you are just a simple human being like everyone else. People are pushing forward, clamoring just to touch your clothing, struggling to get closer. Your body begins to levitate. You are just a few inches off the ground. The voices get louder. The impossibly bright light gets brighter. And then...
You wake up.
I had this dream at least twice a week for a couple of years. It was a lot more vivid. I have described things as succinctly as possible here so as not to make the description 200,000 words. The dream was exactly the same every time, down to the last detail. And if I close my eyes I can still see it happening.
For awhile I told myself that this dream didn't mean anything at all. It kept happening though, and nothing I did seemed to make it stop. So I decided there had to be a reason for it though, at first I wasn't sure what it meant. I mean, I am not Jesus. That role was already taken. There are some correlations though. My birthday is Christmas and the Latin root for my name does mean one who takes the place of another. But still that wasn't quite right.
Finally I figured it out. Someone or something, be it my subconscious or some outside influence, was telling me that my role in life was to be a leader. I really didn't have any interest in leading others, so I resisted and the dream persisted. I didn't want to be a Savior or Messiah.
I never thought I was qualified to be a leader. It was my ambition just to get through life day to day the best way I knew how. The idea that others would want to follow me was a foreign concept, it confused me.
Then my perspective shifted. I found that I am good at solving problems and learning new ways of doing things to keep old problems from re-occurring. And I found that others saw my example and wanted the same for their lives. I do like showing others how to fix the problems in their lives and seeing their lives improve.
I enjoy learning and I enjoy teaching. I live by example. I am a natural leader. Are you?
Your eyes open. Suddenly, you are on one of the streets of New York City. It's chaos. Even more than usual. The ground is shaking. There are animals everywhere. It's like Noah's Ark just deposited its contents at your feet. There are people everywhere screaming, some in confusion and fear, others in exultation. There is looting and rioting and partying all rolled up into one massive event.
The End of Days has come. This is Judgement Day.
You blink again.You are still somewhere in New York City. You can sense that, just as you can sense all that other stuff still going on in the background. But now, you are in an impossibly large cathedral with an immense vaulted ceiling, possibly a Christian church of some type, though you can't tell for sure.
And it is starting to fill up. It is just a little at first, people and animals coming in twos and threes. Then more and more till it seems as if the entire population of the Earth is trying to squeeze inside these walls.
You stand before the altar and a soft golden white light starts to emanate from you.Well, it starts out soft but begins to get brighter and brighter. As time goes on it becomes as bright as the noonday sun. A gentle warmth begins to flow from this aura. It caress and heals the good souls around you. For the wicked, this aura becomes an unbearable harsh burning sensation.They can't even look your way without cringing in pain. Your aura blisters their skin and sends them,literally, screaming from the building.
Voices begin proclaiming you The One. The Prophet. The Messiah. You shake your head. You tell them you are just a simple human being like everyone else. People are pushing forward, clamoring just to touch your clothing, struggling to get closer. Your body begins to levitate. You are just a few inches off the ground. The voices get louder. The impossibly bright light gets brighter. And then...
You wake up.
I had this dream at least twice a week for a couple of years. It was a lot more vivid. I have described things as succinctly as possible here so as not to make the description 200,000 words. The dream was exactly the same every time, down to the last detail. And if I close my eyes I can still see it happening.
For awhile I told myself that this dream didn't mean anything at all. It kept happening though, and nothing I did seemed to make it stop. So I decided there had to be a reason for it though, at first I wasn't sure what it meant. I mean, I am not Jesus. That role was already taken. There are some correlations though. My birthday is Christmas and the Latin root for my name does mean one who takes the place of another. But still that wasn't quite right.
Finally I figured it out. Someone or something, be it my subconscious or some outside influence, was telling me that my role in life was to be a leader. I really didn't have any interest in leading others, so I resisted and the dream persisted. I didn't want to be a Savior or Messiah.
I never thought I was qualified to be a leader. It was my ambition just to get through life day to day the best way I knew how. The idea that others would want to follow me was a foreign concept, it confused me.
Then my perspective shifted. I found that I am good at solving problems and learning new ways of doing things to keep old problems from re-occurring. And I found that others saw my example and wanted the same for their lives. I do like showing others how to fix the problems in their lives and seeing their lives improve.
I enjoy learning and I enjoy teaching. I live by example. I am a natural leader. Are you?
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Leveling up
Life is full of problems. Regardless of how good someone else's life appears to be, they have problems. They may be things that you don't see or they may be things that you do see but you think are easy to handle. Just like other people might find your problems easy to deal with.
There is a tendency to see other people that have a hard time dealing with any problem no matter how simple and we wonder how they make it out the door in one piece every morning. We might be inclined to laugh or poke fun at how much trouble they are having with the simplest things. But don't.
First, it is just plain rude. Second how would you feel if someone did the same to you and your problems? Third it is not helpful to laugh at others misfortunes. Besides, there is actually something you can do to assist them in growing.
But first a correlation between this and role-playing. In Dungeons & Dragons, the first major role-playing game ever, newly created characters are extremely ineffective at handling problems in their world. They are limited by a lack of knowledge about those problems. Everything is new and they have no experience with what to do in different situations. Before encountering one, a new group of adventurers has no idea that trolls can only be killed by fire or acid.
Unless they learn this through trial and error, while fighting the troll, they will have to either run away or die. After, failing to kill the troll, suppose they make it back alive to the local tavern, disheveled and exhausted. One of two things is likely to happen. They could give up and say they met a monster they could not defeat and are willing to pay someone to go and kill it for them. Or they could find someone willing to tell them the monster's weakness and then go out and do battle with it again.
In both cases the monster situation is handled. But only in the second one does the party of adventurers know how to defeat a troll if they ever happen to stumble upon another one.
The lesson here is if you see someone struggling with an issue and you solve it for them, they haven't grown at all and are still just as useless against that challenge in the future. But if you give them just enough information to be able to handle the problem on their own, they will be successful at that particular thing from that point on and can one day share that same information with others struggling with that issue.
More parallels between life and role-playing games. In D&d the things that your characters do generate something called experience points or xp. Once you gain enough xp, your character levels up. This means that they get better at all the things that they already know how to do and may learn new abilities. They get access to more and better equipment.
A single level five adventurer has the tools, resources and knowledge to be able to handle things by himself that five first level characters could not. D&d, while primarily about adventuring life in the dark ages of society is still designed to closely approximate real life situations today. A Bill Gates or a Mike Tyson can handle problems that hundreds of typical teenagers working together could not.
With age and practice comes knowledge, experience and wisdom that there simply is no replacement for. So that guy or girl that is too dumb or inexperienced to do to whatever it is that you think is easy, don't laugh at them. Just go to them and give them the instruction that they need to find their own way past that obstacle.
When you were brand new a lot of people saw you as the same invalid that you see others as. And remember there is always someone better, smarter and faster than you at something. At every point in your life there is someone somewhere that could look over your shoulder at something you are struggling with and show you the way.
There is a tendency to see other people that have a hard time dealing with any problem no matter how simple and we wonder how they make it out the door in one piece every morning. We might be inclined to laugh or poke fun at how much trouble they are having with the simplest things. But don't.
First, it is just plain rude. Second how would you feel if someone did the same to you and your problems? Third it is not helpful to laugh at others misfortunes. Besides, there is actually something you can do to assist them in growing.
But first a correlation between this and role-playing. In Dungeons & Dragons, the first major role-playing game ever, newly created characters are extremely ineffective at handling problems in their world. They are limited by a lack of knowledge about those problems. Everything is new and they have no experience with what to do in different situations. Before encountering one, a new group of adventurers has no idea that trolls can only be killed by fire or acid.
Unless they learn this through trial and error, while fighting the troll, they will have to either run away or die. After, failing to kill the troll, suppose they make it back alive to the local tavern, disheveled and exhausted. One of two things is likely to happen. They could give up and say they met a monster they could not defeat and are willing to pay someone to go and kill it for them. Or they could find someone willing to tell them the monster's weakness and then go out and do battle with it again.
In both cases the monster situation is handled. But only in the second one does the party of adventurers know how to defeat a troll if they ever happen to stumble upon another one.
The lesson here is if you see someone struggling with an issue and you solve it for them, they haven't grown at all and are still just as useless against that challenge in the future. But if you give them just enough information to be able to handle the problem on their own, they will be successful at that particular thing from that point on and can one day share that same information with others struggling with that issue.
More parallels between life and role-playing games. In D&d the things that your characters do generate something called experience points or xp. Once you gain enough xp, your character levels up. This means that they get better at all the things that they already know how to do and may learn new abilities. They get access to more and better equipment.
A single level five adventurer has the tools, resources and knowledge to be able to handle things by himself that five first level characters could not. D&d, while primarily about adventuring life in the dark ages of society is still designed to closely approximate real life situations today. A Bill Gates or a Mike Tyson can handle problems that hundreds of typical teenagers working together could not.
With age and practice comes knowledge, experience and wisdom that there simply is no replacement for. So that guy or girl that is too dumb or inexperienced to do to whatever it is that you think is easy, don't laugh at them. Just go to them and give them the instruction that they need to find their own way past that obstacle.
When you were brand new a lot of people saw you as the same invalid that you see others as. And remember there is always someone better, smarter and faster than you at something. At every point in your life there is someone somewhere that could look over your shoulder at something you are struggling with and show you the way.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
The Olympics
It began over two thousand years ago as a contest, one where a bunch of sweaty men got all greased up and tried to hug one another to death(wrestling), others threw their weapons off into the far distance for some unknown reason(javelin and discus), and still other men did their best to catch up to and pass the man in front of them(races).
What am I talking about? No, it is not some ancient homosexual rite of passage. I am, of course, talking about the Olympics. Over the centuries, nay, millenia that have passed since it's inception, the Olympics have changed in many ways.
Before it was about the one man who was the best. Now it's about the top three in each sport. Originally it was a contest to see who was the best in Greece. Now it's about who is the best in the world. Before there were but a handful of sports. Now there are so many that they have had to be split into both Summer and Winter games.
The original sports were all about strength, speed, and stamina. Some of the newer ones have those things as well. Others like skeet shooting are more about accuracy. Then there's gymnastics and diving that are more about perfection in motion and flawless form. Some highly competitive everyday sports such as hockey,basketball and soccer have been added. I think others such as snowboarding, even though there are points awarded, are more about just having a good time than anything else.
And then there's curling. WTF is that?!?! And why the heck is it an Olympic sport?
Anyways. For me the pomp and circumstance of the Olympics has always been kind of like the Thanksgiving Macy's day parade. It's like a cross between that and an extension of the United Nations. There's like this feeling in the air of holiday somehow mixed with diplomacy.
There's like this feeling of goodwill and betterment of our world. It shows how even though we are doing it in a competitive way, we can all work together and accomplish some amazing things.
And just like with the holidays it bothers me that this is something that only happens once in awhile. That feeling of togetherness and shared common decency should be an all the time thing. Not just once a couple of times every four years.
If the kind of effort that went into the Olympic Games went into the rest of life. Our world would be a massively better place to live. How do you think your life would change if you put as much focus and energy into every aspect of your life as an Olympian does into their chosen sport? How would it differ if you were as intensely goal oriented?
What am I talking about? No, it is not some ancient homosexual rite of passage. I am, of course, talking about the Olympics. Over the centuries, nay, millenia that have passed since it's inception, the Olympics have changed in many ways.
Before it was about the one man who was the best. Now it's about the top three in each sport. Originally it was a contest to see who was the best in Greece. Now it's about who is the best in the world. Before there were but a handful of sports. Now there are so many that they have had to be split into both Summer and Winter games.
The original sports were all about strength, speed, and stamina. Some of the newer ones have those things as well. Others like skeet shooting are more about accuracy. Then there's gymnastics and diving that are more about perfection in motion and flawless form. Some highly competitive everyday sports such as hockey,basketball and soccer have been added. I think others such as snowboarding, even though there are points awarded, are more about just having a good time than anything else.
And then there's curling. WTF is that?!?! And why the heck is it an Olympic sport?
Anyways. For me the pomp and circumstance of the Olympics has always been kind of like the Thanksgiving Macy's day parade. It's like a cross between that and an extension of the United Nations. There's like this feeling in the air of holiday somehow mixed with diplomacy.
There's like this feeling of goodwill and betterment of our world. It shows how even though we are doing it in a competitive way, we can all work together and accomplish some amazing things.
And just like with the holidays it bothers me that this is something that only happens once in awhile. That feeling of togetherness and shared common decency should be an all the time thing. Not just once a couple of times every four years.
If the kind of effort that went into the Olympic Games went into the rest of life. Our world would be a massively better place to live. How do you think your life would change if you put as much focus and energy into every aspect of your life as an Olympian does into their chosen sport? How would it differ if you were as intensely goal oriented?
Monday, February 10, 2014
Excel your friends? Or let them excel you?
La Rochefoucauld, the French philosopher, said: “If you want enemies, excel your friends; but if you want friends, let your friends excel you.”
That's a rather interesting piece of advice. One would think there would be more companionship in everyone doing well. Yet there are examples of this philosophy all over the place in life. Whenever people start make something of their life other people decide they don't like the change. They get jealous that their friends are finally starting to have the good life and start trying to drag them back to their old habits and ways of thinking, like the proverbial crabs in a bucket.
People often say they want the best for the people that they care about, but what most of them really mean is that they want those people to have the best possible experience they can have as long as it isn't better than what their own life currently is.
But isn't this kind of backwards? I mean shouldn't we be happy for the people that we care about doing well, regardless of whether or not they are doing better than we are? If not, why do we send our children to school?
The whole point is to instill in our children knowledge that has already been accumulated, so that they can use everything that has been learned up until this point as a springboard for their lives, to propel them further than we were able to go. They can learn from the experiences of others. They do not need to go through the same trial and error that got us to where are today.
For generations, martial arts students have trained under their teachers until their teachers could teach them no more. And then the students, the ones that stick with it, become the masters, teaching a whole new generation of students.
Think about it, if I train from age 20 to age 60, I have 40 years of knowledge that I can pass on to others. But during my training I figure out new and better ways to do what has already been done. When I become the master, I am able to teach what I have learned to others in half that time. Those that I teach do the same and with each successive generation there is more knowledge and due to newer better techniques it takes less time to absorb it all, making for more time to learn even newer even better ways.
In martial arts it is the purpose of the master for his students to one day exceed him. One man standing on another man's shoulders can reach places he might otherwise never have been able to go. Shouldn't it be this way in every area of life where there is an instructor and a student? Martial arts, college, philosophy, an office job, family, relationships why should it be different for any of these things?
How does it make you feel when someone that you have taught something exceeds your training and is able to use it to go further in their life and to train that new thing to others? Do you think you should hide or squash your natural talents so as not to make others feel bad?
That's a rather interesting piece of advice. One would think there would be more companionship in everyone doing well. Yet there are examples of this philosophy all over the place in life. Whenever people start make something of their life other people decide they don't like the change. They get jealous that their friends are finally starting to have the good life and start trying to drag them back to their old habits and ways of thinking, like the proverbial crabs in a bucket.
People often say they want the best for the people that they care about, but what most of them really mean is that they want those people to have the best possible experience they can have as long as it isn't better than what their own life currently is.
But isn't this kind of backwards? I mean shouldn't we be happy for the people that we care about doing well, regardless of whether or not they are doing better than we are? If not, why do we send our children to school?
The whole point is to instill in our children knowledge that has already been accumulated, so that they can use everything that has been learned up until this point as a springboard for their lives, to propel them further than we were able to go. They can learn from the experiences of others. They do not need to go through the same trial and error that got us to where are today.
For generations, martial arts students have trained under their teachers until their teachers could teach them no more. And then the students, the ones that stick with it, become the masters, teaching a whole new generation of students.
Think about it, if I train from age 20 to age 60, I have 40 years of knowledge that I can pass on to others. But during my training I figure out new and better ways to do what has already been done. When I become the master, I am able to teach what I have learned to others in half that time. Those that I teach do the same and with each successive generation there is more knowledge and due to newer better techniques it takes less time to absorb it all, making for more time to learn even newer even better ways.
In martial arts it is the purpose of the master for his students to one day exceed him. One man standing on another man's shoulders can reach places he might otherwise never have been able to go. Shouldn't it be this way in every area of life where there is an instructor and a student? Martial arts, college, philosophy, an office job, family, relationships why should it be different for any of these things?
How does it make you feel when someone that you have taught something exceeds your training and is able to use it to go further in their life and to train that new thing to others? Do you think you should hide or squash your natural talents so as not to make others feel bad?
Sunday, February 9, 2014
The game within the game
Every game has rules. If you don't play by the rules there are always repercussions. Maybe you get a bad reputation. Maybe you get kicked out of the game. Maybe there's just some mild penalty. Or perhaps you just don't get invited back to play again next time. But the bottom line is you can not win the game if you don't follow the rules.
Now having said that, just because you have to follow the rules doesn't mean you have to play the game the same as everyone else. In fact, often, in order to win, especially in highly competitive games and sports, you have to come up with something new that other people aren't doing.
The more different variables there are in a competition the more potential different ways there are of taking part. The thing is, most people just focus on one area and do the best they possibly can at that one thing. They see what other people are doing and attempt to copy it, somehow hoping to be better or get better than those who are already at the top of the game.
For some people this works, those who are naturally gifted in whatever sport or game we are playing, or those who are willing to work literally for thousands of hours to be the best. The rest of us though are unlikely to ever reach the top spot if we don't fit into one of those two categories. Not by doing what everyone else is doing.
There is another way though. And it's called meta-gaming. What meta-gaming is all about is observing others who play the game and knowing what it is that they are likely to do ahead of time and then using that knowledge to your advantage.
Essentially you still follow all the normal rules of the game, but you find the best way of beating the people who are at the top of the game by beating their specific strategies.
For example an athlete who is a swimmer is going to have some pretty stiff competition as long as he does what everyone else does. But, if he knows what everyone else is going to do and how they are going to do it, because everyone knows you always copy what the top guy is doing, he can find a better, more efficient way of doing it and skip from the middle of the pack, straight to the top. And until others start to copy his method or find a method that is better still, he will remain at the top.
It has happened multiple times in sports such as swimming or running. The new guy will have some way of doing things that everyone else makes fun of because of how "stupid" or funny looking it is. Until he starts to run or swim circles around everyone else.And its is one of the many reasons why professional sports teams, for example those in the NFL or NBA spend countless hours watching game footage of their opponents. They want to know ahead of time what their opponents are going to do so they can find some way of countering and conquering it.
Meta-gaming is used in nearly every game and every sport where people want to get ahead in some new innovative way without just following the pack. It is useful in everyday life for the average person as well. If you know ahead of time how someone is going to react to a given set of stimuli, you can completely control the situation or at the very least ensure that things turn out to your benefit.
By knowing your opponent and his habits and reactions you can play by the same set of rules that they do and still become nearly unbeatable. And because you are doing something that is counter to the normal way of playing the game, often the other person won't know they've lost until it's way too late.
Now having said that, just because you have to follow the rules doesn't mean you have to play the game the same as everyone else. In fact, often, in order to win, especially in highly competitive games and sports, you have to come up with something new that other people aren't doing.
The more different variables there are in a competition the more potential different ways there are of taking part. The thing is, most people just focus on one area and do the best they possibly can at that one thing. They see what other people are doing and attempt to copy it, somehow hoping to be better or get better than those who are already at the top of the game.
For some people this works, those who are naturally gifted in whatever sport or game we are playing, or those who are willing to work literally for thousands of hours to be the best. The rest of us though are unlikely to ever reach the top spot if we don't fit into one of those two categories. Not by doing what everyone else is doing.
There is another way though. And it's called meta-gaming. What meta-gaming is all about is observing others who play the game and knowing what it is that they are likely to do ahead of time and then using that knowledge to your advantage.
Essentially you still follow all the normal rules of the game, but you find the best way of beating the people who are at the top of the game by beating their specific strategies.
For example an athlete who is a swimmer is going to have some pretty stiff competition as long as he does what everyone else does. But, if he knows what everyone else is going to do and how they are going to do it, because everyone knows you always copy what the top guy is doing, he can find a better, more efficient way of doing it and skip from the middle of the pack, straight to the top. And until others start to copy his method or find a method that is better still, he will remain at the top.
It has happened multiple times in sports such as swimming or running. The new guy will have some way of doing things that everyone else makes fun of because of how "stupid" or funny looking it is. Until he starts to run or swim circles around everyone else.And its is one of the many reasons why professional sports teams, for example those in the NFL or NBA spend countless hours watching game footage of their opponents. They want to know ahead of time what their opponents are going to do so they can find some way of countering and conquering it.
Meta-gaming is used in nearly every game and every sport where people want to get ahead in some new innovative way without just following the pack. It is useful in everyday life for the average person as well. If you know ahead of time how someone is going to react to a given set of stimuli, you can completely control the situation or at the very least ensure that things turn out to your benefit.
By knowing your opponent and his habits and reactions you can play by the same set of rules that they do and still become nearly unbeatable. And because you are doing something that is counter to the normal way of playing the game, often the other person won't know they've lost until it's way too late.
Friday, February 7, 2014
An observation and a suggestion
A bit more of my slightly different perception of things.
People, when excited about a particular thing, have a tendency to emphatically state something to the effect of, it changed my life! Or it was truly a life altering experience. They declare such a thing loudly and boldly, often pausing between each word and also placing extra emphasis on each word to show just how serious they are about what it is that they are saying.
While I appreciate the severity of their declaration and share in the joy that something that happened to them had a profound effect on their life, I also kinda giggle somewhat inside at how ridiculous it sounds to me whenever someone says anything like that.
Why? Because everything that happens to you alters your life in some way. There are no non-life altering events.
Spilling coffee on your shirt alters your life. So does putting clothing on, going to work, disciplining your children, stopping at a red light or running it, doing homework, walking the dog, finishing up a puzzle, learning something new. Choosing to get up in the morning alters your life. Every single one of these things has some impact on your life even if it is only miniscule, even if it only provides background for other things.
Some, very few things, actually take our life in a completely new direction. They blaze a path to doorways that we never even knew existed. This is what most people mean when they are talking about something that changed their life. They have the passion correct. They just fail to properly articulate what it is that they actually mean.
And the second point for today I've been meaning to mention for awhile. I have a habit that I have formed over the past few years that has in many cases assisted me in preventing the tendency to overreact to certain stimuli. It has to do with creating a duality within your mind. When something happens, it doesn't matter what it is, create an image in your head of you being both present while the event happens and not present, standing outside the circumstance observing the event happening to and around the "other" you.
This way you can fully experience being in the moment while at the same time having a calm peaceful center from which to find the best solution to a given problem. Being able to have both an objective and a subjective point of view in virtually any circumstance allows for a great deal of emotional flare-up prevention. It also allows one to be more fair and reasonable under a broad range of circumstances.
There are times where others will not understand your apparently detached attitude, especially if they were ramping up for a fight, but I know from personal experience it is a much better option than simply reacting to everything that happens.
People, when excited about a particular thing, have a tendency to emphatically state something to the effect of, it changed my life! Or it was truly a life altering experience. They declare such a thing loudly and boldly, often pausing between each word and also placing extra emphasis on each word to show just how serious they are about what it is that they are saying.
While I appreciate the severity of their declaration and share in the joy that something that happened to them had a profound effect on their life, I also kinda giggle somewhat inside at how ridiculous it sounds to me whenever someone says anything like that.
Why? Because everything that happens to you alters your life in some way. There are no non-life altering events.
Spilling coffee on your shirt alters your life. So does putting clothing on, going to work, disciplining your children, stopping at a red light or running it, doing homework, walking the dog, finishing up a puzzle, learning something new. Choosing to get up in the morning alters your life. Every single one of these things has some impact on your life even if it is only miniscule, even if it only provides background for other things.
Some, very few things, actually take our life in a completely new direction. They blaze a path to doorways that we never even knew existed. This is what most people mean when they are talking about something that changed their life. They have the passion correct. They just fail to properly articulate what it is that they actually mean.
And the second point for today I've been meaning to mention for awhile. I have a habit that I have formed over the past few years that has in many cases assisted me in preventing the tendency to overreact to certain stimuli. It has to do with creating a duality within your mind. When something happens, it doesn't matter what it is, create an image in your head of you being both present while the event happens and not present, standing outside the circumstance observing the event happening to and around the "other" you.
This way you can fully experience being in the moment while at the same time having a calm peaceful center from which to find the best solution to a given problem. Being able to have both an objective and a subjective point of view in virtually any circumstance allows for a great deal of emotional flare-up prevention. It also allows one to be more fair and reasonable under a broad range of circumstances.
There are times where others will not understand your apparently detached attitude, especially if they were ramping up for a fight, but I know from personal experience it is a much better option than simply reacting to everything that happens.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
A message for the world. In the beginning there was chaos.
At first I was unaware of having any control over my life. I was aimlessly travelling along the rocky rapids of life being slammed from one sharp circumstance into another. If random chance brought me something good, well then that was great, but if it didn't then boo-hoo life was being mean to me.
But one day, I awoke to the truth. That I could and did in fact control nearly everthing that happened to me. I learned that I could avoid the sharp outcroppings of rock in the river of life and that I could safely navigate wherever I wanted to go. Life doesn't have to be random and chaotic and scary. It can be controlled,calm,peaceful and still fun. It is my intention to bring the lessons that I have learned to the world. To bring more light and hope and success to all of those around me.
Much positive change has been wrought in the lives of those closest to me as a direct result of my sharing these very same things with them. For a long time I dreamed of sharing my successes with others in my community and one by one changing the whole community for the better. For various reasons it has come to my attention that it would be a much better idea to share my viewpoint on the internet. More people overall can be affected this way. And instead of having a tight cluster of change in one local place there can be seeds of it planted all over the world.
So, I will be posting my viewpoints on life and the lessons I have learned. If what I say has resonance with you, if it vibrates on the same frequency as you do, if you agree with what I say, please please, share it with others that you think could get something positive out of it. And if you disagree or are bothered or offended in any way by what I say, please just ignore it. If this is the case my message is not for you.
That's the wonderful thing about the internet we can tune in to whatever we want and tune out from what we do not want.
But one day, I awoke to the truth. That I could and did in fact control nearly everthing that happened to me. I learned that I could avoid the sharp outcroppings of rock in the river of life and that I could safely navigate wherever I wanted to go. Life doesn't have to be random and chaotic and scary. It can be controlled,calm,peaceful and still fun. It is my intention to bring the lessons that I have learned to the world. To bring more light and hope and success to all of those around me.
Much positive change has been wrought in the lives of those closest to me as a direct result of my sharing these very same things with them. For a long time I dreamed of sharing my successes with others in my community and one by one changing the whole community for the better. For various reasons it has come to my attention that it would be a much better idea to share my viewpoint on the internet. More people overall can be affected this way. And instead of having a tight cluster of change in one local place there can be seeds of it planted all over the world.
So, I will be posting my viewpoints on life and the lessons I have learned. If what I say has resonance with you, if it vibrates on the same frequency as you do, if you agree with what I say, please please, share it with others that you think could get something positive out of it. And if you disagree or are bothered or offended in any way by what I say, please just ignore it. If this is the case my message is not for you.
That's the wonderful thing about the internet we can tune in to whatever we want and tune out from what we do not want.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Bieber Fever
If you listen to pop music or own a television, you know the name. Justin Bieber is one of the most popular people on the planet. His current popularity has been compared with that of Elvis or James Dean. People treat him like he is a god and can do no wrong. But if that were true, he wouldn't have multiple arrests between here and Canada before the age of 21.
I don't listen to pop music, so I missed the beginning of the Bieber craze. He was popular for a couple of years before I was even aware of his existence. And that occurred on late night television. I think it was Jimmy Kimmel, either that or Jay Leno. When I first saw him, I thought he looked like a rather young blonde version of one of the Beatles. He was cute with kind of a goofy looking smile. It occurred to me that he was probably lucky to be famous because where I grew up kids that looked like him got their butts kicked on a pretty routine basis. I listened to some of his music and it wasn't too bad. It wasn't great either. But I could see the appeal, if I were a twelve year old girl that thought he was singing directly to me. I'm not and he wasn't, so no attraction.
"What's a Bieber?"
This is probably my favorite thing that Ozzy Osbourne has ever said. It was a two second clip at the end of a commercial that they were both in. While it may have been a joke, it did serve to show that what is phenomenally popular with one group of people will be completely unknown to a different group of people. Nobody is universally popular. And it served to cause me to start thinking that some people who are too full of themselves need to spend some more time amongst people that don't know who they are, as a humbling exercise.
Celebrities who buy into the hype about how much better they are than everyone else get a god complex. They feel that they can do whatever they want without any consequences. For the sake of the rest of the human race they need to be knocked down a few pegs.
When he was arrested in Miami for drag racing, his father was in one of the two vehicles that was blocking off the road so that Bieber and his other friends could race.Way to go dad! Nice job providing a good example for your son, who while under the legal limit to be considered drunk, did have a low blood alcohol level and was in fact intoxicated with drugs. Money obviously did something sick to this family that only hard work and therapy can undo.
I'd like to see Justin Bieber forced to do things that are way outside his comfort zone. Things like spending a week in general population at a local adult jailhouse or hanging out in the center of a mosh pit at a heavy metal concert. Or maybe something he might actually survive, like showing up for work his first day on a commercial construction site, with no tools and no assistants.
Popularity has gone to his head. But he is young. I don't think he is a lost cause yet. Something has to be done soon though or his misspent youth will turn into a wasted life.
I don't listen to pop music, so I missed the beginning of the Bieber craze. He was popular for a couple of years before I was even aware of his existence. And that occurred on late night television. I think it was Jimmy Kimmel, either that or Jay Leno. When I first saw him, I thought he looked like a rather young blonde version of one of the Beatles. He was cute with kind of a goofy looking smile. It occurred to me that he was probably lucky to be famous because where I grew up kids that looked like him got their butts kicked on a pretty routine basis. I listened to some of his music and it wasn't too bad. It wasn't great either. But I could see the appeal, if I were a twelve year old girl that thought he was singing directly to me. I'm not and he wasn't, so no attraction.
"What's a Bieber?"
This is probably my favorite thing that Ozzy Osbourne has ever said. It was a two second clip at the end of a commercial that they were both in. While it may have been a joke, it did serve to show that what is phenomenally popular with one group of people will be completely unknown to a different group of people. Nobody is universally popular. And it served to cause me to start thinking that some people who are too full of themselves need to spend some more time amongst people that don't know who they are, as a humbling exercise.
Celebrities who buy into the hype about how much better they are than everyone else get a god complex. They feel that they can do whatever they want without any consequences. For the sake of the rest of the human race they need to be knocked down a few pegs.
When he was arrested in Miami for drag racing, his father was in one of the two vehicles that was blocking off the road so that Bieber and his other friends could race.Way to go dad! Nice job providing a good example for your son, who while under the legal limit to be considered drunk, did have a low blood alcohol level and was in fact intoxicated with drugs. Money obviously did something sick to this family that only hard work and therapy can undo.
I'd like to see Justin Bieber forced to do things that are way outside his comfort zone. Things like spending a week in general population at a local adult jailhouse or hanging out in the center of a mosh pit at a heavy metal concert. Or maybe something he might actually survive, like showing up for work his first day on a commercial construction site, with no tools and no assistants.
Popularity has gone to his head. But he is young. I don't think he is a lost cause yet. Something has to be done soon though or his misspent youth will turn into a wasted life.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Do you kinda, sorta, maybe, almost, but not really know what I'm talking about?
What is the deal with the epic amount of noncommittal speech and habit patterns in the world today?
When President Kennedy talked about our plans to put a man on the moon, did he say we were committed to getting 42 percent of the way to the moon by 1970? Or that we were going to put 52 percent of a man on the moon? No, he said we were gonna put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
Has any athlete in history ever said they were gonna break 60 percent of a record? No, they devote their minds fully to shattering records and they do.
Has any pregnant woman ever been 85% pregnant or almost pregnant? No, she is either pregnant or she is not.
In self improvement circles there is a saying that 99% is the same as zero. You are either in one hundred percent or you are out. There is no middle ground. You are either 100 percent dedicated and focused towards your goals or you are simply wasting your time.
But take a quick glance at the internet or stop by a coffee shop and listen to people talk or even just pay a bit more attention around your home. If getting things done is about yes and no, why are there so many partial responses?
Would you like some coffee? Sure.
That is not a commitment towards having more coffee. It is an implied yes, assuming the other person is willing to get it for you or bring it to you, but left to your own devices you won't have more. You either want more coffee or you don't.
Are you hungry? Kinda.
This one is like being pregnant. You either are or you aren't. If you aren't hungry enough to give an absolute, trust me, you aren't hungry.
Words like kinda, sorta, maybe, mostly, sure, i'd like to and it would be nice, have their place but answering questions designed to get things done isn't the time or place.
When you are looking for some assistance painting a fence, and you ask for it, anything other than yes or no is a complete waste of time, both your time and the person that you have asked. Because while they are sorting through how they feel about the question and realizing that they forty two percent want to help me or 92 percent or even 99 percent, but there's just this one thing stopping them and if only they could resolve that thing then they'd be able to give a yes, but they can't resolve it because it's complicated, I mean there's this other thing that might make it possible, but they'd have to check with two other people to see if they can watch their own cat for once and then after helping their dad knock down a mailbox then they could probably sort of maybe help you with your problem.
In the ten minutes that it takes you to drag all that out of the other person you could have asked a dozen other people and gotten several yeses and nos. Clarifying a partial answer takes more time and energy than just giving a firm yes or no.
There is some part of the speaker's mind that knows whether the partial answer that is given leans more towards the positive than the negative, but most of us aren't mind readers and we have no way of knowing which it is, without asking. And if we are going to need to ask for clarification, what was the point in giving an answer in the first place?
You are not going to reach your goals in life by putting in partial effort. You are only going to get where you want to be by being clear and precise about what you want and how you plan to go about getting it. Make it a practice to remove the partial answers from your regular speech and you will find that there are less misunderstandings and much less time wasted in your life.
When President Kennedy talked about our plans to put a man on the moon, did he say we were committed to getting 42 percent of the way to the moon by 1970? Or that we were going to put 52 percent of a man on the moon? No, he said we were gonna put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
Has any athlete in history ever said they were gonna break 60 percent of a record? No, they devote their minds fully to shattering records and they do.
Has any pregnant woman ever been 85% pregnant or almost pregnant? No, she is either pregnant or she is not.
In self improvement circles there is a saying that 99% is the same as zero. You are either in one hundred percent or you are out. There is no middle ground. You are either 100 percent dedicated and focused towards your goals or you are simply wasting your time.
But take a quick glance at the internet or stop by a coffee shop and listen to people talk or even just pay a bit more attention around your home. If getting things done is about yes and no, why are there so many partial responses?
Would you like some coffee? Sure.
That is not a commitment towards having more coffee. It is an implied yes, assuming the other person is willing to get it for you or bring it to you, but left to your own devices you won't have more. You either want more coffee or you don't.
Are you hungry? Kinda.
This one is like being pregnant. You either are or you aren't. If you aren't hungry enough to give an absolute, trust me, you aren't hungry.
Words like kinda, sorta, maybe, mostly, sure, i'd like to and it would be nice, have their place but answering questions designed to get things done isn't the time or place.
When you are looking for some assistance painting a fence, and you ask for it, anything other than yes or no is a complete waste of time, both your time and the person that you have asked. Because while they are sorting through how they feel about the question and realizing that they forty two percent want to help me or 92 percent or even 99 percent, but there's just this one thing stopping them and if only they could resolve that thing then they'd be able to give a yes, but they can't resolve it because it's complicated, I mean there's this other thing that might make it possible, but they'd have to check with two other people to see if they can watch their own cat for once and then after helping their dad knock down a mailbox then they could probably sort of maybe help you with your problem.
In the ten minutes that it takes you to drag all that out of the other person you could have asked a dozen other people and gotten several yeses and nos. Clarifying a partial answer takes more time and energy than just giving a firm yes or no.
There is some part of the speaker's mind that knows whether the partial answer that is given leans more towards the positive than the negative, but most of us aren't mind readers and we have no way of knowing which it is, without asking. And if we are going to need to ask for clarification, what was the point in giving an answer in the first place?
You are not going to reach your goals in life by putting in partial effort. You are only going to get where you want to be by being clear and precise about what you want and how you plan to go about getting it. Make it a practice to remove the partial answers from your regular speech and you will find that there are less misunderstandings and much less time wasted in your life.
Monday, February 3, 2014
How green is it?
Who has the perfect life? The simple answer is of course, nobody. But when you are swinging away in the trenches, just attempting to grind out another day it may seem like a lot of other people have the perfect life and yours is just not worth the trouble.
We all have our days where questions like this come up. You see your boss with his trophy wife, Lamborghini and million dollar salary and think, man his life is perfect why couldn't it be mine. What you don't realize is your boss may be looking over at you and wishing he was still single, due to the constantly nagging wife, didn't have all the responsibilities of this company to take care of, the constant fear of his car being stolen and the huge amount of taxes that he has to pay.
They say the grass is always greener on the other side. I think in reality we just aren't able to look at anyone else's lawn without a skewed perspective. We have no idea what kind of time or effort go into the care of any yard but our own.
We should still strive to have the perfect life though right? Shoot for the moon and at the very least you'll end up reaching the stars. Aim for the ground and you won't go anywhere. There are so many different aspects to life though. There are spiritual,mental,emotional,financial and physical aspects to name just a few.
Around here when we talk about our vision statement and how we are going to constantly work to improve all aspects of our life, sometimes people tend to get a little overwhelmed. Excuses come up. People say well I don't really have time to work on all these different things. I'm gonna focus on just this one.
That is wrong thinking and acting because whatever you are not working to improve will steadily decline. Life does not hold still. If there is any area where you are not moving forward, you are moving back.
I think there is some kind of misunderstanding due to what seems like a mixed message, but really isn't. We say to do your best in all things and that we expect perfection from each other. We don't really expect perfection, although we act as if we do. We realize that nobody is perfect and we are all going to make mistakes. But we believe in holding one another to the highest possible standard, so that when we miss, we still do better than if we had shot for something more reasonable.
And when failures happen we aren't there to judge or condemn. We are there to hold out our hands and lift the person back to their feet and ask how we could assist them in succeeding next time.
We expect perfection and instantaneous change. Though we know there will be breakdowns and that massive change will take time. But that's the key there. We know that everyone can and will have massive improvement in every area of their lives if they are willing to work for it.
Think about star athletes like basketball or football players. They can do some pretty amazing things and set awesome records. A certain degree of change happens overnight, but mostly it takes time and effort. But do football players just focus on one stat and say to hell with the rest? No, of course not. They work on everything that they are expected to do at once. They make incremental change over time.
It would be unrealistic to ever expect 100% improvement in a single area of life all at once. Though it would be and is perfectly reasonable to expect and achieve 1% improvement in 100 different areas of life. And when you do this you are going forward in every aspect of your life and sliding back in none.
You may never reach perfection, but the more time you spend getting just a little bit better at every part of your life, the more people out there will be looking over at your yard and exclaiming about how green it is.
We all have our days where questions like this come up. You see your boss with his trophy wife, Lamborghini and million dollar salary and think, man his life is perfect why couldn't it be mine. What you don't realize is your boss may be looking over at you and wishing he was still single, due to the constantly nagging wife, didn't have all the responsibilities of this company to take care of, the constant fear of his car being stolen and the huge amount of taxes that he has to pay.
They say the grass is always greener on the other side. I think in reality we just aren't able to look at anyone else's lawn without a skewed perspective. We have no idea what kind of time or effort go into the care of any yard but our own.
We should still strive to have the perfect life though right? Shoot for the moon and at the very least you'll end up reaching the stars. Aim for the ground and you won't go anywhere. There are so many different aspects to life though. There are spiritual,mental,emotional,financial and physical aspects to name just a few.
Around here when we talk about our vision statement and how we are going to constantly work to improve all aspects of our life, sometimes people tend to get a little overwhelmed. Excuses come up. People say well I don't really have time to work on all these different things. I'm gonna focus on just this one.
That is wrong thinking and acting because whatever you are not working to improve will steadily decline. Life does not hold still. If there is any area where you are not moving forward, you are moving back.
I think there is some kind of misunderstanding due to what seems like a mixed message, but really isn't. We say to do your best in all things and that we expect perfection from each other. We don't really expect perfection, although we act as if we do. We realize that nobody is perfect and we are all going to make mistakes. But we believe in holding one another to the highest possible standard, so that when we miss, we still do better than if we had shot for something more reasonable.
And when failures happen we aren't there to judge or condemn. We are there to hold out our hands and lift the person back to their feet and ask how we could assist them in succeeding next time.
We expect perfection and instantaneous change. Though we know there will be breakdowns and that massive change will take time. But that's the key there. We know that everyone can and will have massive improvement in every area of their lives if they are willing to work for it.
Think about star athletes like basketball or football players. They can do some pretty amazing things and set awesome records. A certain degree of change happens overnight, but mostly it takes time and effort. But do football players just focus on one stat and say to hell with the rest? No, of course not. They work on everything that they are expected to do at once. They make incremental change over time.
It would be unrealistic to ever expect 100% improvement in a single area of life all at once. Though it would be and is perfectly reasonable to expect and achieve 1% improvement in 100 different areas of life. And when you do this you are going forward in every aspect of your life and sliding back in none.
You may never reach perfection, but the more time you spend getting just a little bit better at every part of your life, the more people out there will be looking over at your yard and exclaiming about how green it is.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Mind control, subtle but effective.
It's pretty much a fair statement about people in general to say that if you tell them you intend to manipulate them it will make them angry. People don't want to be manipulated or controlled by others. Wars have been fought over it for thousands of years. That very thing is part of why the colonies separated from England. We hate being manipulated by others and will fight to the death to stop it from being done against our will.
Which is why businesses and especially advertising agencies don't tell us they are doing it. And if we accuse them of such a thing they will deny it or change the subject. Oooh look a puppy!. Then like the simple idiots that they take us for, we jump at the new shiny thing and then often thank them for the distraction by giving them more of our hard earned dollars.
It isn't really any one business's fault though. Any company not operating that way pretty much gets steamrolled by the companies that do. Why do we let it happen? It is more or less basic psychology.
While thinking about this I was reminded of the Adam Sandler movie Don't Mess With The Zohan. In that movie Adam Sandler plays an Isreali who retires from being a counter-terrorist in Israel and moves to New York. As he is attempting to get himself set up, a friend offers him a job in a going out of business store. No lie. The gimmick of the store is that the prices are so great because the store is going out of business. Permanently. All the time.
But, the prices aren't all that great and the store never does really go out of business. People keep coming back and spending money there because of the fear of loss. If they don't get "it" now whatever it is, they might not be able to get it later. The threat is always there and the fear of loss causes people to buy things they don't need at prices that are higher than they should be, often at prices higher than they can afford.
A lot of people out there get caught in the "bogo" or buy one get one free trap. They probably don't even need one of the thing that they are buying, but they buy two of them anyways just to get something for "free" . If you are buying two of the same thing you are getting the two for half price at best. Quite often the retailers jack up the price of an item just before doing a bogo sale, to ensure even higher profits.
Common sense would tell you that if you wouldn't buy the item if it wasn't on a special sale, you obviously don't need it and shouldn't buy it at all. And each time you do, you are in fact wasting money, not saving.
To show just how deep this fear of loss goes a study was done with two different brands of chocolate. Brand A was an upscale chocolate often sold for $2 or more per single chocolate. Brand B was a cheaper brand that often sold for $2 per bag of chocolates. A sale was held where brand A was sold for 15 cents each and brand B was sold for 1 cent each. Some people bought a few of brand B, but mostly, brand A sold like hotcakes. This isn't all that surprising considering how good of a deal it was. Brand A was more than ten times cheaper than its normal sale price, compared to the three to four times cheaper that brand B was being sold at. Fear of loss drove people to Brand A.
Then they reduced the cost of both even further, by a single cent. Brand A 14 cents each. Brand B free. Suddenly brand A got dropped like it was chopped liver. The higher quality chocolate that was massively outselling the lower suddenly had its sales go to zero. People chose the free inferior product over the higher quality product being sold at a ridiculously low price. Why?
The human mind automatically decides that free is better than not free. Logic doesn't enter into the equation. It gets overridden by the fear of loss. For just a little bit of money we can get a great value and a wonderful product, but we don't care. We are unwilling to lose out on the value of getting something for nothing.
Psychology like this drives sales in our world. Logically whoever provides a superior product at a reasonable price should thrive while others perish. But people aren't logical and buy things based more on fear of loss and perceived value than on actual value. Can you really blame companies for taking advantage of that fact, since if they don't they won't be able to afford to stay in business?
Which is why businesses and especially advertising agencies don't tell us they are doing it. And if we accuse them of such a thing they will deny it or change the subject. Oooh look a puppy!. Then like the simple idiots that they take us for, we jump at the new shiny thing and then often thank them for the distraction by giving them more of our hard earned dollars.
It isn't really any one business's fault though. Any company not operating that way pretty much gets steamrolled by the companies that do. Why do we let it happen? It is more or less basic psychology.
While thinking about this I was reminded of the Adam Sandler movie Don't Mess With The Zohan. In that movie Adam Sandler plays an Isreali who retires from being a counter-terrorist in Israel and moves to New York. As he is attempting to get himself set up, a friend offers him a job in a going out of business store. No lie. The gimmick of the store is that the prices are so great because the store is going out of business. Permanently. All the time.
But, the prices aren't all that great and the store never does really go out of business. People keep coming back and spending money there because of the fear of loss. If they don't get "it" now whatever it is, they might not be able to get it later. The threat is always there and the fear of loss causes people to buy things they don't need at prices that are higher than they should be, often at prices higher than they can afford.
A lot of people out there get caught in the "bogo" or buy one get one free trap. They probably don't even need one of the thing that they are buying, but they buy two of them anyways just to get something for "free" . If you are buying two of the same thing you are getting the two for half price at best. Quite often the retailers jack up the price of an item just before doing a bogo sale, to ensure even higher profits.
Common sense would tell you that if you wouldn't buy the item if it wasn't on a special sale, you obviously don't need it and shouldn't buy it at all. And each time you do, you are in fact wasting money, not saving.
To show just how deep this fear of loss goes a study was done with two different brands of chocolate. Brand A was an upscale chocolate often sold for $2 or more per single chocolate. Brand B was a cheaper brand that often sold for $2 per bag of chocolates. A sale was held where brand A was sold for 15 cents each and brand B was sold for 1 cent each. Some people bought a few of brand B, but mostly, brand A sold like hotcakes. This isn't all that surprising considering how good of a deal it was. Brand A was more than ten times cheaper than its normal sale price, compared to the three to four times cheaper that brand B was being sold at. Fear of loss drove people to Brand A.
Then they reduced the cost of both even further, by a single cent. Brand A 14 cents each. Brand B free. Suddenly brand A got dropped like it was chopped liver. The higher quality chocolate that was massively outselling the lower suddenly had its sales go to zero. People chose the free inferior product over the higher quality product being sold at a ridiculously low price. Why?
The human mind automatically decides that free is better than not free. Logic doesn't enter into the equation. It gets overridden by the fear of loss. For just a little bit of money we can get a great value and a wonderful product, but we don't care. We are unwilling to lose out on the value of getting something for nothing.
Psychology like this drives sales in our world. Logically whoever provides a superior product at a reasonable price should thrive while others perish. But people aren't logical and buy things based more on fear of loss and perceived value than on actual value. Can you really blame companies for taking advantage of that fact, since if they don't they won't be able to afford to stay in business?
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