How to Give Yourself to Whatever the Moment Brings, and Forget Stress

from Zen Habits by Leo

“The prevailing way of living in our Western societies is to plan out our lives, both for the long term and on a day-to-day basis.”

Am I missing something here?  Eastern societies don’t plan their lives either for the long term or day to day?  Leo what eastern societies are you talking about?  Most “eastern societies” have a strong following in the martial arts, do you mean that just because they are taught from a very young age to practice their own societies version of their martial arts everyday so that they will gain benefits over the long term of their lives they are not planning?  These societies for thousands of years have follow the yearly cycles of planting, nurturing, and harvesting crops, and you say this is without planning?

An illusion exploit’s the audience’s assumptions.  “Exploiting your audience” which in this person opinion is exactly what you are doing.

I am not saying we can control life itself, one must not mess with Mother Nature.  Living a life without a plan is intellectual de-evolution.

I would:

1. Plan.  Resistance is not futile! Be ready to adapt to change it will occur.
2. Worry. A moderate amount of worrying will have positive effects, when it prompts you to take precautions.
3. Expect. Look forward to what is about to come into your life.
4. Respect. Respect who you are and who others are.
5. Respond. Be responsible for yourself and your actions.
6. Learn. Accept change and learn from the things that you did not anticipate.
7. Seek opportunities. Look for ways you could improve and do better.

Do you want to be like a tree growing and adapting to its environment or a piece of dead rotting driftwood at the mercy everything that it comes in contact with?

The secret to long healthy life: (no stress, good food, and exercise) = intellectual de-evolution.

Evolution needs an unhealthy stressful lifestyle.

@ian_crossland
#ian_crossland

Philanthropy for the Adventurer: Making a Difference in Unusual Ways

from The Art of Manliness by Chris

“Adventure philanthropy opportunities are essentially volunteer projects or events which provide support either to a charitable organization or directly to a targeted cause while providing a memorable adventure or challenge for the volunteers themselves.”

Those of you who know me personally are aware I spend at least four weeks of my vacation time volunteering.  I will always cherish the memories of those who I have shared these adventures with.

Please consider giving the most important thing you have, you!

@ian_crossland

#ian_crossland

50 Ways To Build Your Optimism.

from Change your thoughts by Ayo Olaniyan

“Know when to call it quits. Some things aren’t just worth the effort and time you put into it.”

If you have put a lot of time and effort in to an opportunity, please drop me an email before you call it quits!

@ian_crossland

#ian_crossland

Pouring Concrete

from Jonathan Fields by Jonathan Fields

Jonathan talks about concrete the adjective.

I would like to discuss one of our opportunities uses the real concrete and those who have worked with concrete know that “Concrete waits for no one”.  Everything must be ready for the concrete to be placed, the concept is transformed to the drawings created and engineered the concrete mix design reviewed, the excavation, the forms set, the reinforcing steel in place, the inspections completed, We know that once you mix concrete you have a very limited time to get the product to the customer, you have even less time to place the concrete in its form and level it out.  Once placed the reaction starts to occur and it begins to set (harden) once setting is under way we all know you have a short period of time to surface the final product before it starts curing.  Once cured it is for the most part unchangeable (without destruction of its surface or structure).

How does relate to ideas or goals?

Think of it this way your mind conceives the idea or goal (Concept) this must be written down (Drawings) and refined (Engineering) even mixed up with other ideas or goals (Mix Design).  You start to unearth (Excavation) where this idea or goals will flourish, you build the shape of your idea or goal (Form), you find ways to strengthen (Reinforcing Steel) your idea or goal, then you give it the the once over to make sure it is the best idea or goal (Inspection).  The is the groundwork of your ideas or goals.

Dr. Joe Vitale in his article A Secret About Money and I quote:

“I came up with the ideas and within minutes acted on them. The result: Success.

So what does money like?

Money likes speed.

That’s the secret few know about money.

Money comes to those who act fast.”

Your idea or goal once the groundwork is set needs action:

• the concrete is ordered, your idea or goal is produced
• the concrete is placed in to its form, your idea or goal is delivered
• the concrete reacts, your idea or goal starts to gel
• the concrete sets, you mold the final shape of your idea or goal
• the concrete hardens,
• within twenty four hours you are able to walk on the concrete path you have created for your idea or goal

Do you have your concrete ideas or goals poured?

Are you ready to walk on your ideas or goals path you created to achieve them?

@ian_crossland
#ian_crossland

Over the past few months I have had the opportunity to work out of my office at home and I have found that consistently I get more done in much more shorter periods of time than I have ever done being at the “office”.  When I worked at the “big corporate office” I would spend most of my days in meetings or being summoned to answer questions or assist other with what they were doing.  All of my productive work came after everyone left for the day or on weekends at home.  I could in a relatively few hours at night complete what would take me days to do while trying to work during the day.

Does working long hours help you earn more money, no not is you are a salaried employee as a matter of fact the more hours you work and the more you accomplish the work work you will be given.  Can you work a second job to make more money, not if your employer’s employee policies prevent you from doing so.  How about selling the stuff you have, well you if paid retail which had anywhere from 1% to 100+% markup, so what ever you own you will have to sell at a loss.  This way does not make a lot of sense, this is not earning.  Yes maybe you have bought something that is worth more to them than what you paid for it, and take a look around and tell yourself how many things that is?

Start a business, OK great then write a business plan and figure out how much time and money it will take to make money.  It is not that easy this is another topic.

Extreme-win situation

• figure out what you do exceptionally well
• do that “one thing at a time”
• analyze time spent versus results, or the return (income) on investment of your time (ROI where R=income and I=your time)

Now the question is can you find some way to focus your actions on maximizing your ROI?

Not easy if your working a job that requires your attention to be on administrative tasks.  But let’s say for arguments sake that for a few isolated hours per week you could focus and be extremely productive on something that you have a passion for that could produce income, would you choose to do that to produce extra income?   Probability not!  Why I think is because you think it has not worked for you in the past, well I disagree, I believe we all can recall a task we did in which we focused our attention and worked on for hours (not noticing just how much time passed) and we completed it.  You need to find this and learn to repeat it in a way that works for you.  I can not tell you what that is, you need to discover this.

I can tell you an example of what I do using a very old model.  A project comes in and I need to determine:

• Who needs it?  Who is your client or clientele?
• What is it?  Does it fit with what I can deliver, or is it a product or service that you or your company can produce and deliver?
• When do they need it by?  How much time do I have to put this together.  I need time to build things in my mind, I need to be able to wrap my arms around it and understand what it is I am going to produce.  If a project is not due for weeks I may on occasion look at smaller pieces of it then in a short period of time put all the pieces together.
• Where?  Logistics where is the project located, what costs are involved in mobilization?  Where you going to get the product or service to market?
• Why am I going to undertake this project?  Are you after a one sale per one customer or repeating sales?
• Worth?  What is it worth to me? What is my ROI? Is it going to be profitable for your company?  Is your client going to make a profit from this project?
• How are all parties involved going to benefit?  If I am going to put my heart and soul into this project what am I going to get out of it?

This is all very simplistic, in business today it is not this easy or is it?

@ian_crossland
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