Life Change 90

One way of making little changes that add up to a powerful momentum in a short period of time is to lock into a program that has these gentle changes built into it, and can help you decide what and when and where the most effective changes could be made. That program also has a gratitude section in it, and without a doubt, showing gratitude for where you are already is perhaps the most powerful tool at your disposal!

A new lease on a new life!
Image from onlytoptens.com

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

Empowered by Gratitude

Gratitude?

A new day, a new start
Image from aquabumps.com

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”
― L.M. Montgomery

Did you wake up this morning?

That’s something to have gratitude for. Many didn’t. What does waking up each morning mean?

When you wake up each morning, or whatever time you wake up, it means you have another chance to start life all over again. Now I know that some people are locked into a pattern which is not easy to break free of, and I’m thinking here of people in chronic pain, people who are on minimum wage and who know that finding a better paid job won’t be easy, and so many more people who have life challenges to face.

But you woke up, didn’t you? That’s the first step towards a new life, a life change if you wish, but regardless of how you look at it, your life starts again the moment you wake up each day and that’s something to show #gratitude for. You got another chance to start over.

What can you do with a new day?

Perhaps you can’t change everything in your life all in the next day, this new day you have given to you. But you can change something if you need to, want to, or HAVE to! Start small, with the single thing that will make the most difference if you change it. A habit? A thought? Something you don’t do, but perhaps should? Something, anything, but if your life is not exactly where you want it to be right now, at this time of your life, start making changes, little ones, to gently steer your life in the direction you need it to go. Then show some gratitude, say a little “thank you” that you can do even this much.

How do you know if the change is the right one?

In a way, it doesn’t matter. It’s the stagnation that is the death of a life. Sometimes, any movement is better than none, but once you make a start, get some movement, you can steer from there. It’s very hard to steer your car when it’s parked at the kerb. You need to be moving, any direction at all, before you can steer it. So start moving. And show gratitude that you can actually move a little. A little “Thank you” for the ability to move.

Image from http://innerdelight.com/thriving-in-times-of-change/

Gain some momentum.

Once you are moving, after your feet hit the floor, you started to move, you turned in the right direction, you got a little speed up. Perhaps not much, but a little. This is called momentum and there is power in momentum. The weight of your movement, the mass of you moving along has a force. Use it to shift other bigger things. Point it towards obstacles, tack on another change or two and use your momentum to carry you through. Old train drivers called this “getting up a head of steam” and there you go, you have momentum. You are moving, steering, gaining power with your momentum and making more changes. There’s something more to show #gratitude for, a little “thank you” for the momentum.

A head of steam!
Image from burnham-on-sea.com

This is called changing your life, a step at a time. It’s simple, but not always easy, and much depends on where you are starting from, whether at the top of the slope, or the bottom.

“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Read more at http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/10-quotes-to-change-your-momentum/#GZhkeeqdED5smDXI.99

Sometimes you need a hand.

Look around you. How many people are there in your life? How many of them do you think are feeling the same way each day, facing challenges and wondering how to make it? There are a few, feeling just like you, and some feeling very challenged also, much more than you. My Dad told me something that has stuck with me, when I was around 7 years of age and walking out on a frosty morning to milk the two old milking cows. I complained about the cold frost on my boots and he said “I cried when I had no shoes, til I saw a man who had no feet!” I didn’t realise he was quoting the old Sufi proverb but it didn’t matter. I gladly walked down to the cow-bail, in gratitude for my boots.

There are many people who would like a hand, and many who would like to help you. More than you realise. Sometimes though, you need to take the first step on your own, to demonstrate to others that you are serious about the changes.

To learn more about this powerful program with the inbuilt gratitude program as well as all the other vital tools for changing your life, CLICK HERE NOW!

You’ll be glad you did, as you watch your life change direction under your guidance, and build up a head of steam in a way that you will always want to show gratitude for!

Show some gratitude!

After all, you DID wake up this morning, didn’t you?

If you feel gratitude for the lessons I hope I have presented to your here, please reblog and share this post with your friends, family and associates. Share your journey with them. Everyone deserves an opportunity to look at their new day with fresh eyes and feel gratitude just for having the chance to start again, this new day.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails.

Ray Jamieson

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Melody Beattie

By the way, if you are looking for some inspiration on how to make the most of your new day, please also refer to my other posts below on Empowerment: There might be something of special interest for you here.

Empowered by my Failures

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

It’s as simple as downloading it here, and starting on it straight away. The daily PEP talk tutorials are a great start to the day, and having your goal action steps in front of you first thing in the morning is an inspiration. But nothing quite like the feeling of coming in at night and ticking off your achievements.

Empowered by my Failures

Oprah Winfrey, a failure?
Image from erictippetts.com

Empowered by Failures

I have made mistakes. I have had failures. Lots of failures. Sometimes, I did the same thing again and it still failed! A bit like the guy betting on replays of the Melbourne Cup, just in case the favourite racehorse got up this time. Let’s face it, some people take a while to “get it” and I’m probably one of those who need to do it the hard way. But the hard way sometimes really cements the lessons of your #failures for you.

How was I empowered by my failures?

Let’s look at some of my failures. I had a marriage breakdown. Why? Because I was busy being a guy, a provider and a worker, but not very good at being a communicator, husband or father.

What did I learn from my failures?

There are some things that need to be put first in life, and family is one of them. Sure, I needed to provide for my family, but I needed to make sure their happiness was in place before I tried to buy “stuff” for them. What they wanted was my love, my company, my attention, not my “stuff”!

Another of my failures was in not doing enough homework on some things before jumping in. I was impulsive and would make decisions on the spot, because I thought that fast decision-making and “being decisive” was the way to be. It is, but only if you know what you are talking about and making decisions on. For everything else, do the homework!

What did I learn from my failures?

Take time. Just like sand takes time to filter through an hourglass, so does information take time to filter through my mind. Give it the time it needs to process the information and the homework on the question at hand, and only then, make the decision.

Many people look to successful people for how to become successful. The wise people also look at what the #failures have to teach us. The light bulb wasn’t invented at the first experiment. Every failure was documented and used as a stepping stone til finally, success came, after all those failures, those learning experiences.

Thomas Edison – a prolific failure!
Image from madeinindia.net.au

There is so much that I have learnt from failures over the years. What I learnt when sitting back, many years later, was that I had developed a process that while ever I used it, worked for me, and made life good. When I applied my life to a certain set of principles, took notice of what my intuition was telling me and acted from my heart with integrity, life was good.

I distilled this process over time, before I began to teach it. The first programs went to corporations and they paid huge sums of money for it. As I taught it, I also learnt more about it and when it evolved into my first public program, “The Executive Mastermind Program”, it was an amazing program. I delivered it in four weekend workshops over a year, with huge amounts of support in between the workshops. That was because for information to be retained, the mind and body need to continually integrate it and that was how we did it. Accelerated Learning was the technique, the strategy that became famous for teaching people a new language in a few days… I harnessed Accelerated Learning and used some NLP strategies and techniques to anchor it, and the lives of many people changed.

It was limited though and I over stretched myself, trying to do too much for too many. Another of my failures. I pulled back and went a little off course, veering off into financial planning for a time but that was also a mistake.

What did I learn from my failures?

Stay true. Listen to my heart and stay in integrity. Hmmm. Sounds familiar. So I’m back on track now, writing and teaching, and working with my program. It works every time.

You can have it too. It’s a program that has a number of amazing features. When you look at these features, you can see why it would keep me, or you, on track:

A daily personal empowerment program, a page of motivational pep talk on a self development topic of value. Each month for 3 months, the topic comes back in a little more depth to enhance and reinforce the learning, teaching me all about what is important for me and how to be better at being me.
A priority to-do list with check boxes for completion status
A problem solving program and process
A goal setting program, with action steps towards my #1 goal each day
A gratitude journal, to remind me of the wonderful things I already have in my life
A daily affirmation, to lock in what I desire from my life
Learning how to be aware of what I learnt from what happened to me today
Recording a ‘high’ and ‘low’ point of the day, to make me aware of mood shifts and my attitude and behaviour when things in my day change
A cashflow program, for recording my earning and spending and increasing my financial habits awareness
A comment on my major achievement for the day, a little celebration
A journal section with topics to discuss and explore, as well as my own personal journaling on thoughts about my day.

A few minutes morning and evening is all this program takes, but when I developed the first crude version of it back in 1992, it turned my then miserable life around on a sixpence!

What did I learn from my success program, inspired by my failures?

Awareness of my personality. I learnt that there was a lot more going on around me than I thought. Looking at my mood shifts, I realised I was jumping between sub-personalities! When I mastered that, it was a game-changer.

Awareness of others. As my awareness increased, I learnt to listen to and observe others more closely. I was no longer swept along in the tide of humanity; I was an observer, choosing with discernment where I wanted to be.

Awareness of my finances. No more reaching for my wallet to realise I’d already spent that note I thought I had. I became conscious of my spending and many other habits that previously I had left on auto-pilot.

Awareness of my lessons. What good is an experience if it doesn’t teach us something? Each day I’d record what I learnt from my successes and failures and found I was sitting on a wealth of valuable experiences, that I had been glossing over and forgetting.

Awareness of my communications. Failure in communications is ripping the world apart and it was tearing mine apart too. When I became aware of the power of my words, what I said to me internally, and what I said to others, I took back control of my life.

Awareness of my intuition. Perhaps my greatest failures were from not listening to my intuition screaming at me at critical moments. Learning to discern between negative mind chatter and genuine intuitive processing and inspiration has possibly been the most powerful of all for me. Intuition taps into a global network of incredible resources, information and a wealth of ideas and inspiration that a single human mind could not process, but it can access it! The greatest minds have acknowledged it – Einstein and the American Founding Fathers to name a few. Allowing the messages to come to me and recognising their value has been phenomenal – and averted many failures too!

How can you gain empowerment from my failures?

This program is available to you also. The work of putting it together has been done. Now you can download it and plug it into your life. In a few minutes, morning and evening, you can start to change your life too! I found that over a 90 day period, I experienced life changing results from the habits I broke or changed and the new habits I formed and integrated into my life. Over those 90 days, my awareness exploded; I found myself observing events, nuances and inferences from situations that had previously slipped by me. It was like looking at my life as a black and white pencil sketch, then suddenly making it a full colour photo, with the richness of the new observations filling in the colours.

Open up to a whole new world!
Image from wonderwoman.intoday.in

Is 90 days of this life change program all that is necessary?

If some is good, maybe more is better. Why does a butcher sharpen his knives continually? Because he needs to have them sharp all the time. Just as our minds and our intuition need to be continually honed to work best, I find that by continuing with my life change program each day, I am both continually refreshing myself with these habits, changing any that do not serve me, and keeping focussed on my important goals.

How can you have this program in your life?

Download it here now and make a start. Learn from my failures. Don’t let this be one of yours. Change your life from today.

If you have gained a benefit from learning about my failures and how I turned them to my benefit, please reblog and share this post with your friends, family and associates. Share your journey with them. Everyone deserves an opportunity to turn their failures and mistakes into golden opportunities and that’s what this is! Pay it forward!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails.

Ray Jamieson

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment:

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

It’s about having your own daily personal empowerment program that instills the right success habits, the best subconscious programs and giving you the most powerful tools for personally improving your situation, at your own speed, and being with you all the way through.

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

Integrity – it speaks for itself.
Courtesy of life-of-integrity.com

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

“I believe in integrity. Dogs have it. Humans are sometimes lacking it.” ― Cesar Millan

Spirituality came to me later in life. Growing up in the bush, my exposure to topics other than beef cattle, crops and sheep was a little limited because of the isolation. Although an avid reader, it was a subject that I didn’t know existed as a topic.

It was in my thirties, after a series of life changing events, losing my family, my farm and business and some health challenges, and I was laid low for a year. I relocated to the city and because of my interest in business, became a member of the Institute of Management. This gave me access to an amazing library!

I gravitated to a section I had never heard of, with authors whose names were totally unfamiliar, but who I grew to love and respect. Og Mandino, Jim Rohn, Blair Singer, Robert Kiyosaki and many, many more. I later had the good fortune to see, hear and work with many of these great people.

Og Mandino
Image from conqueryourlife.net

Og Mandino spoke in Brisbane just a couple of years before his passing. He followed another speaker whose name ironically I do not recall, a high-powered, hard charging success coach type. He marched about the stage and put on quite a theatrical performance. When he finished, the audience was abuzz with energy and chatter.

Then Og Mandino entered. An elderly man, he sat on a chair just a little to one side of centre stage. He spoke softly, quietly. There was not another sound in the hall. It was as though eighteen thousand people held their breath for an hour to be sure they never missed a word. At the end of his talk, we stood as one and applauded. The elderly man rose, bowed a number of times, and finally walked off stage. We continued clapping. Then the hall suddenly went quiet, as we understood we had been in the presence of greatness.

This quietly spoken man held the audience, not with his performance, but with his heart, his #integrity.

“Integrity has no need of rules.” ― Albert Camus

Jim Rohn was another who I had the privilege to meet and listen to a number of times. I first found Jim in the audio cassette section of the business department of the AIM Library, and devoured everything I could find by him. Jim was also a quietly spoken man, a small framed man but a giant among people. I attended a weekend workshop with him and had the honour of meeting and speaking with him personally a number of times. I told him my own story one lunchtime and how he had influenced my life. Later he repeated my story on stage, to show how it is possible to influence someone to change their life and aim higher, with just your words and your integrity. Sadly, Jim has also passed on.

Jim Rohn
Image from thatgirlamala.wordpress.com

Through Jim Rohn’s influence, I was encouraged to continue my personal development. I met Blair Singer at a powerful spiritual seminar in Brisbane. Blair was different again, a tiny man with a huge heart. His words and presentations gave me the framework for the life I chose, after drifting without purpose for a number of years since losing the farm and my family. There was never a question from that time, after seeing Blair’s presentation and how it moved people, as to what direction my life would take from then on.

Blair Singer
Image from www.erhardruettimann.com

My public speaking journey brought me into contact with other people who had also chosen the stage and limelight to spread their message to the world. I was fortunate that I had learnt first about integrity in speaking from the masters of the stage, before I found the charlatans, and there are many of them.

“A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.” ― Jacqueline Bisset

The title of this blog is Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment.

So many people preach spirituality and empowerment, yet their message is lost in the confusion of their energies.

I attended a seminar in Brisbane by a guy who has since been listed as having a wealth of over 200 million dollars, but at the time was facing bankruptcy. At that seminar, people were leaving front row seats to stand at the back of the hall, to get away from his ego and energy, without actually leaving the room. His presentation was about how we should pay him huge sums of money to attend his courses and buy a franchise from him, as they had made him so successful. Because his presentation was so slick, many people did invest. By investing the sale proceeds from his overpriced franchises, he was able to turn a bad situation into a personal fortune. Yet, he has a trail of disenchanted clients all around the world. He has been sued for sums of money the average person could only dream about, but has kept enough of his fortunes tied up in offshore havens away from the reach of the courts to live happily ever after.

Not so sure about this guy…!
Image from oilersnation.com

Another very popular presenter is famous for his NLP workshops. NLP is a great modality and has powerful applications and value for personal change. However, hypnotism is also a branch of NLP studies. Where are the ethics and integrity of getting 3,000 people in a conference room and applying Ericksonian hypnosis (hypnosis by voice modulation and conversational techniques) while promoting your range of “advanced workshops”, some costing thousands of dollars each!

“There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity” ― Tom Peters

There are many charlatans masquerading as spiritual gurus. Their message is supposedly about spirituality and empowerment. They have a few nice talks they put together after reading people such as Jim Rohn and Og Mandino. Their true focus is on taking money from your wallet, through expensive, slickly marketed seminars on idyllic island or luxury resorts, or seminars dressed up as business opportunities to become a life coach or invest in property with them.

It’s interesting that many of the big names in public speaking and the spiritual and financial gurus seem to have a public life that is very short, punctuated by lawsuits and claims of fraud. Many have paid the price with time spent behind bars for their promotions, but many more still circulate and take easy pickings when they can.

Integrity is simple, but not easy.

Integrity is the province of people with a genuine focus on empowering others to be better at being themselves, and having better lives. As soon as someone starts spruiking island resorts for their workshops and personal coaching at thousands of dollars per HOUR, or admittance to their “inner circle” of clients, I know that integrity has left the room, in disgust.

Yes, a nice hotel is great to present a workshop to a lot of people at once. However, the workshop and message should be the focus. If it is, it won’t need the added attraction of duty-free shopping to get people there. Price it so that everyone can afford it, not just those with personal fortunes to draw on.

Empowering those who need it most, the people who did not get the great start in life, the people who still work on the minimum wage, the people whose lives have been visited by challenges and who could never aspire to spend thousands of dollars on a weekend listening to a guru, this is where spiritual integrity begins.

Those of us who have a message from Spirit do not own the message!

We are merely the conduit for the message. Spirit doesn’t mind us charging a fee for it if we are making it our life’s work. Claiming ownership and charging huge fees that lock away the message away from all but the most privileged is hardly in integrity.

How can you be spiritual, empowered and in integrity?

It’s a personal thing. It’s about taking personal responsibility and being discerning with who you listen to, and what goes into your mind. Filter the rubbish, embrace the wisdom.

It’s about picking up the lessons and habits that have been proven over decades, centuries even, to work and to always work. It’s about integrating them into your life.

It is about becoming personally empowered and building integrity into the environment around you and in your life, which will enable you to create your own success, wealth, and abundance, without making someone else wealthy at your expense. It’s not about giving your power away to a guru you may never meet, or their disciples, centuries after their passing. It’s certainly not about giving your power away to any religious leader or doctrine.

It IS about taking responsibility for becoming everything you COULD be, and sharing your own personal, spirit given gifts with the world. If it becomes your calling to make a career out of your gift, whether it’s Reiki, readings or channelling, then spirit will guide you to where you need to be, and show you how to make that work for you with integrity and bring you the mentors you need – as long as you are willing to accept the challenge. It’s not something you can half do.

Responsibility is total – you need to be personally prepared for it and a Personal Empowerment Program is what it will take, to lift your energy, intention and ability to where it needs to be. And if you think you are already prepared, ask yourself why a butcher keeps sharpening his knife…. Yes. You need to stay sharp too! Click this link to learn more.

Your personal empowerment program – your own pep talk every day!

If you feel this article has empowered and benefited you and you feel it could benefit the personal empowerment, integrity and spiritual development of other people you know, please reblog it, share it with your friends and associates. It might be the day you changed someone’s life for the better!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

Jim Rohn as I knew him
Image from mlmtraffictactics.com

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment:

Make money while you sleep. Set up your income streams as businesses at which your presence is not required, fully automated, and the money will flow to you, wherever you are. Click this link for more details and alternatives!

Financial Empowerment

The financial jigsaw puzzle
Image from intentionalwealthinstitute.org

Update: Feedback is that this post on #Financial Empowerment is almost brutal. Sorry, but it has to be – people in financial crisis are often also in denial. I know – I was one of them! This blog is from my hard-earned and learned lessons in financial empowerment! I needed some ‘hard talking to’ in my time of crisis, and I don’t want you to go through what I experienced, because of my denial!

However, the post is not all bad news! If you recognise your symptoms below, you’ll be amazed at the reasons for why we do and feel what we do, and delighted with the range of options and solutions. The links take you to even more detail on the solutions available to everyone who needs financial empowerment.

Financial Empowerment

There is an elephant in the room. A great big ugly elephant. We talk about empowerment and self development and personal growth but when someone mentions ‘money’ or being wealthy, too often, thoughts or whispers of greed, selfishness, get rich quick, or some other such demeaning slur appear.

There is even that famous Bible quote:

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (King James Bible).

However, any quote taken out of context can take on a whole new meaning, such as this one does!

So many people have hidden behind this and other poverty based quotes to make excuses for their lack of abundance, without even realising it. They believe these quotes and old sayings (“life wasn’t meant to be easy” is another!) are actually facts. THEY ARE NOT!

“Take responsibility for your finances or get used to taking orders for the rest of your life. You’re either a master of money or a slave to it. Your choice.” – Robert Kiyosaki

It’s time to say IT IS OK to have money and wealth. It’s NOT OK to be poor and just accept it!

It’s NOT OK to have to worry where the next dollar or the next rent or mortgage payment is coming from. It’s NOT OK to have your child’s next meal in doubt because you don’t have the money to put a meal in front of them.

Down on his luck, by Frederick McCubbin
Image from www.artroom.com.au

Why would you NOT have all the money and financial empowerment you need, or want?

There could be some absolutely valid reasons. Bad luck. Bad management of a situation. Bad start in life. Got robbed. Got divorced. Got taxed. All valid and perfectly good reasons to not have any money. If you are OK with reasons for not having money that is, rather than the money.

If this is you now, are you planning on staying this way?

If you are unhappy about your financial situation, read on – there is much to learn and much to look forward to!

Is it OK to be broke?

Most teenagers and students visit “Broke” during their high school or university years, just after leaving home. Possibly the best time to visit, when you are young and life has so much promise and you are so enthusiastic about it. You also don’t have family responsibilities then. Enjoy the experience of living on the financial edge, learn the financial empowerment lessons and then get the hell out of there! Life is better with a full wallet!

How does a lack of financial empowerment affect men and women differently?

In ancient times, men were the hunters, women were the nurturers. This imprinted in the DNA of the human race and reflects in their emotional states today, thousands of generations later. A man who could not hunt and provide for his family was shamed. Today, men feel humiliated to be without work and income. A woman in ancient times who could not nurture her family was considered of low worth and status. She had to take scraps or be married off to a low status male. Today, very little has changed! Jean M Auel’s excellent and very well researched books, starting with “Clan of the Cave Bear” demonstrate this perfectly!

Let’s look at what it means to be lacking in financial empowerment, for both men and women.

Financial Empowerment for women

A woman without money in the 21^st century in the western world is a woman who has to educate herself and develop a career to support herself, or to be supported by someone else. She must develop an income stream to pay for the necessities of life. If she cannot do this, she has to choose between doing without the necessities of life, or being at the mercy of someone who has them.

Perhaps she will find a husband, someone who will be delighted to take her just as she is, and who promises to support her forever. Lots of women have thought this; many have made wonderful lives being supportive wives for their loving husbands.

Since my divorce….!
Image from www.sincemydivorce.com

But many have found that after a time, their marriage and support program suddenly ended. Perhaps through tragedy, or for other reasons, sometimes divorce. Now, they are older, perhaps wiser, but many are still without an income and a way to pay to live. That doesn’t mean that a divorced woman cannot cope – just that sometimes, the divorce is financially devastating, and they are left with little money and a family to raise, and often on a solo parent benefit or part-time wages.

Financial empowerment for women is vital. Not just for the feeling of satisfaction, but for the independence it brings. Ladies, if you are financially independent, you can choose where and who you want to spend your life with, for reasons other than necessity and somewhere to live. An important goal.

Financial empowerment for men

Guys, there is probably nothing more disempowering than looking at your family, and knowing you cannot provide for them. Not being able to pay the mortgage or the rent, rationing the children’s food, losing the car to the finance company, all for the want of a better cashflow.

Super Dad!
Image from thewonderfulworldofnothing.blogspot.com

The other side of the coin is great! You feel invincible and powerful when you have financial empowerment. When you know that your financials are OK and that the house and car are paid for, and the family is secure, you feel king of the castle. So you should. Supporting and empowering your family is perhaps the greatest responsibility that most people could ever have.

Financial crisis happens, far too often. It happens to good people, to great people, and to most of the people who don’t understand money and financial empowerment. But there’s also a way through it.

The key to financial empowerment is education.

I don’t mean reading, writing and arithmetic, although they are important. Financial literacy education, understanding the financial empowerment principles that make the money world go round. They aren’t too hard to learn, though they can be harder to put into practice.

“No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.” – Brian Tracy

The world has changed since I was a boy. Fifty years have made a huge difference. A house now costs half a million dollars here, but fifty years ago, $2500 would have got you one. A car was $500, now it is $40,000. But wages were much less! Fifty years ago, it was 365 shillings per week, around $36. The princely sum of $1,800 per year. Now, in Australia, the average annual wage is $75,000. Prices have increased but so has our income.

What HAS changed is the opportunity level!

In this age of technology and information, a person no longer needs a factory or huge amounts of capital to start a profitable business. Many people work their own business from anywhere in the world they want, as long as they can connect a computer, laptop or even tablet to the internet! As long as they have a skill they can apply, a second or even a primary income is available for anyone, if you become educated in how to market something of value to the world!

There are businesses set up solely to market skills, such as Elance – working as contractors in a virtual world, with real people at either end. Computer technicians often repair your computer problems from their own office, working on your computer remotely. People with a little money can invest online and make a living as traders. You can set up a business, consulting, buying, selling, trading, creating, almost anything you want, as soon as you launch your own website and get your story online. There are even people making a good income writing blogs, just telling stories online. There are numerous ways to either supplement an income, or replace it, and there is no discrimination in the virtual world.

What is Residual Income?

Think about your wage. If you don’t go to work, you don’t get paid. No residual income. Think about the rent on a house. The owner could be in Spain, New York or Sydney. The rent still goes into their bank account. That is residual income.

Examples of residual income are:

Financial investments, shares, term deposits etc. You need a lot of money initially and the Return On Investment (ROI) is from 1% to 5% usually. $1,000,000 at 5% is $50,000 pa.
Investment property. In Australia, an investment property starts at around $350,000 and higher, and ROI is either negative (profits from tax benefits) or up to around 5% clear.
Leasing out equipment, rental cars, machinery etc. Lots of money initially but a higher ROI, because of a shorter working life of the equipment.
A second job? Doesn’t qualify, as there is no residual income. However, this is where most people look when they need more money.
A business with employees. If you can set it up so that it makes a profit while you are not there, yes, ongoing residual income. However, bricks and mortar businesses are struggling the world over. Many do not make a profit at all.

Can you make money online?

There is an alternative, made possible by the technological revolution and the internet. It is possible to start a small business online and set it up to operate globally, fully automated and delivering profits into your bank account, wherever you are. Many are very successful; the operators have replaced their regular income and quit jobs, to live on the ever-growing profits of their fully automated online businesses! Click this link for more details and alternatives!

Examples of online income streams:

Contracting your skills, such as through ELANCE, or being a virtual assistant
E-Bay trading, buying and selling items
Shares and options trading, taking a parcel of money and actively trading with it – be careful of the risks! Only for skilled traders!
Consulting and providing advice, for a fee
Website sales of an item, product or service, sometimes digital products or information
Using a website in conjunction with a bricks and mortar business for mail-order sales
Writing and publishing online
Networking of a business opportunity online, building up a global downline network

NOTE: 1-4 are usually not residual income streams although they are internet businesses.

Internet Business Opportunities!
Image from fortune500designs.com

These opportunities are there for everyone. If you have a skill or a product range, you can sell it online, anywhere in the world. If you see a networked business opportunity, you can have a global business almost overnight, with residual income coming in from all over the world. And you don’t have to leave your day job!

If you are also a member of Life Change 90, you can enjoy Personal Empowerment, as well as Financial Empowerment!

Think about this:

Are you earning what you are worth right now?

Are you earning what your family needs right now?

Are you earning enough to fund the dreams of your future, right now?

If not, what are you going to do about it, and when?

There ARE answers, and you can find them in the links here. I look forward to seeing you at the top, earning lots more than you are now!

If you feel this article has financially empowered you and you feel it could benefit the financial empowerment of other people, please reblog it, share it with your friends and associates. It might be the day you changed someone’s financial fortunes and future for the better, not just your own!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Take action every day. It doesn’t have to be dramatic action, but every day, stick with it. Spend time on things that make you proud, that stretch and strengthen you.” – Phillip Humbert

Please also refer to my previous posts on Empowerment:

Emotional intelligence begins to develop in the earliest years. All the small exchanges children have with their parents, teachers, and with each other carry emotional messages.
Daniel Goleman
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/daniel_goleman.html#R7x3cmosuxQpFFMd.99

Empowerment through emotional intelligence

Tip of the iceberg!
Image from www.soulseeds.com.

“In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels”
― Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Many people have heard of the term “Emotional Intelligence”, made famous in a book by Daniel Goleman and now commonly called “EQ”. We were all made familiar with “IQ”, our intellectual intelligence quotient many years ago, when intelligence testing was considered the ultimate measure of a person. Fortunately, that has since been found to be a very small part of the story. It’s now recognised that a person’s “IQ” is not really as important as how the person is able to utilise their “IQ”. That level of utilisation is often a measure of their “EQ”.

Let me give you an example. I went to school with a really brainy guy. In my own high school up to Grade 10, I was considered reasonably intelligent and won class awards in some subjects. Alongside this guy, I was a dunce! We did a physics exam one day when I was in Grade 11 at College, and he got 65 questions right, out of a possible 66. HE WAS FURIOUS! The question he wasn’t marked correct on had a full stop missing! That’s all! But he wasn’t used to not getting everything right!

However, brilliant as he was in the science laboratory or the maths class, this is the guy who would walk out of the dormitory with his shoe laces untied, his shirt buttoned crookedly and was forever asking for someone to help him with his neck tie! In the world outside the laboratory, the poor guy was hopeless and helpless! I don’t know if he ever got a drivers licence, but I hope not….!

He had a very high IQ, but almost no EQ. And that is the difference.

EQ is the ability to relate to others, to communicate effectively and to empower others.

What is empowerment?

Empowerment is the ability to influence the environment around you for the benefit of all. #Empowerment through emotional intelligence is the way you utilise your communication skills, your ability to create rapport and empathy with people, to influence outcomes and the behaviours of other people.

Let’s face it: Personal empowerment only happens when you empower others. You cannot be empowered in isolation. The most powerful person on the planet is no more powerful than anyone else if they are sitting alone in a dinghy miles offshore. Put that same person in a room with other people and their empowerment becomes evident. Their influence is felt throughout the room. Even if their identity remains unknown, their effect on the people around them will be felt. That is empowerment. But your own empowerment only happens when people around you respond positively to your behaviour and treatment of them.

Empowered Couple
Image from www.essentialoilspedia.com.

You see the evidence of this in many places. A loving couple together may be a formidable team, a unit of considerable influence, power and passion. However, before their meeting and becoming a couple, either of them may have been described by their friends as lacking in confidence. Together, they empower each other.

A political leader can be a dictator and through absolute power wield much influence. However, the most loved leaders will often have more power and influence and especially the respect of their people, than the brutal dictator. As a fringe benefit, they also have more job security and in retirement will be welcome anywhere in the world.

Dictators from history – how many can you name?
Image from www.freemediaproductions.info.

An example of that would be to compare Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi with Nelson Mandela. Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi were dictators, responsible over their long and brutal reigns for the deaths of thousands of people. Their armies kept them in power, but ultimately rebellions and civil wars cost them their leadership. They died as they lived. Nelson Mandela had the same struggle to begin with, perhaps even harder, but when he came to power, he was loved and respected by all, and empowered other people throughout his many years as president of his country of South Africa. When he retired, he remained the most respected elder statesman in the country. The respect for him was global, and even the Pope sought meetings with him. Other world leaders sought his counsel. When he passed away recently, the nation of South Africa was just one of the nations around the world mourning the passing of one of the greatest statesmen the world has ever been blessed with.

An empowered leader, Nelson Mandela
Image from au.lifestyle.yahoo.com.

The same happens with us on a personal level. We need to be empowering others, for us to become empowered people and leaders. Empowerment does not work in a vacuum, or in isolation. Our empowerment is measured by the degree of empowerment we give to those around us.

How do you gain empowerment through emotional intelligence?

The first part of this is understanding the power of our emotions, and the effect they have on our behaviour. Below is the Empowerment Tone Scale Chart. The range of human emotions is captured down the left side of the scale, from the lowest of emotions, apathy, to the highest, up above enthusiasm. It goes much higher, but those are states not relevant here.

Emotional Tone Scale.

The critical point on the scale is the red empowerment line, just above boredom. Below this point, a person is purely reacting to stimuli, but not operating rationally. That is not to say they are not capable of high level thinking and planning, but their thinking is not constructive. In some form or another, it is destructive. Above the line is where interest and constructive thinking begin, and win/win solutions and new concepts are possible.

A person in grief is way down on the scale. In this state, the person is more introspective, turned inward. To communicate with this person, we need to empathise with them, and find a way to reach their emotional state without entering into it ourselves. Then we need to raise them up to the level of the Empowerment Line, even if only briefly, to get them to apply rational thinking to their situation. That doesn’t mean they will stay there, nor should they. There is an established grieving process that people need to complete before they can move on with life. Empowering this person is entirely appropriate, but to try to keep that person, who is suffering with their grief, in an empowered, enthusiastic state for an extended period is denying them their grieving process and unrealistic.

Comfort through grief
Image from www.yourdictionary.com

To raise a grieving person up to an empowered level for a time, respectful questions that require processing are needed. Processing can only be done in an emotional state above the empowerment line. To answer the question, their mind needs to rise to the empowerment level. Gentle questions can do this, and will rouse the person from their grief and enable them to function more rationally.

However, if the person is angry, in emotional pain or hostile, their emotions are directed outward to inflict their pain and angst on the world, to retaliate. Much as a friendly dog will bite when cornered or in pain, the person’s behaviour is also a non-rational reaction to circumstances.

Again, gentle but firm questions that require processing will have a positive effect, although it may take a series of questions and the format is quite specific. Questions such as:

“How can we sort this out?”

“How can we change this around?”

“How can we fix this problem?”

This format aligns the person asking the question with the person feeling the pain or anger, where formerly, they felt alone. It also puts the source of their pain or anger or grief out as an issue independent of the person. It identifies it as a problem that can be solved with rational thinking. Thus the person is raised to the level of rational thinking and empowerment to deal with the issue that was formerly their millstone. This is empowerment through emotional intelligence – your use of your “EQ” can provide a powerful influence on anyone suffering from a lowered emotional state.

Once the emotional state begins to rise, when appropriate, offer the opportunity for some responsibility in and a share of the positive outcomes of the solutions. Offer the hope of brightness of the future, and show them that it is their responsibility to claim it.

How important is empowerment through emotional intelligence?

Look at the vertical blue arrow in the scale. That is the emotional region where most people live, and the majority of them are probably between boredom and hostility, tapering more towards the extremities. In other words, most people you meet will need to be empowered BEFORE you can relate with them! They will need a reason to think and to start a rational thought process before you can have a positive relationship with them, because that is not a normal state for them!

Can empowerment become a normal state?

Yes, absolutely, and empowerment through emotional intelligence is the pathway. It is a learned process, and once learned and the success behaviours and actions of empowerment are formed and become habits, empowerment becomes the normal way of life. And yes, anyone can do this.

Empowerment is not an event; it is a series of success strategies that are lived moment at a time, day by day. It is a way of life. You already have a way of life, a series of strategies that you live, moment at a time, day after day. If you want empowerment in your life, some of those strategies may need to be changed. And you can do it. CLick here to learn more about Empowering YOU!

If you feel this article has empowered and benefited you and you feel it could benefit the personal empowerment of other folks you know, please reblog it, share it with your friends and associates. It might be the day you changed someone’s life for the better! If that was that special person in your life, then congrats: you just changed your own life too!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“emotional self-awareness is the building block of the next fundamental emotional intelligence: being able to shake off a bad mood”
― Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Please also refer to my previous posts on Empowerment:

How do you do that? If you are not sure, it comes down to you becoming all you can be also. Work on yourself to realise your own potential. If you are a couple, work on yourselves, but work together – share the journey and grow together. Click here to learn more about becoming an Empowered Couple.

With Love, anything is possible!

“Love is not the opposite of power. Love IS power. Love is the strongest power there is.”
― Vironika Tugaleva, The Love Mindset

Empowered by love

Image from survivorpediatrics.wordpress.com

The average guy is a pretty fragile creature in some ways. Once we left childhood and the things we grappled with while getting through that stage, we got to the teen years and weren’t they a fearful time! How many guys made it through their teen years with an intact ego? Trying to impress the girls – that’s what we thought we had to do, and mostly we failed. We either got really thick skins fast or learnt some smooth lines. Or we got pretty badly hurt and carried those hurts with us into adult life. Those rejections and teenage girly things we heard thrown at us, some hurt really badly! Mostly we carried some of those hurts forward. I did.

Now, in my adult years, I think of the life I’ve led and the things I’ve done and where I am now and I sometimes stop and wonder.

I am blessed to now be empowered by love. However, that has brought some incredible realisations with it. This amazing lady whose love is given freely and unconditionally – am I really worthy of her?

I mean, it’s a totally reasonable question I think, for a guy who has carried his teenage scars and other skeletons til now, and suddenly finds someone who knows all about them and still loves him, despite those scars and failings, or perhaps because of them…?

I think of my own failings and wonder whether I am worthy of the love of this lady. After all, she is pretty darn amazing. My scars and insecurities tend to surface and I wonder if I am really worthy of her after all. Then the magic happens. Guys, this is what it’s all about! Ladies, you probably don’t realise the power and magic you control….

My source of empowerment

I feel the love of this lady. It goes to my core. I feel it under my skin, in my day, in my thoughts, in my intentions, in what I am dreaming of for the future. A shared future. Our future. That’s when I realise that whatever has happened in the past that I might be less than proud of, less than happy with, I can rise above, because I have been given a new source of empowerment. I am empowered by love, the single most powerful force on the planet.

#Empowered by love, I can pretty much do anything. Empowered by love, I can withstand pretty much anything. Empowered by love, I am pretty much unstoppable. Because I know that it’s no longer just me doing it! Beside me, I have the most amazing lady. Together, we are unstoppable! We are empowered by love, our love!

Guys, really take this on board. If you haven’t felt this love yet, make it your goal to be empowered by love. If you are single, find that special lady and become empowered by love. Become the guy you can be, the one you have the potential to be, so you can attract that incredible lady to you, the one who can make you feel like I do now! Work on yourself so you really ARE worthy of her, by becoming everything you really can be.

If you are in a relationship, and it doesn’t feel like this, how much of it should you take responsibility for? You BOTH committed to the relationship. Have you really lived up to your end of the deal? Whether or not you have, accept the responsibility, and plan to woo this lady all over again. You did it once, you won her heart, now do it again and this time, aim high – aim for unconditional love and believe me, it’s something you can’t achieve without giving it first! But when you do – then you become empowered by love.

Life takes on a whole new meaning when you are empowered by love…

Imagine…
Image from www.mamiverse.com

A quick word to the ladies… Do you realise the power you have over your guy’s fragile heart and soul? We guys are hurt or bruised quite easily, rather more easily than it appears. On the other hand, if you share this incredible and empowering love for him, you CAN make him feel invincible, you can empower him to be your knight in shining armour – or to feel like it anyway, whether he has the white charger or not! Use your power wisely, weave your magic well and let your guy feel empowered by love. And enjoy the benefits of it! You’ll find that when he is empowered by love, you’ll feel pretty darn good too!

I mentioned in my last blog about the ten second kiss. That’s just the start. You might see a lot more of that concept through these blogs in the future, empowering your relationship. In the meantime, it’s a great start and wonderful to help you feel good about growing together.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Greater than atomic power is the power of love. Alas, we use it so sparingly!”
― Dada J.P. Vaswani

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment:

Empowerment is not hard. It’s simple, it’s strategic and it’s constant. Constant implementing of daily success habits, morning and evening, practicing throughout the day and celebrating your successes at night. It’s challenging yourself to be the best you can, and recording your efforts to be your best. It’s dropping unproductive habits and replacing them with success habits that step you closer to your own goals every day. It’s putting yourself in a state of mind that is empowered by the environment you create around you. It’s choosing the people you associate with, the information and influences that go into your mind and surround you in your life. One tiny step at a time, all the time. It’s simple, and it’s constant. Click here to learn more about becoming Empowered and learning to use your EQ, as well as your IQ!

Empowered Man
Image from theredlist.fr

“The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try it and the faith to believe it is possible.”
― Rich DeVos

What would an empowered man do?

It’s easy to preach. It’s easy to lecture. It’s harder to live what you preach and lecture about. It’s especially hard when Spirit or fate or the Gods on high decide to confront you with a problem straight out of the box you were preaching from!

The question is, when something like this happens, what would an empowered man do?

Now, an empowered man here refers to empowered women, children, teens, civic leaders, politicians, and anyone else you can think of. It’s all of us, and I’m lumping us together under the term ‘man’.

The guy (or girl) comes home, tired and well and truly over the day, it’s been a tough one. Their partner is frustrated as their day was tough too, the kids are noisy, but they just want to sit with a beer or wine and relax, let the day go and when they feel like it, come join the family. But the kids want to play, their partner wants a hand in the kitchen, stuff is happening all around and this is not a time when they can opt out for a while.

Home at last!
Image from www.huffingtonpost.com

What would an empowered man do?

The question really should come back to “what is important in this life?” and start from there. Attend to the first priorities and work outwards from there, once they have been attended to.

First priority? There’s their partner standing there, tired and very frustrated with their day also. This person committed to spend their life with them, and share the joys and hassles of their family forever. WOW! Number one priority?

#What would an empowered man do? He would kiss this lady, tell her he loved her and block the world out for a while. There’s a book called “The ten second kiss” that I have referred to in my seminars and it suggests that night and morning, and leaving for work and coming home from work is a powerful time for it, that you should kiss your spouse or partner for at least ten seconds. At least twice a day, at those important times.

Why? Because when you kiss someone for ten seconds with your full intention and attention on your kissing, it speaks volumes to them about your love for them, and it does them a world of good too. Things like easing tension, frustration and giving the feeling to them that they are loved and supported in every way. Sort of an antidote to a tiring and frustrating day.

What about the dinner on the stove? What about the kids? What about all the other distractions?

Take the pot off the heat – it’s only for 10 seconds! Get the kids to time you – this is a powerful way for them to see and experience what love between their parents is and should be. There is not much that cannot be put off for just ten seconds!

A great daily ritual
Image from karapearson.com

OK, that’s Priority 1 done. Priority 2 should be a hug for the kids. Big hug, acknowledgement for a moment, so they feel the love too, and it’s amazing how often that is enough for them for a time. Time to enable you to handle the other issues that are demanding attention. Perhaps you can be with the kids in a family way. Grab a coffee or tea, sit with your spouse and children on the couch for a few minutes, have a family hug, right after your ten second kiss. Take a few more minutes with all of you together, sharing your days. Ask your spouse about their day, their ups and downs. The same with the children, asking questions gets them present and takes their mind off concerns that drag energies down. That also allows you to catch up on the urgent news and to plan the next few minutes of dealing with the other issues, such as the dinner that’s cooking, the chores to be done, homework and so on.

What would an empowered man do? He’d first attend to his family and be nurtured by them, while he empowers them with his love and attention. He’d make this a daily ritual.

Another scenario. The empowered man (or woman) is at work and the boss yells at them, bawling them out over something, whether it’s valid or not. The boss is a chump, loud mouthed and obnoxious. The first reaction is to make a batch of ‘nose jam’ and spread it all over his face.

Not again!
Image from www.mccormicksys.com

What would an empowered man do?

First, is it OK to get angry? Yes, and it’s natural to get angry at times. The human body and most other species become angry if provoked. It’s what happens next that matters.

We established a few blogs back that you cannot win an argument. We learnt in another blog about how to empower people when they are angry or fearful, so that you can work with them rationally and come to a good resolution.

Empowerment Emotional Tone Scale

This image is the Empowerment Tone Scale.

(Click on this image to enlarge it!)

The angry person is down under the empowerment line. The fearful or grieving person is lower still, near the bottom. To relate with these people, you need to boost them and their emotional state up to the empowerment level at “interest”, near the top, even if only for a few seconds! You do that with targeted questions, relevant to the topic, but ones they need to process a little. That processing is the key to empowerment. This is because for the mind to process a question, it needs to be in a constructive state, not destructive. Asking a question raises the person’s emotional state. It empowers the person you are asking the question of.

Back to our angry boss. What would an empowered man do?

They would engage the boss with simple, relevant questions to establish the parameters of the situation. They would go on to ask about the specifics. Then they would ask the most powerful question framework “WHAT can WE do about THIS PROBLEM?” This establishes the conflict as an issue separate to either of them, but a problem they can solve as a team. A totally different scenario to when the boss walked in.

That’s better! All sorted now!
Image from www.act-now.ca

Does it work every time? Of course not. But it’s what an empowered person would do first, rather than inflame the issue with retaliation.

Of course, launching into strategies such as these without a reference point in place is going to be a challenge. For some men, if they arrived home and without warning, took their wife and kissed her solidly for more than a few seconds, it would either frighten them or make them very suspicious. After reading this blog, discuss it with your partner and adopt this practice of the ten second kiss morning and evening. Make the family hug a ritual. You’ll probably find it changes other areas of your life too.

With your boss, don’t wait until he’s furious before you try to empower him. Use simple but relevant questions all the time to build his level of empowerment and you’ll find he is much less likely to explode if and when something does go wrong. And at that time, he’ll respond better when you ask more questions, because you have conditioned the situation already. It won’t be anything new!

What would an empowered man do, to become more empowered in the first place?

How do you get to BE this way, without needing to re-read this blog when life serves you a rotten tomato?

After a while, it becomes a habit and is the state of mind you unconsciously life in.

During the learning process, we pass through four stages of competency. They are:

Unconsciously incompetent – we don’t even know we are messing things up!
Consciously incompetent – we know how bad we are at this new thing.
Consciously competent – we know what to do but still need to focus to get it right.
Unconsciously competent – it’s become a good, solid habit; no need to even think about it anymore; we do it unconsciously and get it right every time!

After a while, these new success habits that we practice daily, morning and evening, become a part of our subconscious program and we do them without thinking. We LIVE them.

Words of a wise and empowered man
Image from wolflaguerra.wordpress.com

What would an empowered man do? Subscribe to this program and share it amongst his family, friends and workmates, to empower them too…

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Freedom begins the moment you realize someone else has been writing your story and it’s time you took the pen from his hand and started writing it yourself.”
― Bill Moyers

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment: