Tag Archives: #financial empowerment

RISK

#Risk

Hanging on with…..?
Image from timsstrategy.com

Risk

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”  ― William G.T. Shedd

Many years ago, I owned a farm in Southern Queensland, Australia and ran an earth moving business from it.  One of my team was Tracey, a great guy who rode a Triumph motorcycle, had long hair down to the middle of his back, and absolutely adored his wife Rhonda and their two little girls.  He was a real wag and I loved working with him.  And he could drive bulldozers! Very important in our game.

The first Tuesday in November in Australia we are plagued with the Melbourne Cup, a horse race run in Melbourne where the prize money for the winners is obscene but it’s still just a horse race.  The whole country virtually stops for the day, to let the horses race – it’s an institution!

Tracey said to me: “Having a bet today?”

I replied “No, not today.”

He asked: “Don’t you have a bet sometimes?”

I answered him, “I just bet $50,000 on buying us a new bulldozer; does that count?”

“Never thought of it that way” he said and we went back to work.

#Risk

My new  Earth Mover!
Image from olm-macchine.it

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.” ― Helen Keller

What is risk?

Risk is when you stick your neck (or wallet) out for something you think you can win, but it is not guaranteed.  Like my bulldozer bet.  My business needed a new, more powerful and versatile machine so I chose what I thought would handle the work I had coming in, and the risks I took were that it was the right machine for the work, and that there was enough work to make the investment worthwhile.

Recently I was sent an email with the dubious title “Just wondering…are you a risk taker?”

The email went on to dare me to invest $25 (not much, really) to get an unspecified gift worth $1,000 plus a supposed money-making blogging platform.  After all, it’s only $25.  How could I go wrong?

When I invested/took a risk of $50,000 on my bulldozer, it was the equivalent value of five new family cars at the time.  That was a risk, but not a gamble.  I’d calculated the odds, weighed up the work I had and the amount of enquiry I was getting and took that risk.  The risk was worthwhile.

If I invest any money at all on what someone else has calculated to have a value, it was THEIR value they used to invite me to take MY risk, then I risk wasting 100% of my money.  The possibility is that their $1000 value is not worth a cracker to me, if I don’t need or want the unspecified item they are ‘giving’ away.  The blogging platform may be a scam or just plain worthless.  Since then, I have been bombarded with more and more emails, up to 3 times daily, trying all sorts of ways to entice me to part with that $25.  If that is what the blogging platform requires, then it’s a safe bet I’d waste my money.  That is called discernment – or assessing the risk/reward potential. This $25 ‘risk’ I had been dared to was nothing more than a bet, a gamble I was almost sure to lose on!

#Risk

Risk Vs Reward – Calculate the risk and prepare for it!
Image from 1000lifelessons.com

To live is to risk!

People and in fact all living creatures have an inbuilt survival instinct – in other words, they fear for their lives and have this survival program running to protect it.  We jump out of the way of moving cars, avoid heights, wild animals, spiders and snakes and so on, because of this anti risk program we have running.  Rather than risk death, we aim to stay alive.

“The only safe thing is to take a chance.”   ― Elaine May

To love is to risk!

Is this the right person for me?  Am I worthy of this person?  Can I handle a relationship?  Will I be hurt?  Will it last?  These are all the questions our risk monitors race through our minds when we fall in love, or there is even the chance of it.  Is this worth the risk?

“There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.”   ― William S. Burroughs

#Risk

Is it worth it? Absolutely!
Image from pessimistincarnate.blogspot.com

Being yourself is a risk!

Will I be liked?  Will I be accepted?  Will I ‘fit in’ with the group?  Perhaps this is the risk that people are most frightened of, and why fashion and fads are so powerful in societies.  We are conditioned to believe that we are not quite right – perhaps the “Original Sin” conditioning, and that we need to be something else in order to be accepted by everyone else.  People are so anxious to ‘conform’ to someone else’s idea of what is ‘right’ or ‘in’, that they are frightened of just being themselves, yet it is what and who we are most qualified to be.  No other person on the planet can be YOU as perfectly as you can be!  Being outstanding is the key to success, yet it is what terrifies most people the most!

#Risk

Being yourself is different enough!
Image from rachelslookbook.com

“So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”   ― Hunter S. Thompson

Why do we fear these risks?

Low self-confidence – the fear that we will not perform to the desired standard, and low self esteem – the fear that others will not like or value us, are the two beliefs that anchor us in fear of being ourselves.  We fear taking the #risk because we feel we may not perform or may not be liked for trying to perform.  Our need to be accepted and liked overrides our desire to succeed, or even try to succeed.

The antidote to this fear of taking a risk is a #personal empowerment program that delivers #self-confidence and #self esteem to you, in small doses, daily, continually, building your confidence and self esteem to the levels where you can walk confidently out into the world, just being you.  And proud of it!  Knowing that whatever risks you choose to take on you will succeed at. And feel great about!

“Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.”   ― Sarah Addison Allen, The Peach Keeper

Does such a self confidence and self esteem program exist?

Yes, absolutely, and it delivers much more than self-confidence and self esteem.  Confidence is built on repeated experiences of success.  The Life Change 90 program teaches goal setting and how to set small goals each day, as part of a larger goal getting program.  Each little goal you achieve is a confidence boost.  More than that, you learn to harvest the lessons from the day, find where your shortfalls are and work on improving any that matter to your success.  Communication skills, financial management skills, unlearning bad habits and installing new habits, all ticked off at the end of the day, to give you that feeling of “I DID IT!!!”  Daily tutorials hone in on specific areas and build from month to month to enhance your education in life skills, stress management, health, and personal empowerment generally in all areas of your life!

#Risk

What she said!
Image from bpw-lakegeneva.ch

How do I receive this new personal empowerment?

Small, daily inputs, a few minutes each morning and evening.  Reading the tutorial each morning will take a couple of minutes, reviewing your goals and To-Do list, checking off your gratitude list and setting your affirmation a few minutes more, and you are ready for the day!

In the evening, check off your goal achievements, lesson for the day, expenses and income and a few minutes on your journal, and your program is complete!  This is your personal empowerment program in full.  For investing these few minutes a day, you receive a very healthy boost of self-confidence and self esteem, wisdom and experiences consolidated by your reviews, elimination of bad habits and installation of new desirable habits, and your goals and dreams are delivered to you, a step at a time, day after day!

“Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others … Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.” ― Katherine Mansfield, Journal of Katherine Mansfield

What is the risk?

The risk is that you will get the program and do nothing with it.  That’s why you will receive these blogs, week after week after week, a little pep talk, some further education in specific areas and a reminder of how powerful you could be, by living this program as though it was your life.  The truth is, it can change your life and in the next 90 days, your life could be incredibly enhanced by it!

Take a look at the program HERE and start right now!  The change you could make is the one you were searching for when you began reading this article!

If you feel this article has boosted your belief that you can become all you were meant to be, all you ever dreamed of being, and feel good about being YOU, then there are others who need to know this feeling too!  Please share it, email the link or reblog it to your friends and anyone else who you think may benefit from reading it.  They will thank you too!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails!

Ray Jamieson

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”   ― Theodore Roosevelt, Strenuous Life

Please also refer to my other posts on #Empowerment, to assist you with your specific challenge.

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

Financial Empowerment

#Risk

Being yourself
Image from inspirationalquotesb.blogspot.com

Where are you searching?

#Whereareyousearching

An obvious place to search…!
Image from treasury.gov.au

Where are you searching?

“Make sure that the beer – four pints a week – goes to the troops under fire before any of the parties in the rear get a drop.” — Winston Churchill to his Secretary of War, 1944

It was a dark and stormy evening.  The very drunk man weaved his way down the footpath, crossed the road and into the car park.  He thought he could see his car, over on the far side, across the garden beds.  As he stumbled through the flowers, he pulled his car keys out, and dropped them.  He stopped, looked around but as it was dark, he couldn’t see them amongst the flower beds.  He turned around.

Some time later, another, quite sober man walked down the same footpath and saw our very drunk friend on his hands and knees under a street light, obviously searching for something.  He stopped and asked if he was OK, and had he lost something.

“Yesh… (belch) …!  I dropped my (hiccup) car keys an I yam trying to find them!”

“Can I help you search?” asked our Good Samaritan?

“That would be very mush apprec.. apprec… apprec… Thank you!”

After some time, it was obvious the keys were not there.  The Good Samaritan asked:  “Where were you when you dropped them?”

“I wuz in the flower garden over there in the car park an they dropped right out of my fingers…!”

“Then why are you looking here, and not over there where you dropped them?”

“Silly..  There’s no light over there!”

 

We can laugh at this funny story, but is there a real life parallel here?

#Where are you searching for what you want from life?

#Where are you searching

I went to the woods to seek enlightenment
Image from flickr.com

Are you looking where it’s easy to see, where it’s easy to be, rather than where “it” actually is?

Are you looking “out there” in things, or other people for the answers you need from a lot closer to home?  It’s easy to bury ourselves in work, or distract ourselves with toys, technology, titillation or temptation.  However, there comes a time when we realise that if we REALLY want to achieve what it is we said we wanted so long ago, that we have to get real, and go looking for it in the right place.  So where are you searching?

#Where are you searching

Searching for answers in toys
Image from thisnext.com

The right place may not always be in the light. The right place may not be easy.  The right place may be uncomfortable for a while.  The right place might be hard.

But being in the wrong place is eventually a lot harder and darker and less fun than looking in the right place!

Where are you searching?

Why are you searching there, rather than where it is?

Are you searching in the wrong place because you don’t know where to look?  Or because you are afraid you’ll find it?  That’s the scary one – fear of success can really mess up your party, and your life!  Getting over this is actually not as hard as you think, once you realise it might be a problem for you.  Read on…

“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.” ― Albert Einstein

How do you know where to search?

The answers are usually within.  Within us.  Starting with the will to be honest with ourselves, and get clear with what we truly want.  And why we want it.  Once we know what we want and have a powerful reason why, the how will soon appear.  It always does.  Internal motivation works that way.

Whether the how, the method, strategy or direction to what you want is through a person, an opportunity, knowledge or whatever, once you have clarity and the motivation to pursue it, you will find a way.  However, that’s the hard way….

Many years ago, Thomas Alva Edison, working in conjunction with a team of researchers at his Menlo Park studio, invented the first practical light bulb which was great for looking in dark places.

You may not need a light bulb in your search, but you may need assistance to find what you are looking for, both in the early stages when you seek clarity and empowerment, and later, when you need a goalsetting strategy and a support team.  Where are you searching now?  Perhaps there is an easier way.

It’s all here for you.  We have a program that can change your life, pretty much as quickly as you choose to plug into it!  Your search must start with yourself, and that is where the program starts, creating a safe and supportive environment around you, teaching you how to get clarity on what you really want from life, enhancing your powers of awareness and observation, teaching you life strategies and consolidating your lessons every evening.  Your goalsetting activities are recorded daily, habits you want to break or create are recorded so you can see your progress with them.  Advanced life skills are bundled in so that you can change your life, in the next 90 days!  Permanent, positive change.  Is that what you were searching for?  Click here to discover it now!

If you feel this post has helped you to stop searching under the lamp-post and start looking where your goals are, then please, share this blog, pass it on to your friends and associates.  Perhaps you could be the one who helps them to start looking for what they want from life in the right place too!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails!

Ray Jamieson

“Do not look for happiness outside yourself. The awakened seek happiness inside.”
― Peter Deunov

Please also refer to my other posts on #Empowerment, to assist you with your specific challenge.

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

Financial Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Personal Empowerment

Empowered by love

#Where are you searching?

I FOUND IT!
Image from goinflippincrazy.com

An Angel Without Wings

#Angel

A whole city of Angels!
Image from swotti.com

“If I got rid of my demons, I’d lose my angels.”
― Tennessee Williams, Conversations with Tennessee Williams

An Angel Without Wings.

God is forever creating new Angels.

One day some time ago, he finished another Angel – but was having a bad day and forgot to give her wings.

“Darn it!” he thought.  “Well, I won’t put her back.  I’ll give her extra serves of love and courage, a radiant smile and she can go to earth and be an Angel down there, where she won’t need wings.”  So he put her on earth, as a baby.

Earth was a harsh environment for the Angel baby.  Life kept putting obstacles in her way, challenges to solve and the burdens of other people to weigh on her also.  There always seemed to be something else to do, someone else to heal, to care for or to help.

“My Angels have a lot of work to do,” he told Saint Peter.

But with the extra love and courage in her heart, the Little Angel’s smile shone like a beacon through all her trials and tribulations.  She became an inspiration to those around her.

God said, “I will give her more to do.”  He sent more needy people her way.

Life’s ordeals and unscrupulous people took away all she had, her health, her marriage, her money and he thought, “Surely this will try her out!”

Her courage never faltered, still her smile shone and her love inspired those who knew her.

St Peter looked down and wept at what he saw!

“God!!” he cried.  “You can’t keep this up!  She has already done more by her example than many of your other Angels and raised her children to be like herself.  Her example inspires all in the world that see her.  Please ease her burden, so that she may freely work for you!”

“Perhaps, Peter, you are right.  I will think on it.”  God was pensive.  He stroked a whiskered chin with his thumb.  “I’ll tell you what I will do, Peter.  I will give her the love of a wonderful man, surround her with true friends and shower her with peace of mind and satisfaction for what she does.

Maybe in the future her burdens will ease – but right now, My Little Angel Without Wings has much to do.”

#Angel

WWII Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel in Papua New Guinea, assisting an injured Australian soldier. Angels come disguised in so many ways!
Image from en.wikipedia.org

“For truly we are all angels temporarily hiding as humans.”
― Brian L. Weiss

There are many angels without wings, just like this one.  You know who you are, Dear Angel.  You know when you are an angel to someone who needs you, someone whose challenges need some extra attention and you can give it to them, even though your own troubles and challenges almost overwhelm you.  You know so many people count on you and you just have to be there for them.  Take a bow – you are not alone!

#Angel

An Angel at work!
Image from humanrights.gov.au

But you feel alone, Dear Angel, so much of the time.  You feel like the pain you bear will overpower you.  You feel like the isolation your situation causes will bury you in loneliness.  You feel like no-one else would understand your situation, even if you knew how to explain it to them.  And yet you keep on. And you keep praying.  Because that’s what an Angel will do.

More power to you.

This world has need of an angel like you.  We need more of you, many more of you.  If I could create the “Angel without Wings Network”, you’d be in there, with all those other special angels without wings, helping each other and helping heal the world.

There is an Angel Network.  However, it doesn’t cater for angels like this one, or perhaps an #Angel like you.  You are an Angel in hiding, a secret Angel that only a few people know about and appreciate, unfortunately.

#Angel

Even Angels have bad days!
Image from fanpop.com

What I do know is that you, our Dear Angel, need help.  You need to give yourself the best possible chance of making it through this, and out to the bright spot on the other side.  And to do that, you need a loving and supportive environment around you.  You need encouragement, morning and evening, to keep going.  You need to see your achievements each evening, so you know your day has been worthwhile, valuable to someone and satisfying to you.  You need your own goals to aim for and to achieve, and you need to be taught how to rise to all the challenges that life is and will continue to throw at you.

Maybe we can help with that.  Everything you need is in a program created to empower people and Angels facing challenges, just like you may be.  The support, the positive encouragement, the education, motivation and inspiration each day, right here with you, every day.

Need a hand getting through life? CLICK HERE FOR ASSISTANCE!  Let us empower you to make it, no matter what life throws at you.  After all, an Angel without wings still should feel what it’s like to fly!

If you feel that this post has empowered an Angel, or made an Angel feel she could fly again, please share it, reblog it and pass it on to other Angels without Wings.  You know who they are.  Every angel should feel like they have another Angel to share with, and to fly to at times.  This could be your time to fly!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails, Angels!

Ray

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
― Anonymous, Holy Bible: King James Version

Empowerment through Challenge

#challenge

A leap of faith
Image from daretoleap.co.uk

Empowerment through Challenge

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” ― Roger Crawford

There are times when the road seems too hard, the climb too steep, the challenge too great.  There are times when the most reasonable decision would be to give up, admit that the challenge was just too hard, and go home.

There are also people for whom that is not a choice.

Their choice is to press on to succeed or literally to die trying – or not trying.  Sometimes, the challenge MUST be faced, whether we like it or not.  At these times, heroism surfaces.

The unlikely heroes are those people facing chronic illnesses, chronic pain, the “invisible diseases” such as Depression, CFS and Fibromyalgia and other illnesses that at a glance, people afflicted with them show no visible symptoms.  Other people with little choice are those whose children face a challenge and as parents, they must continue.  There are people struggling on minimum wage, raising families on incomes below the poverty line, with no safety net and where failing the #challenge means starvation.

#challenge

Invisible Illness – unsung heroes
Image from noonegetsflowersforchronicpain.wordpress.com

There are movies produced about some of the heroes.  We may never know the truth of their heroism, such as in the tale of “Lorenzo’s Oil”, where a father studied his son’s disease and in the movie, found the cure for it.  There are real life parallels to this tale now, especially since genetic engineering has become an acknowledged branch of science.

There are other heroes, such as where a person has been wrongfully convicted and either they or their partner studied law in order to challenge and perhaps overturn the decision.  Heroes where the underdog came through, changed their world, and that of many others too.

#challenges

Heroes of everyday challenges
Image from themotherhood.com

On a day-to-day basis, there are many heroes facing a challenge that will never make headlines, but is just as real.  The single mother, trying to raise her children, without support, on a budget far below what is necessary, in circumstances that can at best be described as a challenge.  The small business owner facing tough competition in a changing market, struggling to survive.  A person with low self-confidence and low self esteem looking for a new job, a career, or even just a friend. The dyslexic person in the admin role, trying to write a report.  So many people face challenges that to others are no big deal, but to them, it’s their life!

There are times when a challenge has created a break through in thinking and a whole new invention, solution or branch of science has resulted.  The problem has been solved because someone either “broke through” the problem with advanced thinking and higher intelligence, or they “broke with” the thinking; they tried something totally different, lateral and creative and found a back-door solution to the problem!  Only challenge provides this opportunity and it is how humanity has advanced.

Can you break through to succeed where others have failed the challenge?

It’s possible, but that doesn’t mean you always get your old life back.  Sometimes, it’s not there to reclaim.  You may overcome the challenge but you cannot unlearn the pain you endured.  You will be a different person, even if your old life is offered to you again.  It may not feel the same, because you are now changed, evolved.  You’ll need to grow into your new life, even when you succeed and overcome the challenge!

“Embrace each challenge in your life as an opportunity for self-transformation.” ― Bernie S. Siegel

Where do you turn, when it is YOU facing the challenge?

The first thing to remember is that we are not alone in this.  Maybe there is no saviour nearby, but that doesn’t mean help is not available.  A quote from Einstein said “Man cannot solve the problems he created with the same level of intelligence with which he created them”.  In other words, to solve a problem, access a higher level of wisdom, and to do that we need to find or become someone with more wisdom.  Become smarter.

How can we become more intelligent when facing a challenge?

Specialised knowledge is required to solve a specific problem.  Go to the source of wisdom in that area.  Research, learn, outsmart your challenge.

Financial challenge – perhaps too much debt?

The local library has resources on debt and creditor control, but also resources on creating more income and cashflow.  Life Change 90 presented the Financial Empowerment blog recently.  It also has brilliant strategies on how you can become financially empowered by accessing higher financial wisdom and thinking.

Social challenge?

Personal development, working on your Self Confidence and Self Esteem can make a huge difference.  There are simple and easy ways to improve these critical areas of your life, when you know how.  These blogs HERE and HERE provide a pathway to tools, resources and education in those areas.

Health Challenge?

There are two parts to a health challenge:  Firstly, finding the cure and recovering from your illness, if that is possible.  Secondly, managing to live and function and have a quality of life while you face your health challenge.

#challenges

Starting over in a new life
Image from amputee.com

Facing a health challenge can be debilitating.  Whether it is pain, energy levels, tiredness, nausea, headache or more, when it is constant, it wears you down, slows thinking and numbs your feelings and emotions.  It is relentless.  The most positive person will face times of despair when it just seems too hard, too painful and just too much.  We wrote about this in the Challenges Of Chronic Illness Blog.  All the while you are feeling so miserable, you also face the medication, the hard work that you and your mind and your physical body must still do to actually look for and implement the cure and the healing process.  It’s even harder if there is no recognised cure and symptom management is your only apparent option.

What does your particular challenge have in common with all other challenges?

There are a few aspects of facing a challenge that are common to each, and therefore have a way of being handled and managed.  There are specifics which are unique to each individual challenge, and you will learn to handle these once you get the fundamentals down. Let’s look at the common aspects for strategies towards success.

Challenge Fundamentals

#challenge

We all need goals!
Image from traducirco.com

First:  Goalsetting.  It is vital to the life of every person on the planet, but handled differently when facing a severe challenge.  When life is easy, you can set huge goals and risk everything on them because you feel invincible.  But that’s not now.  Your goals need to be small, step by step goals that you might mark off in hours, or even minutes.  The increments to your milestones might be tiny, but they are there.  When you achieve them, you must celebrate like crazy!  For a person learning to walk after losing their legs in an accident, running a marathon is not the goal; just standing up is the challenge.  When you make it, celebrate!  And when you take the first step again, celebrate that too!  The marathon can come later; right now, let’s just take one more step!  Keep your goals small enough to achieve realistically, without compromising other critical areas of your life.  Celebrate each in your own way when you achieve them.

Second:  Support.  Who do you have around you?  A team is important.  Not necessarily friends because sometimes they try to not hurt your feelings, by not telling you the truth.  Someone impartial.  Maybe a coach?  Your church minister?  Someone who can be a mentor to you and honestly let you know how you are doing, by providing objectivity.

Third:  A program.  You MUST be organised.  This challenge will wear you down unless you have a plan of attack for it, and you follow that plan.  The plan needs to address your goals, and keep you up to working towards your goals every day.  It needs to empower your motivation to keep you inspired, even through tough times.  Affirmations and encouragement, inspirational education, new ways to look at obstacles, and challenges to broaden your thinking to find new solutions.  It should make you think laterally, to give you a fresh perspective.

Fourth:  Personal development and education.  To rise above your challenge, you need to be more of you than you are now.  Self education, self development, growth and evolution are required.  Your program must provide a pathway to a new level of consciousness if it is to work for you.

Fifth:  Encouragement.  A platform and a process to recognise and celebrate learnings, lessons and achievements.  When you have a win, it must be acknowledged.  Every night, you need your program to register your activities and achievements so you can chart your production and progress.

Sixth:  A Supportive Environment.  Even if you are totally alone, you need an environment around you that is positive and uplifting, conducive to success and progress, even if much of it is internal to begin with; especially to begin with – the time of most challenge!  This is when self-discipline and focus on goals is most critical, to enable you to build momentum towards your goals, to consolidate new habits where necessary, and to leave the old ones behind.  Your program must create this environment around you.

To learn about and access such a program, CLICK HERE for the framework and the features you need to build in, and the benefits it will give you.  Plug your life and your challenges into this program, to look at your world in a new light.  The light at the end of the tunnel!

If you feel better able to handle your challenges after reading this post, please reblog it and share it around.  You may be doing a friend or someone in your family the favour they have been secretly praying and crying out for!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails!

Ray Jamieson

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment, to assist you with your specific challenge.

Empowered by Gratitude

Empowered by my Failures

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Financial Empowerment

Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Teens

Empowerment for Children

Personal Empowerment

What would an empowered man do?

Empowered by love

#challenges

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?

#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.

#Gratitude

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.

#Gratitude

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
“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
“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.

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! 

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

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Financial Empowerment

Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Teens

Empowerment for Children

Personal Empowerment

What would an empowered man do?

Empowered by love

Empowered by my Failures

#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.

#failures

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.

#failures

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?

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.

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

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Financial Empowerment

Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Teens

Empowerment for Children

Personal Empowerment

What would an empowered man do?

Empowered by love

 

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

#Integrity

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.

#Integrity

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.

#Integrity

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.

#Integrity

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.

#integrity

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’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.

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

#Integrity

Jim Rohn as I knew him
Image from mlmtraffictactics.com

 

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment:

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Financial Empowerment

Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Teens

Empowerment for Children

Personal Empowerment

What would an empowered man do?

Empowered by love

Prayer for change

#prayer for change

Prayers count, no matter who prays!
Image from www.atotheword.com

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
― Bernard M. Baruch

A Prayer for Change

While looking at my blog today, I chanced upon a section of the dashboard I hadn’t noticed before.  It showed the search terms people had used most to find my blog online.  It shocked me to realise what it meant.

The two top terms were:

  1. Prayer for change in my life

  2. Empowered Person

If ever there was a cry for help, both these terms are screaming it from the rooftops! Prayer for change and seeking empowerment!

For two decades I have delivered life changing workshops and seminars all over my country on exactly these topics, and the cry has been the same:

“I expected more out of life than this, by now!”

#prayer for change

I expected more out of life than this, by now!
Image from www.sott.net

I have heard it from teenagers, from young disillusioned couples, from parents with teenage kids, and from retirees, who were struggling still, after a lifetime of struggle.  A #prayer for change, if ever there was one!

When we were in school, we were told, and probably you were too:  “Study hard, get good grades, get a good job and have a good life!”  Well, these people all followed those directions and by the time they came to my workshops, that is how they felt – ripped off!  It was a lie, and they had fallen for it!  And now, they have this prayer for change!

There’s nothing wrong with having a good education and getting a good job.  However, that’s not it – that’s just the start!  Your education continues and it’s a lifelong program you are enrolled in!  The school of life is never on holidays – it always has something to teach you!  The question is – are you ready, willing and able to learn?

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

For those people truly desiring change and empowerment, we have provided the Life Change 90 Program. Click here to learn more about Life Change 90.

For those people searching for a prayer for change, here is mine – click on this link for the whole blog:

Today, My Perfect Day

A day that I could begin by being of service to another, to start their day also with inspiration and love.

A day when I could plan and begin projects – dreams that could take all of my tomorrows to complete.

A day I would live as though it was my last, as though there would be no tomorrow.

A day when I would play the games I play to the limit,

To laugh as hard as I can,

To love as passionately as I am able,

To work and achieve to my capacity,

yet with time to rest and relax with my loved ones

until we are full of the love we have for one another.

A day when there is time to reflect,

To consider those whose fortunes have not yet been realised, as mine have,

To pray that they may be realised – soon.

A day which closes with a Prayer of Thanks to the Great Spirit and all the guides I have,

for watching over me through this day,

and to ask them to guide me through the next,

so that again someone might say:

“I’m glad that you came by!”

© Ray Jamieson 1993

#prayer for change

A pot of gold, after all?
Image from wordlesstech.com

For those searching for Empowerment, there is a whole series of empowerment blogs for you, everything from Financial Empowerment, to Empowerment for Men, Women, Children and Teens, and explanations on what Empowerment means and how to gain it!  The full list is below.

Thank you for your searches, and thank you for looking to Life Change 90 and our program for the answers to your prayer for change, and for your personal empowerment, in whatever form you desire it.  I hope we have helped you and you know that we will continue with our aims to empower many more people, in times to come.

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, and I hope your prayer for change is answered!

Ray Jamieson

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment:

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Financial Empowerment

Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Teens

Empowerment for Children

Personal Empowerment

What would an empowered man do?

Empowered by love

Financial Empowerment

#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.

#Financial Empowerment

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 21st 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.

#Financial Empowerment

Since my divorce….!
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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.

#Financial Empowerment

Super Dad!
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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.

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!

Examples of residual income are:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Leasing out equipment, rental cars, machinery etc.  Lots of money initially but a higher ROI, because of a shorter working life of the equipment.
  4. A second job?  Doesn’t qualify, as there is no residual income.  However, this is where most people look when they need more money.
  5. 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:

  1. Contracting your skills, such as through ELANCE, or being a virtual assistant
  2. E-Bay trading, buying and selling items
  3. Shares and options trading, taking a parcel of money and actively trading with it – be careful of the risks! Only for skilled traders!
  4. Consulting and providing advice, for a fee
  5. Website sales of an item, product or service, sometimes digital products or information
  6. Using a website in conjunction with a bricks and mortar business for mail-order sales
  7. Writing and publishing online
  8. 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.

#Financial Empowerment

Internet Business Opportunities!
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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:

Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Teens

Empowerment for Children

Personal Empowerment

What would an empowered man do?

Empowered by love

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

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