You know that you’re going to make it big someday. You repeat this belief to your spouse, your parents, and your kids. But, there’s always something getting in your way. Why hasn’t it happened yet?

You think:

„If only I buy this product, my life is totally going to change.“

„If only I get ahold of this tool, it will all come together.“

„If only I could get rid of this problem in my life, I could have made it big already!“

„If only I had more money, I could really succeed in earning a good income.“

„If only I had more time, I could make more money.“

These are thoughts you repeat to yourself to mask what’s really going on. Do you, deep down, think things are going to change on their own? Can you really see yourself becoming one of the ones who make it big with your dream?

If you’ve been at this for a while and you’re still dreaming instead of doing, or if you’re doing and not getting anywhere, then you might have a scarcity mindset and it’s holding you back.

I like to use the visual of „treading water“ because that’s really what it’s like. Your feet are kicking away like crazy and you’re dead-tired from all the work and effort you’re putting in. But you’re not getting anywhere because you’re too scared and the current is working against you. The observers standing on shore can tell you’re not getting anywhere.

You mean well and you work hard, so why isn’t it coming together? You know you’d much rather be swimming through life with ease but something is holding you back.

That something is you… and believe me, I’ve been where you are.

You have a scarcity mindset that tells you that you can’t achieve your dreams– that you may not even deserve to achieve your dreams. This mindset mocks you and torments you but it does it in a silent way so you don’t even realize it’s invaded your brain.

It’s time to stare the scarcity monster in the face and take control. It’s time to develop a mindset of abundance so you can change your life in incredible and measurable ways.

The Backwards Power of a Scarcity Mindset

How is it that these subconscious thoughts can have so much control over your life? To understand that, it’s helpful to understand how I’m defining “scarcity mindset.”

A scarcity mindset boils down to the belief that wealth, achievement, and happiness are meant for other people. This mindset may be so encoded in your mind that it’s never even occurred to you that it’s there. You might have an ingrained belief that money is bad, that striving to earn more is bad, and that you’re bad if you don’t stick to what’s expected of you.

You may believe, deep down, that money is the root of all evil (the more accurate saying is that the love of money is the root of all evil, but many people believe the first version). You may believe that it’s impossible, immoral even, to earn money if it didn’t come from the result of blood, sweat, and tears.

In your heart, you may believe that your life is going to change in so many scary and unpredictable ways if you do achieve your goals that it’s definitely safer to stay in the situation you’re in right now, even if that means living a life of financial hardship and self-perceived failure.

There’s a social aspect to this as well. People love to complain about how hard life is and they take pleasure in finding similar misery in others. People at work love to gather around the water cooler and talk about how hard everything is and how much their job stinks. It’s expected in our society that we go to work, attempt to climb some arbitrary ladder of success, and hate every minute of it. It’s expected that a certain number of people will earn a ton of money but the rest of us will fight for the leftovers. That’s just how it is, and who are you to rock the boat?

You’re you, that’s who.

You’ve felt a calling to do something different and more. This calling might make you feel guilty, particularly if no one in your life really understands. Work for yourself? Strive to earn more? The concept seems completely nuts to a lot of people. Their perception can make you feel completely nuts.

But then, you start to meet people who are making it big. Or, you see their stories in the news. These people are earning a ton of money and they make it seem so easy. You know there are scams out there, but the people you’ve met seem to be completely legit. People spend an incredible amount of money, you reason, so there has to be someone at the other end of that.

You start digging into the various business models and see stars and dollar signs in your eyes. It’s a complete rush– the endorphins are going and you’re energized, happy, and sure your life is about to change in a major way.

You buy a ton of stuff, tell everyone you know about it, and try to get it to work. But it doesn’t work. The money doesn’t start rolling in, after all. You spend all this time in panic and desperation, you’ve spent all this time trying these different methods, you’ve spent bucket loads of money, but it’s not working.

And again, I can empathize with you. I’ve been there, done that, and survived to talk about it.

You know it’s possible to achieve your dreams. You know there are dozens of viable profit models within and you’ve tried so many of them. But you’re still stuck at your old job or with no job at all, except now you have credit card bills on top of it all. You’ve wasted time and you just feel completely crushed. You were dreaming and hoping so big and look at you now.

What if I told you this is one of the most common stories among those who are ready for more? What if I also told you that I have the cure?

It doesn’t come in the form of a pill or a bottle or a push-button course that’s going to „put piles of money into your bank account.“ Everything you need is what you’re reading right in front of you. If you’re feeling lost and frustrated and terrified that you’ll never reach your goals, never earn enough money, and never feel good about your business or life again, stay tuned. The answers are here and I know these revelations are going to be very life changing for a lot of people…

… including, hopefully, you.

How to Develop an Abundance Mindset

Now that you recognize the possibility that you have a scarcity mindset, it’s time to figure out how to change things. I don’t write about having a scarcity mindset to make people feel bad or to feel like there’s no hope. There absolutely is hope that you can ditch that mindset and attract abundance in your life. This is true even if you think certain patterns in your childhood brought you to this point or you feel like you’re totally stuck.

Have you heard of „The Secret,“ a very popular book from several years ago? Don’t worry; I’m not going to get into too much of some of the more controversial airy-fairy content from that book and movie. But I am going to talk about the Law of Attraction.

Whether you believe in its more mystical qualities or not, it’s indisputable that, on average, people who are positive, seek positive opportunities, and have a mindset of success tend to find success. Those who are negative, turn down new opportunities, and have a mindset of scarcity do not tend to find success.

You can find a lot of material about The Law of Attraction if you’re curious about that more mystical side, but I’m going to distill it down to the above, for the purposes of this content. Think positively and actively seek positivity in your life, and you will find it. If you actively look for problems and why things can’t or won’t work, you’ll attract negativity in your life.

It’s sort of like when I was driving down the highway, and my wife said to me that most of the cars we were encountering were white. I hadn’t noticed that, but as soon as she said it, my senses were tuned into car colors, and sure enough, there were more white cars than silver or red or blue or black.

I’m not saying that the fact that I was noticing this made them suddenly turn white, but what I’m saying is that expecting positive things to happen to you in your life can easily tune you into opportunities that you’d otherwise miss.

If you think things won’t work, they won’t. If you come up with all the reasons why you won’t succeed, you won’t. If you think your customers won’t buy, they won’t, or at least they won’t in the numbers that you want.

Unfortunately, even if you become aware of these patterns and thoughts, your subconscious mind can sneak into the background and will make you revert back to old patterns. This is true even if you’ve made a decision to develop a new habit or make changes to reach a goal.

You’ll self-sabotage so you don’t reach your goals because your subconscious feels its job is to make you stick to what’s „true“ about you. If you don’t believe you deserve to have money, your subconscious will sabotage you. That’s why it’s time to change your internal beliefs and mindset. You need to have an abundance mindset so your subconscious will not sabotage you, rather it will aid you in ways you won’t even realize.

Think of This in a Whole New Way

We were born to be creative, smart thinkers. We are designed to use our minds to make our lives and the lives of others better. If you go through life with a scarcity mindset, you won’t just be holding yourself back; you’ll be preventing others from benefiting from the great things you’re going to do with your life.

When you think of it like that, it almost seems selfish to stick to your old patterns and have a scarcity mindset. There are wonderful things waiting for you, you just have to tap into them. Your outcomes and success can be anything you want them to be. Commit yourself to changing your life and the lives of others and you just might be more motivated to follow through.

Consider how you feel about yourself. Do you feel you’re worthy of finding success? You have to think of yourself in a positive way. You’re a good person who is going to do wonderful things. If you believe you’re bad or unworthy, you’re not going to get very far.

The classic and beloved Winnie The Pooh stories feature an Eyeore character that is always gloomy. He’s negative and expects that bad things will happen to him. So, bad things happen to him. He doesn’t live in a nice house like his friends, though they are always trying to help him build one.

Don’t be an Eyeore. Life really isn’t that serious or bad. The money is out there, you deserve it, you can help a lot of people, and you live in a fantastic time where you can create your success, and quickly. There is literally nothing standing in your way.

By the way, having an abundance mindset doesn’t mean everything will run smoothly all the time. You will make mistakes and bad things will happen in life and in business. But when you have an abundance mindset, you’ll be able to bounce back very quickly. Nothing will hold you down for very long. You’ll know that as long as you’re alive, you’re going to live life on your own terms and you are going to succeed.

Your Abundance Mindset Will Determine Your Outcomes

What do you believe success means? It’s important to define this for yourself so you can work toward that. You might find that your concept of „success“ changes when your mindset changes. In order to achieve your goals, they have to be measurable and realistic. But what you believe is realistic and achievable right now might be different after you’ve read this content and applied its concepts.

You have to believe that you are an intelligent, kind, creative, and quick-thinking individual. That will come across in everything you do in your business and in your life. If you think badly of yourself, you’re going to hold yourself back. You won’t take the bull by the horns and do what it takes, because you won’t believe you have what it takes.

It doesn’t matter what you’re going through right now, or how much money you do or don’t have right now. You can change. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, you’ll see the positive changes you want to see in your life if you develop an abundance mindset.

If you think abundantly, you’ll find abundance. If you believe you can do amazing things, you will do amazing things. If you believe that you can live life on your own terms, find success, and help people along the way, you will.

The Power of Opportunity

Think back to the past year or so. Did you take every great opportunity that came your way? Or, were you too scared or worried or totally ignored the opportunity? Reflect on this and really be honest with yourself as you consider whether you’ve truly taken every opportunity that was presented to you.

Successful people with a mindset of abundance are always on the lookout for new opportunities. They want to try new things (that are in line with their goals), work with new people, and take risks others aren’t willing to take.

If you want to be more successful, and develop a mindset of abundance, it’s time to seize the opportunities that present themselves to you. Take some risks– it’s scary, but it’s how success stories are made.

Right now, the opportunities might not be very clear. It might feel like every door is closed to you. Reflect on why this is and start to brainstorm where these opportunities might be lurking. They will quickly come out of the shadows so you can seize them to work in your life.

One story I love to tell is about when I owned a retail store. We sold collectibles, and mostly to boys and their fathers. At one point I sensed an opportunity to get into a new line of merchandise, whose main customer base was girls and mothers. I’m talking about Beanie Babies (back in the 1990’s).

So when I proposed this new product line to my wife, she was against the idea, but I convinced her that the initial inventory cost would be modest, and we should just try it for a while.

Long story short, that decision totally changed my life. Because of that, I got into an entirely different line of merchandise that I could sell not only in my store, but on the Internet. I first sold on eBay, and then set up my own web site, and things just exploded from there.

I saw possibilities rather than problems, and that path has led me to where I am today.

Creating a New View of Yourself and Living a Life of Abundance

You want to develop a mindset of abundance, so you have to change the way you view yourself. Let’s do an exercise that can help you see an instant new view. Create a list of 10 things you believe to be true about yourself as a person and a businessperson.

Now, create a list of 10 things you think others believe to be true about you.

Then, ask close friends and family members to list the top 10 things they think of when they think of you.

This is an interesting exercise. The three lists might be fairly closely aligned, or you might find some major surprises in your answers and in the answers of others. Either way, the way you feel and present yourself to the world will be made clear. That can be eye opening in a way that can help you get unstuck and come closer to the person you want to be with the mindset you want to have.

Awareness is the first step. Then, it’s changing your views and patterns. You can become conscious of some of your more negative thoughts so you can take steps to change them. Studies show that it takes around 21 to 30 days to create a new habit. I recommend working on just one thing at a time.

For instance, do you tend to complain that you don’t have enough time to work on your business? That’s a scarcity mindset. You have 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour a day. You can get a lot done in that time. Every little bit helps, and someone with an abundance mindset would see that right away and would chip away at their larger projects until the success started rolling in more quickly than they expected. Focus on changing your view and habit that you don’t have enough time.

Or, maybe you’re not willing to invest anything into your business. You hate the idea of spending any money at all, even if you know you’re likely to turn that money into huge profits, very soon. You think something will happen, or that the money will disappear, or something else terrible will happen. Turn that pessimism into optimism. You don’t have to spend money you don’t have, but giving up a few bucks for a method or tool or advertising strategy that can give you major returns is just smart business. If this is an issue for you, focus on changing this habit and this mindset issue this month.

As you can see, habits help form our beliefs about ourselves. We have well worn patterns in our lives. We do the same things and think the same things and always will, even if we set lofty goals, until we break down the habits, thoughts, and beliefs that are causing the problems and take steps to change them to form a life and business of abundance.

The post Abundant Thinking appeared first on Time Toasters.

Many people think it’s impossible to get past that hard part and get motivated, especially if you’ve been in a particularly difficult slump for a long time. Maybe you’re drained of energy, not sure which direction you should take your business in, and just generally feeling out of sorts and not on top of things.

The good news is that it’s easier than you think to get motivated and feel refreshed in your business. You can completely revamp your mindset. It can happen today, in fact. And once you do this one simple thing, everything will suddenly become so much clearer. Your path to more money and greater business success will suddenly seem so much smoother.

It doesn’t matter who you are and how much experience you have in business; this is going to help you in major ways. Revisit this section every once in a while and you’ll be able to count yourself among those who know the true secrets to success.

Here’s the Answer—Goals and Whys

The answer? It’s knowing WHY you’re in business in the first place and setting solid, specific goals that will help you get to where you want and need to be. It might sound simple and obvious– maybe you’re even rolling your eyes right now because of course you need to know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Of course you need to have goals… silly, right?

Do yourself a favor– don’t dismiss what I’m telling you outright. Instead, be honest with yourself. Have you really figured out your honest and true Reason Why that you’re in business? Do you have solid and extremely specific long and short-term goals that you revisit on a very regular basis?

Don’t worry if you don’t. You’re definitely not the only one. It’s easy to think you have all your ducks in a row until you really start taking a deep look into your business. Now’s the time to start. And the beautiful thing is that it will help you gain instant focus. It will help you do better and be better. Having a reason why and setting specific goals in your business can motivate you to more and better action, starting right away.

Doing this today can completely transform your business and help you earn more than ever before, and that’s the honest truth. Whether you’re completely stuck in your business and you don’t know what to do or you’re just looking to grow, expand, and achieve even bigger dreams, this is the way to do it.

How to Figure Out Your Reason Why

You might think that your reason why you’re in business is to earn money. That seems pretty logical, right? Sure, you want to earn more money, but that’s often not enough. That’s not a big enough motivator- not by a long shot.

There’s something else that can drive you to success beyond your wildest dreams as soon as you’re able to identify what that is. There’s something else that’s your life’s purpose. For me, it’s helping to change the lives of others. It means a lot to me to help others find success. It gets me up in the morning. It keeps me active and motivated. Yes, money’s important to me, but this is so, so much more important.

My reason why at the start of this century was to get out of the crushing load of debt I was under, to eliminate a very specific amount of financial worry, and to improve my health and happiness for myself and for my family. It took a while but I accomplished those goals, and that why went away, replaced with something else.

What’s your reason why? What’s going to motivate you and drive you to work hard even when you don’t really feel like it at all? Figure out what that is for you. Brainstorm and take notes until you can pinpoint what’s truly important to you– usually above and beyond money. Why are you in business? What’s going to be your legacy?

Finding Your Goals

Once you know the reason why you’re working so hard and want to be so successful, you can start to investigate your goals. Again, this can’t just be something vague like „earn more money.“ Consider your reason why. Knowing that alone should be very highly motivating for you.

Now, think about how you’re going to fulfill or achieve that reason why. What are your goals for life and business? What are your goals for your wealth, health, happiness, freedom and lifestyle?

Don’t be vague. It’s time to get really specific. What are your specific short-term financial goals? Write them down—the exact numbers and deadlines. What are your exact long-term financial goals? Write them down—exact numbers and figures.

Brainstorm your goals at first and then narrow things down from there. You might surprise yourself with what you come up with. You’ll likely find clarity you’ve never found before and that will be very exciting for you. It reinvigorates you and gives you purpose.

Your Goals and Reason Why Work Hand In Hand

Your goals and reason why work together. When you know what you’re doing and why and where you want to go, you can achieve amazing things. You finally know what you’re aiming for instead of fighting your way through, aiming in the dark. That’s what this is all about—finding clarity, purpose, and direction in your business.

Writing It Down Helps

It’s one thing to have these very specific facts and goals figured out in your mind. It’s another thing to write them down. There’s something about connecting the pen to paper that gives goals life. It’s almost like magic—your brain can start moving you toward the actions you need to take to achieve your goals… simply because they’re now solid and real.

They aren’t swimming around in your mind, unclear and uncertain. They’re on paper, they’re in front of you, and they’re what you’re determined and excited to achieve, no matter what.

Revisit This Often

I recommend you write your very specific long and short term goals down right now. This is an exercise you’ll want to do on a regular basis. In fact, you might want to revisit your goals every day. Many successful people review their goals in the morning and/or before they go to bed at night.

They’re adding new goals and either adjusting or achieving the old goals. What seemed like a huge, impossible goal just a short time ago becomes so much more achievable and they move their goals up, up, up.

It’s like a GPS device, in that you keep on track and don’t wander down rabbit holes or take a wrong turn halfway to your destination.

Don’t just set your goals and get excited for today… allow yourself to get excited for a lifetime because your business can be whatever you want it to be. Set very specific goals and revisit your reason why you’re running your own business and working so hard on a very regular basis.

Your Mindset, Goals, and Reason Why Will Absolutely Help You

This isn’t just one of those exercises that’s just there to prevent you from getting to the good stuff. This is the good stuff. Work on your mindset and you’ll suddenly start to see the success you’ve always dreamed you’d see.

Solidify your goals and grab hold of your Reason Why and there’s nothing you can’t achieve if you set your mind to it. Doing this will motivate you and excite you. You’ll start to see solutions to problems and new angles that will help you achieve so much more. This is exciting—do this today. Figure it out, write it down, and get motivated.

The post Goals and Whys appeared first on Time Toasters.

Hello, Jason Fladlien here, and today I want to discuss with you how an IM’er, an Internet Marketer, can make a difference in somebody else’s life.

There’s some interesting stuff here. I think you’re going to get a lot of benefit from this, because once you know how to deliver value better than your contemporaries deliver value, you’re going to make a lot more money. Some of this stuff is pretty obvious, but I have my own slants on it as I always do. And some of the stuff is not so obvious, and a lot of people overlook that. The result is they don’t infuse that in their marketing, and therefore, that’s one less competitive advantage they bring to the table.

Once you can understand how you can impact people’s lives and all the different ways you can do so, if you can create a plan to put as much of that into your business as possible, you’re going to kick some butt.

So when I do my internet marketing, I think to myself „What’s my job?“ And here’s really my job. It’s these things right here. We’re going to break all of these down for the most part.

My main task is to bring a simple solution to a crippling problem, but I also have to listen to them. This is a dynamic relationship, where we have to feel each other out and see what’s going on so we can work together.

The other thing here is some people like to live through others. That’s why television is so popular, because it gives us a peek inside worlds that we never see. And so I have to be able to give them a peek inside my world that they otherwise would not get access to the excitement. I’m in the inner circle. I’m making all this cash. I’m doing all these things right, and I still have integrity. They want to know what that looks like. So that’s another thing I give them.

My job is to look out for their best interests in a way that nobody else is. So I do things for them that I make sure are helpful for them, that’s not necessarily going to make me any money that you can trace to it making money, but it’s going to build a lot of good will, which will then make me money. Like I said, it’s not something very easy to trace, but I know it’s important.

So there’s times where I’ll sacrifice part of my profits or I’ll sacrifice some of my time just so I can look out for their best interests. I’ll tell them what products not to buy. I’ll tell them the traps to avoid that I know they are easily sucked into and pay money for because they get tricked. I tell them „Hey, I’m not going to trick you, and this is what you should avoid, even though, yes, I know I can use this and making a ton of money. I’m not going to because I’m looking out for your best interest.“

Be their source of unbridled optimism. There’s so much negativity out there. They need somebody to turn to who is constantly showing them the other side, the better path to take.

Finally, offer them something they can’t get anywhere else. If you do all these things, you’re going to make this true.

So let’s break down and look at some of these things individually.

The first thing here that you want to do, the main crutch in your business, the main thing that’s going to make a difference to somebody’s life is to bring a simple solution to a crippling problem.

So, for example, I’ve taken people who were broke and turned them into $40 an hour ghostwriters. So they were able to work from home, make twice or three times or even four times or even five times, actually, as much money as they ever had previously in their life, and I was able to do that for them quickly so they could measure it. They were extremely thankful. I made a difference in their lives, and they love me. They tell everybody about it, and basically, they look at every other thing that I put out there. Now they have more money to buy my other stuff — awesome.

And I’ve shown people how to write sales letters in two hours when before they couldn’t do it in two years. What did I do? One of the big things I did is I gave them something that gave them confidence that they could do it. And confidence is so valuable because a lot of people lack that. I made a difference in their life. I have changed their thinking. I have literally changed what goes on inside their head in a way that’s going to make them more valuable as a person to humanity at large. And they love me for that. They’re so happy. They’re willing to pay me a lot of money to get stuff like that. That’s great.

I did the same thing with product creation. I cut down people’s article-writing times from 50 minutes to 5 minutes. Think about how you make a difference in somebody’s life. Time is the most valuable resource that there is. I say „Here. I can get you the same result. I can do it quicker every single time.“ So if you write ten articles, I’m saving you 450 minutes. That’s a lot of time. That’s six or seven hours that you could be spending with your family. That’s six or seven hours you could be devoting your time to your hobbies, six or seven hours you could be doing other stuff that would make you more money or make you money that you otherwise couldn’t make — whatever. I’m giving you time, and time can make all the difference in somebody’s life.

Really, that’s what I’m doing. I’m finding solutions to crippling problems — simple solutions — that if they really acted on it and they had the propensity to do it, they would get the result too. That’s one of the ways I changed a life. That’s the most obvious.

Let’s get a little bit deeper with it.

The second part of your job in how to make a difference in somebody’s life is to listen to them. In life, we all seem like strangers. It’s so weird. Sometimes I’m driving my car, and I just look at all the cars go by, passing me or I’m passing them on the interstate. I’m like „I never will know this person, this person, this person, this person. I’ll never know any of these people.“

And then I see all the semis, because I live in Iowa, and you can see about 17 semis on the interstate in about five minutes. I’m thinking „Man, they’re taking all this stuff to places. These people created all this stuff. These other people are going to use this stuff and spread it out to all these other people, and I’m never going to know any of this.“ I’m standing in line at the store, and I’m like „I don’t know any of these people here. I don’t know anybody in this whole store.“

It seems in life, 99 percent of the people we pass by are strangers. And so a lot of people feel alone because of that, or isolated. Most people feel that they have no one to turn to, no one to talk to, no one that knows what they’re going through. That’s especially true in the information business, where everybody looks at us like weirdos because we want to read something or watch something or listen to something that’s going to try to give us a new skill that we didn’t possess. Most people don’t think like that.

So when you go out there and you try to better yourself in a world where nobody tries to better themselves, you get this disdain. There’s no one you can really turn to very easily who understands.

So they want to be able to feel like you’re there, you understand, because you know what they want, because you have heard their cries. You have listened to their problems, and you’re finding solutions for them.

Basically, they want somebody who understands them. They want somebody they can look at and say „Hey, I’m just like him. I can do the things he’s done. I just have to know what he knows.“ And then they want to listen to you so they can get what you know so they can do it too. That’s simple.

So that’s the second big part of your job.

The third one that a lot of people overlook is to give them vicarious thrills. Some people — the value of just feeling like they got a glimpse inside the inner circle is extremely worth a lot of money to them. This is how practically the whole network marketing business, the multi-level marketing business, is run. Most people aren’t making money at all, but as long as they can be around others who are making money, they feel like they’re doing something, like they’re part of something. So they get value in that, and that’s value you should not underestimate.

Like I said, some people don’t have the nerve to be on the field, but they love to be in the stands. So a lot of people go to sports games and they’re like „Yeah, we’re playing the Patriots this weekend.“ „Oh, you’re on the professional football team then.“ „Well, no.“ We — they have an identity with that team even though they never could do it. Just by being in the stands, they feel like they’re a part of it.

And that’s what you kind of want to foster with your little group of buyers, your little group of prospects, or anybody that you can put a marketing communication message in front of.

If they can’t do it, at least they can say they helped somebody who could. This is another thing. If they felt like they were a part and they participated in your success story in some way, even though that person didn’t succeed, they felt like they contributed some value to humanity because they helped somebody make a difference in somebody’s life, and there’s value in that.

So they’ll tell them „I’m friends with someone who…“ — this is the water cooler talk. Or „Hey, I know a guy who…“ — this is your after work bar talk with your buddies. Or your family members — „Hey, I know somebody who…“ You’re telling them about me, or you’re telling them about whoever you’re looking to for advice on solving that simple solution to a crippling problem.

So you’ve got to give them the ability to understand and give them a glimpse of what you’re going through in your life, the things you do, so that way they can feel like they’re getting a vicarious thrill, like they’re participating in your success. And they’re going to be extremely responsive, because that’s a high-level value for them.

Let me again just reiterate. Some people just don’t have what it takes to do this. I’m not one of those people who believes everybody can do this. I know that there’s some people who can’t do this and never will be able to do this. And that’s okay, because they can do a lot of stuff I can’t do that make them money. They just probably can’t do it with internet marketing.

Now, that’s only a small portion of people, but some of those people just want to belong. And why rob them of that opportunity? While they’ll never have the aptitude to do it themselves, just by participating and seeing you do it and feeling like they helped and just being in that inner circle saying „I know this guy who…“ — that’s going to give them a lot of value.

Okay, so moving on. This is another way to make a difference in somebody’s life is to look out for their best interests. I know this sounds silly, but everybody is so self-interested that they don’t understand that it’s in your self-interest to help other people. It’s so weird. It’s like the more you give, the more you get. I don’t know how it works. I just know that it works.

One of your jobs is to warn them about potential threats that they would otherwise be unaware of. Sometimes it’s at the sacrifice of profits — yes, that’s true. I do this a lot. Sometimes it’s a sacrifice of contacts or of business partners. You just say „Hey, I like this guy and I follow him, but this is one opportunity that he’s a part of that I don’t endorse. And I don’t think you should get sucked in, because in my opinion, it’s flawed.“

You’re going to bat for your customers, and you’re alienating yourself. You’re running the risk that people are going to get mad at you. I’ve been threatened with lawsuits before because I told my customers I didn’t like this product. They’re like „That’s libel. You’re going to get sued.“ I’m just like „Whatever, man. I got to step up and look out for their best interests.“ Nobody else, in my opinion — when I looked around — nobody else was saying the things that I thought needed to be said, so I said them.

That’s your job, too. You’ve got to say the things that other people are afraid to say that you know are in your customers‘ best interest.

The other thing you need to do — and this kind of ties in with the next point here — is safeproof them from negative social conditioning.

You’ve got to be that guy who doesn’t allow them to be around their soul-sucking friends, who will tell them that they’re foolish or chasing a dream or whatever. You’ve got to look out and let them know that that’s going to happen to them. Then you’ve got to equip them with strategies to deal with that in a positive manner.

Finally, make small sacrifices for your customers from time to time. And again, sacrificing is in your best interest. It’s a great paradox. I love it that it works that way.

So from time to time, do things that don’t make you any money right away. Just do them because you want to give something back. So one time for my list I said „Hey, I’m doing two hours of free ad critiques. Here’s how it works: Send me your ad, your piece of copy. If you get it in to me, I’m going to take them in the order I get them. I’m going to critique this, and I’m going to put it up on the internet, and you can watch the video of my critique. This is free. Normally I charge a lot of money for a sales critique — $75 for a half an hour or $125 for a full hour. However, I just want to give something back to you, and this is the way that I thought I could do this. So reply to this, and you’ll benefit from it.“ And yeah, people loved that.

Another time I said „Hey, I’m going to put together a little source to refer people who ask me for ghostwriters to this page. So if you’ve got information as a ghostwriter and you do ghostwriting, send me your details. I’ll put this together, and then when people come and ask me for referrals, I’ll just send them to this page.“ I’m not making any money that way. It’s just taking up my time is what it’s doing, but I’m looking out for their best interests. I know if I can help them succeed, then they’re going to help me succeed. They’re going to want to help me succeed. That’s part of it.

This next thing is a major, major biggie that a lot of people just don’t understand. They overlook it in their business as a service provider, and they shouldn’t, and that’s to be the source of unbridled optimism.

70 to 80 percent of our thoughts are negative. If you are the average person, almost four out of five thoughts that you think are negative in nature. A lot of it has to do with the culture we’re raised in. When you’re a kid, what are you told all the time? „Don’t do that. No. Stop. Put that down. No, no, no, no, no.“

Then you go to school. Guess how they grade you. They don’t mark everything you got right on your paper. They only mark everything you got wrong on your paper.

And you’re usually taught by people who are not very successful. You’re taught by business teachers who have never ran a business in their life. You’re taught by art teachers who have never had a painting published or a work of art. You’re taught by musicians who have never toured or played a live gig before. You’re taught by chemistry teachers who the only chemistry they do is in their head, mixing chemicals about how negative they are. On and on and on.

You’re taught by all these people who make nothing. I’ve made more in a week than most starting teachers make in a whole year, and you’re taught by these people who make nothing and who are usually miserable and settle on teaching as a last resort. And this is what you grow up in, and you spend six hours a day, seven, eight hours a day in this environment for 15 years, 14 years, maybe more if you go to college.

And the result is you get all these negative thoughts by just being in the social cog — a machine.

So you as a service provider have to be that person that fixes that for them. You’ve got to be that person who gives them that ray of hope constantly from every single different angle that you can. You’ve got to be a living example of unbridled optimism.

This is very real to me. Recently my brother passed away, and what did I do? I showed my list of customers, I showed the people around me, how to respond to that situation. So I found every single positive thing I could take away from something so sad — like my 8-year-old brother passing away. It was tragic. And what did I do? I turned it into every single positive that I could, and I went out there and I showed them by example — unbridled optimism — how I’m going to get through this. I’m going to figure out how to make this work, and I’m going to actually be a better person because of this. I’m going to touch more people then I would otherwise touch. I’m going to turn this devastating challenge into an opportunity.

And everybody picked up on that. They were like „This is amazing.“ They got caught up in it, and I impacted their lives because of that. That’s the difference you can make in somebody else’s life. I showed them how to think positively in the most negative of all situations.

The other thing is the status quo is so freaking mundane. I grew up in a factory town where 25 percent of employed people worked at one factory, because it was a really big factory. So one out of every four working adults that you would see on the streets worked in this factory, and this factory works like this.

You typically work either first or second shift, but a lot of people work second shift, so your whole social calendar is screwed up. You work eight hours a day; you go home; watch TV; hang out with the wife or the husband; work eight hours a day; and then on the weekend you go out and get hammered because your life sucks so much. It’s boring.

The status quo is mundane, and you want to give them something that enlivens them and gets them excited. Normal people get normal results, so you don’t want to be normal, and you don’t want to explain stuff in a normal fashion. You want to explain stuff with a new slant, and you want to give them a new way of looking at doing the stuff that they’re doing in their lives and new approaches so they can get new results.

You want to be different than what the norm is. Offer them alternatives to the norm by giving them different options, like I was talking about.

Like I talked about earlier, show them how to handle setbacks properly. Be that example of how to always think positive no matter what situation occurs. Always point out the opportunity. Always show them the potential growth in any situation.

And finally, you never want to let them give up on their dreams. You always want to continue to push them to chase that ideal solution that they’re picturing in their mind 24/7. You always want to be able to be that person that says it’s possible. Show them every single testimonial you can. Show them every single case study that you can. Show them every factoid. Show them every bit of statistics. Show them every bit of your own personal insight. It shows that it’s possible for somebody who is determined to achieve their dreams, and that will make a difference in someone’s life.

It all boils down to this. It all boils down to offering them something of value that they just can’t get anywhere else. So if you can combine really good information with really actually listening to them deeper than most people do — give them a little glimpse into what their life could be like. Always look out for their best interests, and be that person, that ray of light, that rose that grows in the concrete in the middle of the street — be that thing. Be that unbridled source of optimism.

If you combine all these things together, then you’re going to be able to offer them not only the best information, but the best experience of their lives. They can’t get that anywhere else. If you do that, you’ll make a difference in somebody else’s life. And the cool thing is that if you help them get what they want, they are more than likely to help you get what you want.

So thank you for listening, and get out there now and do your job.

Jason Fladlien

The post How an IM’er Can Make a Difference in Someone’s Life appeared first on Time Toasters.

In the book I talked about how it was in 2005 that I sat down with myself after 3 long years of constant failure, told myself that I had to quit chasing what I now call “bright shiny objects”, and simplify things.

Bright shiny objects are the little things that glitter in your path as you move along in life. Things might be going relatively well, but a BSO will distract you from what’s working, and pull you off the path to something that looks enticing but is really just a distraction.

Although many other traits in your power arsenal are also essential, I truly believe that focus is the driving force of them all.

Unfortunately, it isn’t obvious how truly essential focus is to your success. What becomes obvious is what happens when you lack focus. You’re distracted from essential tasks. You become unproductive. You don’t get things done that need to be done. You start feeling frustrated. You begin to believe that you can’t reach your goals, or you stop setting goals altogether, or at best you set simple goals that are easy to reach and not the “stretch goals” that can truly change your life.

Worst of all, the BSOs that contribute to your lack of focus cause you to feel unworthy of success altogether because you think that you aren’t capable of performing up to your capability.

It isn’t that you aren’t capable, and it isn’t that you’re trying to do too many things; it’s that you’re trying to do too many things at the wrong time.

You see, you are indeed capable of doing multiple things, but usually not at the same time unless they’re trivial tasks. If you try to do multiple important tasks at the same time, none of them will get done well.

Chase two rabbits… both will escape.

One reason that chasing BSOs is detrimental to your success is that it’s a common symptom of procrastination. You might actually be trying to sabotage yourself by procrastinating on a task because you secretly have a fear of success.

Hardly anyone ever admits to a fear of success, but it’s very, very common.

You might fear success because you don’t want to leave your comfort zone. You’ve lived your entire life doing things a certain way, with a certain income, a certain set of friends, your family has adapted to the lifestyle you’ve allowed them to become accustomed to, etc.

Getting out of that comfort zone exposes you to unknown results, so rather than focus on doing what it takes to change, you let yourself be distracted, delaying the task that you should be working on.

So you don’t change, and you’re comfortable… but you’ve sabotaged your personal progress.

Fear of success is much more powerful that a fear of failure because most people aren’t even aware that they have this fear, and will resist being accused of it. You can’t begin to change a habit that you’re unaware that you have.

Awareness is indeed half (or more) of the battle.

I remember the Pogo comic strip, which is quite likely well before your time, and one of the famous and so appropriate quotes was „We have met the enemy and he is us.“

Learn to be aware of who the enemy is, and root him out of your mindset.

Here’s another exercise that will hopefully convince you of the power of focus…

What is there that you’ve been wanting to do, or wanting to learn, for years?

Let’s say that you (like me) wanted to become really good with a complicated software tool like Photoshop.

Right now I’m scared to death of anything that involves graphics, and I resist doing things that require them, even though they would be great for my business.

So I keep going along my merry way doing other things besides learning Photoshop.

How long do you think it would take to become proficient and comfortable with Photoshop if I really sat down and focused on it, ignoring everything else for as long as necessary?

I figure 2 8-hour days, maybe 3.

One of these weeks I’ll do it. Really I will. Until then I’ll advise you to do as I say, not as I do.

What have you always wanted to get good at? A programming language or HMTL or CSS? Running webinars or Google hangouts? Podcasting? Pay per click advertising?

It isn’t that you can’t do those things, it’s that you haven’t focused on learning how to do them yet.

Focus and you’ll be able to achieve much more than you ever thought possible in ridiculously short amounts of time. You can do anything you want to if you focus on it.

Did you ever try to keep track of how much time you actually spend each day doing tasks that contribute to your progress, your success, your income?

I’ll bet if you did, you’d be amazed at how much time you’re actually consuming that does nothing to move you forward. You check emails, you chat on Skype, you check your Facebook feed, and you watch all the funny videos. Then you contact someone to share those funny videos with them.

And on and on it goes all day, until you reach the end, and you’re exhausted, and you haven’t accomplished much of anything at all.

That has to stop. You have to focus on the task at hand. You need to be accountable to yourself at least, and to an accountability partner if you want the ultimate boost. Telling someone you’re going to get something specific accomplished in a given day is a good way to force yourself to actually focus on that task.

Inside The IM Inside Track, we’re going to stress the importance of focus over and over, and I’m going to be giving you some concrete methods that will help you improve your ability to focus as well. Hopefully my suggestions will lead to eventual formation of habits that will make the art of focusing second nature for you.

But until then, make it a conscious effort to be more focused on single specific tasks during your normal day, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.

The post Focus appeared first on Time Toasters.