Why I'm Doing Better Than I Was Three Years Ago

This is a note to all the politicians and the people that think that government will help you out.

First, the question that is a campaign tool for many politicians is "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" I am a fiscally conservative single heterosexual man who is doing better than he was four years ago. I even had to spend a weekend or two at a local homeless shelter here in downtown Atlanta as early as August 2007 and April 2008. So now, it's July 2011. How did I accomplish this miracle of improving my life in the midst of a financial crisis that is actually still going on?

The government didn't have a thing to do with it. I didn't get a stimulus check and I had business losses that gave my Federal tax benefits. I did not and do not see how the government did anything towards my personal progress except giving me the freedom to do it.

Perhaps, one of my best friends said it best: "You pulled yourself up by your bootstraps and pulled your head out of your ass."

1) I stopped drinking alcohol
2) I stopped smoking cigarettes
3) I took responsibillity for the results of my life
4) I invested in my mind and my continuing education
5) I read positive things, listened to positive things and started exercising
6) I started using Quicken software to better control my expenditures
7) I stopped wasting money on pipe dreams and "businesses" that I didn't have time to execute on.

Philosophically speaking, I came across "The Art of Exceptional Living" by Jim Rohn and "The Psychology of Winning" by Denis Waitley. I listened to them. I took notes. I red Atlas Shrugged because Jim challenged me to. I started pushing the limits of who I was into a new definition of Who I can be. I quit investing in a business that was doomed from the get-go and investing into more productive areas. I started paying off my debts and investing in me.

The bottom line is that I started accepting responsibility for my life. It's the only way to create change in your life.

My challenge to you is "Are you taking more responsibility for yourself than you wre four years ago?"

I deserve my successes...

This is Brian Tracy. He doesn't know it but he is one of my mentors. I own a lot of Brian Tracy audios and DVD's. I do something crazy with his audios and videos, like I watch the videos, listen to the audios and take notes, looking for the ideas that can change my life. The information I have recieved has been instrumental in the reconstruction of my life and the development in a philosophy that helps me work towards future successes.

One of my favorites is The Psychology of Selling By Brian Tracy. This is one of the first Nightingale-Conant programs I purchased back in 1999 or 2000 and although I lost that copy, I replaced it and still own it today. He basically outlines what is required in one of the toughest jobs in the world, commissioned sales. For years, I have wanted to achieve success in business. I have all the intelligence, if not more than necessary, but without a degree to get my career started, this has been the avenue to get started for me. For some reason there was always something holding me back, some unseen force I could not reckon with or conquer. For years, I tried and failed. For years, I could not get through the first 40 minute session on the "Self-Image."

One of the hardest things to overcome is the feeling of constant rejection that comes from being previously homeless. That feeling doesn't go away without a lot of effort. Here's the kicker though. Not too many people become accidentally homeless in the U.S. There is something that they were doing or something that they were not doing that got them there in the first place. It was almost as though I was rejecting myself from the successes that life COULD (and does) offer. The real task comes from getting one's stuff together and start achieving more and doing more.

In The Psychology of Selling, Brian puts forth that you cannot achieve anything unless you feel like you deserve the successes. From the perspective of a sales rep, if you feel that aren't worth more than $50,000 a year, you will never earn more than $50,000, for example. This is the "self-image" I had to re-create in myself. I started to re-create it by investing heavily in myself and getting caught up on doing the things I needed to do. I also had a lot of guilt stemming from things I should have done, but did not or could not complete...at least not at that time.

I've had to shed a lot of that guilt and realize that I am doing the best I can right now and things are only getting better for myself, and those around me.

More to follow...

MBN