Tag Archives: Mindset

Have You Heard of The Snowball Effect?

The snowball effect was originally an analogy that was used to describe the Great War. It simply means something of little to no significance building up to become miraculous and great. Snowball, was also the title for a book written about Warren Buffet.  He started out as not a big deal and then worked his butt off to eventually become one of the most powerful men in the world (one the richest).

Like a snowball, most of you are starting you careers or experiences with small significance. By that I don’t mean what your doing has no value because obviously it does. What I mean is that you probably have little to no power right now and will continue to have no power for a while. To become the all mighty powerful snowball, you must go down the right path.

A small snowball which is placed on a steep hill will go down much faster and collect more snow and become much bigger a lot quicker than if it weren’t a steep hill. Basic laws of physics.  However, the faster the snowball goes down the hill, the harder it will be to control the snowball toward the end of the path thereby possibly being destructive.

If you get rich to quick or too fast, you might lose control and be headed down a path of utter disappointment. It’s interesting to see that many people who win the lotto end up going broke shortly after.  Everything happens so quickly that they almost instantly lose sight of how things work.  It’s always better to go down the not so steep hill of life so you can progressively:

  • Get rich slowly – learn amazing experiences that will help you to be better off for longer durations, compared to being rich quick, loosing quick, and then trying to be rich quick again.
  • Create powerful connections – powerful connections will be very useful in various stages of your life including times when you want to go to the next level.
  • Build creditability – Your creditably is important because it’s how the public or masses view you. Your credibility can also help take you to the next level or help you in time of crisis.

Would you agree the snowball effect theory being valid? Do you find yourself on a slope too steep?

“You Miss 100% of the Shots You Never Take.”

If you watch hockey as much as I do, and I don’t, then you would probably have no clue that it was Wayne Gretzky who said this quote.  The interpretation of this quote is more than simple: if you don’t take the shot, then obviously you wont score.  It is physically impossible to make a shot that you never took.  To incorporate this outside of hockey and into your personal development, we intertwine this quote in the sense of wanting to take action, but not. No action, no reaction.

Not Even Trying

Has there ever been a time you wanted to do something, but got very nervous and didn’t go through with it? Maybe something like not taking an open shot during a basketball game and instead passing it to your teammate. How about picking up the phone to make a sales call, but rather thinking about what else you can do right now so you wouldn’t have to dial the number. Has anything like this every happened to you? If you aren’t willing to admit, I sure am.

I used to be the type of person who would pass the ball to my team mate even though I was wide open to take the shot only so I wouldn’t feel embarrassed if I missed it. I would also be the type of person who would rather not speak up because I was afraid to be rejected by the response I get. This made my life very mediocre, boring, and unfulfilled.

Who Cares?

Finally, I reached a breaking point and decided that if I don’t make a change, I will continue to be unhappy.  I started doing sales and overcame my fear of getting “no’s”, failing, embarrassment, rejection, and almost everything else that gave me a negative mindset.  And ever year after I turned 18 (no significance to that particular number) I decided I would change myself and adapt to how I need to be to become successful. My new mindset had the “who cares” motto attached to it.

  • Who cares if someone doesn’t like me?
  • Who cares if people think I am not good at something?
  • Who cares if I get embarrassed?
  • Who cares if I miss a shot?
  • Who cares if someone tells me no?
  • Who cares if I make a mistake?

Many things in life are uncertain, but one thing that is for certain is that you will fail over and over again. Sometimes you will fail only once before you succeed and other times you will fail 9,999 times before you succeed. In the words of Thomas Edison, “I didn’t fail, I learned 9999 ways that wouldn’t work”. Talk about a powerful mindset. If you were to gain control of your mindset in that way, would you see better results?

What You Can Do Right Now!

Success depends on the results you are able to get. No results, no success. If you already know that most of the time you must fail in order to see results, shouldn’t you fail forward as fast as you can? Are you still scared? If you are, why? Rejection and embarrassment are all in the same category as failure. If you are scared to fail like how I was when I was younger, your mindset will remain undeveloped and you will find yourself missing out on a lot of what the world has to offer. I know I did.  Luckily, I was able to turn myself around when I did so that I can finally begin to set myself up for a healthy and successful future.

Here is how you should start:

1. If you notice an opportunity, go with your first thought and move forward with it.

With this type of mindset, I could of scored a lot of points when I was playing basketball. Sure I might of missed some, but 3/10 is much better than 0/0. Have you ever passed up on an opportunity that ended up going mainstream or big time? Life in general is a risk. If you play it safe the rest of your life, I assure you that most of your dreams or wishes will never come true.

2. Fail forward fast.

I’ll probably get a lot of heat for this one, but you must fail in order to learn, grow, and gain experience. Everyone fails at something in their life and that’s perfectly normal. It will only make you stronger. Sometimes people fail over and over again i.e Thomas Edison, and it’s their persistence which finally leads them to some success.

3. Be comfortable being uncomfortable

I’ve said this several times before in my previous blog posts, and I will continue saying it future blog posts. Do things your uncomfortable with to radically change your mindset. If you find yourself taking a step back from something, take one leap forward.

4. Talent

If you want to be good at something, it takes practice and many years of it. This also means many years of loosing, failing, embarrassment, etc.  Look at any successful person’s track record and you will find yourself in a pool of failure

This entire article was to show you that if you don’t try something, you won’t ever know whether you can do something or not.

Not taking the shot is the same as missing the shot, so instead, how about you just take it?

Enjoy the Bad Economy with a Positive Mindset

MindsetThis word has been extensively used toward the end of 2008 and will continue to become popular throughout 2009. The obvious question: why? The loss of jobs, the horrendous stock market, inflation, and everything else that has been happening around us because of the bad economy. This can easily put anyone’s  mind in the gutter. I personally believe that most people right now have a terrible mindset. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that  you have 100% control over your mindset. You have complete control over your emotions and the decisions you make

So what exactly is mindset?

Mindset is a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations. To simplify, it means you Continue reading

Condition Yourself for Success

Condition Yourself for SuccessAs a child I was quiet and would keep to myself  because of this I was perceived as being submissive and shy,  I continued to be  this way thru ought my teenage years  up until I took part in the personal development industry.  What’s interesting is how I developed to be that way.  Because I was an introvert person my parents and family members referred to me as being shy. They, like most people, were not aware of the Continue reading

The Needs That Influence the Way We Live Our Lives

Needs

Certainty – Humans are beings of comfort and complacency. It is true that there is no guaranteed certainty, however, we much want certainty that we will live to see tomorrow, that the electricity works, you still have your job.

Uncertainty – Ironically, with too much certainty our lives would simply be Continue reading