This holiday season has been different for everyone. New home construction in our area has come to an almost standstill in the new economy. Two years ago, the builders that we worked with were closing a house a week or better, in 2009 it bottomed at one a month with one builder closing his doors and retiring. Right now we have three new home construction projects on the board for the next two quarters. Two years ago, that would have been a weeks worth of work on the big board.
So what can we do about it? The truth is nothing. We have no control over what is happening around us do we? So how could we have any control over this? We have a choice every day we wake up. We can accept our change as fate and just keep going with what we are doing, or we can look inward and accept responsibility for our reaction. When we look in the mirror every morning, we decide how we are going to react to the world. No one controls how we react to the world but us.
The worst thing we can do is be the victim. Everything becomes the worlds fault. It is easy to listen to yourself or other people and figure out if they have victim mentality. They say things like "Nothing ever goes my way" or "It isn't my fault, the government changed the rules". Nothing is ever their fault or responsibility. Sadly it is possible that you can have the "Money Victim" mentality too.
If you don't treat money as important, and if spend more than you make, you can quickly make yourself a money victim. It isn't your fault you are broke, your taxes are too high and your car is too expensive or any other excuse. Do you have friends that are money victims? Are you broke? Are you a money victim?
In the middle is a viewpoint driven by fate. In this view, you are just there as a result of a higher power. Everything that happens to you is a result of fate or of the desires of the higher power and we as humans merely exist.
I don't buy either of these two outlooks. Who or what decides which people will succeed and which don't, who or what decides which people will be rich and which will be poor. The only truth is we do. The day we each look in the mirror and accept that we are the only ones that can change our reaction to the world is the day we begin to change our world.
Every day we have to make choices. We make the choice to play or work. In our business we had a choice to open up to new opportunities or stick to what we were doing and watch the business die slowly. We could have dragged it out chasing other companies customers as they went out of business. Instead we changed the business.
I was watching an old TV show this weekend featuring Jesse James and his marriage before Sandra Bullock. It is clear that he makes decisions to work that cost him his family life. It makes sense that he has kept it together with Sandra Bullock this long. They are both successful work-a-holics. Neither of them gets dependent on the other. The payoff for both of them financially has been clear. Jesse has a successful chopper business, several different TV shows that did well, and he continues to focus, sacrifice and expand his abilities.
To Jesse, his work is his play. It is the kind of success we should all be trying to achieve every day. When you start your day tomorrow, look in the mirror and accept that your life is a result of your choices. You have a lot more control that you think. If you put an emphasis on making money, you will find a way to make more. When you put an emphasis on getting paid to do something you love, you will find a way. You are the only one that can make that choice and make your life. Life is too short to get up every day and do something you don't want to, or settling for something because it is your place in life.
Everyday we make choices, do we buy a $5.00 latte or put $5.00 in a savings account for a new car? $5.00 here and $5.00 there adds up to big bucks. Suze Orman has made quite a living reminding us of this simple fact. I know every day I run through McDonalds for a Diet Coke that I am choosing between increasing my net worth $1.65 and drinking $1.65 in less than an hour. I made the choice between the $5.00 Chai Tea Latte and the $1.65 diet Coke.
Every day we make choices about our diet, health, finances and actions which all add up to our overall success. Only when we recognize that we made those choices and are responsible for the outcome are we able to make better choices.
The book "So, Now What?" was written to help you figure out those choices, and make better decisions so you can make your life great and unique to you. The bottom line is that success takes a focus that most people don't have. If you stay focused on your goals and don't let other people interfere, you are on the path to success. There is not such thing as overnight success. Persistence is required too.
Get Focused, Stay Focused and let life be great.
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Thank you for your insights.