Wealth Warrior

It’s easy to blame the bad economy or bad upbringing (or bad whatever) for our challenges making money. But, the fact is, it’s never any of those things. It’s about one thing: Our failure to serve.

Here’s another fun way to look at it:

Laughing. That’s genius.

Are you “Out of Service”? Well, we aren’t going to create wealth when we’re out of service.

How can you serve more profoundly? Let’s count the ways.

I shall serve more profoundly by:

1. ____________________________________
2. ____________________________________
3. ____________________________________

Got a bad habit? Great.

Replace it with a better one.

Is it really more complicated than that? (Seriously.)

(Answer: No, it’s not! We’ll need to diligently, patiently, persistently, playfully and wisely rock it but it’s not *that* complicated!)

Carlos Castaneda talked about what he called the “Toltec Warrior” and echoed this wisdom (see Notes on The Wheel of Time). He tells us: “If his spirit is distorted he should simply fix it— purge it, make it perfect— because there is no other task in our entire lives which is more worthwhile… To seek the perfection of the warrior’s spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, our manhood.”

Socrates and Rumi echo this mojo.

Socrates (from The Gorgias): “I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can… And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same… I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.”

Rumi: “The lion who breaks the enemy’s ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.”

Here’s to going warrior and perfecting ourselves

Got a dream?

Turn it into an immediate project!!

How do you distill that dream into an immediate, discrete project you can rock?

I like to lean into the physics of dominoes when I do my dream-to-project strategic planning.

Do you know the physics of good ol’ dominoes? Somehow I stumbled across this awesome little YouTube video of a (fantastically geeky) Physics professor outlining the basic mechanics.

It goes something like this: a domino can knock over another domino that is 50% larger than it. Our friendly Professor shows us 13 dominoes. The first one is so small he literally has to use tweezers to put it in place. It’s about the size of your pinky fingernail. Now, that tiny domino can knock over the next domino that’s 50% bigger than it. And, guess what? That domino can knock over the next one that’s 50% bigger than it. (And so on.)

Our 13th domino is now 3 feet tall and weighs 100 lbs. Our Prof needs to do some work to get it in place it’s so big. (Continue for another 15 dominoes or so and you’re looking at the Eifel tower!)

Professorsaurus Rex (not his real name) carefully uses his tweezers to get our itty bitty little domino in place and then knocks it over. As the dominoes fall, TWO BILLION times more force is created with the last domino vis-a-vis the first. (Wowsers.)

So, back to you and your dream we’re converting into a project.

Your dream is that 13th (or perhaps 25th?!) domino. We need to identify the tweezer-placed micro-domino project that’ll get the whole process going.

What is it?

What’s the next little foothold milestone you could rock that, if you crushed it, would give you a good shot at knocking over the next domino?

P.S. As I type this (December 2014), we’re getting ready to (re-)launch my Optimal Living membership program. After a 3 1/2 year stint working hard to get other people’s wisdom out there, I’m now back and focused on doing my work. (Exciting.)

My little itty bitty domino? Get the first member signed up. There’s a fair amount of work to make that happen but guess what? If we can get 1 member, we can get 10. If we can get 10, we can get 100. If we can get 100, we can get 1,000. If we can get 1,000, we can get 10,000.

And who knows what’s possible on the other side of that? Frankly, I don’t care. I’m too focused on that tweezer domino. :)

P.P.S. Let’s do this!

Information.

A few things to note here.

1. You might have noticed it’s really easy to drown in the incessant flood of news, blogs, Tweets, Facebook posts, emails, movies, TV shows, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.
2. This information isn’t benign. Media companies know that the most intense, negative, and shocking content sells.
3. As Steve tells us, our attention is the source of our wealth. We need to be VERY aware of what information we let into our lives.

Spotlight on you.

What information are YOU letting in to your life? Is it serving you and your purpose? Or is it toxic? What information do you need to STOP consuming/what site(s) do you need to stop visiting?

Turning Pro.

Steven Pressfield wrote a whole book on that. Part 3 in his awesome series of creative mastery: The War of Art + Do the Work + Turning Pro = Goodness.

Here’s how he puts it in The War of Art (see Notes): “The amateur plays part-time, the professional full-time. The amateur is a weekend warrior. The professional is there seven days a week.

The word amateur comes from the Latin root meaning “to love.” The conventional interpretation is that the amateur pursues his calling out of love, while the pro does it for the money. Not the way I see it. In my view, the amateur does not love the game enough. If he did, he would not pursue it as a sideline, distinct from his “real” vocation.

The professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. He commits full-time.”

Are you pro? If not, how can you go pro?

(And, if you’ve already turned pro? How can you dial it up a notch or three?)

One way to turn pro? Follow Wooden’s advice and make each day your masterpiece.

What would a MASTERPIECE of a day look like for you?

Take a moment and imagine that…

And then go make it happen. (Again and again and again…)

Ah, the comfort zone.

It sure is comfie, eh? :)

Alas, all growth occurs outside of that comfort zone. Now, mind you, it doesn’t need to be WAY outside your comfort zone. Just a tad will do. Playing at that space just outside your comfort zone is where it’s at.

Do that day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out and guess what? You just expanded your comfort zone by a LOT.

Steve and I once had a great coaching session focused on that. (I might have been stretching way more than necessary to achieve the growth I was looking for. Ahem. Laughing. :)

P.S. Another great distinction Steve made for me in our coaching sessions: When you go to the gym you don’t go there to lift styrofoam weights. Not if you want to get stronger. You lift heavy stuff. Well, same thing with life. If you want to get strong, don’t complain about the challenges. Doing so is like saying you want to lift styrofoam weights at the gym of life. Not a good idea if you want to get spiritually and financially fit. :)

Worried?

Well, grab some worry remover.

It comes in a cool looking bottle and it’s called a PROJECT. Just squirt it on your worries and presto! They’re gone.

Love this gem from Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (see Notes): “George Bernard Shaw was right. He summed it all up when he said: ‘The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.’ So don’t bother to think about it! Spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating; your mind will start ticking—and pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body will drive worry from your mind. Get busy. Keep busy. It’s the cheapest kind of medicine there is on this earth—and one of the best.”

So, what’s your project?

Lock your creative mind into that gear and get cranking!!!

Genius. Seneca comes to mind. So does Covey. And Gandhi.

Seneca: “Be harsh with yourself at times.” (Amen. Short and sweet is hard to beat.)

Covey: “You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside. The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the ‘good.’”

Gandhi: “A ‘No’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.”

Thank you, gentlemen.

Now to you. How can you challenge yourself a little more? To whom and to what do you need to say NO? And what’s your deeper YES that makes that NO easier to say?

Wow. (!!!)

What’s your positive imaginary future?

Seriously. What is it? Let’s do a fun little journal exercise, shall we?

“My life is awesome. I appreciate all it’s awesomeness. It will be even more awesome in the years ahead. I will work hard, things will go great and this is what I see present in my life:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________.”

Very good.

Now PULL THAT PICTURE—WITH EVERY OUNCE OF STRENGTH YOU HAVE—into the present moment.

(*Shouting: LET’S DO THIS!!!*)