It’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference. Few people really understand what that difference is. Often times intermixing the meanings without giving thought to them. We’ve all heard the terms before. You likely know someone who you think of as a dreamer. The ironic thing is that usually the people who are mocked as being dreamers end up as the visionaries, and those that do the mocking turn out to be the dreamers.

So what is the difference between Dreamers and Visionaries?

Dreamers

Dreamers are usually easy to spot. In fact you probably know a few already, and you could even be one yourself. They are the people who always talk about things but rarely get anything done. They have big ideas and even bigger dreams but they talk in terms of hope and uncertainty.

Dreamers make statements like “wouldn’t it be great if…”, “I’d love to have…” or “I wish I could…” something to that effect.

Dreamers see only the things they ‘wish‘ they could have. That in itself is the defining factor. Dreamers will only ever dream. They’ll hope and wish for all the things that they would like to have but never commit to getting it.

Dreamers are also very good at justifying to themselves and others why they don’t, and never will have those things that they dream and hope for. They’ll make all the excuses in the world why it wasn’t meant to be and blame everyone and everything for their situation.

Dreamers don’t know how to take responsibility, have no goals, and have no belief in themselves or their ability to realise those dreams.

Visionaries

Visionaries are vastly different. When they speak of their dreams they speak with an intent, as if it were a given that they will achieve it.

A visionary never speaks of wishes or hope, only opportunities and deadlines. They speak as though it’s already happened or at the very least just about to. But most importantly they can clearly see exactly what the desired outcome is without it actually having been achieved – Yet!

Visionaries live with an expectation and a belief that no matter what happens, they will find a way to make those ‘dreams’ a reality. If they don’t meet the deadline they simply look at what they can learn from the experience and start again.

Visionaries don’t look at failure as something to be ashamed of. On the contrary they rejoice it and learn from it satisfied in the knowledge that they now know one more way that it doesn’t work. They make a decision to do something and by god they get it done, not matter the personal or financial cost.

I have a top 5 list of my personal favorite visionaries:

1. Thomas Edison
2. Orville and Wilbur Wright
3. Werner Von Braun
4. Bill Gates
5. Steve Wozniak

Who would you add to this list?

Having dreams is a wonderful thing and everybody should dream a little. But if you expect to realise your dreams, use the information here to change your mindset, and your approach and above all, remember that everyone has the potential to become a visionary.

If you can conceive it, and believe it – You Can Achieve it!

Image by Tiago Ribeiro

And at the end of the day, we end up finding answers right under our noses. Then upon reflection we realise that this little pearl has been there all along but in our struggle to find answers we never stopped to take notice.

My little pearl today came in the form of an 8 year old girl. My daughter.

You see she’s been a little bit ill lately, in fact she’s been in quite a bit of pain. For the last week I’ve spent many hours just helping her get through each night. It seems that her pain is at its worst during the night. Neither of us have had much sleep at all.

But she’s a fairly conscientious little thing. She loves learning, and so she loves school. She hasn’t been able to go all week because of her illness. And while she’s been at home, during the day time at least, whenever she has the energy and she’s not in pain, she sits down to work on a school project that isn’t due for another week and a half.

So I said to her today, “honey, why don’t you take a break and just relax, get some rest, and try to catch up on the sleep that you’ve been missing out on? You can do your project later and I’m sure your teacher will understand if you hand it in late.”

Her answer almost bowled me over. I didn’t know if I should laugh, cry, praise her, or what to do but let me tell you I felt as proud as a parent could feel.

What she said was “Dad, it’s gotta get done so I might as well do it, I mean it’s not going to get done on its own now is it“.

Now I’d love to take credit for that. I mean lets face it, it’s very possible that she learned that from me, from the things I talk about with her. Maybe she’s just watched the way I do things and picked it up there. Maybe, maybe, maybe. These were some of the thoughts that immediately went through my head ie: I must be doing something right. Right?

Wrong!!!

Well OK it’s probably fair to say that the influence she gets from me probably helps but the bottom line is you can’t teach that kind of attitude. That comes from within you. Either you get it or you don’t.

Clearly she gets it, and she made a point of letting me know that today.

What makes this so important and worth writing about is the lesson in the message, and the message is for everyone.

The message is simple.

Do what you have to do to get the job done. Don’t make excuses, don’t put it off till later, take advantage of the time you have today because tomorrow you might find that your time has run out. No matter how bad you think things are, just get on with it. You’ll have time to rest once the job is done.

I’m a happy man today because I know that this is one kid that I don’t have to worry about her future. She has all the markings of a future achiever and a future leader, and I can’t wait to see what she has in store.

Thanks Ally, you made my day sweet heart.

I don’t believe in this concept of winners and losers. It’s an idea held by the same people you have allowed to influence you your entire life. There is no such thing as a loser. There are only those who understand and those who are yet to discover themselves. It’s simply the difference between healthy and unhealthy self image.

The famous self development gurus will tell you that it’s all about mindset. Mindset is a buzz word and it’s not a very clear or descriptive one. You can’t get into the right mindset until you have a healthy self image. Mindset and self image are very closely related but with a deeper analysis and understanding we soon see that they are actually distance cousins.

Mindset is all about the way you think. Self image however is about how you see yourself and how you believe the rest of the world sees you. Once you have built a positive, confident and conducive self image, a positive mindset becomes a bi-product.

What Would I know?

To start with I was once a very scared and introverted individual with literally no confidence whatsoever. I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. I was (at least I thought I was) a total misfit destined to never have or do anything worthwhile. My life growing up was a pretty tough road and through environmental and physical conditioning I’d become a very detached and aggressive young man. I’d tremor and sweat just being in the same room as someone in a position of authority and lets not even talk about how I reacted to confrontation.

So what happened that made me see my full potential?

Obviously I read a lot of books on the subject. The thing that had the most impact and provided the most amount of information though is that I studied people, many different kinds of people. I watched them, I listened to them, I tried to learn as much as I could to understand what made them who they are and why they were so different to me. But I didn’t just study the ‘winners’ I also studied the ‘losers’.

From the discoveries I made, I learned how to appreciate myself, to identify and celebrate all the positive and unique things about me. My talents, my abilities, my skills and my nature.

I can tell you that it wasn’t easy. If you’re the type of person I used to be, then it’s much easier to accept that you are a misfit, and will never have more than you do now since that is what you have allowed your own perceptions of the world to convince you of.

Let’s face it though. If you honestly believed that then you wouldn’t still be searching for answers.

You Are a Machine

I like to use the analogy that you are much like a computer. Your body is the hardware, your subconscious is the hard drive, and your conscious mind is the RAM.

Since the day you were born you have been saving information on your hard drive. You received this information via the peripheral hardware (you eye’s and ears) which is then processed in RAM (your conscious thoughts) and over time your operating system (involuntary subconscious behaviors) has developed a profile for you based on the information  stored on your hard drive (your subconscious mind).

But at some point you’re RAM allowed infected information to be stored in your profile because you didn’t have any controls in place to prevent it from being saved. In fact no one even told you that you needed it. You allowed all information to be stored on the drive no matter if was good, bad or indifferent.

When you start up a program on your computer, all your settings are the way you left it last time. It doesn’t matter if those setting actually break things or mess up all the work that you’ve done, it simply loads what you have stored on your hard drive.

This is exactly how your subconscious mind works. Just like your computer, the only way to fix that is to clean out the infectious information and reprogram your stored profile to something that is useful and helpful to you. It takes time to rebuild your profile on your PC which is why most peoples computers are just as big of a mess as their mind is.

Just like your computer, if you leave it and don’t take any action, before you know it the computer takes longer to respond, won’t allow you to do the things you want to do, and eventually just stops working. All it ever gives you is a jumbled mess of useless information.

Once you know exactly how to clean out that virus and reprogram your profile, you soon begin to remember what it was that you once enjoyed or found useful about your computer and why you wanted it in the first place. By taking the same approach with your self image you can clean out that mess that you have stored in there and begin to get back in touch with the real you.

But there is one catch. You must have a genuine desire to make this work. You have to have the commitment to apply these methods every day for as long as it take. Even if that means for the rest of your life. You also need to have faith in the idea. I’m not asking you to believe me, just have faith and commit.

I can open the door, but you must walk through yourself.

Self Talk.

The key to building a healthy and positive self image, one that allows you to believe in yourself and your abilities, that allows you to accept and appreciate all the things that make you truly unique and important in this world comes down to one single solitary thing and that is your self talk.

Self talk refers to the little conversations you have in your mind. No you’re not crazy. Everyone does it. In fact I still remember the day I asked my mother if I was nuts because I was always talking to myself in my mind. If you have a busy mind like I do then the self talk is constant, unwavering and at times seemingly out of control.

Everything revolves around your self talk. So accept it now that you must become more aware of the things you say to yourself. When you find that you are thinking negatively about yourself, or others, literally say NO and replace it with the positive version of the same information. It will seem a little weird at first but once you get the hang of it then it will become a lot easier.

The language that you use in your self talk is critical to how you think about and react to any given situation. Start to replace all the negatives in your self talk with positives. For instance replace the phrase ‘I want to’ with ‘I am’, replace ‘I wish I could’ with ‘I can’ or ‘I will’ and replace ‘I can’t’ with ‘I can’ or ‘I should at least try’. Speak in the present tense rather than in the future.

Who’s In Control?

Remember the Loony Tunes cartoons with the little devil and the little angel sitting on each of Bugs Bunnies shoulders. Your mind works just like that. Your angel is your new self talk, and your devil is your subconscious trying to convince you that it’s all just nonsense. Who are you going to listen to?

Take time each day, several times a day, to remind yourself that your mind is your servant and you are in control. You must stop for a moment and use your self talk to tell yourself, literally tell yourself that you are in control of your mind.

Your subconscious is a bit of a control freak and at first, it won’t like you trying to take over. It doesn’t know any better because you have allowed it to be in control of you for all these years. So expect some resistance. It is normal that when you begin with these technique that various thoughts will pop into your mind trying to convince you that you are not in control or that this is silly.

You either chose to listen to it, and eventually give up. Or you’ll push it back at tell it how things are going to be from now on.

A Picture Paints 1000 Words

We think in pictures, and literally a single image in your mind can have a profound impact on your external world. Through our experiences of life we associate the physical: the things that take place in our physical world, with the psychological: the things we believe in our minds, reality or fantasy. It makes no difference because our subconscious can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is fantasy.

These are called neuro associations. It’s the way our mind attaches thoughts to images. The words we use, or hear, produce images in our minds. If you don’t believe think of something. Anything, it really doesn’t matter. What do you see in your minds eye? Do you see words, or do you see an image?

These images are based on our belief system. Our belief system is deeply ingrained in our subconscious.

Only by altering these images will you be able to improve your self image and have the success you are looking for in your life. Maybe you just want feel better about the way you look, perhaps it’s something you’ve always wanted to try. It doesn’t matter what it is you want, to achieve it you need to have the right images in your mind connecting to your thoughts about it.

So the task is to replace those negative, self sabotaging images, with positive self serving ones. The way to achieve that is to begin to take notice of the images in your mind.

Take Notice: In a quiet room, close your eyes and take notice of the images you see in your minds eye. You need to concentrate. This is not a visualisation technique, this is actually looking at what is really going on in your subconscious mind. You will probably see some really weird and crazy stuff. Take notice because this is your own program and you need to understand what’s going on in there.

Replacement: Once you have an understanding of what is going on in your mind, begin to think of something specific. It really doesn’t matter what it is but it should be related to the images you saw which was not what you expected to see. Now stay focused on the thought or idea and replace that image.

For example, perhaps when you think of yourself and money your image is of you always without the things you want. So find a picture on the internet of something you do want. Print it out in full color. Get a photo of yourself. Cut around your outline and paste yourself in front of your dream home.

Now start the whole excersize again but this time keep your eyes open. Focus on the exact same thoughts but look at the picture you just made. You are physically seeing yourself with the things you want. If you can physically see it then it’s a lot easier to accept it in your mind. Not only that, your subconcious doesn’t really know if this is real or fantasy. Now use those self talk techniques and start telling yourself that this really is you.

Maybe you want to find a husband but feel as though men don’t find you attractive. Same principle applies. Make a picture of you with a group of really handsome guys and you are the center of attention in that group. Apply the same techniques and you’ll get the same results.

Visualisation techniques are great but they’ll only work if you already have a healthy self image so forget visualistion for now and connect your mind to your physical world. You already tricked it once into thinking that you were less than you are. So trick it once again into believing that you are everything you want to be.

Get Emotional

Finally you must understand the relationship between your thoughts and emotions. We know, through scientific study that emotions are nothing more than the release of chemicals in the brain. The chemicals are released as a result of the thoughts in our mind. And as we’ve discussed these thoughts come from the ideas in our conscious mind.

Once a chemical is released it in turn effects the preceding thoughts. Those thoughts release more chemicals,  those chemicals produce more thoughts, I think you get the idea. It therefore stands to reason that if you fail to get emotional about all of the new ideas and thoughts in your mind while using these techniques then you won’t get much out of it.

Using our example of wanting to find a husband or just wanting to feel more attractive. While you look at the picture of yourself in the center of the group, try to feel the happiness, the satisfaction, the empowerment, the joy that would no doubt feel if you were actually there. Convince yourself that this image that you’re looking at actually took place, and connect with those emotions. Actually feel those emotions, force them if you have to.

The more emotionally attached you become when applying these techniques the more effective they will be and the quicker you will get results.

Affirmations

I know you’ve already heard plenty of talk about affirmations but they are so very critical to you building your self image. But I’m not talking about the typical self help guru stuff. If we think in images and the images come from the things we think of, then you need to fill mind with positive self talk and keep it busy. Your affirmations must be yours.

To find your own affirmations, no matter what it takes write a list of the 10 best things about you. Talk to yourself about you talent or ability. Now make a list of the top 10 things you’d like to change. Let’s say you have a bad temper. Your affirmation might be “I am a calm and patient person, I treat people with respect and kindness”. Maybe you have difficulty making new friends you might say ” I am a likable and friendly person, people enjoy my company “.

Whatever you decide on it must come from you. No one can tell you how to think and you will have an easier time accepting it.

During our lives we hear and see so much negativity from the minute we enter this world. No one ever takes the time to explain to us how to block out those negative influences. For some people, like me, there is no escape from the negativity until you reach maturity and live independently. By then it could be too late.

But understanding how your mind works and how it relates to your thoughts and emotions combined with some simple techniques can allow you to free yourself from the negative and self sabotaging influences that have held you back for so long.

Before you can have a positive mindset you need to be able to see yourself as being the person you want to be. Using these simple techniques will replace all the negative images you have of yourself with positive images that reinforce your thoughts of happiness, health and wealth. Once you chose to replace those old images the world will literally be at your feet.

Now it’s your time to be all you can be.

If you enjoyed this post, please share the information through twitter or your favorite social site.

Of particular importance is the explanation Seth gives on focused efforts toward your specialty and discusses how Seth has differentiated his own blog by breaking all the rules that most professional bloggers tell us that we must follow.

After you watch this short video try and list 10 ways that you can ‘break the rules’ to differentiate yourself and your own efforts and put those ideas into action. Create a buzz that will get people talking about you to build your own following of raving fans.

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did and I look forward to your thoughts and comment.

You see it really doesn’t matter if you are trying to make money blogging, make money online as an affiliate, or if you have a brick and mortar business, in fact you could even still working a 9 to 5 job. Unless you know why you do what you do, and truly understand what it is that is driving you, you will always struggle to find success in anything be it a job, a business, a relationship or anything at all. The sooner you learn about you, the faster you will be able to see your dreams become a reality and live a life of design.

This week I am dedicating all my energy to personal growth and mindset. Mindset is to success is what air is to your survival.  So to kick off this week of personal growth  I want to share with you a video (courtesy of TED) with one of my favorite speakers Tony Robbins.

This video as the perfect example of why Tony is one of my favorite speakers and demonstrates Tony’s unique understanding of the human condition. In this video Tony talks about the “invisible forces” that motivate everyone’s actions, explains how your emotions create your actions and discusses the 6 human needs that guide and shape our lives.

Take a few minutes out of your day right now to watch this very uplifting and meaningful and sometimes comical clip and get some focus back into your own life and share with me your thoughts on the topic.

What is success and how do you know if you have achieved it?

Success only comes to those who can accept failure as an important part of the journey. Brian Tracey says ‘Success is the acceptance of mediocrity’. When I first heard this statement many years ago it took me quite a long time to fully understand the true meaning behind it. I found that I questioned the merit behind the statement. After all, most successful people that you hear about or read about appear to be far from mediocre. In fact when you study these people what you begin to feel, at first, is that the are very unique and gifted individuals. However that is simply not the case.

The most successful person in the world (whoever you believe that is) is just the same as you and I. Sure they may come from a different financial or cultural environment. They may have an ivy league education or not. Either way their background is not entirely relevant. All that is relevant is that the person accepted that in order to become successful they must be prepared for failure. They must learn from those failings and they must find opportunity in the lessons they have learned.

For me this video is so inspiring and thought provoking. Take a few minutes to watch this. 

For me, Thomas Edison was the greatest ever advocate of mediocrity. As the story goes, when Edison was working on the electric light bulb he had made over 4000 attempts which all failed miserably. Either the filament would burn out, or the glass would melt or explode, or the current was too high or too low. Along his journey he accepted and was quoted as declaring that he was in no way any more gifted or special than any other person. His colleagues, peers, and investors all at some point had made comments stating that he would never succeed.

‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.‘
Thomas A. Edison

Well as we all know today the Edison General Electric Company was one of the greatest and most revered technology companies of its day. But what was the true and underlying factor behind that success? Never give up, never give in. Seek new opportunity even in you failures. Never fear failure for fear itself is crippling in any form.

So what are the truths behind success? Let me list them for you here.

1. Belief. Napolean Hill says it best. What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. You must have a total belief in yourself, your abilities and your purpose.
2. Acceptance of mediocrity. I covered this already but to define it. Accept that you have the same abilities and opportunities as anyone else. Its what you chose to do with them that makes the difference.
   
3. Expectation. Along with belief and acceptance, you must have the expectation of success. You must completely subscribe to the belief that even though today you may not have achieved your desired result, that in due course, with belief, commitment and perseverance you will find a way to make it work. Just like Edison, Honda, Richard Branson and so many more.
4. Persistence. This is probably the greatest factor of all. Persist even in the face of adversity or failure. As they say at Honda, it doesn’t matter how many times you fail, just persist until that 1 time you get it right.
   

If you take nothing else from me, my blog, or my posts, take just this. The only thing that stands between you and your success is YOU!

Finally if you have kids, and you want them to have success in their lives then start teaching them these philosophies. Buy yourself a copy of the movie ‘Meet the Robinsons’. It’s a great little film and the message it delivers to your children is something they will take with them throughout their lives. ‘Keep Moving Forward’

To Your Success!

Andrew.

]]> http://incomesinternational.com/failing-to-succeed-the-truth-behind-every-success-story/feed/ 3 http://incomesinternational.com/scheduling-success-while-starting-your-home-based-business/ http://incomesinternational.com/scheduling-success-while-starting-your-home-based-business/#comments Sat, 09 May 2009 13:26:06 +0000 Andrew http://incomesinternational.com/?p=69 So you want to start an online home based business?

Many people dream about having a home based business of their own. The idea of setting your own hours, and the freedom to chose who you want to work with. However the reality is few people take enough time to ensure they have the appropriate skills and tools to transition into home based business.

The first major that many inexperienced home based business operators are faced with is the lack of discipline and failure to schedule. They don’t plan their work day and this can creat two distinct problems. Overworking and under-working.

Let’s look at “under-working” first. It’s just too easy when starting your home based business to sit there surfing the internet. No doubt you intended to work on your website or set up your  affiliate accounts, but before you realise it, you’ve wasted an entire day checking out the latest and gossip and reading email. Sure, you were on the internet and doing something, but what you were doing won’t put a single penny in your pocket.

Overworking though is quite easy to understand. Many people have difficulty maintaining business hours. When your working from home, there is a  temptation to “work until you drop”. That’s a really bad idea, particularly if when you begin your online home based business you still work your day job. When all your time is spent working, you soon feel like you’re never going to get any “down time”.  When you begin feeling that way you cab certain that burnout will soon follow. I know all too well about this and you can take my word for it.

So what’s the solution. ‘Discipline’! You need to plan your day. Make a list of exactly what you want to accomplish. You should have a daily operating procedure which should describe each task and how much time to spend working on each of them. Be certain to include some downtime ie: time for family/friends, relaxation, sport and recreation, whatever you enjoy. This is pivotal. After all, you started your home based business to create a better lifestyle, not to be the wealthiest person in a grave!

Your daily plans need to be specific. It’s no good to write say, “work on website.” That has no meaning an is just too vague. Your plan needs a definitive goal. For instance “write an article about website traffic for the home page of the website.” Can you see a difference? You could “work on” your website for years and not reach a point that you see any success. In contrast, when your plan is to “write an article about xyz,” you know you’re task is complete the instant you type that final sentence.

Sometimes, regardless of how good your plan is, you simply won’t finish everything you’ve scheduled. That happens to everyone in home based business or in a regular job. You simply need to revise your schedule for the following day and include the incomplete item(s). Don’t getcaught up on the idea that one or two items were not completed as planned. Just take it in your stride and keep moving forward. If you find yourself regularly missing your deadlines, you must re-evaluate your scheduling. Are your time allotments realistic? Probably not. So you should adjust accordingly.

Start your own home based business with tunnel vision. You will accomplish so much more and achieve success in far less time.

These are a few simple methods to assist you to maintain your sanity and get all your work completed. With proper planning and the right amount of effort, you’ll be able to balance your personal life and start your home based business to literally schedule your way to success.

In the words of Henry Ford, “If man believes he can do a thing or not, he is right“.

The most essential ingredient is having the correct mindset. The law of attraction dictates that ‘what you think about, and the emotion associated to that thought directly determines your outcomes. Ultimately you need to reprogram your subconscious in order to attain that positive mindset.

7 strategies to a positive mindset:

1. Write down your own affirmations. Read them aloud every morning and night.
2. Read positive books or listen to CD’s which inspire and conjure emotions that make you feel empowered and positively energized.
3. Surround yourself with positive people. You are who your friends are.
4. Have a media fast. Who really needs the evening news anyway.
5. Be grateful for all that you have and give thanks on a daily basis.
6. Clear the clutter around your home and office. A good measure of your mindset is to look at your desk. Is it tidy and organised or is it a jumbled mess?
7. Spend at least 10 minutes each day visualising what your new life looks and feels like.

So now you have it. It’s simple. Just apply these strategies and everything will turn out fine, right? Now that you know what to do, how do you fit it all into your schedule? As an entrepreneur you undoubtedly want control over your time as well as your income. Next thing you know you find that your swamped with a new set of disciplines to keep yourself on track and focused, and could end up feeling like you’re still not free from the repetition of the daily grind.

Streamline the list:

1. Listen to your self talk during your affirmations. You can listen while doing other things and even while listening to other information such as audio programs. Because it’s subliminal it gets through to your subconscious faster than you can on your own.

2. Get a personal mentor or coach for consistent positive support as well as entrepreneurial mentoring. This gives you accountability and also alternative avenues to getting unstuck when obstacles pop up.

3. There is no quicker way to feel the weight of the world as instantly as watching the evening news or the morning paper. Find other ways to obtain the necessary information you require each day. Once you try it, you’ll likely never go back. Take it to the next level by not watching any TV or other electronic entertainment. Read a book, write an article on your favorite topic. There are many ways to entertain yourself away from the TV. Not to mention all that extra time you will have for other things.

4. Give thanks each and every day for all that have in your life. From the air that you breath to good fortune that you have. No matter how big or small, express your gratitude.

5. Hire an organizer for keeping the clutter cleared periodically and a virtual assistant for your more repetitious tasks that don’t need your talent to produce effectively.

6. The most important factor to success is visualization. When you wake up in the morning and before bed at night, spend 10 minutes on your visualizations.

Follow this streamlined approach and you’ll only have two daily items to schedule – that is, listening to cd’s or reading books AND daily visualization. The rest gets handled seemingly behind the scenes and effortlessly on your part by your VA and through self talk.

If you follow the streamlined guide above you will soon begin to maintain focus, your productivity and energy will increasing dramatically and at the same time you’ll be decreasing the effort required to keep yourself in the mindset that provides those standards.