Archive for the ‘Finances’ Category

Be careful who you listen to; you might end up with their results

Posted: December 9, 2017 in Finances, Freedom, Leadership, Success
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

chosen to beWe are exactly where we have chosen to be, by the people we associate with, the things we watch, read, and hear.

A speaker had said that at a leadership conference and I wanted to argue with him; I did in my head a little bit. I thought… I didn’t choose to have the job I did at the pay that I got; I would have chosen more! I didn’t choose to be very shy. I didn’t choose for the air conditioning in my car to break!

But then I got to thinking about the people I hung around with up to that point, and other than my A/C not working, they were all in similar situations. You might say we were all just trapped in the financial matrix (which we were), but the main reason I was stuck in it was because I was always around others who were too!

I’ve learned that our results come from our actions, which comes from our thinking, which is influenced by the people we listen to, and the advice we get.

Where do you get your advice from?

Be careful who you listen to; you might end up with their results!

When it came to finances, since it’s not taught in schools I got it from the media, the banks, and the people around me. The media is the advertising, trying to get me to buy their stuff now and pay later, while the banks are happy to help out and make me their slave for my debt. The people around me were other people who were broke!

I don’t know about you, but I wanted to be rich. If that’s the goal, I needed to stop taking financial advice from people who were broke like me! If they had the solution, why were they still broke?

How about relationships? Does it make sense to get relationship advice from someone who has been divorced 5 times? They may be able to tell you what NOT to do, but unless this person has now been happily married for 10-20 years, they may not have the right advice yet.

Sometimes it’s tempting to take the easy way out though, and take advice we shouldn’t.

I remember when I just started college, and I had to take a class in which I had absolutely no interest. At this time I hung around with people who loved board games like me, and who also thought that telling me to skip a class to finish a game was good advice.

I did just that. In the class I missed, the teacher gave us the main class project, explaining what we had to do for something that was worth 50% of our mark!. I had made a new friend in that class though, and asked him what we were supposed to do, and he gave me what I thought was a satisfactory answer

I did what my friend told me, and gave my paper to the teacher on the last day of class. The teacher looked at the paper, looked at me, and said “THIS isn’t what I asked for!”

I took advice from someone who didn’t have the results I was looking for, and got the same results. I failed that class along with my friend. Years later I found out that this friend missed the same class as me! He didn’t even have the information I was looking for, let alone the results!

Be careful who you listen to; you might end up with their results.

This goes for listening to ourselves too. For most of my life I was a very shy person unless you were a close friend that I was comfortable with. I was constantly telling myself that I couldn’t talk to people, so I never did. After all, why would I bother trying to talk to someone if I didn’t believe I could?

I needed to start listening to people with the results I wanted, which in this case was people who could talk to people.

I have since been going through the program put together by Life Leadership, and listening to people who have what I’m looking for in all the areas of my life. By reading good books and listening to CDs like those found in the public speaking pack, I can now talk to people.

By going through their Total Personal Development program, I improve in my ability to lead people, to resolve conflict, to have confidence, to be persuasive and to just win in general. I’ve been able to build the belief that I CAN win and that I will. In essence, it has changed my thinking. It has changed me from thinking like I am who I am and stuck with what I have, to thinking like I can be who I want to be, have what I want to have; if I just follow the formula for high achievement!

By going though their Financial Fitness Program, I’ve started learning financial principles from the millionaires, from those who have the results I want from the principles being taught. I’ve learned how to save money, how to make more money, and even how to pay less taxes!

Be careful who you listen to; you might end up with their results.

Be purposeful in who and what you listen to; you can end up with their results!

The Financial Matrix part 2: Inflation and Education

Posted: February 2, 2017 in Economics, Finances, Freedom
Tags: , , , , ,
0

If we don’t understand the full ramifications of the financial matrix, our future is in jeopardy.

In my first post on the financial matrix, I went through how it was a system of control, and talked in terms of freedom. But we should understand that even if we don’t care about freedom, it is still important to understand the consequences of this system on our lives, and what we can do about it.

I HIGHLY recommend watching the video at the end of this post, as it explains in great detail what we need to understand.

What I want to focus on now is WHY we need to understand.

Almost 2 years ago I went through the process of becoming a financial security adviser and got my certification. What I learned made me realize the scope of the problem we face.

Let me rephrase that; what I DIDN’T learn made me realize the scope of the problem!

(more…)

Only The Disciplined Are Free

Posted: July 29, 2016 in Finances, Freedom, Leadership, Success
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Only the Disciplined Are Freeshawshank

I think I’ve heard that statement many times over the past couple years, and in many forms. I knew it to be true when I first heard it… but you wouldn’t think I believed it from my actions.

Just look at the previous article I wrote, and you will see I was definitely NOT disciplining myself to continue updating this site!

Seriously though, I wanted to take this time to talk about this concept, because when it comes to being successful, or even just being free in general, this seems to be one of the most important attributes you need; to be disciplined.

I was at Life Leadership’s Masters of Leadership conference in Ottawa this past weekend, and I heard this topic discussed in almost every talk in some form or another. I was in Quebec City a week earlier listening to Claude Hamilton talk about this concept there too, and in greater detail.

It was a sign. It’s time to be more disciplined.

After all, Successful people discipline themselves to do daily what unsuccessful people do only occasionally

(more…)

The Financial Matrix

Posted: June 6, 2015 in Economics, Finances, Freedom
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

Financial MatrixThe book ‘The Financial Matrix’ is awesome! The Financial Matrix itself is pretty terrifying. When you understand a bit about history and human nature it should come to no surprise that it exists though.

The Matrix from the movie was system of control enslaving the human race without their knowledge. In the same way, the Financial Matrix enslaves people; it hides the enslavement from those trapped in its net like the machine in the movie, but no one is forced into this one. No one is coerced into it. People are brought up into it and enticed into it.

Orrin Woodward does a beautiful job explaining the whole concept in one chapter of his book (and in large part on this blog post he did). I encourage you to take a look at the post, along with all the other followup posts he did on the subject.

Just as Morpheus explains to Neo in the movie, so is it true for us today. (more…)

Are your decisions based on your present or your future?

Posted: September 23, 2013 in Finances, Leadership, Success
Tags: , , , , , , ,
2

I had a chance to hear Claude Hamilton talk in Kitchener yesterday, and part of what he said was so profound that I have to share my interpretation of it. Understanding the concept I’m about to share can drastically change your life.

There are three time frames to consider: your past, the present, and your future.

The first thing to consider is where you are in life right now. How much money do you have, or how much debt are you in? How much of your time do you own, and how much is owned by others? To explain that last part, take my situation for example; I’ve sold 40 hours a week of my time to my employer (if you don’t count lunch breaks and travelling) for a certain amount of money – this means he owns that time and not me. How many friends do you have, and how good of a friend are they? How fit are you health-wise?

The answers  to those questions is simply the way things are right now in the present. You can’t change the present. Everyone is where they are in life because of what they did in the past. You can’t change anything in your past to make anything different today.

Since you are where you are because of past decisions, you need to start making decisions with a different level of thinking if you hope to change anything. If you are worse off today than you were in the past, then to not change your thinking means your life will actually get harder. (more…)

Are you Financially Fit?

Posted: July 19, 2013 in Economics, Finances
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Financial FitnessA couple of years ago I went through a finance pack from LIFE that cost me almost $50, but has saved me between $70-$100 every month since. That pack consisted of a small book and 4 audio CDs which proved to be invaluable.

Well, LIFE has outdone itself this time, with a new product; the Financial Fitness pack. It doesn’t leave anything out when it comes to finances. I’ve never really looked into any finance materials before, other than my accounting class in school or from reading Robert Kiyosaki’s ‘Cashflow Quadrant’. From what I understand though, financial education usually only covers one side of finance.

What I love about this new pack is that doesn’t just cover how to spend less or just how to get out of debt. It doesn’t only cover how to save properly. It doesn’t just cover how to make more money. It covers ALL of that in the offense of defense sections of finance. But there is more! It also covers the ‘playing field’ which goes into how money works, giving you the information you need to prosper in any economy.

It goes through 47 principles of finance that make total sense when you read them, but that can really set you back when you don’t even know about them. (more…)

The Slight Edge Principle

Posted: April 4, 2013 in Finances, Leadership, Success
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
5

The Slight Edge by Jeff OlsonSuccess in anything is easy. It’s doing small and simple things continuously over time. The problem: these simple things are easy not to do.

I just finished reading ‘The Slight Edge’ by Jeff Olson, which I now consider to be one of my top 10 favorite books. The main point of the book: Success is easy; but so is failure. What is great is that we have the freedom to choose which path to take.

As we’ve gone through many times before, true success requires personal and professional development. Be careful here though; reading one book like ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ or attending a leadership seminar is not enough. If it were, you would see many more successful people in the world due to how many leadership books get sold and how many people are attending leadership seminars.

Success requires reading good books on success, and listening to good information. It also requires the slight edge principle that Jeff Olson tells us about.

The slight edge is about doing simple things consistently over time. (more…)

The Problems with Networking – Exposed and Confronted

Posted: February 27, 2013 in Finances, Leadership, Success
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
1

life-wheelHaving been involved with the ‘networking’ industry for a couple years now, I completely understand why it has been so hard to find others who wanted to get ahead in their life using this model.  When I approached others at first, I never understood why they were so scared of what I was showing them. ‘Networking’ is like a swear word in some circles.

Then I started to hear about other companies out there, that brought to mind images of pyramids and scams. for some of them, even I thought they might very well be scams when you consider the cost to get involved and the high price of the products. Then there is the way some of them are structured, where the person at the top makes all the money, making it an illegal pyramid. And there are those where you make money for signing people up and not actually doing anything productive. I must say I’m glad I wasn’t introduced to one of these first, or I may have been doomed to mediocrity, not looking past the companies that give this industry a bad name.

I just didn’t see their point of view at first due to Life Leadership being so different. They were still seeing the Ford Pinto which might explode, when I was trying to show them a new Lamborghini. It’s like they thought all cars were bad because that old model was bad, when in fact there are some pretty nice ones out there too.

I’ve been wanting to do a post on this for a while to address these thoughts, but then Chris Brady did one that is certainly much better written than I could have done (He does have the advantage of being a best selling author)

He talks about what LIFE has done to address all the negatives, and what they did to fix the industry. I see LIFE doing to networking, what McDonald’s did to franchising. When franchising was almost voted to be illegal due to the way the industry worked, McDonalds changed it to being one of the most successful industries in the world.

What LIFE did is take everything that was seen as being wrong with networking and threw it out the window, keeping all that was right. Consider that unlike any other company out there, LIFE doesn’t keep any profits; there is no owners cut. Because of that, prices don’t have to be inflated to pay both the owners and the members. In fact the prices are reduced to keep it affordable to the masses, instead of catering to the classes. ALL the profits goes to the members!

Here is what Chris had to say: (more…)

I am an Entrepreneur!

Posted: February 1, 2013 in Finances, Freedom, Success
Tags: , , , ,
0

Entrepreneur

A comment made on my Rascal Manifesto post led me to find a few other gems out there, and I just had to share them as well. Here is the first: I am an Entrepreneur Manifesto – and it’s available to purchase as a poster at lifemanifestos.com

We Need a Freedom Shift

Posted: February 18, 2012 in Economics, Finances, Freedom, Leadership
Tags: , , , , ,
0

I just finished reading Freedom Shift by Oliver DeMille, and the book is fantastic!

In this book, DeMille puts forth his 3 choices to reclaim our freedoms. Although written from the American perspective, the ideas he lays out can, and should, be applied to every country.

We can have an entrepreneurial revolution, a rise of the independents, or developing and leading new tribes. We are not limited to one choice however, and should endeavor to choose all 3.

DeMille starts off his book by going through the producer vs employee society, and explains how producers are more inclined to promote freedom than a society of dependents. Employees are dependents because everything they do or have is dependent on what their employer gives them, and so can’t truly do anything on their own.

Public schools these days don’t really teach students to be leaders or entrepreneurs, and that is exactly what this world needs if we are to reclaim the freedoms that are constantly being taken away by our governments. Public schools teach people how to be employees, keeping the low and middle class citizens in the low and middle class. Our schools don’t teach us how to get out of those classes, as employees are not meant to. entrepreneurs work for their own dream, while employees work for someone else’s. What our schools teach is remembering names and date and formulas, with very little meaning being brought to any of it. For example, when I was in high school, I remember learning stuff about history, but what it was about those times that made it important. What I learned (when I could remember) were names and dates of different events and people, that was quickly lost after the tests were written. I had gained no understanding or meaning from those people or events.
(more…)

Older Entries