March 30th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
“Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.”
Herbert A. Otto, Psychologist
The other day a young waitress I know said to me, “Jim, I don’t want to get it wrong and look stupid.”
While she was referring to my breakfast order, her statement got me thinking about how many times we avoid doing something because it might make us look foolish or “stupid.”
The aspiring speaker who avoids getting in front of an audience because she wants to get it perfect first, or the would-be author who doesn’t allow anyone to see his writing for fear of people may think he’s dumb.
The man or women who is afraid to ask that “special person” out on a date because they may say “no” and then they’ll feel rejected. Here is a news flash; they’re not going out with you now, so you have nothing to lose!
Often in life, the very thing that you want most is just on the other side of your willingness to look a little foolish. You may need to be willing to take some calculated risk, move out of your comfort zone and become uncomfortable.
Being a professional speaker for over a decade, I can tell you without reservation, that in the beginning I felt and probably looked foolish.
Fortunately, I didn’t let it stop me. My desire to share ideas with people enabled me to overcome any fears that I had and risk looking stupid, dumb or just plain silly.
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March 25th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
Several years ago I was listening to Google Adsense Guru, Joel Comm at one of Ken McArthur’s, JV Alert Live Events in Philadelphia.
By the way, If you don’t know about JV Alert Live, check it out. It’s the premium event for anyone interested in internet marketing and making money online. Ken brings together the best of the best and you have the opportunity to get to know these experts up close and personal.
It’s a great networking event and, as a matter of fact, I’ll be at the next one June 6th – 8th in Philadelphia, so if you can make it, be sure to stop by and say “Hello!”
Anyway, I was listening to Joel when he remarked how, as entrepreneurs, we tend to get distracted and “follow the new shiny object.”
I can hear some of you chuckling, as I did, because we know he’s right.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, and it’s quite natural for a creative person to want to explore new ideas, it can delay your success by distracting you from your primary purpose.
After listening to Joel talk about how you can make more money with Adsense for two hours, I found myself thinking “Great! I’ll put up a blog with ads and add it to my web pages. This way, I can start making money displaying ads from Google’s Adsense program.” After all, this is a valid business model which has worked for lots of people.
According to a recent article in Entrepreneur magazine, blogger John Chow earns in excess of $30,000 a month from his blog – no that’s not a typo!
So there I was following yet another new shiny object until fortunately, I caught myself and asked myself a powerful question:
“Will this action take me toward or away from my major goals?”
The answer was obvious. For me to run off chasing Adsense dollars would take me away from my mission: “To create and communicate information which will have a massive positive effect on people’s lives, empowering them to reach their full potential as human beings.”
This, by the way, is the purpose statement I created almost 20 years ago, a time when I was not doing the work I am now doing. As I’ve said before, it all starts with the vision of what you want.
I did however, find a reasonable compromise. After learning the basics from Joel’s book “The Adsense Code,” I added Google Adsense to my article pages and blog, as well as, our Himalayan cat website, which was just sitting there. Am I getting rich from it?
No. But I receive unexpected amounts of money regularly, which I totally enjoy spending:-)
On the other hand, if you’re newly in business or looking for an online business model to use, by all means, investigate Adsense, Kontera, and other pay-per-click (PPC) programs as a part of your business plan.
If you have my new book, Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck, beginning on page 68 you can learn more about how to get started with this.
If you don’t already have a copy, get one now and start learning how you can increase your income immediately.
However, if you already know your primary mission, are running your own business and are moving toward your goals, don’t let the shiny new objects derail your success.
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March 19th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
The other morning I was reading a CNN article on Nobosh and Digg about who really makes money from the high gasoline prices.
It talked about how the station owner only receives a few cents on each gallon, something I thought everyone already knew since it’s been a “news story” several times before.
The bottom line is, surprise – the oil companies make the most money.
While I would love to jump on the “blame big oil for posting huge profits,” band wagon, in reality all they’re doing is what any smart business would do. Sell to the highest bidder.
If it were Amazon.com or Starbucks or Toy R’ Us, who posted record profits, everyone would cheer.
But because it’s “big oil” and concerns a product that we, at least in the United States, believe we can’t live without, we look to place blame.
As much as I am appalled by the profit gouging that’s taking place, I’ve concluded there are really only two things we can do and I strongly suggest doing both.
The first one is something I have written about before is to find ways to earn more money. That is what prompted my writing my newest book Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck.
The other thing that we can do is to find ways to become less dependent on oil in the first place.
We can use public transportation where possible, car pool to work, explore energy alternatives like solar and support government subsidies for alternative fuels and alternative fuel research.
Pennsylvania has a bill in the senate right now which I am proud my State Rep., Margaret Quinn voted for, which will give individuals and businesses credit for installing energy saving devices.
Thank you, Ms. Quinn.Do what you can to become less addicted, yes we are addicted to foreign oil and, at the same time, start adding income streams to increase your income so that you won’t continue to be held hostage by the price of gas.
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March 15th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
It’s obvious to most of us that, clearly, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer missed an important step in the process of becoming a successful person. Like many before him, he resigned in a sex scandal that has created a media frenzy.
This kind of thing has happened to many people before him. It seems political sex scandals have become de’regur these days. Between being caught with their pants down and their hands in the till, it’s a tough time for politicians who say one thing and do another.
When former President, Bill Clinton was asked why people in power would risk it all by doing something stupid and shameful, he remarked that, in his case, it was “because I could.”
That’s part of the problem for, not only politicians but movie and rock stars alike.
I remember a while back speaking with my, then, Congressman, Mike Fitzpatrick shortly after his election. Mike is a really decent guy with strong family values and a good head on his shoulders. It must be the Irish in him:-)
Something he said really stuck with me. After being in Washington for a while, he remarked, “Jim, a person had better know who he is when he gets here or he’s in trouble”
It’s been said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
In the personal development seminars I do, I use an exercise to uncover a person’s hierarchy of values. I start by asking, “What’s most important to you in your life?”
Our values are what drives our behavior in any given situation. While we tend to have several, there are usually one or two that are more important than the rest. These are the ones we cannot violate if we want to feel and be happy and fulfilled.
Clearly, Mr. Spitzer either never completed a personal growth program or had conflicting values (like personal pleasure and responsibility). Perhaps, he was just willing to override what should have been his higher values. For someone in his position, you’d have expected that values like family, responsibility to the people, and his career would have taken precedent over a brief period of personal pleasure.
My heart goes out to his family during this time. Hopefully he, too, will find a way to make amends.
In situations like these, it’s important to remember, “Let he who is wthout sin among us, cast the first stone.”
We all, at one time or another, have done things we’re not proud of. Of course, most of us do it less publicly.
By taking the time to uncover your own values – what drives your behavior – you will be in a position to better understand yourself and will know what to do in any given situation.
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March 12th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
I read something in the book The Secret, that like many of the ideas in the book, is quite profound.
By the way if you don’t have a copy of this powerful book, I suggest you get one. Better yet, get the book and the movie and maybe even the audio.
If you’ve read any of my books, the ideas from the secret will seem familiar to you. However, it’s a beautifully written book with powerful ideas and suggestions from some of the top people in the personal development field.
The line that struck me was “When you want to attract something, make sure your actions do not contradict what you are asking for.” This is one of those ideas that, on the surface seem obvious but, when explored deeper, are quite profound.
How many of us experience a desire and then act “out of alignment” with what we say that we want?
For example, are you one of those people who, while you want more money, says things like, “I can’t afford that!” Saying things that are not in alignment with what you desire will prevent your good from coming to you.
Remember we attract what we think about and speak about. If you go through life looking at things that you like and are saying “I can’t afford that.” You never will.
Do you desire health but look in the mirror everyday and notice how overweight you are? Again, you can not attract what you want by noticing what you do not want. The more you notice your being overweight, the harder it will be to lose the weight and become healthier.
Instead, when you look in the mirror, notice those things that you do like about yourself and are proud of. Start affirming that you are becoming more and more fit each day. Start seeing yourself at your ideal weight.
Do you want a loving, passionate relationship but spend your days noticing all the things about your partner that bother you? As the line in the TV commercial once said, “You can’t get there from here.” Start noticing what you do like and appreciate about your loved one and watch your relationship change.
Remember the law of attraction is always working in your life and does not judge. If you say you want one thing, but then behave in a manner that is out of alignment with that, you’re consistent behavior and what you steadily tell yourself and are “expecting” will be the dominant vibration. And this vibration that will resonate with and attract a similar vibration.
Your job is to keep your dominant vibration, your point of focus, on what you want. The more you do this, the more you will see your vision taking hold and the more your life will change for the better.
A key principal here is to keep reaching for the thought that feels better. Spend more time thinking about and affirming what you do want and less time (or no time at all) focused on what you don’t want or don’t yet have. Your vision will manifest. Just hold true to your desires.
If it’s more money you want, take advantage of my name your price offer for the ebook edition of my new book – Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
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March 11th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
For quite a while now I’ve been encouraging people to take charge of their financial destiny as part of their overall plan for a happier life. I’ve even written a new book and created an 8-CD audio program, Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck to help people understand that we all are in fact, capable of earning whatever income we choose and to help them find ways to do this.
Right now, you can still get the ebook and “name your price.”
It frustrates me when I continue to see hardworking people, living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, losing their homes because of a few hundred dollars a month. Right now, in the US, there are more than 1,000,000 mortgages in default. It’s time we all learned to take charge of our own destiny. As Chris Gardner, author of the Pursuit of Happyness, said, The calvary is not coming.
What happened? Who stole their dream?
As the title above, borrowed from a book by my friend Burke Hedges suggests, someone actually stole your dream . . . if . . . you let them. This didn’t happen over night, nor was it necessarily intentional. But happen, it most certainly did.
Our colleges and universities are churning out hordes of well-educated young people who have been conditioned to become “good employees.” While, on the surface, this seems like a good idea in practice it has taken away people’s belief in their own ability to earn income. They are taught that all they earn is what their employer gives them in their paycheck.
If you follow the history of the United States you will see the progression from the early days following the Revolutionary War, a time when most people owned and operated a small business, to the industrial age, when towns sprung up around factories and people went to a job.
These were not the ideal jobs, being in factories, mills or mines where people worked long hour hours for low pay and the only ones getting ahead were the “fat cat” owners and managers.
It stands to reason that the children of these hard working people would want something better so they went to college and found white collar management jobs in those same factories, wearing shirts and ties and using their brains rather than their brawn.
We then entered the information age, a time when the knowledge worker became the most sought after candidate for the jobs that were available. At this point, we have several generations of workers who are college educated to perform a function at some company.
Fortunately, as Dan Pink beautifully points out in his book A Whole New Mind, we have moved passed this into the “Creative age,” a time when individual creativity and contribution is once again valued.
Who stole the American dream is of little consequence now, since more and more Americans have taken it back and are starting their own ventures.
It’s interesting that immigrants who arrive here with virtually nothing and have no preconceived ideas of how it “should be” done, start small business at four times the rate of native born people.
The American dream is still alive and well as long as we are willing to go for it and it’s time we all learn to develop additional streams of income and stopped living paycheck to paycheck.
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March 10th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
Several years ago I wrote an article titled “Use the good dishes,” about how we tend to save our good dishes and silverware for company and I suggested that you use them for yourself once in a while. You deserve the best too.
Something else we tend to do is wear our valuable jewelry and good clothing only on special occasions. Why? What are you saving them for?
Since I live in a rural area and work at home most of the time, I look for opportunities to dress up and believe that jewelry and such, are only “bling” and should be used instead of buried away in a drawer.
When I lived in New York City it used to amuse me that there were people who kept their silverware in a safety-deposit box at the bank and would go there to take it out for dinner parties and bring it back the next day. In my opinion if you have to do this, you don’t own your possessions, they own you.
I’ve always liked what my wise uncle George once said, “If it doesn’t have a heartbeat, it’s not important.”
Don’t get me wrong, I like having nice things but I also use them, whether it’s the good dishes or a valuable watch.
As a matter of fact, if you start wearing your good clothes and jewelry, you will start to feel abundant and, as a result of the law of attraction, you will begin to attract more abundance to you.
Something I learned from Dr. Dennis Waitley many years ago that helped me raise my own self-image and, in turn my life style, was when he suggested, “Look and dress your best at all times.”
Doing this will make you feel better about yourself and that feeling will keep you in alignment for attracting what you want. So go ahead, wear your good jewelry to the supermarket.
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March 8th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
I have a really important question for you.
What do you want?
So many people tell me what they don’t want
“I don’t want all these lousy bills” “I don’t want this broken down car” “I don’t want this dead end job,” and so on . . .
So . . . what do you want?
Do you want a great relationship, lots of money, adventure, travel, a new car, your own business, peace and serenity?
What do you want?
Start thinking about what you want and why. Get some pictures that represent your dreams and put them where you’ll see them.
Start talking about what you want . . . as if . . it’s done.
Ignore anything you don’t want. Give it no attention. Remember, “As a man (or woman) thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
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WHAT I DO AND WHY:
My purpose is to use my God given gifts and talents to help you realize your fullest potential. I do this through my books, audio programs, ebooks, talks & seminars, and articles.
By now, you’ve probably seen or heard about the movie and book, The Secret. It explores the powerful “Law of Attraction” and how it works in your life, regardless of your knowledge of it and how you can use it to create the life you desire. I have been teaching these principles for many years and helping people learn how to integrate them into their daily life.
YES YOU CAN! – Yes, you have within you the power to change your life . . .
Yes, you can have health, wealth and happiness . . .
Yes you can be, do and have whatever you desire . . .
Yes you can choose to create the life you were born to live.
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