October 07 ~ Head Space
ByOctober is in full swing and so is the weather.
How about you, are you in full swing??
As I continue to work on myself I increasingly realise that strategies and technical information are the least important aspects of success in our lives.
As I think about the people I talk to and the emails I receive there seems to be an ocean full of people who seem either lost or paralysed in their lives.
I find myself asking over and over again: How can I help people get their heads sorted rather than just try and give them good technical info that the majority of people receive but never act on??
I may never answer that completely in my lifetime. Raewyn and I try with our Behind Closed Doors and Nuts and Bolts events to address these critical issues. The funny thing is that even though these events are less than half the price of the technical ones and these events will help people make more money and have better lives than the technical ones, they are never as popular.
You see we don’t want to know that we have to work on ourselves, we want a magic wand, don’t we?
As we prepare for our final NZ events in November I thought I would share with you some of the most critical things that I believe we need to get “right” in our lives.
Self Love versus Pride
Right from kids we are taught that people who “love themselves” are arrogant or show offs. Think about how many times you’ve heard someone comment on another and say “Oh him, he really loves himself”.
It’s never said as a positive is it? And yet loving ourselves is probably the most critical issue in our lives, (after knowing where we will go when we die of course).
You see there is a world of difference between pride and self love.
People who love themselves have a realistic understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and have learned to accept both.
Good self love enables us to forgive ourselves, accept ourselves and work on ourselves without self flagellation. Sadly in New Zealand in particular we are afraid of accepting ourselves or feeling good about ourselves because we don’t want to be labelled as up ourselves. And this lie keeps us in terrible bondage to self sabotage, depression and fear.
As far back as the Bible Jesus said that our ability to love others was absolutely linked to the extent that we could love ourselves. Now when God, who designed us, tells us this, we need to listen.
Most of us are somewhere on a scale from extreme self hatred through to self ambiguity. You don’t find many people who really feel good about themselves. However you can, you really can.
Sometimes we have to stop chasing shadows and money for a season and pursue ourselves. Many times we are looking for a change in our partners or our circumstances when what we really need is a change in our hearts and between our ears. I have many times watched people’s lives and circumstances totally transformed as they focus on learning to like and love themselves.
It’s not some party trick, it takes time and commitment. The fruit of a changed life makes the effort so worth it.
Situational ethics and real integrity
The whole area of truth and integrity is a character issue. This is good because character can be developed. We can train ourselves to be trustworthy and honest. You’re not born with it.
I see a sad thing in today’s society, and especially in the wealth creation industry and current media. The need to put “positive spin”, (aka lying), on everything we buy, eat, drive and attend has created a fundamentally false, untrustworthy society.
This is not something you can ignore and not be affected by. Unless you and I decide we won’t tolerate it we will get swept along in it. I had a conversation a little while ago with a peer in the property industry and he was telling me how he completely separates his personal relationships from business relationships, even when they are the same people. In other words it was OK to be friends with someone and take them to court for example over a business deal at the same time.
Now stop and think about that for a minute. It’s just not possible to do that if you have integrity. You can only do that if you operate as 2 non integrated people.
If a friend of mine did something negative to me in business then I would go to them as their friend and sort it out. I have on more than one occasion written out substantial cheques in the last 2 years to resolve issues where the other party was being unreasonable. However I pursued the relationship as these people were friends of mine. I would rather be wronged than lose the friend. Now I might change my exposure to them in business going forward, but the point is if we have integrity we will be the same people all of the time.
Society talks today about situational ethics. In other words something can be right or wrong depending on the situation. This is the biggest load of nonsense I have ever heard, yet it is rampant in our society.
Similarly we have situational integrity now as well. We have degrees of honesty. Stealing can be OK if nobody gets hurt. Allowing somebody to be mistreated can be OK because the other party “deserved” it.
We have white lies, temporary insanity defences and victimless crime.
This phenomenon affects you. It will tempt you to take advantage of others, to lie to get deals, to withhold info when it is beneficial to do so, the list goes on.
Sticking to your knitting
One of the most powerful things I have personally learned in the last 3 years is the power of goals. We all know how to set goals but few of us even do that. However just setting them isn’t enough unless we keep them in front of us and set a plan to achieve them.
You see whilst we all want ultimately to achieve massive results through massive action, often that is overwhelming and we struggle to put taking action into context with the rest of our lives.
So what we are really looking for is consistent action. I found a fascinating success formula that expresses this called The Clouseian Formula from “Learning the Business One Story at a Time” by Michael Clouse.
The formula is: S=(d+g+a)i2
Success=(burning desire+written goals+consistent action) x self-improvement squared
Squared because, Clouse writes, “the books you read, CD’s you hear and the classes you take create a powerful synergistic effect over time”.
And it is right on the money. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
Now you might say this is semantics but words are powerful and where “massive action” might overwhelm you, “consistent action 1 step at a time” is more achievable and less scary.
So for example this year I specifically set aside 2007 to speak publicly, run events and train others. Because I planned it and kept it in front of me it has been successful. I have stood in front of thousands, run some of the most successful events ever held in the country and helped lots of people go forward with their lives.
Whilst I am a bit sad to think that our events in November may be the last we ever do in New Zealand, what is more exciting is that we are achieving our goals and we are now cranking up our work in Fiji.
2008 is going to be a year of focusing on the Massive Action Forum members and developing our work in Fiji. Knowing what I plan to do and having concrete steps to get there causes it to happen. Does that make sense?
What’s property up to??
Nothing really changed from last month. We still don’t have better weather to find out if we are in a blip or a slump so follow the basic rules and stay safe. In particular….
- Avoid any off the plans apartments in Auckland.
- Totally avoid the Argosy style Cashflow mortgages. My broker Kris can get you the same result without the nasty side effects.
- Don’t be impressed by apparent large discounts. There are big discounts everywhere at the moment because the market doesn’t know what it is doing. So be sure they are real bargains before parting with your money.
- Money. Finance is currently a very volatile product. Kris and I are dealing with an average of probably 2 deals a week where people have had their funding pulled or normally easy finance is suddenly not available. So do yourself a favour and talk to a good broker before you buy something. This is always important but for the next 6 to 12 months it is really critical.
I don’t care who you use for finance but you need a top gun, not some dad’s army reject! 
Events between now and Xmas
Behind Closed Doors
I’m really excited about this event. We have really poured our heart and soul into Behind Closed Doors. After assisting hundreds of investors personally and dealing with “people issues” for over 20 years we’ve heard and seen most of it. We find that if help you get your head and your heart sorted out, the money rolls in .
So please come and join us. 100% money back guarantee and trust me, you’ll leave a different (and better) person.
This is probably the last time we will ever run this in NZ and we’d love to see you there.
Nuts & Bolts
Now this event totally rocks. The ability to have complete systems handed and taught to you by someone managing over 50 properties and managing me just can’t be missed!!
Saturday work on your head and heart, Nuts and Bolts on Sunday gives you the opportunity to avoid truckloads of costly mistakes and be able to get more done and make more money.
We’ve put this event together solely to help you get a better result. We’ve made 15 million dollars worth of mistakes, we’d like to help you never make them. Particularly relevant for anyone new to investing/trading or with currently less than 5 properties.
Final Thoughts
The next year is going to happen whether we like it or not. The recent suicide of a wealthy acquaintance of mine and the recent “anniversary’s” of 9/11 and princess Diana’s death all serve to remind us that tomorrow could be our last day on earth. Next year could be our only year.
So even though I’ve asked you this question a hundred different ways I am still hoping and praying that you are answering it for yourself.
What do you really, really want out of life??
If you only had 1 year left what would it take to make you feel your life had been worthwhile??
You may only have days, weeks or months to do it so are you ever going to decide what you really want and go for it. Failure is an event, don’t be terrified of that. To never achieve anything because you never tried or were too afraid, that would be a disaster.
Be assured that if you do live a long life you WILL look back and wish you’d done so much more. But you’re not dying yet, you can do it. You can have the life you want. You can climb that mountain, love that person, drive that car, build that hospital, see that jungle. You can, I know you can.
I don’t know when I really started believing I could actually retire from a 60 hour a week job and spend the rest of my life enjoying my family and serving God in Fiji. On day 1 I hoped I could, after 6 months I thought I just might pull it off, and after 1 year I’d achieved the financial results to actually do it.
But on day 1 I decided I would TRY.
Now what I am about to say may sound really weird but I am a Christian and God speaks to me. Sometimes He speaks prophetically, which means He tells me things for other people about their lives, their situations or their futures.
Well I believe he is saying to you that today is your time to decide whether you are willing to stop wishing your life was better and say instead: “From today I am going to believe I can have a better life. And from today I am going to TRY to achieve the goals I really want in my life. I know this may be scary but I choose to try and fail over never having tried at all.”
And if believing in yourself is too scary ask God to help you, He believes in you even more than I do!! And I think you’re awesome.
With all our love, Dean, Raewyn and the Massive Action team.
