What your habits say about you

I read an incredible piece from a sales training site, of all places, regarding habits.

Leaders Club had this to say: Everything Duplicates! In a 1999 study by Brandeis University, psychologists observed that bad habits can spread through an office like a contagious disease. Employees tend to mirror the bad behaviors of their co-workers; ie. low morale, poor work habits, and even theft from the employer. The phenomena of "habit spread" plays out with lightning speed. Everywhere around you are average people. They entice you into being more like them by offering their acceptance and by leading you to believe that everyone else is already more like them than like you.

YIKES! But what is even funnier are the stories my teen girls tell me about working with 2-4 year olds. Same story! Habit spread is happening at that stage too! No wonder starting a new habit is like going against the grain. Leaders Club added this last line to their article: Don't sacrifice your goals and unique ideas for the sake of being average. If you want to be better than average, you must do what average people are not willing to do.

Lately, Ive been searching out inspiring quotes. Now, I am seeing them all over the place. Other people are posting them too. Is this a positive habit taken over with habit spread? I hope so. I don't want to be average, and I don't want to sacrifice any of my goals to be average. The fight against average is worth the tension and struggle.

I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. ~ William Blake

Yesterday I did my financial statement. You know, that system where you take all your assets and accounts and compare it to all you spend. It's something I've been doing for over a year. It really is freeing to see the numbers on a page and know I'm in control. I have choices. I know what I have and where I need to improve.

It was torture to start this habit. I was scared for months and confused as to what items I was to exactly account. Then I did it. It took hours if I remember correctly. We do have lots of accounts and all the log-in info to find and then to create a form to record it all in one place. But I did it. Every stock, precious metal, money market, savings, credit union, and every credit card, bill, and payment went on my form. And when I finished I remember thinking, "Is that all there is?" All my emotions were worked up over this one piece of paper. Silly, really. A little bit of me gets anxious to start, but when the numbers are updated, it is a relief. I feel a sense of comfort. I don't "feel" rich and derive my comfort from the numbers. I think the feeling of relief comes from accepting control. William Blake's quote above is about making your own way or be enslaved by another man. When I do my financials on my own form, I am not enslaved. My banker isn't in control of my money and accounts. I own my system and accept that the numbers on the financial statement are reflections of my choices. Don't let emotions keep you from making your own system. Accept where you are financially and make your financial statement your beginning.

Finished with 3 Real Estate Classes with Allied Schools! One of our goals as a business is to get my broker's license and do property management. Robert Kiyosaki has inspired me beyond most books I have read. My heart breaks to see my business partner leave most mornings by 5am to start his 80 mile commute on a motorcycle. His dedication to doing whatever it takes to provide for his family is also my inspiration in educating myself in the world of sales and real estate. I see success and know it will be ours. Success to me is choosing when and where to work; choosing how much to make; and is choosing how to spend the profits. CA is upping our taxes again. Americans will be taking home less and less of their paychecks. However, opportunity is all around and believing in your dreams is the cornerstone to making them come true.

Amazing People

It's been a crazy week. My 93 year old grandmother fell, broke her hip, had surgery, didn't recover, and is now being rehabilitated in swallowing and walking again. Truly, this is courage and strength seldom seen today. I know she lives on the power of positive thinking, but it is also something more. It is her belief in herself and living life to the fullest. So much depends on the health of our minds, from healing ourselves, rejecting illness, finding and using resources to overcome a poor education or poverty itself. Believing and faith are powerful uses of the mind. Seeing your success so clearly separates you from so many others that lack that one ability of the mind. Think of Edison and how he could see his light bulb working and serving others even after 10,000 attempts. That is not a typo. 10K tries to achieve what he knew was possible. Zig Ziglar said, "If you want to reach your goal, you must 'see the reaching' in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal". A question was asked if entrepreneurship was for everyone. I think anything is possible. A better question would be why are there so few successful people? Why aren't people achieving their dreams, desires, and goals? It has to do with belief. As Napoleon Hill has said, "What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve". Dreaming is half the story. Believing it to be real and available to reach is the other half to achieving.