The Worse Thing That Can Ever Happen

Unfortunately, most people will begin or have already began to perceive our current economic situation in this negative way. People who have this perception usually say things like:

• “There aren’t any opportunities…”
• “The US economy is terrible right now…”
• “Everyone is having a hard time…”
• “Who knows when this thing will turn around…”

You get the point…

These are people who do not understand that regardless of whether the economy is good or bad, it is still a pretty equal playing field. What I mean by that is most people face the same challenges you face with no advantage in particular. The economy has not slowed down for just you, it slowed down for everyone.

People with this perception also have a tendency to become lazy, frustrated, angry, and depressed.  All negative feelings that not only prevent you from personal growth, but they also prevent you from achieving success.

Let me tell you that these negative feelings do happen to the best of us, but the difference between the two  types is that the  ’your chance to make it big’ people are able to better communicate positivity and action to their minds.

Your Chance to Make it Big

Luckily, some people have more control over their thoughts than others which allows them to have a much more positive and in some cases profitable perspective than others.  Even though the economy is challenging, this group tends to view it as their chance to make it big. These people say things like:

• “I’m going to work my butt off…”
• “It’s my time to shine…”
• “While everyone is wallowing in their misery, I’m going to make it happen…”

Big difference in the way they speak huh?

The reality of our current situation is that during times likes these, people put their creativity on ‘high’ allowing them to create more and more ways of becoming successful and prosperous.

Take a Few Steps Back for Every Giant Leap Forward

I originally re-reminded of this idea when I read Tom Gorecki’s Blog on “Are your parents doing more harm than good” Now given the topic is a bit different, but the message most definitely applies. To those who are suffered with the challenges of moving back in with mom and dad, I say do it.  This is something I define as taking a few steps backward. For those who can, it is totally worth moving back in with your parents to save a thousands of dollars a month.  That money you save can be used to help you make more money. Once you have more money to play with, you can learn the ideology of using your money to make you more money. My friend Neil Patel is a Internet mogul and is proud to live with his parents!

The time for you to work hard is right now. By you working hard and taking those few steps backwards will help you take some giant leaps forward as the economy starts to turn around. I always say that if you can become successful in or during this economic situation, you will able to succeed anywhere no matter what.  That is a pretty bold statement and should not be taken lightly.

Taking a few steps back

• moving in with someone
• stop spending money on ‘wants’
• cut out traveling
• start studying and learning (investing time)
• limit taking days off
• taking on a part time job
• taking a pay cut

It is usually hard for people to take a few steps back because they automatically begin to think each step backwards is negative.  If you take a look at almost all of the successful people in this world, most of them had to take several steps backwards various times throughout their life in order for them to get where they are at today.

Work While Others Sleep

Now you do not have to take this in literal terminology, but it would be in your best benefit to spend more of your time working both on your business AND in your business. Working in your business means that you are developing new business while working on your business is honing in on your skills. For example, working on your persuasive communication to learn the language of persuasion. Being able to communicate effectively is working on your business.

I cannot tell you enough that if you are spending your time moping about why all this is happening to you, why you got laid off, why you are not getting paid as much, why are you getting all these bills that you cannot afford, you are heading down the wrong path.

First

Change the questions you ask yourself.

Second

Write a 90 day plan of action and follow

Third

If you have extra time, and even if you do not, make extra time and work on your business

Giant Leaps

You want to take giant leaps, then be comfortable with setbacks. Imagine yourself as a slingshot.  In order for the slingshot to work, you must pull it as back as you can. After you let it go, it can launch something 100x the distance you pulled back.

Decide right now to be comfortable taking a few steps back because it can help you go 100 steps forward.

Which direction are you stepping towards right now?

Does that sound a lot like your life? Well if it does not, then you are part of the small minority because there are many people who just cannot stop checking out the news.  The obvious question: Why? Is it because we are in the information age and absorbing new information is really important to our likelihood and well being? Maybe for some it is.  After I became extremely curious why most people get engrossed with the news, I decided to search for my answers.  I asked my closest friends, family and anyone I came in contact with to figure out why people are so addicted to the news.  The answers I received was your typical, “I just want to know…” Since that was the first response I got, I decided to pry a bit further by asking more questions.  I finally came to a very interesting conclusion.  I realized that many people watch the news because they subconsciously feel better about their own lives and themselves.  I found this odd and interesting, but it does make sense.  It seems as if the worse and worse the economy gets, the more and more people are interested in watching the news.

Negative News Equals Negative Mindset

For some of you who have not already read my popular post: Do You Have a Friend Who’s a Looser? Get Rid of Em, read it.  Hanging around with negative people will lower your standards which I compare to immersing yourself with negative news. Think about it, is the news really that irresistibly interesting? “2 suspects were sent to jail today on suspicion of murdering their former teacher…” “The economy is doing terrible, 65,000 jobs were lost last month alone…” Why is it necessary to know this information? What good comes from this?   Do you believe you are setting yourself up for a successful life?  Do you really need to fill in that void with a daily “news fix”?

Why I watch the news

I have a different reason for watching the news along with being very selective of what I read. I almost never read about negativity in the news including:

• Shootings
• Murders
• Rapes
• Losing jobs
• Economic meltdown
• Mortgage crisis
• Real estate gone bad
• War

I usually read about:

• Technology advances
• Successful people
• People getting their big break
• Hollywood  news
• Movie releases
• Blogging
• Occasional updates with whatever else is going on in the world

The occasional updates I use for different reasons than most people.  I use it as a tool to communicate with other people.  Almost everyone is talking about the bad economy. What I normally do is briefly converse with someone on a negative story and quickly change the conversation into something inspirational or positive.  I choose to be excited and motivated versus down and glum because of a horrible story. I am different than most people which is great! Does that make sense?

Positive News Equals Positive Mindset

Whether you are looking to become wealthy or spiritually connected, you have a much better chance doing so by being around the right people. What you see on TV or read online has the same impact.  The more positive news you read, the quicker you will allow yourself to emerge in positive thoughts.  They say positive thinking is what helps one move forward. This is somewhat true. Positive thinking is an ongoing action, meaning you must exert energy every second to keep your mind at a positive state.  Most people tell me “AJ, I had my one positive thought for the day so I’m ‘thinking’ positive.”  Even if you have conditioned your subconscious to continuously think of positive thoughts without being consciously aware, you will still end up with something negative by reacting to the news around you.  This is why it is also important to not only stay away from negative news, but read, watch, and listen to more positive news.  A great website I found is called Happynews.com.

Why is the Media Persistent About Providing Negative News?

Every influential person in the world can write about why the news has such a terrible impact on one’s mind, but will people stop watching? Definitely not! The media is like any other business, the only way it survives is by making profit for its shareholders.  The media is only interested in making money which is done by advertising. The more people that watch, the more money they will make.  If  someone has the option on which they would rather see, a bank getting robbed compared to healthy babies being born, the answer would be obvious.  The media is aware that more people would watch the story about the bank robbery compared to the new babies.  This translates into people prefer negative stories rather than positive.

Empower Yourself and the World

Since we cannot simply boycott the news, how about we put 100% focus on positive news.  The media will deliver what the public wants.  If the public would rather be informed of more positive news compared to negative, that is what they will begin to deliver. You have the power to control the news.  Every person who decides that they would rather better themselves by viewing positive news would see the dramatic impact in their mindset.  Imagine the influence if 1 million people across the United States made the decision to ONLY watch positive news from now on. The outcome would be that those one million people would almost instantly see a change in their mindset which would allow them to focus on much more productive or spiritually enlightening things. Those 1 million people will create a ripple effect and possibly even help the economy.

Do you think this is possible? Can we really make vast change in the way we live our lives?  Do we have the ability to influence the media conglomerate? Martin Luther King did and succeeded. Gandhi made a difference.  Rosa Parks took the chance.   Why wait around for someone else to take action when we have the power to simply do it?  Only focus on positive news! Only talk about positive news. Only ASK for positive news. How about we start the movement today:  TWEET this article to everyone you know and let’s start a snowball effect.