NeilGraber.com – Blog

The world around us is changing – are you prepared for the future?  Have you given it any thought, or do you think you will be “okay”.  Listen to the words from an Aesop’s Fable.

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The Ant and the Grasshopper

In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

“Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”

“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”

“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:

It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

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It should be relatively eask to determine if you are an ant or a grasshopper.  Are you planning for and anticipating what the future may bring, and know it will be up to you to determine what it will hold for you?  Or do you feel the government or someone else will take care of things if you haven’t planned or acted appropriately? 

Some of you “ants” will say “I’ve got a good job, so I’ll be okay”.  That may be true today, but what about down the road.  I’ve worked in both the public and private sector – yet when I no longer worked there, I didn’t get any more paychecks.  Unfortunately, no one is exempt from economic conditions determining how long they hold that job regardless how important their contributions are to the company.  So let me ask again, if you lost your job – will you still be “okay”? 

In this post, I am suggesting to be prepared for the future, one should have a Plan B.  Something which you can fall back upon should something change with your present position.  The best time to consider and pursue a Plan B is while you are still employed.  No longer will I find myself depending upon one single income stream.  No, I am working with multiple opportunities which each can either contribute to or replace the earnings I had when I was working a job.  Let’s look at it this way – which is a more risky investment – a single stock or a mutual fund?  You could say “it depends”, but for the most part a single stock is a more risky investment than a balanced mutual fund.  Just to be clear – having only a job is like having a single stock – it can go up, go down, or even go away.  However, having that same job, along with some other opportunities you are working, will provide more stability in a changing world.

To be best prepared for the future, my recommendation is to consider a Plan B that you can work with, and look for different opportunities to generate income should something change with your current job. 

I found this saying entitled “To Achieve Your Dreams, Remember Your ABC’s“.  I don’t know who wrote this.

Avoid negative sources, people, places, things and habits.

Believe in yourself.

Consider things from every angle.

Dont’ give up and don’t give in.

Enjoy life today, yesterday is gone, tomorrow may never come.

Family and friends are hidden treasures, seek them and enjoy their riches.

Give more than you planned to.

Hang on to your dreams.

Ignore those who try and discourage you.

Just do it.

Keep trying no matter how hard it seems, it will get easier.

Love yourself first and most.

Make it happen.

Never lie, cheat or steal, always strike a fair deal.

Open your eyes and see things as they really are.

Practice makes perfect.

Quitters never win and winners never quit.

Read, study and learn about everything important in your life.

Stop procrastinating.

Take control of your destiny.

Understand yourself in order to better understand others.

Visualize it.

Want it more than anything.

Xcellerate your efforts.

You are unique in all God’s creations, nothing can replace YOU.

Zero in on your target and go for it!

Don’t Quit!

When things go wrong as they sometimes will

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill;

When the funds are low, and the debts are high

And you want to smile, but have to sigh;

When care is pressing you down a bit-

Rest if you must, but do not quit.

Success is failure turned inside out;

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;

And you can never tell how close you are

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit-

It’s when things go wrong that you must not quit.

We all know that to accomplish a task or to achieve any level of success we must do something.  Yet many individuals continue to ‘just sit on their hands” and wait for something else to happen, or for a more opportune time.

Why don’t we just get started?  For the most part, we know what we must do to complete a task, even if we don’t possess all the necessary knowledge at the start.

It’s our own belief system that holds us back – we are just not sure, we are uncertain, this may not be the right time, or we’ll wait until we get just a little more information.  How many times have each of us used these reasons for not taking action?

Who believes the real reason that we don’t start is because we are fearful? 

Most of us would dismiss this thought and say “no, not me.”  Yet, fear by definition is a feeling of alarm or disquiet caused by the expectation of danger, pain or disaster – we can all agree on this.  But fear in a more subtle way is also the same feeling fueled by apprehension and uncertainty.

So now we’re to believe those little excuses holding us back are because we were “afraid”? 

“Yes”, many things can keep us from believing, with fear being the biggest one.  To take action, which is the first step in success, a certain amount of courage is required.  Courage is simply the ability to take action in the face of fear or uncertainly.

To succeed, we require a certain amount of knowledge.  Knowledge is information; it can be knowledge from a book, from others, or first-hand knowledge from previous experiences.  Knowledge by itself will not accomplish even the simplest task.  Tasks will only be accomplished, and success achieved, by combining knowledge with action.

Getting started in many cases is the hardest part. It is easy to procrastinate as most of us at one time have said, “just waiting a little bit won’t hurt a thing”.  Yet, in reality it does. It is the small things, — good or bad — which over time begin to compound to the point where they determine the outcome.

By taking action we will trump our fears.  Consider the quotation “do the thing you fear the most and the death of fear is certain”.  Who hasn’t had a situations in life where we were fearful of doing something – something perhaps as simple as picking up the phone and making a call?  We delayed making the call as perhaps the time wasn’t right for either party, the person may not be at home, or what if they are not interested in the message we have to share?  Yet, when we finally found the courage to make the call – the person was home, the time was right, and they were interested in what we were sharing.  Looking back, we wonder “why was I fearful of making a simple phone call?”  With action we achieved confidence in ourselves and completed one simple step on our journey to success.

So to all the people who can relate to the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz – I now present you with your personal medal of “courage”.  Wear it proudly and remember action trumps fears. So now go, and take action!

Do we fear criticism – over our lives we have learned that it is not fun to do something that others make fun of or provide hurtful comments.  So, rather than trying something new and different, or something we are not good at, we hold back – even if it has the potential or likelihood of making our job or our life better.  With the fear of criticism from others, our desire for change is reduced or removed, and we potentially will remain locked into our current situation. 

To counter this fear, we must be open to believe that not all comments and criticism are hurtful.  Do you remember the old saying, “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me?”  There are a variety of motivations behind someone providing feedback or criticism.  We must look at the individual making the comments and understand the rationale behind the words as we listen to the comments.  Our level of trust with the individual providing the feedback also comes into play.  There is much to be learned from listening to others that will enhance our chance of success.

In addition, we may lose the chance to improve as we avoid hearing the thoughts of others by thinking all they wish to do is to point out our faults.  There may be a better way to accomplish a task – but we must listen to others to understand it.  We need to be wise enough and brave enough to accept what others are telling us.  Yet we must be smart enough to understand the individual providing the criticism and their motives in doing so.  Feedback, even when we don’t like what is said is still helpful, criticism just to be hurtful is something we can do without.  We may not always be able to control the feedback we receive is delivered as constructive criticism.  I also can’t tell you just to forget criticism which is hurtful – anyone who has received it knows it’s not easy to do.  Yet to understand how others perceive our efforts and our actions, we must be open and not fearful of receiving feedback or criticism.

Talk about consistent and persistent – let’s go back to the Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare.  The rabbit started fast and disappeared down the path.   To the tortoise it had to look like the race was hopeless as there was no way on this earth he could keep up with the rabbit.  Yet he constantly and persistently put one foot in front of another, and after a while he passed the point where the rabbit had stopped to take a nap.

But the race was not over as the finish line was still far away.  So the determined tortoise continued down the path one step at a time maintaining his actions.  Like many people who work in bursts and then stop for a while, the rabbit woke up and continued speeding towards the finish line.  But like the individual who continued to perform the appropriate actions even when it looked hopeless, the tortoise crossed the finish line just ahead of the hare.

By all rights a hare should always beat a tortoise.  But in life it doesn’t always work that way, the fast and the strong do not always win – only because they stop or quit – even if it is for just a period of time.  So, for the individual with determination, patience, and the ability to take a risk, (and at times fail), the race can be won, the goal accomplished, and success achieved – with the habits of being consistent and persistent.

For my thoughts today, I’m going to use some information from the book Destination Success by Dwight Bain.  In this book he has a short section on a new way of looking at the word “possible”.  Here’s his information:

• Impossible – Can’t do it.  Give up now.  It cannot be done.
• Im Possible – Im is in the way of possible.  Im is blocking possible from happening.
• I’m Possible -Yes! I can do this!  I’m free to pursue my possibilities.

So what do you think?  Does it ring true for you?  Many times we find barriers or limitations preventing us from an accomplishment or success.  As you can see from the information above, that limitation is our own self.  That limitation could be in the form of fear or a lack of belief or confidence.  We may think our obstacles are the lack of experience, education, or even money – yet if we get past our mental barriers, these identified barriers can be overcome or pushed to the side.

There is probably no right answer in all cases to push past our self-imposed limits.  For one person it may be just getting out there and doing the action and taking all the necessary steps.  Sharing one’s dream and then having an accountability partner may work for another.  Surrounding yourself with positive and supportive individuals, reading the right books, or listening to motivational information all can impact one’s belief system.  Breaking the required actions into small steps and then celebrating each as they are completed will enhance an individual’s confidence and belief.  You may need to identify which of these or others will change your belief system to move “you” out of the way to accomplish your goals and successes.  And with that, you can move from “impossible” to “possible”.

So where are you in the game of life?  Are you out on the field contributing to the greater good, or are you on the sidelines?  Perhaps you are not even “dressed” for the game and are in the bleachers – or maybe you are not even at the game, but are home on the sofa.

For us to accomplish our dreams and find success, we must be an active participant.  Unless we are out on the field making things happen, we will most likely not accomplish what we desire.  Individual effort on our part, combined with an overall combined effort by others is what it will take. 

We must first make a decison to “show up”.  Next we must determine we want to play in the game.  Do not let others keep you on the sidelines by telling you that you are too young or too old, without sufficient education or experience, or too much or too little of anything else.  We must be in the game to carry the ball into the end zone, or be contributing so another can make the score. 

If you work by yourself, it’s all up to you.  If you work as a member of a team, each members’ individual effort will impact overall team success.  Either way, to achieve we must contribute.  And some days, while there may be individual or team accomplishments, the game goes to someone else. 

If you don’t play, you will never have any chance of achieving your desired success.  So where are you?  Indifferent and at home, sitting there and watching to see what happens, standing there waiting for someone or something, or out there making it happen?  It’s up to you.  See you on the field!

Forrester Research identifies around 10% of all shopping today is done online.  Yet in just a few years, they predit that number to grow to 40%.  Guess that reinforces “the internet is where it is at”. 

A business acquataince of mine put me onto a shopping application which saves both time and money.  It saves time as it will pull the item from mulitple sources, and you can save money by seeing which website offers the best deal.  To get your FREE shopping App – go to www.MyShoppingGenie.com/neilgraber.  Watch the short video to see how it works, then click ”Get It Free Now!  Once you download the application, find ”options” on the bar displayed to add your city and state so you can see any local deals.  

I’d like some feedback regarding your savings of time or money by shopping online using this FREE App - let me know…..

The success formula for your dreams is really very simple.  Is it easy, no – of course not!  If you do these steps, will you be guaranteed to be successful and accomplish your dreams, sorry – no guarantees.  However, if you follow the steps identified with clear intentions to succeed, follow them with integrity and purpose, be thoughtful and mindful of others along the way – you will end up a better person and find yourself many steps closer to living your dreams.

Step 1 – Define your objective clearly and distinctly.  The defination of your dream must be as clear to you as to others you choose to share your objective.  You need to know exactly where you are going!

Step 2 – Believe in both your dream and yourself.  Believe it enough so you can see it and feel it.  Have confidence in yourself to accomplish the dream – forget past failures.  Surround yourself with positive people, distance yourself from those who can only say “it will never work!”

Step 3 – Take action.  Take the first step, then the second, and move down the path towards your success.  Know that you will experience obstacles, and success for most is not an immediate thing.  Move with perseverence, but always keep moving in a forward direction.  Celebrate small successes, but understand they are just one of many on the way to achieving your dreams – once one step is accomplished, set your eyes on the next.

Most of us probably already know these 3 steps, yet for one reason or another we don’t follow through or believe enough to even get a good start towards our dream.  It takes committment, courage, and understanding the “why” behind the dream to have a shot at success.  3 simple steps make up the formula for success – don’t we wish it was simply that easy to achieve our dreams?