Here’s a good summary of change from Mitch Joel of Six Pixel of Separation. 

Mitch approaches the age old question of "Are you comfortable with change?".  It shows here that even remotely thinking about changes could get your heart rate pacing.  The facts are in your face, the way things are and how nothing will ever remain the same. 

For me it’s like surfing above the waves and trying to see how the wakes changes and adapting to stay afloat… and perhaps even more, doing it with style and finesse.

Have a read and see your take on it.

Growing, changing and adapting to anything new is not easy. It’s actually a very counter-human activity, which is why we need to push ourselves. Constantly.

It’s easy to say, "this isn’t for me," or "I simply can’t change." It’s a big mistake that most people make (and Marketers are just as guilty as the next person). Over the years I’ve heard people say things like, "I simply don’t like to read business books," or "I could never switch over to a Mac because I am too used to working on a PC." Odds are you have been reading the wrong business books (or ones that didn’t strike a chord with you), and just because you’re used to a PC, it doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be significant benefits to your productivity to try something new/different. It reeks of ignorance more than anything else.

Self-imposed limitations are one of the main things that will either keep where you are or drag you down.

You’ll never meet a successful person who constantly keeps things the way they or someone who doesn’t push themselves to try something new and different. We all know that human beings don’t like change. Nobody wakes up in the morning hoping that their coffee maker was moved or that their clothes are in a different closet in a different order, but there’s a big difference between something being erratic in our lives versus constantly striving to try new and different things that will (probably) make you smarter, more informed and open.

"Getting uncomfortable" is a great personal goal to have.

I bought a MacBook Pro (and it just arrived). While I’ve used a Mac, I don’t really know the Mac. I’ve been a PC user since the inception of the home computer. I know all of the tricks and tweaks needed to make it perform like a personal symphony orchestra. I have no issues with it. I’ve worked with every single version of the Windows operating system. In fact, I love it. So no, I’m not switching to a MacBook Pro… I am adding it into my arsenal. I want to get uncomfortable with having to learn something new. To re-think some of the tasks and actions that I can do so naturally, to feel and see what others do in the Mac/Apple cult and just be more well-rounded when it comes to computers and technology. And, between you and I, I’m scared. I don’t even know what to do if the MacBook crashes or how to deal with it if I’m presenting and something goes awry, but I’m doing it anyway.

It’s not just about the computer.

It’s about personal development as well. Like most people my age-ish, I’m also interested in health and nutrition, so I’m eating differently. And, while I’m not getting into the Paleo Diet like my good friend, Julien Smith (co-author of Trust Agents with Chris Brogan and co-host of the Media Hacks Podcast), I am eating in a totally different way (the basic crux of it is that I am no longer eating until I am full, but rather eating until I am no longer hungry. At the same time, I’m just ignoring processed foods, sugars and fried stuff – as much as possible). The personal results have been staggering for me. On the reading front, I am also getting uncomfortable by reading fiction, articles from magazines I’d never normally be interested in, and I’m doing my best to consume books on a Digital Reader only and articles/blogs/online goodness via InstaPaper and on my iPhone. I’m also pushing in other areas of my professional and personal life.

It will make you creative.

New ways of doing things open up many creative doors. You see things differently. It adds a new perspective. It gets you uncomfortable. Then, once it becomes a part of your regular routine, you can bank it and find something else to do that will make you feel uncomfortable. It’s a pretty simple and painless process that doesn’t event take up that much more time in your day.

Why are most people so afraid to get a little uncomfortable?

If only brands and Marketers would do this more often…

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Investment is the commitment of money or capital to purchase financial instruments or other assets in order to gain profitable returns in form of interest, income, or appreciation of the value of the instrument. It is related to saving or deferring consumption. Investment is involved in many areas of the economy, such as business management and finance no matter for households, firms, or governments. An investment involves the choice by an individual or an organization such as a pension fund, after some analysis or thought, to place or lend money in a vehicle, instrument or asset, such as property, commodity, stock, bond, financial derivatives (e.g. futures or options), or the foreign asset denominated in foreign currency, that has certain level of risk and provides the possibility of generating returns over a period of time.

Investment comes with the risk of the loss of the principal sum. The investment that has not been thoroughly analyzed can be highly risky with respect to the investment owner because the possibility of losing money is not within the owner’s control. The difference between speculation and investment can be subtle. It depends on the investment owner’s mind whether the purpose is for lending the resource to someone else for economic purpose or not.

In the case of investment, rather than store the good produced or its money equivalent, the investor chooses to use that good either to create a durable consumer or producer good, or to lend the original saved good to another in exchange for either interest or a share of the profits. In the first case, the individual creates durable consumer goods, hoping the services from the good will make his life better. In the second, the individual becomes an entrepreneur using the resource to produce goods and services for others in the hope of a profitable sale. The third case describes a lender, and the fourth describes an investor in a share of the business. In each case, the consumer obtains a durable asset or investment, and accounts for that asset by recording an equivalent liability. As time passes, and both prices and interest rates change, the value of the asset and liability also change.

An asset is usually purchased, or equivalently a deposit is made in a bank, in hopes of getting a future return or interest from it. The word originates in the Latin "vestis", meaning garment, and refers to the act of putting things (money or other claims to resources) into others’ pockets. The basic meaning of the term being an asset held to have some recurring or capital gains. It is an asset that is expected to give returns without any work on the asset per se. The term "investment" is used differently in economics and in finance. Economists refer to a real investment (such as a machine or a house), while financial economists refer to a financial asset, such as money that is put into a bank or the market, which may then be used to buy a real asset.

*Contents courtesy of Wikipedia – Weekly Wikipedia is a weekly series of interesting news / facts from Wikipedia.

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That’s what it says on the headline of this site. 

Social media marketing is very current.  So current in fact, sometimes people fail to grasp the full potential of its characteristics.  Though the title here suggests strongly

As you go on to understand what social network marketing is all about, you will come to understand how you can harness its character to be catalyst for exchange of ideas and financial exchange.

To get to know more : Click Here!

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ACHIEVERS PARADIDE : GREAT WEEKLY ONLINE IDEA

Do you usually count the number of steps you take on the internet to achieve a certain target.  For me, it’s like counting calories.  The less I have to click and get to the destination, the less time I spend looking for it.  (Calories work with taking in less and achieving what you need faster and better!)

In all honesty, who does?  It all should be in your head and well automated… Just like how some people are more patient and others just can’t wait for it to be done. 

Well, ClickBank Predators is a site that puts your perspective in place and shows you just what you can do to create the beginning of a lucrative online experience.  Take a look at the video below.

Created by Chris Fox and Jerome Chapman, ClickBank Predators is an exciting look at how affiliate ventures can get you to earn good passive income.  Gathered it’s a tried and tested platform, which interestingly makes it more or less a foolproof idea, but it is how you take it and use it, creating a worthwhile time spent that would be second nature to all your other activities on the internet.  Go check it out.

For more… click here

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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a 2005 book by Malcolm Gladwell. It popularizes research from psychology and behavioral economics on the adaptive unconscious; mental processes that work rapidly and automatically from relatively little information. It considers both the strengths of the adaptive unconscious, for example in expert judgment, and its pitfalls such as stereotypes.

Gladwell describes the main subject of his book as "thin-slicing": our ability to gauge what is really important from a very narrow period of experience. In other words, spontaneous decisions are often as good as—or even better than—carefully planned and considered ones. Gladwell draws on examples from science, advertising, sales, medicine, and popular music to reinforce his ideas. Gladwell also uses many examples of regular people’s experiences with "thin-slicing."

It’s a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, "Blink" is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good.

You could also say that it’s a book about intuition, except that I don’t like that word. In fact it never appears in "Blink." Intuition strikes me as a concept we use to describe emotional reactions, gut feelings–thoughts and impressions that don’t seem entirely rational. But I think that what goes on in that first two seconds is perfectly rational. It’s thinking–its just thinking that moves a little faster and operates a little more mysteriously than the kind of deliberate, conscious decision-making that we usually associate with "thinking." In "Blink" I’m trying to understand those two seconds. What is going on inside our heads when we engage in rapid cognition? When are snap judgments good and when are they not? What kinds of things can we do to make our powers of rapid cognition better?

[gladwell dot com]

Gladwell explains how an expert’s ability to "thin slice" can be corrupted by their likes and dislikes, prejudices and stereotypes (even unconscious ones), and how they can be overloaded by too much information. Two particular forms of unconscious bias Gladwell discusses are Implicit Association Tests and psychological priming. Gladwell also tells us about our instinctive ability to mind read, which is how we can get to know what emotions a person is feeling just by looking at his or her face.

We do that by "thin-slicing," using limited information to come to our conclusion. In what Gladwell contends is an age of information overload, he finds that experts often make better decisions with snap judgments than they do with volumes of analysis.

Gladwell gives a wide range of examples of thin-slicing in contexts such as gambling, speed dating, tennis, military war games, the movies, malpractice suits, popular music, and predicting divorce.

Gladwell also mentions that sometimes having too much information can interfere with the accuracy of a judgment, or a doctor’s diagnosis. This is commonly called "Analysis paralysis." The challenge is to sift through and focus on only the most critical information to make a decision. The other information may be irrelevant and confusing to the decision maker. Collecting more and more information, in most cases, just reinforces our judgment but does not help to make it more accurate. The collection of information is commonly interpreted as confirming a person’s initial belief or bias. Gladwell explains that better judgments can be executed from simplicity and frugality of information, rather than the more common belief that greater information about a patient is proportional to an improved diagnosis. If the big picture is clear enough to decide, then decide from the big picture without using a magnifying glass.

The book argues that intuitive judgment is developed by experience, training, and knowledge. For example, Gladwell claims that prejudice can operate at an intuitive unconscious level, even in individuals whose conscious attitudes are not prejudiced. An example is in the halo effect, where a person having a salient positive quality is thought to be superior in other, unrelated respects. Gladwell uses the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, where four New York policemen shot an innocent man on his doorstep 41 times, as another example of how rapid, intuitive judgment can have disastrous effects.

[Part courtesy of : Wikipedia]

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"One of the world’s foremost authorities on motivation, Schwartz shows how thinking big can bring big results. Learn how to set high goals and exceed them in a big way with this easy, step-by-step approach." (Ingram)

Millions of people throughout the world have improved their lives using The Magic of Thinking Big. Dr. David J. Schwartz, long regarded as one of the foremost experts on motivation, will help you sell better, manage better, earn more money, and – most important of all – find greater happiness and peace of mind.

The Magic of Thinking Big gives you useful methods, not empty promises. Dr. Schwartz presents a carefully designed program for getting the most out of your job, your marriage and family life, and your community. He proves that you don’t need to be an intellectual or have innate talent to attain great success and satisfaction – but you do need to learn and understand the habit of thinking and behaving in ways that will get you there.

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Robert T. Kiyosaki (born April 8, 1947) is an investor, businessman, self-help author, motivational speaker and inventor. Kiyosaki is best known for his Rich Dad, Poor Dad series of motivational books and other material. He has written 15 books which have combined sales of over 26 million copies. Although beginning as a self-publisher, he was subsequently published by Warner Books, a division of Hachette Book Group USA, currently his new books appear under the Rich Dad Press imprint. Three of his books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant, and Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, have been on the top 10 best-seller lists simultaneously on The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times. The book Rich Kid Smart Kid was published in 2001, with the intent to help parents teach their children financial concepts. He has created three "Cashflow" board and software games for adults and children and has a series of "Rich Dad" audio cassettes and disks. He also publishes a monthly newsletter.

A large part of Kiyosaki’s teachings focus on generating passive income by means of investment opportunities, such as real estate and businesses, with the ultimate goal of being able to support oneself by such investments alone. In tandem with this, Kiyosaki defines "assets" as things that generate cash inflow, such as rental properties or businesses—and "liabilities" as things that use cash, such as houses, cars, and so on. Kiyosaki also argues that financial leverage is critically important in becoming rich.

Kiyosaki stresses what he calls "financial literacy" as the means to obtaining wealth. He says that life skills are often best learned through experience and that there are important lessons not taught in school. He says that formal education is primarily for those seeking to be employees or self-employed individuals, and that this is an "Industrial Age idea." And according to Kiyosaki, in order to obtain financial freedom, one must be either a business owner or an investor, generating passive income.

Kiyosaki speaks often of what he calls "The Cashflow Quadrant," a conceptual tool that aims to describe how all the money in the world is earned. Depicted in a diagram, this concept entails four groupings, split with two lines (one vertical and one horizontal). In each of the four groups there is a letter representing a way in which an individual may earn income. The letters are as follows.

• E: Employee — Working for someone else.
• S: Self-employed or Small business owner — Where a person owns his own job and is his own boss.
• B: (Boss) Business owner — Where a person owns a "system" of making money, rather than a job to make money.
• I: Investor — Spending money in order to receive a larger payout in.

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The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way. Those who do things in this certain way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich. Those who do not do things in this certain way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain poor.

"It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects. Therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich.

[Wallace D. Wattles - 1860-1911]

Preface of the Science of Getting Rich

THIS book is pragmatical, not philosophical; a practical manual, not a treatise upon theories. It is intended for the men and women whose most pressing need is for money; who wish to get rich first, and philosophize afterward. It is for those who have, so far, found neither the time, the means, nor the opportunity to go deeply into the study of metaphysics, but who want results and who are willing to take the conclusions of science as a basis for action, without going into all the processes by which those conclusions were reached.

It is expected that the reader will take the fundamental statements upon faith, just as he would take statements concerning a law of electrical action if they were promulgated by a Marconi or an Edison; and, taking the statements upon faith, that he will prove their truth by acting upon them without fear or hesitation. Every man or woman who does this will certainly get rich; for the science herein applied is an exact science, and failure is impossible. For the benefit, however, of those who wish to investigate philosophical theories and so secure a logical basis for faith, I will here cite certain authorities.

The monistic theory of the universe the theory that One is All, and that All is One; That one Substance manifests itself as the seeming many elements of the material world -is of Hindu origin, and has been gradually winning its way into the thought of the western world for two hundred years. It is the foundation of all the Oriental philosophies, and of those of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Emerson.

The reader who would dig to the philosophical foundations of this is advised to read Hegel and Emerson for himself.

In writing this book I have sacrificed all other considerations to plainness and simplicity of style, so that all might understand. The plan of action laid down herein was deduced from the conclusions of philosophy; it has been thoroughly tested, and bears the supreme test of practical experiment; it works. If you wish to know how the conclusions were arrived at, read the writings of the authors mentioned above; and if you wish to reap the fruits of their philosophies in actual practice, read this book and do exactly as it tells you to do—-

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Jack Canfield (born August 19, 1944) is an American motivational speaker and author. He is best known as the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, which currently has nearly 200 titles and 112 million copies in print in over 40 languages. According to USA Today, Chicken Soup for the Soul and several of the series titles by Canfield and his writing partner, Mark Victor Hansen, were among the top 150 best-selling books of the last 15 years (October 28, 1993 through October 23, 2008).

In July 2004, Jack Canfield founded the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of thought leaders, speakers, authors, coaches, trainers, researchers, consultants, and other leaders in the fields of personal and professional development. The members of TLC meet semi-annually to network, connect, and learn from each other, to enhance members’ effectiveness and contribution in the world. As of January 2009, membership numbered 99.

[Part courtesy of : Wikipedia]

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Anthony Robbins (born February 29, 1960) is an American self-help writer and professional speaker who has been active for over 30 years. He became well known through his infomercials and bestselling self-help books, Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within.

Robbins writes about subjects such as health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication, and enhancing relationships. He also became well known in America and internationally through infomercials promoting personal development audio programs and motivational seminars. His audio programs, seminars and self-help products featured Neuro-linguistic programming and Ericksonian hypnosis which he studied at the start of his career.

Robbins seminars also used fire-walking as a metaphor for overcoming fears and limiting beliefs. Later, Robbins combined his skills and techniques with other methods claimed to effect personal change.

In his Awaken the Giant Within book, Robbins says that the difference between NAC and NLP lies in the use of the word ‘conditioning’ instead of the word ‘programming’. The word ‘conditioning’ implies that the subject has greater responsibility for his or her own change, as opposed to being programmed by someone else.

At the start of his success, Robbins lived paycheck to paycheck in the self development business and struggled to pay his $15,000 a month mortgage on his castle home (mentioned in Unleash the Power Within). Robbins calls himself a peak performance coach rather than a motivational speaker. He tries to find out what people do when they are at their peak and then help them access that peak state whenever necessary. He believes what he does is more effective than providing temporary motivation.

Robbins is the founder of the Anthony Robbins Foundation, which proclaims its mission is to empower students, help prisoners to improve their lives, organize food drives, and fund Robbins’ "Discovery Camp".  According to the website, it has "products and programs in more than 2,000 schools, 700 prisons, and 100,000 health and human service organizations. The Foundation is committed to make a difference in the quality of life for children, the homeless, the prison population, and the elderly through its various programs"

[Part courtesy of : Wikipedia]

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