What is your mantra for 2011? As I discuss in the video I have been known to follow the path of a lot of new ideas and then find myself spread way to thin and not focused on the income generating tasks that will make my business really successful.
It is a good time to build these habits and the mindset now to be ready for next year.
You need to know what you value before you go full-speed ahead with your business. Often, we think of our values as principles in the back of our minds that govern our actions. However, letting our values marinate in our subconscious means that we may not understand why we act in certain ways.
To begin laying out your values system, try the following:
- Think about your family upbringing and religious background. What were the major lessons and principles you learned from these sources? Are they right?
- Consider how you treat others. Should you act in this way? Is this how you want to be treated?
- Remember how you have been treated. Do you approve?
After you have answered these questions, ask yourself “Am I consistent?” If you are, you have a clear understanding of your principles. If you aren’t, you need to think more about what is important to you. If you understand your moral framework, you can choose a business path that will not weigh on your conscience, creating greater satisfaction in your life.
Need some ideas about setting up your guerrilla marketing strategy, check out this archived article.
Ever since I’ve watched the movie Pursuit of Happyness I have wanted to write something about this phrase. Will Smith makes you really FEEL these words in the movie while talking to his son and I wanted to take a moment to explain why this is one of the best quotes you could ever read; and follow.
In the movie, Actor Will Smith plays Chris Gardner, a man who was once homeless and faced with the dilemma of taking one of two roads; one being the road of defeat and curling up in a ball and accepting this as his life, while the other road was one that would change his life forever. Chris chose the second path, the one that he WANTED and didn’t let anyone stand in his way of getting. Bootstrapping your business might be mainly about the cost of production and the bottom lines, but for the bootstrapper, I know that this topic is near and dear to our hearts. I know I’m not the only one who has heard the phrases “thats crazy” or “thats never going to work”. So, for all of the bootstrappers out there in this same position, this one is for you.
These are some of the things I’m going to cover in this article. I wanted to give a brief overview because I know once I get writing on this topic, its going to be a long one. I hope you enjoy it!
* Why I’m writing about this NOW instead of when the movie was released
* Why the child’s mind is one we should all want to have
* How we can live out our dreams and feel good about it
* Video snippet of the scene this quote was taken from
Why I’m writing this NOW instead of when the movie was released
Recently, I’ve been faced with some roadblocks from friends and family that I needed to decide if I was going to fight or run. I don’t know of a better way to put it so please don’t think of that as me punching someone, I just mean that I had to decide if I was going to allow them to crush my dream and follow the life THEY wanted or if I was going to do what I knew was best. I knew in my heart that I was struggling with a lot of things and actually have been stumbling around without real direction for the past few days. I’ve taken longer breaks then I usually do, I’ve went on walks to try and calm my anxieties, I’ve even taken days off to try and reconnect with things but nothing has worked; until now.
Why the child’s mind is one we should all want to have
When I thought about this topic and really examined the way children are while watching some television shows and the children around me, I realized that they have no real cares in the world about what other people are thinking. They just want to be happy and do whatever it is that makes them happy.
Think about when you were a child and the teacher in your class asked everyone “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I bet that no one in the class raised their hand and said “Unhappy, alone and depressed”. Did they? No; everyone in class wanted to be firefighters, or a princess, or a police officer, doctor, lawyer, and so on. At that point in the child’s life, they could do anything they wanted and that’s the mind set I think we should all strive to be at.
So, if you’re ever around children, try sitting back and just watching them react to their environment. See what makes them happy and what makes them scream and yell. Watch how they always seem to push back to the feelings of happiness. Try even asking the children what they want to be when they grow up. You’ll see a sparkle and excitement in their eyes which is truly inspiring.
How we can live our dreams and feel good about it
Regardless of how hurt someone might be when you remove them from your life, or how angry they might get when you tell them that they are part of the reason you are not productive or living your dreams, you need to cut the dead weight. When a ship is too heavy and is starting to sink, what do they do? They remove as much of the dead weight as possible to stay floating and finish out what they started and that’s exactly what you need to do.
Remember that no matter how upset the people in your life might be because you are not happy with how they are, think about how unhappy YOU are with them there. At the end of the day, we all leave this world alone so unless you leave happy, what have you really lived for?
Video snippet of the scene this quote was taken from
Here is a video snippet of the scene from Pursuit of Happyness where Will Smith is talking to his son. Powerful stuff.
Wondering why you should be listening to the “fresh prince” about the keys to life? I’ll tell you why. Will Smith has an interesting video on youtube where he explains to the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards audience his two keys to life. After talking about Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happyness in the Don’t let anyone (and I mean anyone) steal your dreams article I wrote, I seen this video in Leo from Zen Habits‘ link tumblr page. Watching the video really had me think about things a bit and in this article I want to touch on the two keys he mentions and talk about what I think about each, and why I think these are two real keys to life.
Running is the first key to life
In the video, Will explains that the reason for this is because when you run, you have this little voice in your head that tells you “I’m too tired, I have to stop running. If I only walk for a second I will regain my composure and can run again. I wish I could just sit down” (paraphrased in my own words). He says that if you can conquer this voice when running, you can conquer this voice in anything that you do in life.
I couldn’t agree more. Regardless of the way you want to give the analogy, that voice in your head, which is based on fear, doubt and insecurity, will run your life until the day you die if you do not learn to conquer it early on. Running is definitely a great way to overcome this voice and has many benefits.
The Benefits of Running
Will Smith touches on the fact that overcoming the voice telling you to stop when you are running is the reason why running is beneficial and I don’t disagree with him but there are many other benefits as well.
Health Benefits – I put this first because I figured since most people like to skip over this fact of life, I wanted to make it stand out more here. RUNNING or ANY FORM OF EXERCISE is a great health benefit. Not only will running help you keep the weight off but it is also great for stamina. At the risk of saying too much, I will just say that stamina is a great thing for any man out there and you should pay attention to it more. (Sorry ladies if you found that offensive – contact me and tell me you did).
Running will also help your lungs open up which improves your breathing and good breathing can be very beneficial to concentration and relaxation. Ask anyone who meditates or does breathing exercises and they will tell you the same thing. Try it and I bet you’ll see the great results.
Freeing Your Mind – I know a lot of people talk about how walking helps them to relax their mind and free their thoughts. The same goes for running. When you run, you can think about many things but for some reason, to me at least, it seems to help me not ‘think’ about much at all, in the sense that I am not stressed about the things I think about. I actually get a lot of great ideas when I am jogging/running and always carry a tablet of paper and a pen with me. The writing might be horrible but I can read it so thats all that matters.
Anyone who is in business for themselves can comment on this and say that their life is at times a bit more stressful then they’d like. Running is a great way to remove a bit of that stress and free your mind for greater things. Looking at a screen all day will make things start to look like tunnel vision, so running is a great way to release some of those things and see life in a better light.
Reading is the second key to life
Will Smith then goes on to explain that reading is the second key to life and again, I don’t doubt that for a second. Anyone who is successful in business will have at least ONE good book they’ve read that helped put them in the right mindset or on the right track to making their dreams come true. I read Bootstrapping Your Business and that influenced me to start Bootstrapping Blog and write about the art of bootstrapping.
Anything you can read from Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, or Benjamin Franklin will give you so much knowledge for life and business that you’d be upset you hadn’t read it earlier. Reading not only solves problems you might be going through, as Will Smith talked about, but it gives you a few more benefits as well.
Knowledge is Power – OK, I know everyone has read or wrote this phrase more than once in their life but it’s the truth. When you know more, you can do more. When you understand laws after you read a law book or study in law school, or study a CSS design book, when you are done reading, you will by far know more then you did before you read the book. The same goes with great blogs like Zen Habits, Pro Blogger, Skelliewag and Freelance Switch.
You’ll have the power to do so many more things in business and in life after you read these blogs and authors.
A good real-life example of this is that before I read the zen habits tumblr page, I didn’t know anything about this video or that Will Smith even said these things, but now, I am writing this very post because of it Knowledge does indeed give you power.
Better Communication – When you read, you will learn proper grammar (if the person writing it displays it, that is) and will learn a vast amount of new words. These skills will help you out in every day conversations with family, friends or co-workers. Your friends will laugh, or stare at you funny if you use some larger words in a conversation and they are the type to use a lot of slang terms or are the “myspace crowd” so-to-speak. I get a kick out of putting a 5 syllable word into a sentence instead of a 4-5 letter word just to play with people, its fun.
If you are in business for yourself, you normally are the name and face of your business and if you come off to your clients as ignorant or less-educated, you will surely lose many potential jobs and sales. I’ve seen many sales pitches with grammar mistakes that shouldn’t have been made, by writers who were selling their freelance writing services. This is unacceptable and easily avoided by reading more and learning more.
Why Will Smith is a Genius
Normally, people will give you some B.S. approach to succeeding in life, wrapping a cheap e-book page around it and slapping a $100.00 price tag on it while you have legitimate success stories (yes, I consider Will Smith a success story in himself) who give out great knowledge like this for free every day. All you have to do is open your eyes and ears while closing your mouth. Pay attention, you’ll thank me for it later…
Am I the only one that listens to what Will Smith and other stars say and grab the useful information from it like this?