5 Reasons Why People Fail to Succeed in Life ~ When people come to me for advice on how to be successful in life, whether it is in business, relationships, spiritual growth, developing a healthier lifestyle, or any of a number of other things that they desire to be successful at, they are almost always surprised at my initial statement. From an experiential perspective, I have learned that most people have not even defined what success means to them. Their idea of success is immensely nebulous and ambiguous. So, my first response is to get them to determine what success means to them, something that is absolutely necessary to the process of becoming successful. If you don’t have a clear vision of what you are attempting to obtain, it will be impossible to measure your progress, and if you cannot measure your progress, you cannot make the necessary adjustments as you move forward — leading to capricious and counterproductive behavior.
Most people tend to define success based on basic and archaic concepts, primarily focusing on the number of zeros behind the prefix numbers that express the balance in their bank account. Now, while building wealth should be a priority, in and of itself, it does not define success, at least not to me. In fact, the attainment of wealth, without a clear vision, can be highly detrimental. Success should be judged based on purpose, and purpose is determined by design. When you observe the design of something that design is indicative of the purpose of the thing you are observing. True, authentic success is the fulfillment of your design. Some people are immensely charismatic, making them great influencers of those in their periphery, while others are exceptionally creative, allowing them to develop solutions to common and unique enigmas. When your idea of success is associated with your purpose, you will not have to worry about wealth as much, it will automatically pursue you.
5 Reasons Why People Fail to Succeed in Life
Once we move past understanding the concept of success, which will still vary with each person, there are some common inhibitors that often stand in the way of people living life at the level of their design. Following are what I consider to be the top five inhibiting factors as it pertains to success.
You Don’t Believe
We live in a culture that is designed to shrink the visions and dreams of the masses, in order to develop them into non-thinkers, who can be easily trained (mis-educated) and plugged in where they are needed within the corporate power structure. Most people become happy with the minimal accolades they receive from employers in the way of raises and promotions; however, very few believe they have the ability to pursue anything beyond what they have been told they are capable of doing. They simply don’t believe they are capable of achieving anything beyond what they are already doing.
The human brain is a powerful predictive and problem solving organic system, that functions based on multitudinous feedback mechanisms. The most power feedback mechanism is the “input” mechanism. Basically, whatever enters the subconscious will initiate the analysis-evaluation-action process, which ultimately will result in a final outcome. Here is what is important to understand, when your input is predominantly replete with stimuli that negatively impacts your belief in yourself to accomplish a specific task, it will deplete your desire and passion to approach that task, creating a deficit right from the start. Simply put, it is irrational to expect a successful outcome when you haven’t been successful at convincing yourself that success is possible. You must change your thinking.
You Have Allowed Others to Write Your Narrative
This inhibiting factor is highly apposite to deciphering the difficulty in achieving authentic success. Again, we live in a culture in which we are constantly being conditioned to fit into certain molds that usually benefit others more than ourselves. One of the most pernicious paradigms that pervades our culture is the “know your place/position in the world construct,” which suggests that there is this box that you fit in, and getting out of this box is absolutely unacceptable and offensive. People who display a certain level of confidence are often considered arrogant, and they are ostracized. The more docile and acquiescent a person is, the more accepted they are by others. Because of this dynamic, many people function through the proclivity to allow others to write their narrative — being more concerned with earning the approbation of others than fulfilling their own destiny.
The concept and philosophy of knowing your position in this world is transcended in its pestilential potential by the those who actually make it their business to thrust this idea upon others, and then enforce it with shaming, intimidation and scare tactics. As long as a person is consumed with the concern of what others expect of them, they will find it to be a Herculean task to achieve any level of long-term, authentic success.
One of the most pernicious phrases, when it comes to killing the aspirations of another, is the term, “Be realistic.” I absolutely will not allow that term to be used around me — it is limiting, choking the very life out of vivid and colorful dreams.
Overwhelmed with Fear
Fear can be paralyzing in life. People refuse to enjoy the outdoors because of fear. People avoid investing because of fear. People are risk adverse when it comes to relationships because of the fear of failing, so they end up settling, or remaining single. Some people fear failure, or what others will think.
Many times people will be consumed by fear, but not clearly understand what they are feeling. The first step is to identify what you are feeling as fear. Once you become aware of the presence of fear, you will need to determine what is causing the fear. What are you afraid of. Be very specific in analyzing the fear. Determining what is causing the fear will help you determine the best modality for addressing it with efficacy. There are a number of different methods for overcoming fear, including the Sedona Method, The Now method (focusing only on the moment in which you currently reside, recognizing that you are fully equipped for everything that you will face), Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), and more.
You Believe that You Have Hit Your Ceiling
This is a common inhibiting factor that stifles success. The truth is that the only ceiling that exists is the one that you personally acknowledge. While others will definitely suggest the presence of a ceiling, they are most likely speaking from their perspective and belief. It is only when you personally acknowledge the ceiling that it becomes real. Never allow someone who has already given up on their dreams to talk you out of yours.
Confused about What Steps to Take
Often, people will have an idea of what they desire to do, but they will not have a clue as to the first step they will need to take to get things started. If this state of mind exists for too long, it will culminate into procrastination. Make a habit of taking action. While a great deal of gravity is given to knowing when to be still, very little consideration is given to the fact that success is a dynamic, requiring constant attention and responsiveness. Write down your vision, conceptualize ideas of what your success will look like, and as you visualize success, make you sure that you visualize yourself in the vision. See yourself succeeding.
As far as not knowing what step to take first, you live in the information age, and there is a wealth of information at your fingertips. Additionally, there are service providers that specialize in product and service conceptualization.
There are a number of other reasons why people fail to succeed. If you are a person who is struggling with achieving success in your life, I will be more than happy to work with you through one of a number of programs, coaching and counseling sessions, in order to help you identify what is holding you back. Success is not something that is achieved through passiveness, it is seized and possessed through an aggressive state of mind. ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.
The Cost of Greatness and Success ~ Those of you who know me are aware of the fact that Eric Thomas is my favorite motivational speaker. Yes, I study all of the greats, from Zig Ziglar to Les Brown to Tony Robbins; however, I most relate to Eric Thomas, and that allows me to plug into his messages in a way that is specifically unique. As a speaker, I understand the importance of being able to create the ability for your audience to plug into you. With Eric and myself, we both speak to multiple audience types, and so we have to be able to adjust our style and presentation to fit the moment. For instance, I would not speak to an auditorium full of 8th graders in the same manner that I would speak to a room full of educators.
While being able to communicate and connect with your audience is important, I have found that the most important element of becoming a successful and impactful speaker is authenticity. I have learned through observing others that the crowd will see through veiled attempts to be something or someone that you are not, but when you breathe words of empowerment from the heart, they can sense the sincerity, and they can trust what those words are doing for them at that moment.
What Does It Take to Succeed?
While there are many people who follow me, contract me, and contact me, who desire greatness, I always advise them that greatness is the subsequent fruit of successfully living life in their purpose, and fulfilling their design. Greatness is something that pursues the person who is pursuing their destiny with passion and commitment. Greatness is a state of being that simply “is” because you “are.”
Eric Thomas always says, “You have to want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe.” I agree with his assessment 100 percent; you have to want to succeed as much as you want life itself. Why? Because success can only be obtained by overcoming obstacles, enduring adversity, resisting the temptation to give up and overall perseverance. There are not a lot of certainties in life, but there is one thing that you can definitely be assured of; the vicissitudes of life are going to roll into your paradise. Whether you are successful or not will be determined by how well you handle adversity, delay, and direct opposition. If you are good at finding excuse thinly veiled as reasons, you will not succeed, because those excuses are easy to find and create.
Success is not passive, nor docile, it does not acquiesce to wishful thinking, and it does not succumb to hope alone. Success has to be overtaken and seized.
If your sleep, comfort, play time or social enjoyment is more important to you than your success, you will never truly experience success. You may experience an occasional instance in which something goes your way, but it will be short-lived because you lack the commitment.
Your desire to succeed must be so strong that it draws you away from the proclivity to entertain colorless dreams, dwarfed goals, and minimal aspirations. You have to want success so bad that you completely ignore the fear of failure. In fact, you have to embrace a mindset that fear is no longer an option. This does not mean that you will never experience setbacks. Trust me, you will experience setbacks, but you will not perceive them as failures.
What I Personally Know About Success
People who do not know me tend to look at the outward appearance and make assumptions (I am normally extremely casual, and I have a number of tattoos), which ultimately leads them to ask me what qualifies me to speak on success. My response is, “You mean in addition to the fact that I have successfully launched and operated 48 companies over the last 28 years, published 20 books (after being told I would never get the first book published), obtained two doctorate degrees, serviced clients on an international level, and more? Normally, people who prejudge me will quickly genuflect their assessment after a few minutes of dialogue. However, it is not my personal accomplishments that are important here. It is my story.
I was an extremely precocious child, learning to read by the age of three, and if my great-grandmother (my adopted mother, and so much more) was alive, she would add, quite loquacious. I literally started my public speaking career at the age of three and a half years old. My grandmother had taught me the story of the creation and once I learned it, she taught me how to recite it, and then she took me from church to church having me recite it. I became known as the little boy who does the creation story. Her teaching me the creation from the first three chapters of the Bible was also how I learned to read. So, my first encounter with reading was through word recognition — phonics came later.
I would read anything I got my hands, including the writing on household products, signs and more. At the age of five, my grandmother bought me the entire set of the Encyclopedia Britannica from an encyclopedia salesman who stopped by the house, and by the time I was ten, I had read the entire set.
Moving on to my adult life… I grew up in an inner-city community in Houston called Clinton Park (affectionately known as Killer Park). I was a young black male who never even met his father, and had no relationship with his mother. The statistics revealed that there was a good chance that I would not live to see my eighteenth birthday, but I was determined to make it out, and I not only came out of the hood, I came out on fire. I was driven to succeed, and thanks to my grandmother and a hand full of teachers throughout my school years that groomed me for success, I had no concept of failure. It seemed that the universe had been programmed to respond to my every whim. By the time I was thirty, I had opened numerous businesses, competed as a professional athlete, started a family and more — then life happened.
My success had exposed me to a world that I was ill-prepared to operate in. It took a while, but the core values that had been instilled in me were being eroded by the influence of the world I was operating in. I was beginning to buy into many fallacious concepts like “win at all cost,” it’s a dog eat dog world,” and “get them before they get you.” The lines became blurred, and I became more self-consumed. And, then the bottom completely fell out. After one of my major clients balked on an agreement that was worth a considerable amount of money, I responded from a position of diminished values and character, and that response cost me my freedom and my fortune.
Fortunately, that is not the end of the story. While I sat in my jail cell, I remembered something my great-grandfather (adopted father, and the greatest man I have ever met) taught me. Over the course of my youth, I had multitudinous encounters with my grandfather in which he infused me with his wisdom, and the greatest piece of wisdom that he ever shared with me was about to come to my rescue. I had gone from a 5,200 square foot home to a 6×9 cell, and traded designer clothes for a jail jumper. While lying flat on my back one night, I recalled that moment in which my grandfather shared the greatest jewel of wisdom of all.
He said, “Son, in life, you are going to find yourself in one of three places. You will either be going into a storm, in a storm or coming out of a storm. Your first inclination will be to find someone to blame for your storm. Don’t waste your time on such a frivolous pursuit, because nine times out of ten that person is you. Instead of looking for someone to blame, focus on your number one responsibility. When you find yourself in a storm, your number one responsibility, as a man, is to ensure that you come out of that storm a better man than when you went in. Son, allow the storm to develop you.” From that moment moving forward, it stopped being about me, and it became a quest to build a legacy that I could leave behind that said I was here and I made a difference.
After spending over four years in prison, I came home to uncertainty and a world that cared, but was too consumed with its own struggles and concerns. Within a year of returning, I found myself homeless. To top things off, I had moved from my hometown of Houston to Dallas to pursue a relationship that did not work out. So, I was homeless in a town in which I did not know very many people at all. All I had was a laptop and my clothes.
At this point, I prayed to the Divine Creator of the universe. No, I did not pray for mystical deliverance from my situation. I did not beg and plead to be dealt a new hand. I understood that this moment was both, the direct consequences of my actions and decisions as well as a part of my divine destiny. Knowing that this moment of difficulty was connected to my destiny reminded me that I was built for this. My prayer was actually very simple. I asked the Creator to simply continue to provide me with the breath of life. I promised that if I continued to wake up every morning I would answer the bell.
I was homeless for a year, but during that time, I published two of my sixteen books, started a company working on that laptop I had. I even spoke and served at homeless shelters, while keeping my own situation secret. In fact, the entire year, maybe three people knew my predicament. During that year, I met all types of setbacks and obstacles, but I wanted to succeed as much as I wanted to breathe. I had to succeed, I still had children who needed me to succeed. I still had people who needed me to live out a testimony that would provide them with the courage to stand up and face their struggles, disappointments, and delays. I can tell you from my experience that delay does not mean denial.
For some, this story will be a turn-off, because “prison” has a certain stigma. Well, this story is not for you. I will say that prison saved my life. This story is for the person who believes that their mistakes have sentenced them to a life of failure and mediocrity.
In that year of homelessness, I met the only two fears I had as a man face to face, being broke and being homeless. Nothing scares me now. I don’t fear man, circumstance nor failure. I was bruised by that moment, but I was not broken. I found that the darkness had surrounded me, but I was still standing.
It has been 10 years since the darkness rolled into my paradise, and I am now the Founder/CEO of an enterprise that owns and operates eight different companies, including a media company, business consulting firm, a life empowerment company (you are visiting this page now) and more. I have published 20 books, hundreds of academic papers and produced nearly 20,000 prose articles on multitudinous topics for my clients as a content creator. Have recovered everything that I initially lost? No, but I am long from being done. Plus, I see success differently now. I judge myself more now on the impact I have on those I come in contact with.
What I can tell you is that your past does not have to define you. You do not have to mortgage your future to pay for your past. Do you want to succeed? If so, it is time to get up, dust yourself off, and determine that you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe! Now, go make it happen. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace, Ph.D.
For those who don’t know, Eric Thomas is my favorite motivational speaker, outside of myself (Yes, I believe in and promote self-acknowledgement of one’s gifts in lieu of false humility disguised as humbleness.) I can relate to Eric in so many ways. Our lives mirror each other so much to the point that I can plug into his spiritual center and feed off of his energy. Following is one of my favorite quotes by Eric. Enjoy! ~ Dr. Rick Wallace, Ph.D.
“There was a young man who, you know,
He wanted to make a lot of money
And so he went to this Guru, right.
And he told the Guru,
“You know I wanna be on the same level you’re on.”
And so The Guru said,
“If you wanna be on the same level I’m on,
I’ll meet tomorrow,
At the beach, at 4 AM.”
He’s like,
“The beach?
I said I wanna make money. I don’t wanna swim.”
Guru said,
“If you wanna make money,
I’ll meet you tomorrow. 4 AM.”
So the young man got there 4 AM.
He all ready to rock n’ roll.
Got on a suit.
Should have worn shorts.
The old man grabs his hand and said,
“How bad do you wanna be successful?”
He said, “Real bad”.
[The Guru] He said, “Walk on out in the water.”
So he walks out into the water.
Watch this.
When he walks out into the water it goes waist deep.
So he’s like,
“This guy crazy.
I wanna make money and he got me out here swimming.
I didn’t ask to be a lifeguard.
I wanna make money.”
So he [The Guru] said, “Come out a little further.”
[He] walked out a little further.
Then he had it right around this area,
The shoulder area.
“So this old man crazy.
He making money,
But he crazy.”
So he [The Guru] said,
“Come on out a little further.”
He came out a little further,
It was right at his mouth,
My man like,
“I’m not about to go back in.
This guy out of his mind.”
So the old man said,
“I thought you said you wanted to be successful?”
He said, “I do.”
He [The Guru] said, “Walk a little further.”
He came,
Dropped his head in,
Held him down,
Hold him down,
My man getting scratchy,
Holding him down,
He [The Guru] had him held down,
Just before my man was about to pass out,
He [The Guru] raised him up.
He [The Guru] said, “I got a question for you.”
He [The Guru] said, “When you were underwater, what did you want to do?”
He said, “I wanted to breathe.”
He [The Guru] told the guy; He [The Guru] said,
“When you want to succeed,
As bad as you want to breathe,
Then you’ll be successful.”
– Eric Thomas, Secrets To Success Speech – Part 1
Why Pride & Humility are Both Dangerous! ~ Contrary to mainstream perception, humility and pride are two of the most misguided virtues that human beings can aspire to possess. Society, however, praises humility as one of the most virtuous qualities one can display and tends to applaud the man that humbles himself. Similarly, while it may not be so obvious that pride itself is praised as a virtue, we are more often than not directed to be proud of ourselves, of our achievements, of our appearance and, somewhat ironically, of even our humility. The truth though is that humility and pride are not virtues at all, but rather, they are two extreme states of being that, like all extremes, are best to be avoided particularly if you want to intentionally create your life with any measure of success.
The Real Definition of Humility: Little consideration is ever given to the true meaning of humility, which partly explains why it has been wrongly praised as such a wholesome virtue. To find the real meaning of humility one needs to look no further than at its definition and etymology. The dictionary defines humility as “the quality of having a low view of one’s importance, a lowliness of mind, or a sense of one’s own unworthiness through imperfection and sinfulness”. Synonyms for the word humble include docile, fearful, lowly, withdrawn, poor, base, inferior, insignificant, trivial and even miserable. The etymology of humility is the Latin humilitatem, which means lowness or insignificance. Even more interesting is that the word “humiliate” has its origin in the word humility. Surely this begs the question, if humility is really such a virtue, why then do we not seek to be humiliated? The answer is simple, humility is not a virtue.
The Real Definition of Pride: Among the definitions of pride is “a high opinion of ones self, an unreasonable conceit of one’s own superiority in talents, insolence or arrogance of demeanor, and that which excites boasting”. While pride may also be defined by less extreme states that have a positive connotation, such as a “lofty self esteem”, you will find that most definitions include a degree of excess in self evaluation. As is the case with all excess, it is to be avoided. Pride is not to be confused with personal integrity. To be in integrity is, indeed, a great virtue and means to be authentic, to be a person of your word, and to live a moral-based life. In contrast, the exaggeration associated with pride usually results in a lack of integrity.
The Hidden Dangers of Humility and Pride: Not only are humility and pride not virtues, they are two dangerous states of being. Aspiring to be humble and proud is often the very reason people fail to consciously create their life or feel that the Law of Attraction “does not work for them”. On the one hand, humility deflates your sense of self and blinds you to your strengths, while pride over-inflates it and blinds you to your weaknesses. In the case of humility, your inability to see your strengths leaves you impotent to them, while in the case of pride, your inability to see your weaknesses, leaves you exposed to them. Put another way, humility leads to an inferiority complex rooted in a severe lack of self worth and self esteem, while pride leads to a superiority complex that is fuelled by the most dangerous of all attitudes, arrogance. Similarly, being proud of others also blinds you to their weaknesses, which in turn fuels an over-inflated opinion of the person you are proud of within both you and them.
The Swing of the Law of Rhythm: The Law of Rhythm is one of the most important Hermetic Universal Laws to understand and transcend when consciously creating your life. This Law states that “everything flows, out and in; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.” This principle can be observed everywhere in the physical and mental realms, from the rise and fall of the great empires to the swaying of your thoughts from being positive to negative. The pendulum swings in everything. When anything reaches a point of culmination then the backward swing begins almost unnoticeable until such time that any forward movement has been totally reversed, then the forward movement begins again and the process is repeated.
The Law of Rhythm Humbles the Proud and Makes the Humble Proud: In accordance with the Law of Rhythm, reaching any extreme state of pride will activate the Law such that you attract to yourself circumstances and experiences that carry you to the equal and opposite extreme state of humility. Likewise, from a place of humility, you usually attract to yourself those circumstances and experiences which in time will create within you a state of pride. One seldom notices the turning point or connects the dots on the way from pride to humility and back. Nevertheless, irrespective of whether you notice it or not, the pendulum does swing back and forth between these two extremes of humility and pride over and over again. Remember that the “measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left”, which means that to the degree that you are proud so you will be humbled and vice versa. The action of the Law of Rhythm is neither a punishment nor a reward, but rather a compensation in search of balance.
The Ancient Greek Warning Against Arrogance: Three major maxims were inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. You may have heard of the first two, “know thyself” (pronounced gnothi safton) and “nothing in excess” (pronounced miden agan), but the equally important third maxim is often overlooked and even more so misunderstood. The closest modern translation of the third maxim is “make a pledge and ruin is nigh” (pronounced egia para data). This has wrongly been interpreted as a warning against any form of monetary pledge or guarantee and has absolutely no relevance to the real meaning of the maxim. In truth, the warning is not against a monetary pledge, but rather against arrogance. In other words, making a pledge about yourself, i.e. arrogantly proclaiming your indestructibility, will bring about your destruction. The more accurate interpretation found in older Greek texts is that “the gods will unleash destruction on the arrogant”.
Guard Against Humility and Pride: Bear in mind that the swing of the pendulum attributed to the Law of Rhythm is not activated of its own accord but rather by a shift in your mindset. It is from a place of pride that you can become arrogant and hence complacent and blind to your weaknesses. Similarly, it is from a place of humility that you can become detached to the point that you allow good to come to you because you resist nothing. Having said this, it is faith, not humility that is the ideal route of least resistance to effortless detachment. Detachment through faith is empowering, while detachment through humility is disempowering. Nevertheless, since pride can eventually give rise to arrogance, you must guard against being proud and, although not so obvious, since humility is in time transmuted into pride, it is equally important that you guard against humility lest its final destination be arrogance.
Humility and Pride are at Opposite Ends of the Same Spectrum: Humility and pride are at opposite ends of the same spectrum called self evaluation. This means that one cannot be both humble and proud simultaneously because they are two opposite states of being. In other words, you can either be humble or proud at different times, but cannot be both at the same time, at least not in any real sense, as the one cancels the other out. Since you cannot be both, aspiring to be humble and proud leaves you with something of an inner struggle as to which one to be, as the Law of Rhythm swings you between the two. The answer is neither.
Transforming Humility and Pride into Modesty: If humility and pride are two attitudes to be avoided, the obvious question then is what should one aspire to be? The answer is modest. Modesty is often misinterpreted to mean humility, but the two are very distinct attitudes. To be modest is to be moderate in your self evaluation, free of any exaggerations that either over-inflates (pride) or deflates (humility) your worth. To be modest is fundamental to consciously and intentionally creating your life, free from the Law Rhythm’s swing of the pendulum.
In a nutshell, humility and pride are two of the most misguided virtues one can aspire to. They are both extreme states of being, and as is the case with all extremes, are to be avoided. Being at opposite ends of the same spectrum of self evaluation, one cannot be both humble and proud at the same time and the Law of Rhythm ensures that you repeatedly move back and forth between these two extremes. Seek modesty in place of humility and pride and you will find a new inner strength free of all exaggeration.
*****
Learn more about Visionetics, the ability to create your own reality!
One of the most common questions that I am asked is: Why do so many people fail to succeed? Another question that is becoming increasingly more common is: Why do so many people live defeated lives? In essence, both of these questions get down to the heart of the matter. While there are numerous stories about people who have achieved remarkable success, there are far too many people who have failed to reach any level of success, and the aforementioned questions seek to identify the common denominator for those who struggle to succeed.
Is it that some people don’t understand the basic principles associated with becoming successful? This is definitely likely for some of the people who are struggling in life. Knowledge is a key element in the process of becoming successful, but it is not the primary element. Another cause for the common and repetitive failure of many people is a proclivity to give too much gravity to the random opinions others. Everyone has an opinion about something, and many people allow the opinions of others to shape their paradigms and the belief systems that determine how they approach life.
Another way that listening to others can be counterproductive, is becoming fixated on the shortcut methods being spewed by self-proclaimed gurus and their followers. We live in a microwave society in which everyone wants everything right now. Far too many people are looking for immediate results produced by shortcuts and foolproof methods. The person who is looking for results through shortcuts, or foolproof remedies, will eventually become disappointed and deterred when things don’t go their way. There are no shortcuts, only detours.
Success is not about circumventing the struggles and vicissitudes of life, it is about being prepared to face those struggles with confidence and a specific plan for overcoming them. Success is the fruit of perseverance and determination. It is not the person with the greatest potential and skill that is successful, but the person who is most committed to their success.
For far too many people, the price of success is more than they are willing to pay. They have bought into the life-of-ease philosophy that teaches that if you simply believe you can transform your life into a progressive utopia, but that could not be further from the truth. Success requires sacrifice and commitment. Success requires the establishment of a list of priorities that determine the value system through which you will approach your vision.
Something that I often see when people enroll in one of my courses or hire me as a consultant or counselor, are those who have spent a significant portion of their life simply wandering around aimlessly without any real sense of purpose. Others are suffering from the pain of past failures and past beliefs concerning their ability to succeed. Without an understanding of what your purpose is, you will remain lost — often leading to indiscriminate dream chasing. The indiscriminate dream chaser is the person that is always chasing a cause or scheme, with a tendency to jump on the next cause before finishing what they started. What they have not learned is that without the passion associated with purpose, they will never experience consistent success because they will never become committed until they discover their passion.
Purpose is that thing that comes when a person becomes aware of their identity. It is purpose that fuels passion, and passion is that thing that drives a person towards their destiny, and finally, destiny cannot be denied, because its very definition demands that it be fulfilled when passionately pursued. You see, purpose is never satisfied with mediocrity, dwarfed goals or colorless dreams. Purpose demands that you step over the line that has been drawn by fear and seize your moment. Purpose does not consider failure, for failure is a necessary part of success. Purpose does not allow for tamed visions that fit nicely into the box that has been designed by the minimal minded.
Ironically, purpose is a force that drives you to do things on purpose, with specific goals and expectation associated with your actions. Success does not happen by accident; it is not an arbitrary occurrence. Success is always the result of highly specified intentions, intelligent direction, sincere effort and skilled execution, but most importantly, it is the culmination of a committed mindset that will not be deterred by delay.
When I examine my life to determine what allows me to win, the thing that stands out the most is I always answer the bell. The circumstances have not always been in my favor. In fact, there have been some times in which the odds were stacked heavily against me, but I answered the bell. There have even been times that I have been flat on my back, but I got up each and every time to continue the fight. Success is elusive to those who expect it to come with ease. It is elusive to those who listen to the random opinions of naysayers. It is elusive to the person who finds mediocrity to be acceptable.
Finally, far too many people have absolutely no idea of what defines success in their life. They have spent their entire lives chasing what others have declared to be representative of success. The way that I define success is the absolute optimization and the actualization of full potential. While a person may achieve many things, success is not achieved when potential is left untapped. Because I believe in purpose so strongly, I believe that each person’s potential is directly related to their purpose, and when potential is not actualized, purpose is not fulfilled. Find yourself, find your purpose and commit to fulfilling that purpose at all cost. When you commit to your purpose, you will not have to chase success, it will find you! ~ Dr. Rick Wallace, Ph.D.
Overcoming Procrastination in Order to Achieve Excellence
One of the most inhibiting forces that stop people from actualizing and maximizing their potential is procrastination. Many of you who are reading this article are currently procrastinating about engaging something that you have wanted to do for years. Procrastination can be the result of fear, which we will address shortly. Procrastination seemingly offers the convenience of putting off for tomorrow what should be done today, but actually, it is worse. Procrastination is actually the manifestation of fear, the lack of desire, uncertainty or indecision.
The Reason That it is Important to Overcome Procrastination
One common issue is that many people don’t view procrastination as a problem, but they see it more as a relief mechanism that allows them to avoid those things that they are uncomfortable doing. The problem is growth is not developed within the confines of comfort, it is developed in the fertile soil of adversity. One thing that I have learned in working with people is that most of them are aware of the promise of their potential. They understand that they have the potential to accomplish some extraordinary things, and they want nothing more than to realize the promise of their potential; however, they lack a lucid perspicacity of the principal of “process.” The principal of process dictates that the promise associated with potential can only be achieved through “process.” So, before there can be an attainment of the promise, there must first be an endurance of the process — meaning that there will be some difficulty, disappoint failure and struggle along the way. Most people look to circumvent the process. They want the promise, but they are unwilling to engage the process. This is futile!
Procrastinating may allow you to avoid the vicissitudes and conflict associated with your destiny, but it also blocks you from actualizing your potential and achieving your destiny.
Procrastination — Symptom of an Underlying Issue
One of the first steps in overcoming procrastination is to understand that it is not the issue, but a symptom of an underlying issue — in most cases, fear and uncertainty. In fact, most negative overt behavior is actually the manifestation of symptoms that are indicative of underlying issues that may not be visibly clear. So, as with any negative condition, the best modality for dealing with procrastination is to deal with it at the source — meaning you must discover what it is that is causing you to procrastinate in the first place.
While many consultants and coaches will suggest the implementation of self-discipline practices and time management measures, I prefer to deal with the issue at the source. Implementing superficial mechanisms, such as time management and self-discipline models, will provide some level of improvement, but it is like putting ointment on a mosquito bite. The itching may stop momentarily, but if the mosquito remains in the room, it is likely that you will be bitten again. By getting rid of the mosquito and taking the necessary steps to ensure that more mosquitos can’t get in, you effectively put a stop to the existing problem.
Procrastination is primarily driven by two powerful elemental forces, desire, and fear. Desire serves as a type of fuel or catalyst for progression or moving forward. Where there is no desire, there will be a lack of motivation to achieve anything. Fear can be viewed as a fog that has the capacity to completely surround a desire and quench or stifle it. For most people, fear is always present, but it is when fear becomes greater than desire that procrastination enters the picture.
When I engage a client, a take a dichotomous approach, looking for ways to minimize fear, while maximizing desire. Something else that is worth mentioning is that it is necessary to underwrite desire with purpose because that desire that is superficial will dissipate when challenged. Desire that is underwritten by purpose will be fueled by the passion that is inextricably connected to that purpose. There is no greater force than “purpose” to drive a person toward excellence and their destiny.
Suffering from a Lack of Desire
As much as fear can be an inhibiting force in slowing progression and growth, it is possible to have a lack of desire outside of the presence of fear. While there are multitudinous causes for the lack of desire, the most common reason is a disinterest in the task or responsibility in question. This is seen often when people are attempting to pursue paths that others have chosen for them. It is immensely difficult to become motivated to do something that you are not passionate about. Success is hard work, and it requires perseverance and endurance, and the lack of desire born from disinterest will cripple progression.
This is why it is important for you to follow your own inner compulsions that manifest themselves as desires. No one else can live your life, and, for this reason, they should not be allowed to choose the path that you must take. You must choose your path, and that path should be clearly aligned with your desires, passions, and values.
Dealing with Fear
Fear is the second underlying cause of procrastination, and if the level of fear that a person is experiencing is high enough, it can literally paralyze them. In fact, a person can have a desire to accomplish a certain task, but if their fear is stronger than their desire, they will be compelled to procrastinate. Fear can manifest itself in any number of ways, fear of pain, fear of hardship, fear of failure, fear of uncertainty, fear of not having control, fear of public opinion, fear of rejection or the fear of being alone.
While it can seem bizarre that fear would play such a major role in determining whether a person will take action to pursue their dreams and visions or not, if you would carefully examine and anatomize the areas in your life in which you are procrastinating, you will discover that fear is an integral part of that process of procrastination.
The key is to determine why you are procrastinating. Is it a lack of desire, or are you suffering from fear, or it may be a combination of both? Once you have identified the source, you must confront it rationally and deliberately. This does not mean that you move into the realm of denial, pretending that the impediment is not real. If you have a lack of desire or a significant and unhealthy fear, it is paramount that you address it, and take the necessary steps to move beyond it. In the coming days. I will be contributing some simple steps that people can use to help them move past the impediment of procrastination, by dealing with the lack of desire and fear that is at the core of the problem.
It may be necessary for you to seek the help of a professional therapist or life coach, depending on the depth of your particular issues. The truth is that no matter how bad it may seem, you can get past it; however, the journey to elevation is not one of ease and comfort, and it also does not serve the risk averse well at all. You are going to have to be willing to put some skin in the game. If you are serious about living life at the level of your design, you may be an ideal candidate for my Elevation & Empowerment course. In this course, I will work directly with you to determine the source of your lack of progress, and help you discover and implement solutions that will allow you to experience next level living. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace, Ph.D.
How To Make Well Over $100 Every Day On Yahoo Answers
Originally posted on August 11, 2015 | by Jamie Anderson | Courtesy of JamieAnderson.com
How To Make Well Over $100 Every Day On Yahoo Answers
In “How To Make Well Over $100 Every Day On Yahoo Answers” I’ll be taking you through a couple of different methods which will show you how to make money on Yahoo Answers. Yahoo Answers receives around 50 million visits every day, and it’s not just the sheer volume of traffic that makes this an ideal place for us to make money.
This is 50 million people a day who are looking for answers to problems they have! It’s like Christmas come early for marketers as we can swoop in and provide the solution to those problems while making some good money in the process.
BONUS: I’ll be showing you two different methods in this tutorial, both have the potential to net you the magic ‘$100 a day’ income quite comfortably, if you put the work in and follow the steps I’ve detailed below. What’s even better is that in my FREE ‘Bonus Download’ at the end of this tutorial I’ll also be showing you how you can set these methods to ‘autopilot’ so you can earn money from Yahoo Answers in your sleep, and achieve those triple figure earnings days a lot quicker! I’ll also be giving you some tried and tested examples I used to use to make over $4,000 per month on Yahoo Answers in the FREE Bonus Download at the end of the tutorial, so don’t forget to download it before you go! Right, let’s get on with it…
Here are the two methods I’ll be covering:
1. The Niche CPA Method.
2. The Answer Your Own Question SEO Method.
Let’s start off with method 1;
The Niche CPA Method
If you’ve never been on Yahoo Answers before, below is a screen shot of what you will see when you click on the ‘Browse Categories’ tab:
As you can see, there are lots of different categories where people can post questions. Within most of these categories there are further sub categories which allow you to refine your question even more. What you need to do first of all is have a good look through these categories as this is where you first need to find a niche to target.
For more proven methods to earn a minimum of $100 per day, check out this resource, which has a number of different way to generate revenue online with little to no initial investment, other than your time. Click here to access this additional information!
How To Make Well Over $100 Every Day On Yahoo Answers
What you are looking for is niches where you can answer the users’ questions and provide a link in the ‘source’ box to your website which they can then click to visit.
Level 2 accounts
Before you can post live links in Yahoo Answers, you must first have a ‘Level 2’ account. You achieve this by gathering 250 points on Yahoo Answers. This doesn’t take long at all; you can get there in less than 20 minutes by doing the following:
Create three Yahoo Answers accounts.
Login to one of the accounts (The main one you are going to use to get to level 2) and you will get 100 points for logging in straight away. Then search for something on Yahoo Answers, it can literally be anything. Then scroll down and save the search. After you’ve saved that, search for something else and then save that search. By saving two searches you will get another 20 points.
Now login to one of the other two accounts and post 5 questions, they can be in any section and about anything. Copy the URLs of the questions to notepad. Logout and log back in to the main account and answer all five questions with any answer. Then logout and back in to the account you posted the questions on and award the answers posted with the main account as ‘Best Answer’ for each question. This will award you another 50 points (10 points per best answer). Repeat this process with the other account of the three to get another 50 points, now your main account will have a rating of 220 points.
Finally, login to the main account again and you will still have your daily answer posting limit of 20 left. For each answer you post, you get 2 points. Go ahead and post 15 short answers to random questions and you’ve reached the magic 250 points required to reach level 2 and post live links in your future answers.
TIP: You will only have to do this process once as now you have a level 2 account you can rate and vote for best answers on other people’s questions. This means now you can create a new account and post another 20 answers. However, you need to pick your 20 answers strategically.
Search for any keyword you want and once you’ve searched for it, on the left hand side you’ll see the ‘Refine search’ box. On the ‘Question Status’ drop down menu, select ‘Open Questions’ and from the ‘Date Submitted’ drop down menu, select ‘Last 7 days’ then search again.
Now sort the search by ‘Oldest’. You now have questions that are still open and 7 days old, this is perfect for us as we can get answers in to these questions and they are about to go in to voting very soon. Once you’ve answered these questions, copy the URL of the new account’s profile page and put it in a notepad file.
The next day, login to your level 2 account and go through all the questions you answered on the new account the previous day. Most of these questions will now be ‘In Voting’, which means as a level 2 account holder, you can go through each one and vote your new account’s answers as best answers.
The vast majority of people don’t assign best answers so you’ll get best answer for most of the questions, which alone should bump you up over the 250 on that account too.
Monetisation
Ok, now that the technical stuff is out the way, we can concentrate on the money making side of this method. As I mentioned before, you need to find some categories that you can pair up with some niche products that you can promote on Yahoo Answers.
If you are struggling to find some then don’t worry, I’ve included two great examples in the freeBonus Download at the end of this tutorial which I have personally used in the past to make good money from.
Website
Now, before you go and start hammering Yahoo Answers with links to your offers, you need to first make sure you have a website in place with an opt in form. You’ll notice that in most of my money making tutorials I recommend having an opt in form on your website.
The reason for this is that it’s very important you capture the details of as many of your visitors as you can on your email list. If you don’t already have a website with an opt in script installed, I recommend you use Aweber for the opt in email list software and a WordPress blog hosted on Bluehost.
If you don’t already have a domain name, then head over to GoDaddy and get yourself one. If none of that makes any sense to you, click here to read my step by step instructions on how to build a website from scratch in under 10 minutes.
For this method, if you are going to be targeting multiple niches, the best idea is to create a generic site with different niche targeted pages containing specific sales copy. You then use the specific links to the pages with the sales copy and products/offers as your ‘Source’ link for that niche when posting your answers.
So when posting your answer to someone who is looking to ‘make money online’ for example, you’d put your answer in and then in the source box you’d leave your link to http://www.yoursite.com/your-make-money-online-page/.
NOTE: Another reason you MUST use a website, or at least a landing page for this method, is because Yahoo will ban your account very quickly if you are simply posting affiliate links over and over. Any links you use as the source must provide some sort of value. So simply put together either, a helpful article with affiliate links in it and an Aweber opt in form, or a squeeze page to simply capture the users’ email address so you can promote to them over and over.
Offers
Ok, with your website in place you are ready to start getting offers to promote to all the new traffic that you are generating. There is literally no limit on the amount of products, offers and services you can promote. I’ve listed some of the best networks that you can join below to get access to hundreds of different things to promote:
MaxBounty – These guys are one of the best affiliate networks out there and have hundreds of offers on the network that you can promote. They also pay out weekly to their affiliates!
Monetise – This is a CPA network like MaxBounty, but they cater to UK offers only. A very good network to find lots of good converting offers for your UK traffic.
MarketHealth – These guys are the largest health and beauty affiliate network out there. They have got lots of very well converting products you can promote and are perfect for this method!
Go and sign up to some of these networks (or all of them if you prefer) now, by clicking the links it will open the sites in a new window/tab and you can get signed up to them right away and start browsing the offers. You can also find a list of all the networks I currently use on myAffiliate Programs page by clicking here.
For this method, the kind of offers you are looking to promote are offers that have wide appeal and are preferably free for the user to participate. Offers such as:
Email/Zip Submits – You will find hundreds of these offers to promote on MaxBounty and Monetise. They usually request the user to fill out information in order to win a free prize like an iPod or a TV for example. These offers usually payout between $1 and $2 for a first page submit. This may not sound like much but it adds up very quickly as the volume of traffic you send to the offers increase!
Make Money Online/Survey Sites – You’ll find these offers on MaxBounty, Monetise, ShareASale and LinkShare. Almost everyone is interested in making extra money so these offers are perfect for this method. Again, they cost nothing to join for the user.
FreebieJeebies, Kudos Network, CashCrate and Xpango are all perfect for this method of promotion also.
You will find lots of health related CPA offers that pay out decent commissions on sales at Market Health. I have promoted a lot of their products in the past and they convert extremely well.
Scale it up
If you do this and have separate pages for multiple niches, all with opt in forms and an Aweberemail scheduler set up to promote even more products to your new visitors, you can make a very good amount of cash just from this method alone.
As I always say, once you’ve found a way to make money online, it’s all about scaling and outsourcing the method so you can enjoy the benefits of not having to break your back doing the manual work yourself any more.
You could just keep on manually creating accounts and manually posting on lots of different niches all day, but who wants to do that? At the end of this tutorial I’ll be showing you how to take both these methods, scale them up AND turn them both in to passive income earners for you! Firstly though, let’s look at method number 2;
The Answer Your Own Question SEO Method
This method requires a little more work in the beginning to make it work; however, it has the potential to make you a long term recurring income for many years to come. I still receive sales and commissions to this day from Yahoo Answers questions I have ranked using this method from over three years ago!
The method basically involves posting questions on Yahoo Answers, then answering your own question with a link to your site in the answer, then ranking the question in Google for your targeted keywords. Below I’ll explain the most effective way of doing it to maximise your profit.
Monetisation
Like the first method we just covered, you must first find the niches you want to target and also find suitable offers and products to promote within that niche. You’ll find a list of networks to sign up to here where you’ll be able to find hundreds of different products and offers to promote.
Keyword research
Once you have selected a few different products to promote, your next move is to do some keyword research. My favourite keyword research tool is Market Samurai. It speeds up the keyword research process and also offers other important keyword competition data that is invaluable. Best of all, you can get a free trial of the software by clicking here.
Now by using Market Samurai for this, you will be able to find long tail keywords which have quite low competition in the search engines. A long tail keyword is a phrase that contains over 3 words in it, e.g. ‘How to make money on Yahoo Answers’.
They don’t receive huge amounts of traffic so this usually means there is less SEO competition from other sites. I’ve found some absolute gems in the past using Market Samurai which I’ve then been able to rank number 1 in Google for in less than a week.
TIP: Check out my Market Samurai review to find out exactly how it works, how you can get the free version and how you can get a huge discount on the full version! Click here to find out more.
The other advantage you have using Yahoo Answers for this method is that the site has a lot of authority in Google’s eyes so the pages rank very easily in Google search engines.
Website
Now you have your products/offers and have done your keyword research, you need to build a website to send the traffic from Yahoo Answers to. Again, if you don’t know how to build a website then check out my tutorial on how to build a WordPress website in less than 10 minutes here.
If you do know how to build a website then get your domain name from GoDaddy and use Bluehost to get your WordPress blog set up without any hassle!
Again, to make the most out of the traffic from Yahoo Answers, you don’t just want to sell to these people once. You should make sure you install an opt in form, using Aweber, on your website to capture the name and email address of your visitors so you can sell other related products or offers to them in future.
Method
Ok, now you’re ready to create Yahoo Answers accounts. With this method, it’s best to sign up for as many accounts as you can before starting. With each new account you can post 5 questions straight away. So if you create five accounts, you can post 20 questions across the four of them, and then answer those questions with the link to your website using the fifth account.
So, for example, let’s say you were promoting a CPA offer from MaxBounty, which was to help people make money online. You have a list of long tail keywords that you’ve gathered using Market Samurai and your website is in place. Firstly you’d want to post a question in Yahoo Answers like:
‘What is the Fastest Way to Make Money Online?’
You’d then post another four questions with titles that either exactly match, or contain your targeted keyword in it. Also, if possible, try and include your keyword twice in the title or get a related keyword in to the title as well. Also try and include the keyword, or a related keyword, in the actual question that you ask as well.
Once these five questions are posted, log out of that account, log in to the account you’re going to use to answer the questions and then answer all five questions. Remember when answering these questions to include the target keyword again, as well as other secondary keywords. Then include the link to your website in the reply and in the source box.
Once you’ve answered all five questions, you now want to log out of that account and back in to the account you posted the five questions in. Now go through each question and select the answers you have posted as ‘Best Answer’.
You will now have five questions posted with your answers all marked as best answer and nobody else will be able to comment on the question now either. Copy and paste the URLs of each question in to a notepad file and type the targeted keyword beside each URL. Now you just simply rinse and repeat this process until you have a question and an answer with your link on it for every one of your targeted keywords.
This can be a long process but if you want to really scale this up, don’t worry; I have the perfect solution for you at the end of this tutorial!
SEO
Now you have your list of URLs, it’s time to start getting them climbing the search engines. As I said before, if you’ve done your keyword research properly using Market Samurai, you will have a nice big list of low competition long tail keywords which you will be able to get ranking well in Google in no time at all.
For this process I use lots of different software including, Article marketing Robot, the Ultimate Demon and SEnuke XCr. You can find all the essential SEO software I use listed on my ‘Tools of the Trade’ page here. For ranking Yahoo Answers pages for keywords that have a little tougher competition, try using guest posts.
Here’s how to automate the entire process…
While doing both the methods listed above can be very profitable, it can also take a lot of time and labour to set them up and then maintain and scale them. However, the clever people over at Answer Assault have created software which automates the ENTIRE PROCESS of BOTH the methods I’ve explained to you in this tutorial.
Head over to the Answer Assault website and watch the video on their homepage to see the software in action! After reading this tutorial you will understand just how powerful this software is and how quickly it will be able to boost your income!
The Importance of a Positive Mental Attitude in Developing Good Health
The rapid expansion of pragmatic and empirical evidence that supports the scientific theory of Psychosomatics is leading to an increasing number of healthcare experts confirming the massive impact that having a positive mental attitude has on the overall health of humans. Psychosomatics is the study of the manner in which the mind directly impacts the physical health of the body. For years, scientists and medical professionals have been aware of the power of a person’s mental mindset to impact their health. Now, the knowledge is becoming more widespread.
According to studies conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, having an optimistic perspective concerning life in general resulted in the lowering of risk factors associated with heart disease in older men. Additionally, the University of Pittsburg revealed that a positive mental attitude in women reduced the risk of thickening carotid artery walls. There are literally thousands of articles in numerous popular medical, health and news journals that illuminate the power of a positive mental attitude to aid in improving the quality of life and physical health.
Reducing Stress Levels
One of the most destructive forces against human health is chronic stress. All humans experience some form of mental stress throughout the day; however, the vast majority of these encounters with stress is what is known as acute stress, which include things such as the frustration that is created by being cut off on the expressway, or delayed by traffic. Acute mental stress rarely has any negative impact on physical health due to the fact that it is short lived; however, chronic stress, such as worrying about a home foreclosure, divorce or job situation, places constant mental strain on the human thought process, and it is this type of stress that slowly attacks the human body.
Click here to discover the secrets that will help free your mind for success!
When a person experiences a certain stressful moment, the body releases a hormone called cortisol, which is designed to help manage the stress; however, cortisol that is present in the body for prolonged periods can prove to be toxic to the body. It can inhibit the function of the liver to regulate metabolic processes. Additionally, it can lead to other inflammatory reactions, such as hypertension and arterial diseases.
In addition to the negative health consequences of high and constant stress levels that are produced by a negative mental attitude, research reveals that individuals who tend to view life from a negative perspective tend to have greater difficulty managing adverse situations. Basically, having a positive outlook on life creates the ability to effectively engage the vicissitudes when they come.
Not only does having a positive mental attitude help to reduce stress levels, subsequently reducing cortisol levels, but it also promotes the creation of feel-good hormones, such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin. These hormones provide a sense of well-being that is essential to long-term good health.
Learning to Walk It Out
Developing a positive mindset requires the ability to encompass the entire gamut of life’s experiences in order to develop a lucid perspicacity of the process of life. When a person is able to survey their life with a panoramic view, they will be able to see that they have encountered multitudinous moments of adversity, but in almost every situation, they have overcome the adversity, and they have been better because of it. It is the development of the understanding of “process,” in and of itself that establishes the foundation on which a positive mindset can be developed. Everything that is achieved or acquired in life, is a part of a process.
I often teach my clients that their potential is a representation of the promise of their unique design; however, they must understand that in order to obtain the promise associated with their design and potential, they must first endure the process. There can be no obtainment of the promise, without there first being an endurance of the process. “Process” always precedes “promise.”
When people are able to see that the process does not destroy, but ushers in the promise, they are able to take on a positive mindset, even in the midst of difficult moments.
Not only does having a positive mental attitude support good health, but it is essential to developing the capacity to succeed in life. Success in life is not achieved by circumventing the struggles in life, but it is achieved by overcoming them.
Outcomes and Consequences
It is much easier to move through life when there is an understanding of the processes. When a person has an understanding of the processes of life they are not thrown off by the unexpected; they do not become frenetic and unglued when adversity strikes. They understand that life is a process and difficulty and adversity is simply the fertile soil in which the seeds of their faith and confidence are planted and cultivated. It is the understanding of the fact that every occurrence in life produces consequences, and though one may not be able to control many of the situations that occur in their life, they do have absolute and complete control over how they deal with them.
When a person realizes that it is not the situation in their life that dictates their future, but how they respond to that situation, they are able to develop a mindset of peace, because they have come to an understanding that they are the masters of their fate.
When people fail to develop this understanding and mindset, it leads to living life as a victim of circumstance — with all of life being a futile attempt at escaping moments of difficulty in search of comfort. Because comfort and peace are more of a state of mind than a situation or circumstance, these individuals never experience it at any significant level, even when there is no adversity present. They spend their quiet moments worrying about the next storm in their life.
Yes, a positive mental attitude has an immense impact on developing and sustaining good health, but it does so much more. It is the beginning of profiting in the game of life. Living life victoriously is about the ability to create peace in the midst of adversity, embracing the process in order to obtain the promise. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace, Ph.D.
The importance of logos as a critical element in the marketing and branding process for any business. The logo is the company’s most prevalent graphic representation of its image and message, and it is the most visible manifestation of its presence within its target market. Because of the immense importance of a well-designed logo, it is paramount that a great deal of consideration be given to the design. A good logo is prevalent in establishing brand recognition in a specific market.
Primary Purpose
Although logos play a number of roles, the primary purpose for company and corporate logos is to serve as the graphic face of the company. When a company has done a good job with their marketing campaign, the logo will be the first image that pops into the minds of those who are a part of the target audience will be the logo. As graphical displays of the unique identity of a company, they, through colors, images and forms, provide essential information about the company and its mission. The logo is also the shorthand reference to the company it is associated with.
Design Principles
Although a great deal of consideration should be given to the design of the logo, the design itself should not be too complex. The logos should be comprehensible and unique, but it should not be extravagant in its presentation. One common misconception is that having a logo designed is immensely expensive. While there are graphic design companies that are exorbitantly high with their pricing, there are some who are affordable. There are also some resources, such as 5 Minute Logos, that allow companies to effectively design their own logos, and there is no need to use Photoshop. These programs are not only great for small businesses that are looking for an expensive way to create a professional looking logo, but it is also good for a person who is looking to make a little extra cash designing logos for small businesses.
There are a myriad of choices as far as colors, shapes and images to choose from, so it will be important to make the selection that will best represent the company. Different industries use different types of logo shapes and designs. For instance, tech companies and innovative design companies tend to go with logos that are angular is design because they convey speed, while service-oriented firms tend to have rounded logos, which provide a sense of service and trust.
Brand Identity
Logos are the primary visual component of a company’s overall brand identity. The logo will appear on everything that is associated with the company, including the building, stationary, business cards, websites and advertising. Due to the exposure that the logo will receive, a well-designed logo can contribute significantly to the success of the brand. When the logo is designed properly and functions as integral part of the marketing and branding process, it will provide a substantial return on investment.
Common Mistakes
Many small businesses and startups tend to play it fast-and-lose when creating a design. They don’t give enough consideration to the proper size and color of the design, as well as the positioning. One thing that is immensely important to understand that it is a terrible mistake to create a crowded environment for the logo, forcing it to compete with things in its periphery. This sends a confusing message that can be immensely difficult to overcome. Another common mistake is recreating logos for specific purposes, or having logos that are similar, but not identical — dual logos can create dual identities.
With the proper attention and consideration, it is possible to create a logo that will provide the sense of identity that will create the momentum that is necessary to push a company to the next level.
Overcoming obstacles is hard but wonderfully gratifying. Here’s how you can identify and tackle the most challenging and surprising obstructions.
BY KEVIN DAUM
Inc. 500 entrepreneur and best-selling author@KevinJDaum
4 Tips For Overcoming Obstacles
4 Tips For Overcoming Obstacles
If achieving goals were easy, everyone would do it quickly and without difficulty. Even if your vision is clear and you can articulate a detailed destiny, there are always obstacles in the path. It’s the joy and journey of clearing those obstacles that makes life rich, and helps people feel truly accomplished when they finally reach their pinnacle of success.
While on a three-week trip to Vietnam, I decided to tackle two of my biggest personal challenges. I committed to both of these goals this year in my preferred futuring process from last fall. First, I wanted to get a handle on learning Vietnamese. As strange and ambitious as that sounds, I wanted to communicate with my new mother-in-law. (Plus, I figure it might be fun to finally know what my new family is actually saying about me.)
The second challenge was that I could stand to lose 35 lbs. At my age of 48, travel, exercise, and dietary changes don’t come easy. However, as I write this column at the end of my Ho Chi Minh City visit, I’ve dropped 10 lbs., two inches in my waist, and bây giá» tôi nói má»™t ít tiếng Việt (I now speak a little Vietnamese).
Here’s how I finally blew past the obstacles in my way for the last 18 months. First, it helps to understand that obstacles come in three different flavors:
A. External Obstacles–These are obstacles outside of your control such as the economy, natural disasters, physical limitations, and the political climate.
B. Internal Obstacles–These obstacles are generally one-time issues but you have direct control over them, such as debt, cash flow, time availability, needed skills or talent.
C. Habitual Obstacles–These obstacles reflect how people get in their own way. They can only be removed with behavioral change.
To overcome obstacles business or personal, you must master these areas:
1. Embrace Self-Awareness
If you don’t see the obstacle or believe it’s a hindrance, you’ll never reach your goals, blaming everything and everyone but the person responsible. This is particularly obstructive to resolving Habitual Obstacles. I realized my own prioritization was keeping me from what I needed to do. I could easily blame time as my enemy, but the enemy was actually my semi-conscious, daily rationalization that making money was almost always more important than health or learning. Once I admitted that my own prioritization was misguided, I made the necessary adjustments in my behavior.
2. Use Time to Your Advantage
This is most important with External Obstacles. You must learn to manage your impatience and be ready when the smoke clears. The harder the obstacle, the more time it will take to overcome. Set a preliminary schedule with clear milestones so you can track forward or backward progress. This way you’ll see the cumulative impact of miniscule change. This helped me manage the weight. I could see reductions in calorie intake and changes in how my clothing fit by comparing week to week. Once I saw small progress, I was encouraged to put in more effort. With time comes momentum. And momentum is the best way to bust through big obstacles.
3. Commit to Focused Discipline
It’s easy to get distracted with the present. Business people are just that–busy! There is always a fire to put out or a new critical opportunity to distract you. True discipline is about making yourself emotionally commit time and effort to your benefit regardless of external factors. I knew I had to make myself accountable for my actions with what the late, great Chet Holmes called “Pig Headed Discipline.” I cleared out every distraction and vowed to add nothing new to my plate until I made progress. Make the obstacle the No. 1 priority and focus on it every day until it’s gone.
4. Engage Your Own Creativity
I like to create rhythm in my life so I can freely engage the creative part of my brain for problem solving. There’s no better place to apply expansive thinking than on issues holding you back. I gave deliberate thought to what I wanted to accomplish on my trip to Asia, and set a plan. By integrating a daily run with a 30-minute audio language lesson, I was able to accomplish both tasks. Doing this in Vietnam gave me the added help of being immersed in daily speech and using the heat and humidity to sweat off extra pounds. By the end of the trip, I pushed myself to give one hour a day for both tasks, while only using one hour per day. I also now count all my stretching in Vietnamese. Quit banging your head against the same brick wall over and over. Take time to think things through and find creative solutions that bring fun and progress to the grind of obstacle removal.