A Choice of Mindset
I know a lot of people are dealing with financial challenges these days. Las Vegas is basically the foreclosure capital of the USA right now. I know people who’ve lost their homes. I see “bank owned” signs all over the place.
If you’re going through something like this right now, I totally empathize with you.
However, I have to point out that the pattern of what causes this is so clear, it’s getting a bit ridiculous to see it play out over and over again.
Generally speaking, people who CREATE and DELIVER value are doing just fine. In fact, I’d say most are doing better, not worse. Many of these people are seeing their incomes go up during this time.
People who don’t CREATE and DELIVER value are seeing their finances grow progressively worse. This leads many of them to panic, so they head even further away from creating and delivering value (such as by chasing lame money-making schemes), which only quickens the decline to insolvency.
I know it seems logical that if you’re seeing your finances decline, then you should focus single-mindedly on trying to make more money as quickly as possible. People fall into this trap all the time. I used to fall for it too. This is absolutely the wrong strategy though. I know that must sound counter-intuitive.
The correct strategy is that when you see your finances decline and you want to increase your income, then you need to focus on CREATING and DELIVERING more value. If you do that, then you’re doing the very thing that will generate a sustainable income increase.
What is money? Money is simply a medium for exchanging value. Money is what you receive in exchange for the value you create and deliver. If you can increase your outflow of value creation and delivery, you can increase your inflow of money received.
If, however, you try to increase the inflow of money without increasing the outflow of value, you’re trying to get something for nothing. This approach is untenable and will ultimately collapse. Please don’t waste your time on it.
I actually figured this out right around the time I was declaring bankruptcy. I was totally broke, yet I found a way to focus my energy on creating and delivering value instead of on trying to scrape together more money. Within about six months, I was back on my feet financially, and year after year my financial situation just kept getting better. I started on this path about 9 years ago, and I’ve maintained a nice positive cash flow every year since then.
I know that when you’re in a financial crunch situation, six months may seem like a long time. But it doesn’t matter if it takes you several months or several years to get in the habit of creating and delivering value. The time is going to pass anyway, and this habit will serve you well for life. Be patient and get started. It doesn’t matter what happens to the economy — if you keep creating and delivering value, you’ll do just fine.
A Record Year
Financially, 2008 was the best year ever for Erin and me. Erin had a six-figure year all on her own just from doing readings.
I expect that 2009 will be an even better year for us, regardless of what happens to the economy. How do I know? Because it’s another year we can create and deliver value, adding to what we’ve already created.
Why are we enjoying increases while others are experiencing decline?
First, it helps that we don’t have jobs. I haven’t been employed by someone in more than 16 years. Many people mistakenly assume that being jobless is the riskier route, but that’s nonsense. It’s much less risky to control your own means of creating and delivering value than to be a pawn of some larger entity. No matter how bad the economy gets, Erin and I can’t get fired or laid off. So our career paths enjoy much more stability.
Secondly, while others are tightening up and cutting costs, Erin and I focus our attention on creating and delivering more value to people. The way we go about this may seem a bit counter-intuitive at first glance.
For example, I wrote a lot about diet and health this year, such as by sharing my experiences with the raw food diet.
That may not appear to be a very sexy topic. Some people find it totally uninteresting and would prefer that I write about other things. My health articles never make it big on social bookmarking sites, so they don’t generally yield a major traffic boost either.
However, such articles can provide a lot of value to people who are interested in those topics. Many people have made significant lifestyle changes after reading those articles, improving their health and/or enjoying significant weight loss. For some people the benefits have been amazing.
So even though these articles might not seem too exciting at first glance, they make a difference in people’s lives. Obviously they don’t affect everyone equally, but that’s okay. They certainly do a lot of good. They deliver value.
Many bloggers post content with the intention of getting something, such as links, attention, or sales. I’ve done some of that too, but I generally avoid creating that style of content. Instead I remind myself to stay focused on creating and delivering value. I know that when I keep my focus on that side, the rest takes care of itself.
This is an example of such an article. I didn’t write this piece to get something from you. I don’t expect it will become a huge hit. I know that because of the length, many people won’t even bother to read it.
But I also know that for many of the people who take the time to read it, this article has the potential to create some subtle yet helpful shifts. It may give someone the extra insight needed to get moving in a new direction. Someone, somewhere will receive positive value from it.
That’s all I intend with this article. Just provide some kind of benefit to someone who could use a little encouragement in the right direction. It’s not that complicated. This sort of focus inspires me to share what I’ve learned openly and honestly, even if it runs contrary to the way most people think.
I know this approach sounds overly simplistic, but if you get this — if you really get it — then it’s really not that hard to generate plenty of income.
src:-
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/12/how-to-make-lots-of-money-during-a-recession/
