While it's fresh on my mind, I'd like to give a heads up to Steve Pavlina. I've known about him for about 6 months now, but I have tread lightly trying to figure out if he is for real or not. He makes a living out of helping people improve themselves, and he sells a lot of self-improvement type books and products. My reason for mentioning him is that I find his business model pretty interesting. I believe he has gotten into this business by his own self-improvement lifestyle. Each month he does a 30 day trial of something he sees as an area he would like to improve in his life. He has some pretty interesting trials. He started doing this in 1993. He said he got the idea from the shareware industry where they will let you download software on a 30 day trial basis.
In the self-improvement vein, he uses the rationalization that anyone can do anything for 30 days. If you find out after the 30days is over that you don't want to continue the activity, you can do so, but you commit at the onset that you will stick to the plan for the designated 30 days. Some of his trials he has adopted, and others he has let go. His criteria for accepting the practice is interesting as well: if his life is improved with the new habit or activity, he will continue doing it. (There was one trial he did with sleep habits that did vastly improve his life, but he felt like it was too difficult to implement into his schedule and his family's schedule.)
Here is his website:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/
He gives a list of suggested 30 day trials. He chronicles his 30 day activities on his blog: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/
I don't read his stuff every day, but I am definately fascinated by his methods. I think the business model is one that could be emulated as well. I have always believed we would have a better country if people were not so dependent on "the man" for how they support themselves. There is only one way to make a living, and it is by depending on ourselves, our gifts, our talents, our enthusiasm, our energy, and our smarts. While the income may not be as dependable as a traditional job, it is more rewarding in lots of other aspects. Of course, that goes back to the old adage that "money isn't everything". Of course, for some people, money IS everything, so none of the other perks mean anything to them.
For me, the biggest advantage is that I can schedule my time to do what I want to do. Yes, I have to schedule time to do the actual work needed to keep my business going, but because I like doing this work (usually), that is not a difficult thing to do. Of course, if one is self-employed, the choice should be something that is enjoyed enough that time will want to be spent doing it.
I am actually trying to change this up a bit right now. I am feeling impressed to move on. I am not sure where this will end up, but I am sure it is going to happen as I follow the direction into which I am being led.
Isn't life a wonderful thing when someone like me can decide that I want to do something different, and then I can actually do it? I will be 55 this month, and I am sure this is a pattern I will follow all of my life.
I am always excited when something new looms on the horizon. Some of the best times in my life have been when change has brought me to a new place. I can remember almost all of them vividly. Even moving from being a single person to a married one, and then from a couple to a family are changes that make life more interesting. I definately am not one to sit in a stagnant pool. I can even recall times when as a child changes came about. When my sister(s) were born, the family dynamic changed. Moving from one house to another brought more exciting elements into our life as did my mother's choice of husbands. Joining the church was another amazing change of very long lasting consequence. Some changes were more welcome and enjoyed than others, but none the less, the element of change kept things hopping. I thrive on this apparently.
I never realized this until a couple of years ago when I knew there were going to be changes in my life. I could just feel it! As an adult, I have learned that I usually have an inkling that change is in the air if I listen closely enough to the spirit. I usually don't know what the change will entail, nor do I know which area of my life it will affect, but I know to look for it and consequently welcome it as something that will benefit my life.
I forget about the fact that something good will come of it when the change comes in a difficult, challenging manner. I tend to think of it as an O-Crapper until I see the intended result down the line. Such has been the state of affairs in the last year of my life. It has been an incredible roller coaster ride that didn't look like it would be very much fun at the beginning. Still not sure about some of it, but I'm trying to have faith!
The fact is that change (and the resulting positive benefits) NEVER comes without a price. Sometimes we might decide that price is too high for the benefits we see that might be attained. Unfortunately, we cannot always see all the benefits, and this limited eyesight causes us to sidestep something that could bring many great things into our lives. Other times, change is thrust upon us. We try to hide from it if it is seemingly unpleasant, but we will not reap the benefits until we fully embrace it, pain and all.
Isn't this aversion to pain and discomfort a funny thing? For me, it has really caused me to waste a lot of time while I tried to avoid them. Ultimately, the pain and discomfort don't go away; they are temporarily assuaged until I accept their reality and succomb to it. As I get older, I would like to learn to consent earlier to the imagined unpleasantness as it is never as bad as I think it will be. (Real pain has come more often in ways I could not control.) Then I would be able to reap the benefits sooner without wasting the time avoiding something that never happens. That is a nice goal for this new year (decade? millenium??).
No comments:
Post a Comment