You see, the brain is something we use on a regular basis to do all sorts and tasks that we deem useful and even necessary – like finding food, cooking it, then eating it… all while knowing that it’s food and not poison (hopefully at least).

But an issue arises when you start taking a stand on something and are looking for fellow humans to follow your cause. When you want to get the message out to influence people, you have 2 choice for the most part… group together FOR a cause, or fight together AGAINST a cause.

Now, we humans have something called a ‘fight or flight’ mechanism. This thing is really deep rooted in our brains and chemically identical to a panic attack. In fact, it’s part of our “old brain” that also lets our heart beat and lungs breath without having to consciously think about them. Personally I think it would quite difficult to sleep if I had to tell my heart to keep moving the blood around while in bed.

So how does this relate to your message reaching ability?
Well, before I get to that let me let me ask you not to think about fuzzy pink bunnies. In a few moments you’ll understand why. Adding to this is an idea that Napoleon Hill first suggested back in the 1930’s within the book “Think and Grow Rich”, and that’s that THOUGHTS ARE THINGS.

Ok, with your brain not trying to make bunnies real, lets dive in…
Fear is likely the strongest motivating factor (or state) we have. It’s what keeps us alive in the face of danger. Absent of fear we are almost purely a pleasure seeking creature. A life with no fear however will likely result in a series of poor choices and may lead you directly into a trap – either emotionally, physically, or both.

Fear will always get you a stronger response then pleasure. It’s a stronger emotion because it’s a survival mechanism. Pleasure only happens when you’re alive and usually only after you feel safe. So if you want to make a big crowd quickly, you rally against a common enemy and insight a common and easy to relate to fear. However, by concentrating on what you’re fighting against you are forcing it to always be ‘front on mind’. That fearful thought, according to Mr.Hill, will eventually create itself by the collective thoughts of the crowd.

Mother Teresa understood this intuitively and was recorded as saying “I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me.” Because fear is such a strong emotion it’s much easier to build an Anti-War rally, but the focus on war actually prevents the creation of peace. Peace rallies would be much more effective, but it’s hard to get people ‘worked up’ to be peaceful. Often people equate peace with doing nothing. With silly phrases like “If you cant say anything nice, say nothing at all” many people have been conditioned by their upbringing to do nothing when a civilized dialogue is desired.

You see, your human brain doesn’t care either way about weather you say or think about anything as a ‘pro’ or ‘con’. It doesn’t differentiate between good or bad. That’s your rational brain that was developed many evolutions later. If you don’t believe me continue trying to remove all thoughts of bunnies from your mind – especially pink fuzzy ones. All your brain knows is that something exists, and it will help you create whatever you concentrate the most effort on.

In an anti-war rally you are constantly bombarded with this war is bad and don’t kill that. Your brain hears war and kill way too often and will start to consider ways to wage war and kill things. How are you doing removing the pink bunnies from your thoughts? A pro-peace rally will fill your mind with suggestions of peaceful and harmonious activities and ideas. As you keep focusing on peace your thoughts will drift over to suggest peaceful resolutions to try. Your brain wants to please you and will try to manifest anything you think about often enough.

So what about that cause you’re trying to influence?
If you are having issues in your life, or your business trying to get yourself or others to think a certain way, or take certain actions, you need to understand how your language, and the presentation method used, affects ones thoughts and ultimately their actions.

You can gain a large crowd ready to fight against something much easier then create a crowd of people ready to build something new. But it’s really hard to get a bunch of fighters calm enough to do the work of building something. No matter how awesome the result could be, you need to remove the destroy mindset before you can install the build mindset.

So it’s a rather simple – If you want a large gathering fast, hate something. But realize converting these people into builders of positive change may be very difficult. If you want to insight positive change it will take more time and more effort to generate the crowd you desire, but the results will be much closer to the original goal.

If this all sounds like a little hocus-pocus, you’re not alone. There is a Ted.com video that summarizes the human condition as “Our Mind: Incapable of understanding itself”. In a nutshell it simply explains we know our mind does things we can’t really explain (yet). You don’t have to believe in gravity for it to work, it just does so relentlessly. And like gravity, you don’t have to believe thoughts are things for your mind to start creating your thoughts all around you.

Next time your planning something where you want to make a positive change, or build something helpful understand this: Quick results often requires inciting fear and can get messy, while lasting results requires more work but will reward you much greater for this effort.

…now turn that pink bunny into a moving image of you succeeding at your next task and prosper.

Once you get over your self-inflicted self-doubt and allow your eyes to open to certain shining facts about how your passions do contain oodles value and how your interests are interests of others as well, you will be capable of empowering your motivation to accomplish most or all of the crazy dreams you dream.  And when You finally decide to take action and prove to yourself (and the rest of the world) that you can do it ‘like a rock star’ you will finally get it.

You get that you are worth your dreams.
You get that you are good enough.
You get that the only real limitations are your own thoughts and the process you use them.

Design your life when you’re day dreaming so When you’re back in the ‘real’ world you can take your life’s perfect design and execute it with the passion your life is worth. When ‘the juice is worth the squeeze’ the rewards for hard work can provide a life of abundant riches.

Once you believe your interests are worth pursuing because they are valuable just the way they (and you) are, in a month from now you will remember a month ago that last month, the month you’re about to live, was so much better then what the prior month was.

So you take more action steps than before, because you now know better.  You know that your interests are valuable enough to enough people to provide you the means to make your real interests, your way of making your life as successful as those dreams you have when life is perfect, with more abundance then you need. But that’s just what you’re worth.

There are systematic processes that work whenever they are implemented with targeted actions.  The real key is locating the system that will work for you to achieve your dreams.   Remember this: Systems work, people fail.  Working systems always work, like a well maintained car.

With a good car, when you put the key in the ignition and turn it the car starts. When you put it in gear and you starting rolling forward or by pressing the brake you slow down.   If this doesn’t happen then it’s because there are components of the system that are missing or malfunctioning.  Break anything in the system and it will fail as a whole becoming little more then pile of metals and plastic… no gas,  the car wont start, faulty clutch and you can’t control your forward motion, no brake pads or fluid and you will likely roll out of control.

Your life functions the same way.
If you have no ‘gas’, your motivation will be lacking and it will be hard to get your ‘motor’ running to make forward progress.
If you have a bad ‘clutch’, your motivation (engine) will rev up but you will burn all your energy (gas) before you get anywhere.
If you have no ‘brakes’, you’re likely to spin out of control.
If all you have are brakes, you’ll never move forward.
And just like with a car, if you don’t have a destination to get to it’s all meaningless anyway.

Those all are dangers of not working with a complete system.  Unfortunately, most people trying to find their perfect path in life too often get caught up with someone else’s partial solution, that may be only good for them.   To continue with the car example, if you buy a super cool, ultra fast turbo charger for your car and get it installed perfectly, it’s still useless if you have no gas, dangerous if you have no brakes, or simply expensive if all it does is get you nowhere faster.

Creating your dream life all starts with knowing where you want to go.  Have you ever left for vacation with your gassed up car filled with a weeks worth of clothes and food, just to start driving around aimlessly without a destination?  the problem is that’s exactly what happens all the time with people trying to make their dream life.

Do you think your life will suddenly be better if you have more money?
Most will say yes.  I’ll tell you you’re probably dead wrong. That’s easily the biggest reason why you and so many other well meaning people never realize their dreams.
‘More’ money doesn’t exist — not really anyway.

How much money is ‘more’ money?  If that’s all you are asking for then when you find a dime lying on the sidewalk you’ve accomplished your goal.   What you really need do is decide what you need and have your EXACT goal and needs in mind.
Money is really nothing more then dirty paper.  It’s only a mean to an end.  And So I ask you… what’s your destination?

Where do you want to go in life?  What are you’re dreams?
Once you have answered that you need to start asking HOW you can find or create the things you need to accomplish the tasks that will take you to your destination.   When you’re thinking about this, realize that the word ‘but’ is little more then you applying the brakes to the vehicle driving you to your dream place.

More money could be 10 cents.  Millions of dollars isn’t much different because it’s just a idea.  If you’ve every tried to start a new business and get money from a bank based on an idea you would know they would just laugh at you (at least on the inside).  When the bank does extend money for a new business idea it’s because there is much more then just an idea presented.   There is a idea, a plan, several goals and key points, along with and end goal or purpose behind the entire process.  It’s not just an idea they present, but an entire system they want to implement.  They use REAL and EXACT numbers outline very SPECIFIC intent. Where there is a complete system there is real chance for success.

You NEED to control your life with the same sort of thoroughness if you want to really see the end result of a dream life.

But need to be exact with what you want.  A lot a money is imaginary, but a million dollars a year is a very real, achievable goal.  The key here isn’t really the money though, but the reason you want to gain more of it.  It’s your why, your purpose, that will drive you to do the solution that will provide the dreams and accomplishments in life you find most valuable.

Richard Branson, as a example, never started his ginormous Virgin enterprise with the intent on making millions of dollars.  All he wanted to do is help some people he thought were great musicians get heard by more people.  He just wanted help ‘nobodies’ (like the Sex Pistols) get there chance in the spotlight.  By working hard to achieve this goal he was handsomely rewarded.

And here is the last point here, but it’s arguably the most important.  If you really want to achieve your dream lifestyle for the long term, you can only really to this by helping others.  If you stop for a moment to really think about that I feel you would have to agree.  Where does money come from?  Unless you’re a government legally allowed to print money, then your money is always from other people — friend or employer.  The only way other people will happily give you their money is if you somehow provide them something of value.  Sure there are snake oil salesmen, but their success is short lived and often have very negative consequences.

Just like you pay others to provide goods and services to you, they will pay you when sufficient value is found in your offerings.  If you help enough people achieve their goals, they will help you achieve yours.   This seems to be the law of reciprocity (or giving back) that is funding most people’s dreams in the world.  So what are you going to do TODAY to start, or continue your personal journey to awesomeness?

A holy man was having a conversation with God one day and said,
‘God , I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.’

God led the holy man to two doors.
He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.
In the middle of the room was a large round table.

In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew,
which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water.
The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly.
They appeared to be famished.

They were holding spoons with very long handles,
that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible
to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful..
But because the handle was longer than their arms,
they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.
God said, ‘You have seen Hell.’

They went to the next room and opened the door.
It was exactly the same as the first one.

The holy man said, ‘I don’t understand ..’ It is simple,’ said God .
‘It requires but one skill.
You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.’

If you don’t accept responsibility for every action, emotion, thought, and belief in your life, you will be susceptible to exactly the sort of change you are seeing right now – random events. There are excuses preventing you right now from being the best you, you can be.

Your thoughts need to be constructive, not destructive.

You are where you are in life because of the decisions your made in your life. Period.
Nobody has it easy.

Because when you take complete ownership of your past, you finally get to take ownership for your future.

We all want to control our own destiny, but so many of us believe fate has more control then we do. That’s just a lie… it’s the excuse we use to avoid the pains of personal responsibility for our current place in life.
It’s easier to feel better about yourself on a superficial level when we deny the realities of our own in-action or laziness. Do you feel good about intending to do something one day? How do you feel after you complete a meaningful task?

4 are birds on a sand bar in the ocean, 1 decides to fly away – how many remain?
Four. The bird only thought about flying. My question is this: What happened next? Was there a better way?

Every moment of every day, with every thought guiding each and every action, we’re slowly shuffling our future choices into bits of immutable history. The difference between drowning on a sinking raft and being waited-on in the perfect place just how you like, is simply a matter of choice – and the personal responsibility to take action on the choice.

The Past is the past, remember the lessons learned from it, but don’t let it drag down your future. Use it – Raise high by providing strength through knowledge and experience. Let The past go. While it may take time to see the effects, Change happens in a moment. Make that change now to choose a better future. Make now better.

Choose.

While the following are not my words, their meaning resonates well with my intended purpose here. If you want to become a better person, run a better business, or have stronger relationships, these words will provide food for thought.

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete…

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember, to say, “I love you” to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

George Carlin

So much uncertainty in your personal life with your family and friends allows you to believe you will have time to pursue, or yet consider, what your life dream and goal is – later.

When but you consider when will you have time? Think about the direction of your life and where you will be in 6 months in the future… if you don’t know then lets assume in the same place maybe? What about in 6 years? 30? Is your path ever going to have the time and demand you make it a good time?

Coming out of your box can be tough. Breaking old habits, addictions, and perceived truths appear impossible on occasion. We all have it tough, and someone has it better, someone has it worse.
Believing your interests are valuable interests to others is one of the first hurdles to get past.
This gets a lot easier when you have a place that feels like a home where you can relax – away from the walls that protect and encase you. A place to dream your dreams, and a state of mind where you believe you are worth achieving your dreamy success.

Is it silly to think you can make money doing things you feel are fun and exciting? …pushing your limits in almost comfortable, but really exciting ways?

(Where there is a will there’s a way)

When you believe your interests are worth pursuing because they are valuable just the way they are, and you remember a month ago in the future that last month, the month you’re about to live, is so much better then what last month was. And you take action more then before, because you now know better – that your interests – are more valuable to enough people to provide you the means, to make your real interests, your way of making your life as successful as those dreams you have when life is perfect. With more abundance then you need, but that’s just what you’re worth. Design your life when you’re day dreaming. When your back in the real world, take your design of a dream life and execute it with the passion your life is worth. When juice is the worth the squeeze the rewards for hard work can provide a life full of riches.

Take that extra money and buy a homeless person a house if it makes you feel better… hey, maybe I should do that too….

The statistics show that the inhalation of drugs like Effexor and Paxil have been on the rise for years, but so has the number of people claiming to have abnormalities.  If these rates continue soon there will be more “abnormal” people then normal ones.  Of course that will make the people that now appear well adjusted, look like they’re the crazy ones because they are now the minority.

And something about that just seems wrong.

I feel the one of the main issues with people and their outlook on life is caused by all the mixed social messages making you believe immediate gratification is better. How many get rich quick schemes are out there, or 3 min miracle products?

This pure crap is preventing people from finding their deeper meaning to their lives, which is in turn creating confusing thoughts that rail between social norms and what is inherently believed to be ‘right’.  The recent economic collapse is a testament to individual greed of corporate crooks allowed by general society by sheer laziness to speak up for truth.

Yes, I believe too many people live shallow unfulfilled lives.  The incredible successes of reality T.V. I think proves how much people long to have a life they want… the lazy way is to watch someone else’s life and complain about their own. The fulfilling way is to turn off the brain sucking T.V. and go create the life you want.

It’s that easy, but if you don’t believe you can do it, you wont.  It’s that last past that is self destructing.  Believing in yourself seems to be a lost idea we need to bring back to the forefront of consciousness

Commit To Being A Leader

Think about every successful business person you know. One thing the have in common is they are fairly well known and respected in their industry.
Leadership itself is a very complicated journey and you need a method to express it with. Staring a new business is a great way to shine and it’s time position yourself as the leader in all that you do.

The largest characteristics of successful entrepreneurs is having truth and integrity as their core. Simply doing what you say you’re going to do, when you said you’re going to do it, will allow you to been as a leader that can be trusted.  Trust is essential for so many reasons.

By being the best, you will become the “go-to guy”, and that’s when the real shift between beginning a new business and running a successful business  happens.

Don’t let leadership scare  you.
There are lots of leaders in every industry.
Most have great clientele they enjoy working with.
If you do what you love while maintaining your personality, you’ll attract those who require what you have to offer while both of you enjoy working together.

Understand Your Market BEFORE you have a product

This is were you stop thinking.
There are many cliche’s are about what making an assumption can do.
Don’t make assumptions about your market!

The success path then learning how to become an entrepreneur involves understanding who will give you money, and for what purpose.   You can not just assume that if you want it, others will, or if you think it’s a great idea, that other people will too.

Research and test.
Research and test.
Research and test.

Walk around and ask people if they have any issues in the area you would like to start a business in.  Better yet, make an online survey and drive some traffic to it.   Find out what they like about the subject, what could be better, or different.  THEN, and only then should you be working on the product or offer for them.  After all, it’s these people you would like to sell to, so they must be interested in what your offering, and it needs to be different or have a higher perceived value then what’s already available.

If price is the main issue, ensure you can profit from doing it for less money.
If service is the issue, then ensure your customer service is the best.
If value is the concern (not price), discover what motivations appeal to these people.

This is perhaps the most vital side of business.
Without a market that wants you, you don’t have any business
Having customers you like (and like you) will make working hard more enjoyable.
And encase you missed it, research and test your market – continually.

Leverage Your Resources

There are only so many hours a day you can work.
If you want to grow your business, say into an empire, you must know how (and what) can be done better differently.

Thinking you can go out and solicit one hundred new clients a day, then go home and fill the sales request while answering client phone calls all in a hurry and stilling thinking you have some time to sleep without getting burnt out, is just silly.

You have to learn how to outsource.
This is the gold when learning how to become a entrepreneur!

Take the parts of the business you don’t like doing, but must be done, and get some other person to do them.   Take the parts you sorta like but have no time to do and get some other person to do those tasks.  Then ultimately, find the tasks you do that don’t earn cash (but have to be done), and outsource those too.

So what’s left?
A tiny and manageable set of tasks you like doing that make heaps of cash.
I thinks that’s what’s called entrepreneurial dream, right?

How Do You do this?   Easy – Google.
Search for “outsource” + “job for other person”
example: “outsource virtual assistant” or “outsource article writing”
Research who you want to work with – there are hundreds of sources.
My personal favorite is oDesk.com because you can outsource almost any task you need through their global network of freelancers.

Surround Yourself With Successful People

This is a recommendation from each single successful business owner I know … You are who you hang around with. Plain and Simple.
If you are serious about becoming well off, the easiest way to get there is to pass the time with other well off people.
The explanation is quite simple.
You develop similar habits of your friends, and if you goal is to make $100k a month, how can someone making $40k a year help you?

So the solution to this problem is simply to find some friends that do make the sort of money you would like.   This can be hard at first, but there are some actually straightforward strategies to reach this.

Go to a local toastmasters, or Chamber of Commerce meeting.
Find an organization in the field you need to enter in to that supports the entrepreneurs.
Find a mentor!

There are several ways to a mentor and you will need the influence of these people you want to become. You can use Google here too!
Find an authority blog on the topic of choice and see if there is a program in there to meet people involved.   Several Forums have great industry specific mentors available.
You can pay someone to coach you through it if you are having difficulty with this. This Favorite mentoring program to learn How to become an Entrepreneur.

Take Massive action

At the end of the day, action is the only step that really matters.
You can’t wait until you know everything you need to know, because you never will.

Massive action is where you learn the puzzle pieces that video and text are simply unable to deliver. It reveals your weaknesses and strengths in profound ways and provides the truly valuable insights about who and what you are.

If you are not sure or confident about some concepts, hopefully your mentor can assist your understand understanding weather it’s right or wrong, but it’s taking action that will teach you how to make it right – and get results.  And many people have succeeded without  mentor, they that’s a harder path with more ‘learning experiences’

There are many tasks that are hard to do at first.
Get over it.
You cannot be a perfectionist until you have already tasted success.

Even then it would be overrated because people are attracted by personality, often seen as minor imperfections.  It’s through your failures that you become the person capable of making profound decisions that brings great profits.

To remain a successful entrepreneur you need to continually educate yourself.
This means you will always be learning new things, taking action on new idea’s, and finding new ways to fail you never expected.

Just a few years ago even Donald Trump nearly went bankrupt!
He’s a brilliant businessman, so how did this happen?
Something changed that he didn’t expect.  It happens to the best, will happen to you (though maybe not in the same way),  and needs to be accepted and embraced.

If done without the paralyzing fear factor, your success will happen.
Fail fast, fail forward, and never stop taking the next step.

Hope this helps place you mind in the right place so when you start your new business you hit the Ground running!

Your willingness to overcome obstacles preventing non-actions of laziness,  procrastination, and the temptations of less meaningful immediate gratification will be the test of your persistence.  Your ability to persevere and circumvent self-doubt along with the several incarnations of fear, is a good measure of this.

Perseverance is the endurance that wins the battle.
As when running a marathon, persistence in action will also start providing it’s own motivation.  When you accomplish the smaller tasks of making it to the next check point, you will have more reason to continue to the end knowing you have made it that far already.

When strive to complete any meaningful goal, such as running a marathon, you motivation will come and go like spectators along the path.  Sometimes you can get encouragement from those around you and sometimes you are left to your own devices to make it through.  But it’s not your motivation that gets you to the finish line, that only got you to start the race.  It’s your persistence of action that carries you to the end.

But persistence is not stubbornness.  If you fall and break your leg, it would be silly to continue running to the end.  You do need to update and revise you goals as required.

When I younger I had a goal of making money with real estate and at the age of 22 bought my first house before I ever owned a car.  I just couldn’t understand the point of throwing away my money on rent.  Since then I have acquired additional properties and rented them out.  But that was some time ago and my interest in Real Estate is no longer an inspiration.  Sure, I still own the houses as they are a good investment that provide a small steady income, but I’ve become much more interested in providing assistance to help people help themselves. So I’ve all but abandoned previous goals in that field and the closest thing I do with houses now work with real estate agents to improve their business models and marketing efforts.

Years ago a friend of mine was on a road trip from Toronto Ontario to somewhere near Calgary Alberta, about a 20 hour straight drive.  Along the way they purchased a couple new tapes from a bulk bin to get them though the dead radio areas along the drive.   From this experience I had the following line of inspiration shared with me:

“To create, you must destroy”

You only have so much room in your life to make meaningful things happen.
If you encounter any sort of personal growth you will not be the same person you were last year, or last month even. To make room for your new aspirations, you have to learn how to abandon projects that only serve to slow down your progress.

This was particularly difficult for me.  I’ve always been an idea driven guy who has several projects on the go.  Adding to this, my mom is a pack rat, my Grandfather is pack rat, and I developed habits that caused my basement to be filled with 15 old printers I could re-purpose the internal motors and controls for, 12 microwaves because the power transformers inside them are expensive to buy but easy to find on the curve (that was for a home arc welder I never finished), and several other items.

The time came when I needed to make better progress. That progress didn’t happen until I threw away all the idea’s of projects I liked, but was never driven to complete.  This allowed me far better concentration to do things like write these articles for you with a much clearer head, and the time to do them effectively.

The value true of persistence is not found by clinging on to the past, but by maintaining a clear vision of your goals continually refining your path as you improve your ability to accomplish the values that drive you.

As you develop personally, your ability to clearly understand your mission will improve. This in turn allows for more effective actions to be pursued, forcing you to abandon ideas that you realize are not as well aligned as you first thought.

you spend for the process of making things happen — Being diligent.

Chores at home like making your meals, cleaning the dishes, then putting the dishes away is not hard work, but it’s the work required to get required goals accomplished.  You just have to do them over and over again each day as part of your personal healthy maintenance.  Other “home work” would be cleaning, laundry, staying organized, paying taxes and other bills, along with many other duties.  Then there are the several tasks you need to preform at work, with the children and spouse or lover. These tasks need to be preformed just sustain yourself.

You need to put in the time where it is needed. If you don’t make the time to ensure these tasks are done you can really make a mess of things – a messy house, a hungry stomach, troubled relationships, just to name a few. Larger examples would be the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage disaster that stared in the United States and spread across the world.   Big or small, it’s about putting in the time where it need to be put, doing the correct tasks that need to be done.
Not thinking about them, not hoping someone else will do them, or ignoring them hoping they will go away – that will almost always make it worse.

Sometimes you know what needs to be done, sometimes you don’t.  The first step will be to figure out what the first tasks are.  If you know, then do it. If you don’t, educate yourself to figure that out.  This may be as easy as making a phone call or searching for something on the web.  Sometimes you need to get a professional involved.  But not doing these tasks will certainly prevent the successful accomplishments you seek.

Sometimes little tasks that may not be difficult lingers around too long.

When I bought my first house there was a very tiny half-bath in the basement, with a rough-in for a shower.  I wanted a shower there and quickly realized the reason it was only a rough-in was because of a true lack of forethought with the original design — where the plumbing was there wasn’t enough space for even the smallest shower.  I knocked out a section of wall and re-framed it so there would be room.  Then it sat for 10 YEARS because I didn’t want to deal with it any more.  Every time I was downstairs I would be reminded about this shortcoming.  I figured the toilet and sink worked, and there was a shower upstairs, so did it really need to be done?  Well, it certainly looked worse then the (mostly) finished smaller bathroom that came with the house.

It wasn’t going to cost anything other then time to complete this project, all the tools and materials were purchased years ago …the can of rubber cement for the shower walls was so old it was very rusty on the outside.  Finally, it took all of 2 days to finish it.  The hardest part of getting it done was starting again.  After all, it’s not very difficult to measure, cut, and glue things – children do that in kindergarten for fun!
(As an aside, it was writing the article on hard work that finally motivated me to get this it done!)

Time is constant, but different  people will use their time with different effectiveness.  It’s amazing how many people will spend their money to buy a faster more effective computer (and all the time they worked to earn that money), but pay little attention to being personally more effective.

What slows people down the most is their ability to manage themselves. Fancy technology will only serve to mask bad habits of the ineffective.  Truly effective people can use old methods and still achieve their desired result, but the technology will serve to leverage their abilities to far surpass what they would otherwise accomplish..

This has been a long and difficult journey for me, and it’s still not finished (nor do I think it ever should be).   I’m really stubborn  – - just over 15 years ago I knew what my destination was but didn’t know how to get there.   I was surrounded by people who provided well intentioned advice but didn’t know my goals or aspirations.  Only I could truly know those.  It was through searching for the answers in several different places and then finally taking massive action to achieve them, that has allowed me to taste what my dreams are made of.
Part of why it took me so long to get here was because I would let too many defeats bring me down.  It was learning to accept these as “the learning curve”, and when I could finally embrace imperfection as the road to perfection, I gained the strength to push on through adversity.

You too will face challenges that test everything you are made of.  And it’s how you accept and conquer these challenges that will build your character to what you desire.

Time is invaluable because there is no way to purchase more. But by developing your personal industrious nature you will need less time to do the things that have to be done, allowing you more time for the things you want to get done.  Reversing this order will have backward results, and something will have to give.

Personal productivity can eliminate the time conflicts between work, family, friends, and fun — time you can spend time to deepen relationships, improve your health, or make additional contributions to society.

Planning and being focused on the big picture are the keys here.  Hard work and working smart and not the same thing, and both need to be managed well be to effective.  Though industry will provide the method to achieve your goals, you must first ensure that the steps you take are the correct ones.
When I doubt, ask.
When there is no one to ask, just do what you think is best an accept learning from mistakes.
Lack of action leads to lack of results.
Strong work ethics and determination to take action, over time, will always get strong results.