Visualized.Feel.Abundance

Hey Folks,

Todays post is very interesting. It involves practical goal setting, application of plans/strategies and the mindset to be successful, all applied in a simple game. So sit back, relax and read on.

Yesterday was family day and our family dropped by one of our favorite weekend entertainment center, Downtown East. After a morning of fun and a sumptuous lunch of Sushi, we went to the arcade.

Here’s What Happened

At the arcade, we saw this contraption where you get to scoop some sweets to fill out a moving table. Then the sweets will get push off the moving table and fall into a collecting tray. Whatever in the tray is your prize. Piece of cake, right?

But would you pay a dollar to grab a couple of sweets you probably could have bought at a convenience stall for much less? Probably Not!

But from what I observed, that’s what most people do. Right there before my eyes. They pop a few coins (by the way, it was S$1 per game), scoop a few sweets, deposit them on the table and grab a few sweets and they stop.

Most of them stare at the Jackpot prize (The little stuff toy at the top of the machine) and wonder if anyone could get it!

We played this once, spent S$10 for a bag of sweets so I had some idea how it works. This time round, I set a goal. I wanted to get that Jackpot prize for my little girl. So this is how I plan it.

I started off with a goal to win the Jackpot prize.

To win the Jackpot prize, I need a plan to fill up the jackpot counter (Picture to the left) by hitting the checker (Bottom Picture, the little RED tab extending out from the table is the checker) with sweets.

I also plan to scoop the larger sweets, thinking that since they are big, they could probably move more sweets down the table. Now I have a goal and a plan, time to take some action.

I changed S$10 worth of coins which translated to 12 scoops of the sweets. Actually, I am not sure how many tries it would take to win the jackpot, so I test and measure.

First couple of tries was a mixed of success and disaster.

Disaster - Attempting to scoop a large amount of larger sweets, usually end up with an empty scoop. I realized that the scoop was a flexible plastic, it flexed and bend under load and bounces its load of sweet all over the place.

Success - Attempting to scoop just 2-3 packets of larger sweets went well and it dropped loads of sweets into the collecting tray. So now, I changed my tactics and aim for smaller load.

Be Focus

Remember that we mentioned that to win the Jackpot prize, you need to focus on hitting the checker and move the counter.

That was what we focused on all the way. It does not matter how many sweets was dropped, if it didn’t hit the checker, it didn’t count towards our goal.

I noticed that many players from the other stations focus on trying to drop the Maximum number of sweets. I am not sure if getting the most sweet was their aim or not but if their goal was the Jackpot, then their action and goal is not in alignment.

Never Give Up

After the initial 12 tries, we were closer to the Jackpot but not close enough. So do we give up or do we push on? Of course, we pushed on! Giving up is as good as wasting all the effort that you have put in so far, all the experience you gain also goes down the drain.

The time, effort and money I estimated at the beginning is just an approximation, now that I had a baseline, I could determine how much more effort the whole project would take. I estimated another S$10 would do it. So we pushed on, focus and just did it.

At the end, it took exactly 2 more try then I had expected but we did win the Jackpot prize. Check out the prize, blue doggy soft toy and the HUGE bag of sweets! And of course, a very happy little girl!

Inspirations

The most amazing thing wasn’t our winning the Jackpot. What was amazing was what happens because we won. Our little game attracted a crowd around us and the cheer went up after we hit the Jackpot. More amazingly, all the other stations were filled with players who is now inspired to be the next Jackpot winner!

Our energy built up while charging towards our goal was transfer to the audience around us and inspired them to take action. That was amazing and we are talking of a simple game here. Think of what you could inspire if you achieve that goal in your life or at work?

Here’s one last picture of Stella and yours truly. Enjoy your weekend.

Cheers,
James

Afterword: What I have just shown is some very basic stuffs used in goal setting and it can be applied to everyday task as simple as playing a game. If you want a system that can help you with goal setting, check out The Ladder Of Dreams on the left side bar.

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Focus On Market Research
Market Research is usually done at the beginning of a marketing life cycle where you decide which market or industry you would like your business to focus on. Or it could be done when you are identifying new products or sub-niches to add to your current niche or marketing segment.

Keyword researches, analysis of competitors, marketing plans and strategies to penetrate a market should be a focus here. But don’t dwell on it too long as opportunities come and goes. Once you have identified what you want, plan and execute it.

Focus On Site Design
Site Design is usually a focus before you launch a site/blog but it should not stop there. Continuous improvement is a necessity in fine tuning your site/blog to make it easy for readers to subscribe your RSS, comment on your articles and opt in to your mailing list.

A Good site design makes reading visiting your site/blog a pleasant experience where advertisements are merged seamlessly into or around your content and archived articles are easy to find. It will also encourage readers to help you drive your traffic by sharing your articles through Web 2.0 buttons/link and convert readers to clients.

Focus On Content Creation
Every person has a wealth of content to share. You may think that what you know has already been shared but I can promise you that your perspective has not been shared before. It’s yours and it’s unique and that’s what your readers want to know. When they like your style and perspective, that’s when you convert them from visitors to readers.

If you think you have no content to share, then surf the web and read up on contents! Once you find contents related to your niche, track back to that article and give your views on it. Never copy and paste, unless you get express permission to do so.

So who says you have no content? Your views and perspective are your unique content!

Focus On Tracking Results
In order to know if you have done something right and to allow you to focus on what brings you the best results, you will need to test and measure. In Online business terms, it means tracking your traffic source and sales conversion. If you know where you are getting results from, you can tune your marketing activities to drive maximum results with the least effort.

Tracking Results does not take a lot of time, just set things up at the beginning and monitor it once a day follow by an analysis of the results once a week. Fine tune or discard activities that bring little or no results, focus more time and effort on activities that gives the best result or add new activities and track the performance.

Focus On Driving Traffic
Driving Traffic must be the most talk about topic in any online business. Every single site/blog that talks about internet marketing, online business or making money online will have a whole section (if not all the content) on this topic alone. So what I’ll highlight here is this, Driving Traffic is just the beginning. You will also need to focus on the next 2 items below to make driving those traffic worth it’s while.

Focus On Traffic Retention
So you have a good niche, a fantastically designed site, added great content and drove a ton of traffic. What if you did not retain them? You start from ground zero again the next day. Kind of lame right? This is exactly the case where many sites/blogs have stagnant growth - traffic surge at the beginning and then levels off, never to grow again.

What’s lacking here is the lack of a Traffic Retention policy. Offering a weekly/monthly ezine, offering full feed RSS, hosting a forum for discussion, interacting with readers that comment are some strategies to retain your traffic. Focus on these and you will build up your traffic to new heights over time.

Focus On Selling
It does not matter if you are selling a product, service or information. It does not matter if you are canvassing for a cause or charity. It does not matter if you are promoting a way of life or belief. It is all marketing and the end result is that you need to sell something.

Selling a product, service, information requires the same process as selling an idea, belief or donation. And unless you learn how to sell effectively, one of your main objective of your site/blog will not be met. So the focus you need here is a call to action.

Focus On SEO
If you have configured a self hosted wordpress blog properly, you are pretty optimized for SEO already. What you need to focus on is to optimized your headlines and articles with keywords and key phrases to attract more organic traffics. If you are not on a self hosted wordpress, it’s time you think about it.

How To Focus
If you are now suffering from information over load or at a lost about what to focus on, you need some help. On the left side bar, there is a free tool known as The Ladder Of Dreams. It has been proven to help online entrepreneurs set a clear path to their goals and keep them tightly focused on the critical activities they need to take action upon to achieve success.

Go ahead and download it, it’s FREE.

Cheers
James

Disclaimer: This post is not intended to teach internet marketing or how do you carry out an online business. It does highlight the crucial areas that an online business should focus on and some activities which are commonly neglected by internet marketers and online entrepreneurs.

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Hey Folks,

It’s been slightly more then 2 months since I wrote my first post on the “9 Secret Steps To Life Transformation” series. It started with the simple vision that I wanted to pen down my success formula that I had put together through years of trial and error at my own cost. I wanted to share it with you and others like you who are interested to help yourself, which is probably why you are sitting here reading this blog.

I believed that abundance starts with giving and sharing. By sharing this gift, I believed that I will attract more into my life. More experience to gain, more positive people to meet, more things to learn and a more fulfilling life.

It is also my hope that my 9 steps has helped at least some of you in some ways. If it did, thank you. I thank you because, you made my sharing valuable and meaningful. If it had help no one or motivated none, it would have been futile. So, Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

If you have benefited from this series, I welcome you to leave a note or comment here. If you have any suggestion for me to improve, you may leave it here too

Before I sign off this post, here is a summary of all the post in the series for your easy reference:

Step 1 - Take Back Your Full Responsibility
Take Back Your Full Responsibility
Story 1 (Part 1)
Story 1 (Part 2)

Step 2 - Show Your Gratitude
Show Gratitude To What You Have
Karen’s Story On Gratitude
A Technique To Give Gratitude

Step 3 - Find Your Dreams
Find Your Dreams
The Ladder Of Dreams

Step 4 - Visualize Your Dreams
Visualize Your Dreams
8 Steps Visualization Technique

Step 5 - Feel Your Dreams
How To Keep Your Dreams Alive (Part 1)
How To Keep Your Dreams Alive (Part 2)
How To Keep Your Dreams Alive (Part 3)
How To Keep Your Dreams Alive (Part 4)

Step 6 - Take Action
The Unspoken Secret Of “The Secret” Movie
Take Action
Do You Procrastinate
Bury The Procrastination Monster

Step 7 - Feel The Abundance
Do You Have Limiting Beliefs
Knowledge Creates Abundance
Karen Lim’s Abundance At Work

Step 8 - Stay On Course
Stay On Course
Learning From Steve Jobs

Step 9 - Study Your Reflection
Study Your Reflections
Study A Successful Refection
How To Choose The Right Mentor

Love,
James

PS: I came across this site telling this touching story about making a difference and it describe how I feel when I know I had made a difference. Enjoy - http://www.makeadifferencemovie.com/  (We are not related to the site but I love the story)

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Hey Folks,

Welcome back! Today I will be sharing a speech given by Steve Jobs during the Commencement address at Stanford University in 2005. Click here for a transcript of the speech if you would rather read than watch.

Did you like it? I do and I learn 3 states of mindset that I have been using to counter the “noises” I mentioned in my last post. This is how I relate them:

The first story is about connecting the dots and I would like to bring your attention to this para:

“…you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them (the dots) looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road, will give you the confidence to follow your heart even if it leads you off the well worn path …”

Our journey in life is like playing the game “connecting the dot”. The difference between this and our childhood game is that there is no numbering of the dots! The dots are like you choices in life, which do you choose? When you lack the knowledge or skill to navigate the jumble of dots, which do you choose? I choose to do what Steve Jobs did in the beginning. I trust my feeling when I choose the next dot and I work towards acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary to make it happen. I trust that by doing all that I care to do, for what I want, that all the dots will be connected at the end.

In recent years, I developed the “Ladder of Dreams” which essentially “maps out the dots, looking backwards”. It puts the numbers back into the “connecting the dot” game. I have been using this technique with wonderful results and great success. If you have not read about it, you can do so here. Oh by the way, don’t throw Steve Jobs advice out of the window just yet. You still need to trust something to choose your “end dot” also know as “Your Dream” even if you choose to use the “Ladder of Dreams”.

I use this first mindset together with “Ladder of Dreams” to get rid of Road Blocks!

The second story is about love and loss and I would like to bring your attention to this para:

“Sometimes life gonna hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I am convince that the only thing that kept me going was that I love what I did … You’ve got to find what you love! That is as truth for work as it is for lovers. Your work is going to fill in a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do!”

It does not matter how well you plan your life and work your plan. It does not matter if you have the most positive mindset and attitude. It does not matter if you have not the slightest negative thought and you have always manifest and visualize only positive thing. Sometimes life will hit you in the head with a brick! Don’t Lose Faith!

Do not doubt if the Law of Attraction has malfunctioned. Do not doubt if you have somehow failed yourself. Do not doubt if someone is out to get you. Leave those aside, they ARE negative thoughts which will definitely attract negative events if they take hold. Instead view the event as natures way of shaping you up for bigger and better things in life. Pick yourself up and move forward.

I love the last part of this particular quote “And the only way to do great work is to love what you do!”. It matters that you love the things you do. It matters that you have passion in your belief. You love and passion will cushion any bricks flying your way and you will not give up without a fight! It does not matter if the negative thoughts comes as sudden as an avalanche or as consistent as a waterfall, you will be able to shrug it off like a prizefighter.

I use this second mindset to fight Negative Feedbacks!

The third story is about death and I would like to bring your attention to this para:

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today. And whenever the answer is been NO for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure. This things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly what is important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Like I say in my last post, I have a weakness for distractions and I am still fighting it today. There are simply too many fun and attractive things to do. I would be perfectly happy doing them if not for the fact that they not only don’t help me achieve my dreams in life but they delay my dream indefinitely.

There was once were I would succumb to distractions every day and delay working my dream. Thankfully, those days are much much lesser now and the single most powerful thought is being describe by Steve Jobs in the quote “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”. Ask yourself this question and answer it truthfully. Serious! You will be surprise to find yourself working your dream harder than you have ever been and working it on the longest stretch you could ever remember.

Nowadays, I hardly complete a game that I love or finish watching a TV serial. Sometimes I never even complete a movie! But I do finish my task I set out to do in order to move my goal forward. Even when I declare a day off, I still couldn’t keep myself from checking my progress on my goal.

I use this last mindset to dispel Distractions!

It’s a long post …. and I had originally intended for it to be a 3 part posting. It’s not everyday that I write a long post like this. But after re-writing it a couple of times, I decided to publish it in it’s entirety so that you can get the full picture of what I wanted to share with you.

Love,
James

PS: Do leave a comment if you like the post or think that it should be shorter. I love to hear your comments and sometimes when there is no comments. I thought I had gotten something wrong at my end. Ouch, negative thought!

PPS: I visited many blogs and I saw a lot of them saying “if you like us, you can help us by donating to support us“. Over here, we believed that if you like us, help us by getting a product here that can help you instead. Oh and do us a favor, clear your browser cache before you click on any product links.

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Hey Folks,

We are now at Step 8 of “9 Secret Steps To Life Transformation” and we will be talking about staying on course for your objective, your goals, your dreams or whatever you have set on your vision board.

In my experience, as well as probably everyone else I have talk to, setting a goal is easy. Setting a solid, achievable goal is not too difficult with the help of Ladder of Dreams. But following through till you achieve your goal is, to most people, a challenge.

Why? Well because there are always “noise” along the way and below are some of the most common noise:

1) Distractions - Such are common in our life. For me, distractions come in the form of a good movie, a solid addictive game, a good TV serial that I don’t want to miss, etc. You get the idea. Unless and until my dream is to win the World Cyber Game or to become an accomplished actor/director/script writer, these things I love to do will continue to be a distraction in my life. Although I do, do, do, love them

2) Road Blocks - Such are a result of our lack of skill or knowledge for the most part. 3 years ago, when I quit my job to embark on my journey towards financial freedom, I lacked many skills and knowledge necessary for a smooth transition between an employee and an entrepreneur and I encountered many such road blocks. As I attended more courses, joined more programs, learned from more mentors, my skill and knowledge gained exponentially and the road blocks were removed one by one.

3) Negative Feedbacks - These are unexpected events and setbacks that will slow you down to a standstill and sometimes even cause you to go into reverse gear. One type that I had to consistently deal with was discouragements from love ones, in particular, my parents. Don’t get me wrong, they are supportive in their own ways but they frown upon what I do for a living as they cannot understand what it is I am doing. To them, a professional job is the only “proper way” to earn a living.

Everyone will have to deal with their own unique “noise” in their path to achieve their dreams. The better you can deal with those “noise”, they better are your chances to achieve success.

I will be sharing with you a story about Steve Jobs in the next post. In that story, I found the mindset that I believe can help everyone better handle “noises” in their life. So till then, Stay tuned!

Love,
James

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