Changing the Way You Think

Check out this article from CNN:

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/03/change-your-thinking-to-kick-that-cigarette-habit/

I'm not posting it specifically for smokers, but rather as just one example of how powerful changing the way you think can be.

As simple as it sounds, this single factor determines the extent of your success and happiness in life. Once you truly realize this and harness it's strength to your advantage, it will transform your life.

Bestselling books like "The Secret" (mediocre in my opinion - but that's not the point) talk about drawing things into your life merely by focusing your attention on them. Similarly, Napoleon Hill wrote "Think and Grow Rich" and in "The Strangest Secret" Earl Nightingale said "We become what we think about most".

Like it or not, this applies to EVERYTHING. The way you view yourself, your circumstances, and the world in general greatly influences your ability to excel, or lack thereof. As John Milton once said, "The mind can make a Heaven of Hell or a Hell of Heaven". Take your pick.

This axiom holds true even on a smaller level. For instance, if I'm in the gym and I get under 400 lbs for squats, if I tell tell myself it feels light it becomes light. If I convince myself it feels heavy, I will do poorly.

We all talk to ourselves. It's the CONTENT that differentiates the successful/happy from the unsuccessful/unhappy.

Become a MIND CONTROL NINJA and take over the world!!!!

Too funny not to re-post.

Saw this on CNN. LMAO!

What a Weekend!!!

Whew - I can almost sit back and relax for a minute now!

First - We FINALLY closed on my rehab on Friday late afternoon! NICE!!! It took longer than I had hoped due to a down-payment assistance program that held things up a bit, but fortunately it all worked out in the end. We did pretty good on the property and the buyer got a great house so everyone is happy. I'm not going to know what to do with all my time now so I guess I'll have to find another one!!! LOL

After closing was done (about 7:00pm!), I drove down to NC to judge my friend Kevin's NPC show called Victory in the Valley. It was in Hickory NC - pretty far out west. What a great show he and his partner Dar put on. It was truly first class all the way. In addition to a sick goodie bag and sweet t-shirt, all competitors got A CASE of the OhYeah shakes! You don't see that kind of athlete treatment ANYWHERE! In addition, what a pleasure it was to be at a show that ran smoothly and on time (You can't appreciate that one until you've been at shows that start an hour late and aren't done until 1AM. Not so fun). They're doing another show in October so you need to check it out.

After another 7 hrs on the road today, I'm back in MD ready to go to work tomorrow. :)

Distractions and Wasting Time

Most of us have extremely busy lives. Some of us have stressful jobs that require long hours, others have children, and most of us have interests and/or goals we are trying to pursue.

If you don't pay attention, it's very easy to get caught up in the 'daily life' of errands and other miscellaneous time drains that leave you wondering where your day went. It can be very frustrating to look back at what you've accomplished that day and realize that you haven't taken even a single step towards your predetermined goals and objectives for the day.

You need to keep your eye on the ball at all times, and frequently ask yourself the question "Is this action important in moving me towards achieving my goals?". If not, you need to re-prioritize your activities to get the most "bang for your buck".

For example, in real estate, I could update my Quickbooks files and visit discussion group sites OR I could make offers on properties. Which of those do you think would be most productive? Right - making offers, because no offers = no properties = no profits.

The same is true in the gym - you can do tricep kickbacks all day or you can do narrow grip bench press with some heavy slag iron. Which is more effective? You already know the answer.

Focus your efforts on those things that are most effective and remember that ACTIVITY does not equal PRODUCTIVITY.

Now stop wasting your time reading this blog and go out and do something! hahahahaha

Competency and Integrity

Is it just me or does it seem that 90% of the people we deal with in business (and life in general) are incompetent and/or lack integrity?

I know that sounds harsh, but I'm really wondering why people so often fall short on their commitments. I don't think it's that they CAN'T...I think it's they DON'T.

Now I'll admit I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, but I'm not talking about doing things perfectly. I'm talking about just doing what you're supposed to.

If you sign a contract.......follow through on the terms agreed upon.
If you say you're going to call someone by X date.....call them.
If you give someone your word......honor it.
If you make a promise.....keep it.

Sure things come up, but aside from unanticipated setbacks and challenges...is it really that difficult to be a person of integrity? To be a person that honors their word?

If you don't think you can do something (or just don't want to), then don't make the commitment! When you fail to meet your commitments, you get a bad reputation of being a slacker, unreliable, or flaky.

I think we can all be a little more conscious of how reliable we are as friends, co-workers, bosses, etc.

Plus....it feels nice to be able to rely on someone and to know others think they can rely on you!

How to Get Sponsored!

Rehab Completed & Have Contract!

Hi guys,

The rehab was finished a few weeks ago and we got a full price contract the 2nd day on the market. Actually we got 2 but we're moving forward with one of them. It's supposed to close at the end of the month so keep your fingers crossed for me!!!!

The profits from this deal are going to pay some debt, my Roth IRA, my daughter's Coverdell, and I'm putting aside some into savings. MAN it goes quick!!! I feel like a house junkie - I'm already jonesing for another!!! LOL.

Here are some pics. Check out the "before" pics from my Feb 2 post.

Phew it's been a while!

Hey guys I haven't posted much (ok..at all...lol) lately but things have been pretty crazy around here. I'm finishing up a 2-part class in bookkeeping, which is something I wanted to learn for my business. I'll probably out-source it in the future, but I just wanted to know what's going on first so I don't get scammed.

Next on the list - lifting is going great. I've been diligent with my training and my lifts are all increasing. I'm very happy. I still need to eat more, but what's new....grrrrrr.

Also, I recently received a few awards from Long & Foster in the Southern MD/PG county region:

Rookie of the Year by Settled Units - 2nd place
Top Rookie Lister of the Year - 1st place
Overall Rookie of the Year - 4th place

Pretty Cool. I didn't even know I got them until I checked my office mailbox (which I do about once a month...lol). I hope they didn't have a ceremony or anything...oops!

I have more exciting news coming so stay posted!

J

In Loving Memory

"We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever"

This is a quote from the Kennedy family referring to the passing of senator Edward M. Kennedy, but I'd like to dedicate it to my close friend Dante who lost his father this past week to cancer.

Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

READ THIS BOOK!!!!

Goals! by Brian Tracy.

I just finished it and I have to say it was outstanding. I read a lot of books and I think you'll really enjoy this one. The title doesn't do justice to how much the book covers.

I think he actually has the free e-book of it on his website (www.briantracy.com), but personally I always like a hard copy so I can mark it up with a highlighter and make notes, etc.

Shake & Bake!

Hey guys - we closed on another property yesterday - it was actually pretty painless (except for handing over that much money! LOL) & only took 10 minutes.

The rehab starts on Tues and I'm hoping we can cruise through this project in about 5-6 weeks. I'd REALLY like to have it on the market for at least a couple weeks before the Homebuyer credit expires Apr 30. It's gonna be really tight! The last house we did sold the first day so hopefully we can try and move this one quickly too.

I'm using a new contractor so hopefully there will be no surprises. I have a good feeling about him though and his references checked out so we'll see....

This one's only like a mile from my gym though so I can stop by all the time to check up.

I'll keep y'all posted!

Congratulations!

Here's a big Congratulations to Dr. Martin Skopp (my awesome chiro/ART/SASTM guy) who was recently featured in the prominent Washingtonian magazine for being one of the best sports chiropractors in the region!

What a great accomplishment!

I'm so lucky to have him helping me out - he's gotten me though several injuries and issues so that I can train 100%. Us old guys need all the help we can get! LOL

The Gift of Struggle

Check out this story:

One day a man saw a butterfly shuddering on the sidewalk, locked in a seemingly hopeless struggle to free itself from it's now useless cocoon.

Feeling pity, he took out his pocket knife, carefully cut away the cocoon and set the butterfly free. To his dismay, it lay on the sidewalk, convulsed weakly for awhile, then died.

A biologist later told the man "That was the worst thing you could have done! A butterfly needs that struggle to develop the muscles to fly. By robbing him of the struggle, you made him too weak to live."

------------------

The takeaway lesson here is that we can only truly excel after we have struggled through a challenge on our own. This is what Nietzsche was talking about when he said "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

This also means that allowing others to struggle (to some extent) is actually good for them. The irony is that if you solve all their problems they'll be weaker for it in the long run - you haven't helped them at all.

An interesting thing relating to this principle recently happened to me. My daughter had never been ice skating and we were passing by an ice rink on our way to a museum in DC. She wanted to try so Rae and I each took an arm and stood on each side of her. She did horribly - falling all over the place and legs flailing everywhere. Our astute observational skills (LOL) realized our assistance wasn't helping so we decided to let her skate on her own, with us just staying close by.

We were amazed, but she immediately did 1000x better. Turns out we were hurting her by helping too much! Of course this was probably due to us preventing her ability to use her arms for balance, but I thought it was a pretty cool example of how helping people too much is a negative thing.

Great Parable!

From John C. Maxwell's book Failing Forward (a phenomenal book BTW)

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: When the sun comes up you had better be running.

-----------------

Are you running? Walking? Or not moving at all?

Here we go again! :)

Hey guys - we have another rehab project! Got this one for $90k, it needs about $50k work (pretty much everything and finishing the basement), and the after-repaired value is somewhere around $210-215k.

The Mexican Fisherman

I read this story in Tim Ferris' book The 4-hour Workweek. It really struck a note with me and it makes painfully clear how some of us are on the wrong path.



A cruise boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his catch. “How long did it take you to get those?” he asked.

“Not so long,” said the Mexican.

“Then why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was quite enough to meet his needs and feed his family.

“So what do you do with the rest of your time?” asked the American.

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evening, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar and sing a few songs. I have a full life.”

The American interrupted. “I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.”

“And after that?” asked the Mexican.

“With the extra money the bigger boat will bring, you can buy a second boat and then a third boat, and then more until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants. Pretty soon you could open your own plant. You could leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York! From there you could direct your whole enterprise.”

“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.

“Twenty — perhaps twenty-five years,” replied the American.

“And after that?”

“Afterwards? Well, my friend,” laughed the American, “that’s when it gets really interesting. When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”

“Millions? Really? And after that?” said the Mexican.

“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a beautiful place near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take siestas with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.”

Passion and Success

I recently read this description of Passion:

"Look at any person who is a recognized leader in any field of endeavor and you will see passion. Passion makes things happen which would otherwise be considered impossible. Passion overcomes obstacles which long ago would have killed mere interest or resolve.

Those who are passionate about what they do have an advantage that is nearly impossible to overcome. In passion there is energy, creativity, resilience and persistence. Passion will get it done.

If there is something about which you are passionate, find it, understand it, and connect it with what you are doing. Put the power of passion behind the things you do. Live and act in harmony with a purpose that touches your soul. Go beyond being inspired. Go beyond being merely motivated. Get really passionate and fulfill your greatest possibilities and dreams."

This quotation is from Paul Esajian but I think is the culmination of several contributors. It really hit home for me when I sat back and realized that everything I've been good at, I was passionate about. Conversely, everything that I was poor or mediocre at, I didn't enjoy.

Makes sense, but it means that for any of us to be truly successful, we need to actually like what we do. Although it's a simple concept, how many of us are on that path? The bad news is I believe it's the minority of us. The good news is it's never to late to pursue your passions.

Start to ask yourself: What am I passionate about? How can I start to pursue those passions? What steps must be taken? What obstacles must I overcome? Etc., and you'll be on the right track.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great Holiday season and New Years. I got to spend Christmas with my family, which was great. I don't get to see them enough.

I'm so excited for 2010. I truly believe this will be a fantastic year. I have lots of goals and ambitions that I know I can achieve. I have a simple Excel spreadsheet that I use to list my goals by category - family, relationship, personal, business, financial, and health. If any of you want it, just email me (jasonwojo@gmail.com) and I'll send you the template. (As I'm sure you ALL know, it's IMPERATIVE to write out your goals!)

When I was making my list of goals, one was to update this blog more often. Then I thought about it, and the truth is, I really don't have something notable or interesting to say on a regular, predictable basis.

With that being true, I probably won't commit to writing every week, but rather when I have something to share I think you might enjoy or benefit from. This way I won't bore you or contribute to the "information overload" that we're all already subject to. I don't want this to turn into a "I just washed my hair and now I'm driving to the gym to do glutes wearing the latest UnderArmor spandex singlet" blog of useless garbage that seems to permeate the internet these days.

I hope you understand and agree!