Do The Hard Thing

When was the last time you really wanted something? I mean wanted something so hard you couldn’t rest until you had it?

Aside from getting laid… my experience of most adults is they live on the surface of life in shallow conversations about nothing meaningful, living in repression… and never allowing themselves to REALLY want much of anything. Certainly not enough to go hard after it.

In Walden… Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats”.

Minks and muskrats are not very brave… And, Thoreau makes a good point when it comes to the ability of the average person to stand up for an idea, a want, or a set of principles they claim to believe in.

They are afraid to speak their minds for fear of offending the wrong person.

You’re a business owner who fears losing a customer, you’re an employee fears losing a job, you’re in a relationship and fear being ostracized… In this explosion of PC culture that has been reborn in American Colleges and Universities, I see repressed people doing their best to make their way in a world dying to be offended for even the smallest slight.

What do you do… how do you live out loud in a world with sensitive ears?

The short answer is: You Don’t. You sedate.

You busy yourself with nonsense, material things, and distractions like the latest trash TV show, or the Constantly Negative News channel that only echos back your existing beliefs with no allowance for reasoning or deeper thought around any given topic.

No wonder the US has the highest use of antidepressants in the world… People are living a lie. Living inauthentically. Living out of integrity with what they really want. And, they can’t figure out why their deepest desires will not be filled with another episode of Real Housewives or Game Of Thrones.

There is hope… though. What if you could erase the fears you’ve created as you’ve grown, and create strategic ways of dealing with problems that allowed you let off steam in a way that puts you back on track?

Think of your younger self… that kid you used to be?

What if you could get in touch with him or her… especially the way you were around Christmas and the holidays. Remember how hard you would want a certain toy?

I was a child of the 70’s and 80’s… and growing up each year at Christmas, all the department stores would mail catalogs out to every home they could knowing full well that this time of year money would be more apt to flow their way if they could plant seeds of desire going into the holiday season.

I vividly remember spending hours flipping pages in the Sears Wishbook… It was like Amazon, but in print. They had every toy and bike you could want. It was like holiday crack for 8 year olds.

My brother and I would pass it back and forth, and circle things we wanted, dog ear the pages, cut pictures out, and anything else we could do to make sure Mom and Dad knew which presents we really wanted. It was a big deal for us… This was the one time of the year where we could load up on stuff. We had to take advantage!

We absolutely bombarded our parents with “I want this, I want that”, we’d show them the photos, we’d tell them how cool each thing was… We were so filled with energy and desire around what we wanted that they didn’t stand a chance. They’d tell us no… My brother and I would complain and cry and get mad, then once we processed that… You guessed it, we just kept on hammering home how cool it would be to have that new GI Joe with swivel arm battle grip, and that new intellivision video game, and that new dyno GT bike.

We were relentless.

I'm back after a short hiatus... As I mentioned in a previous podcast, the Queen and I hit a target of acquiring a new home and a new cash flow rental property coming into this last quarter and honestly the workload getting moved and reset was more than we both expected.

Couple that with the fact that it took nearly two weeks just get internet access setup at the new pad, and another week or so to get my office setup, I missed about 4 weeks worth of episodes and now I'm in debt to myself and to you guys on this particular venture since my commitment was to have new content coming your way every Monday morning of each new week.

Without fail.

However, I did fail.

That is my honest assessment of myself during this time period.

Some will look at the situation... the move, the lack of internet, the lack of an office, and all the time that went into getting a useful space setup and say, "Well really, you can't count this as a fail because, hey just look at the circumstances... they were less than ideal."

And, of course, you're right. Circumstances were and largely still remain less than ideal. So does that let me off the hook? Does it give me a pass? Does it give me cause to break my commitment to myself and to you by your estimation of the facts?

Now, most of you, being nice people, will most likely say yes... Shit happens and you weren't able to get it done. No worries.

However, I would have to disagree and say emphatically, "NO!".

So, in looking at the situation why might you say "Yes" and I say "No"?

It comes down to how we each assess my performance. If you said yes, what you are really saying is that the story about why I didn't get the last 4 episodes completed is just as valuable as the result I claimed to want to create.

Yet, when I look at the story and the results I created by missing the last 4 weeks of episodes, I am valuing the results over the story about why it didn't get done.

Many people in our lives, relationships, businesses, and families have decided to believe if someone comes to us with a "really good reason" as to why they didn't get something done... That they've earned a pass. They should get credit or at least partial credit based on the quality of the story they can tell us about why they didn't perform.

They focus on the bullshit story about failure and tell you it's OK that you didn't perform, because hey, you had good reason.

Rather than looking at the results... which are black and white. When we start examining the thin grey line between and justifying failure we open ourselves up to an infinite number of ways to excuse our lack of achievement.

However, if we are truly masters of ourselves... The way we show up in the world can not be based solely on circumstance.

Will there be circumstances that impede you or cause you to miss deadlines or commitments?

Yes. Of course... That's just life.

However, It seems that the vast majority of people who live in the land of excuses seldom have a good reason as to why their particular circumstance prevented the outcome they had committed themselves to hitting.

So to be honest and forthright... I count myself among that group in this case. The reality is I have 3 or 4 cell phones. Two of which I use regularly for media and recording. So was it impossible for me to get the work done? Not really.

It was just really, really inconvenient.

I used inconvenience and worry over the tasks needing completion to take me off my game.

I chose to act like a child who refuses to go to bed without his "blanky"...

It's a way of demanding that everything line up perfectly or else... And if it doesn't I give myself a pass even though I had ...

In the last 2 episode of Do The Hard Thing, I talked about Money and then spoke about responsibility. And, today I am going to combine those two ideas into one method I’m using to generate cash flow from the the crypto currency market using several services.

I want to preface this by telling you up front that I am not a financial advisor nor am I recommending that you do this. I am simply sharing with you what I am personally doing and what my results are at this point. The Crypto currency marketplace is highly volatile and I fully expect 95% of the also ran crypto coins that keep popping up seemingly everyday to be gone in less than a few years.

I have lots of reasons to believe this to be the case, but in the interest of time I will simply give you the relevant information I can regarding the system I’m using so that you can investigate and do your own due diligence to decide if a crypto currency speculation is right for you.

Notice, I said speculation… not investment. There is a difference between those two ideas primarily around how you can exit the trade or receive funds from the trade.

Only you know your financial situation and this market is very risky… so I don’t recommend this strategy because the nature of most people in the modern world is to operate from “I’m not responsible”… for more on that, just listen to episode 11. However, you are responsible for all you do. And, if you invest in a highly volatile market and you lose your hat, shirt, and overcoat as my grandfather would say. It is entirely your fault. You chose into the game, you chose to be subject to the rules of the game.

OK, that said… hopefully, I have sufficiently repelled all the irresponsible, free shit mentality people who might be listening… I’m sure there is a Bernie Sanders podcast awaiting you out there on the interwebs. I wish you well, but this is not for you.

In today’s environment among a great many people I interact with on a cursory basis outside of my primary circle, there is a common thread woven through much of words I hear fall from their lips… And they boil down to one singular idea: I’m not responsible because…

I’m not responsible for being here on time because traffic was bad. It’s not my fault for missing my deadline because the guys in accounting didn’t get the reports to me in time. Don’t blame me for dinging your car, because you parked too close to the line… I’m not responsible because [insert your excuses or reasons here].

It can be maddening if you let it.

I have literally had people will look me straight in the face and tell me what they can do and when they can have it done, and then turn around and break their word without even so much as an acknowledgement or a commitment to regain any lost trust created in those moments.

I recently had a woman join my gym here in Phoenix, then later quit a few days from her renewal date. Cool. No problem… Yet she got upset when we charged her for the upcoming month. You see we don’t do contracts we simply ask for a 15 notice which is clearly notated on the documents she signed her name to… And, rather than openly discuss her issue with the charge, her first move was to dispute the charge with the credit card company and when that didn’t work, she decided to leave a 1 star review on our Google Reviews.

You see, according to her she shouldn’t be responsible for that last payment because her circumstances changed. And, because her circumstances changed, in her mind she was no longer on the hook for anything she agreed to.

Yet, I submit to you this, gentle listener… You are always responsible, because nobody gives a shit about your reasons for failure.

And, that is how it should be.

In the last episode, I spoke about things that do not always expand when you focus on them… And, today I want talk about the number one thing this applies to: Money!

I don’t care how long you focus on money or think about hundred dollar bills in your head, it will do you no good when it comes to getting more money. Money doesn’t give a shit about your metaphysical beliefs, your dream board, or the number of hours your work.

It doesn’t care about your needs or your wants. God isn’t going to give it to you, the universe isn’t going to magically increase the amount in your accounts… no my friends, money only comes to you for one reason and one reason only.

And, to understand that reason, you have to first understand what money is and what it isn’t.

So let’s unpack this and get to the sinewy meat of the matter.

Getting money is not magic or voodoo. Its a skill. Taxing people who know how to make money more, is like taking the mic away from your best singer in the choir and giving it to your second chair. It’s punishing someone for being successful in a given field. It’s childish and stupid. You are better off learning the skill than creating bad karma.

Remember anyone you harm in any way comes back to you. And if you believe we are all connected, then harming another is harming yourself.

I know you’ve heard this one before… “What you focus on expands.”

Every dream board wielding watcher of “The Secret” and reader of personal development literature has at some point been exposed to this concept.

And, there is truth here. Focused energy on just about any topic or thing you want to bring into being will assist you in doing just that… Yet, there is an over simplication here that has always bugged me. Largely, it comes down to the idea that simply setting your focus is enough. That you can put of picture of a new car on your mirror and in short order that new car will end up in your driveway… or that you can write your deepest desires on a sticky note that hangs on your rear view mirror and magically those desires will manifest by themselves.

Well, in short. That has not been my experience. I doubt it will be yours either. Especially when it comes to money… Stay tuned for more on that.

First, lets get to the bottom of this idea of simply focusing on things to manifest them and make them real inside your life. To do that, we need to look at your brain. That 3 pounds of grey matter about the size of 2 fists between your ears.

Turns out there is some science happening here that you may want to take notice of… On some level, you’ve probably been exposed to the fact that scientists have been doing their level best to identify and map the various parts of the brain for many years now in an effort to understand what part of the brain is responsible for various thought processes and activities.

And while there is still a long way to go, certain bits of the map have started to be reliably identified.

One such area, which sits at the base of the brain, has been identified and named the Reticular Activating System or RAS. It turns out that the RAS acts as a filter. We all are being constantly bombarded with information and stimuli all day everyday. And, we need a mechanism to let us know what is important and what is to be ignored.

When I was kid growing up, I was keen to notice how it seemed most of the adults around me never talked about anything meaningful. Especially in mixed company. The fact that the “grown ups who had everything figured out” were scared to be their authentic selves around anyone who may not appreciate their way of thinking was so thick in the air you could feel the tension.

I remember realizing this probably around age 10 or 12 or so… and, for me this was an earth shattering realization. Prior to that I had this idea in my head that the grown ups had it all figured out. Little did I know that they were just winging their way through life…

Looking back on that now with more thoughtful eyes, I can see how much each adult in my life was doing the best they could with the tools available to them.

That is true for all of us, of course. We do our best with what is presented to us… but at some point, that isn’t enough we have to move into new thought or we stagnate and get stuck in our lives.

Well, here we are in the first day of the 4th quarter of 2017. Many of you may not have thought about the significance of October 1st…

In fact, I bet you or someone you know is getting geared up for the 31st when all of North America celebrates Halloween as you listen to this podcast. Halloween spending this year will top 7BB dollars… And, here in the States, Americans will spend 350MM dollars on costumes for their pets alone!

So, while you may have seen turmoil on cable news, where the whole of the nation is scoured to find every negative aspect of life and present it to you in living color 24 hours a day… The reality is that Americans continue to enjoy one of the highest, if not the highest, standards of living in the world.

And, they will no doubt enjoy many a pumpkin spice latte whlie they parade their costumed pets around as Halloween draws closer.

Now, I love Halloween as much as the next guy. It was and is one of my favorite holidays throughout the year, yet today I want to stress one fact to you: October 1st is far more important than October 31st.

Why, you ask?

Well, simply because it is the first day of the last quarter of the year. Yep, only three more months before 2017 goes away forever, and 2018 arrives with a fresh batch of resolutions to break.

Only 3 more months to accomplish at the things you set out to accomplish at the beginning of the year.

Well, seemingly a firestorm of rhetoric and facebook vitriol was unleashed today, as NFL players took a knee for the National Anthem in response to Trump's remarks calling for owners to sack up and get rid of players who disrespect the symbol so many men gave their lives preserving.

In what basically amounted to a contest of "fuck yous", people both pro and con picked up their phones as they sat lazily enjoying their free time within the borders of the US to "virtue signal" and/or shout "patriotism!" between grabbing for that next chicken wing and trips to pisser to return that beer they rented to the sewage pipes from whence the filtered water it was made originally came.

As comments racked up, and no progress was made by either side... It was clear that the only winners in the exchange were the media who grasped at the opportunity to boost their ever sagging ratings by exacerbating the conflict.

While self proclaimed patriots vowed to never watch the NFL again... Those in support of the kneeling players began to chime in with their belief that the NFL wasn't going anywhere anytime soon and scoffed at the notion that some would keep themselves away from football on any level; completely ignoring and uncaring for the cries of those who frequent the game and patronize the stores that carry the overpriced NFL licensed product.

The die had been cast so to speak.

You were either a patriot who supported the troops who "gave us our freedom" or you were an unpatriotic spoiled athlete making more money per game than the average person will see in a lifetime.

And, who could forget this: no matter who you talked to, their side was 100% right and justified in their beliefs and actions.

But how can that be? You have 2 diametrically opposed sides who firmly believe they are correct in their stance.

Today’s podcast goes out to all the entrepreneurs… Everyone putting their skin in the game, cash on the line, and choosing into the game of business and development. Those who take extraordinary risks to bring ideas and services to life that few have the audacity to pursue. This one is for all of you who Bother With It.

Most of the time, when you begin something new, something different or out of the ordinary for yourself… you’ll face all kinds of questions and challenges.

And many people are shocked to learn that the most ardent challengers tend to be those who are closest in terms of relationship or friendship.