Makin’ a list…checkin’ it TWICE!

Scott and I have created/started a handful of different businesses over the past 5 years. We have decided that there are a number of crucial lessons that we have learned through each of these business ventures that we NEVER want to forget, so we’ve made a checklist. We will keep this close and always make sure to reference it with any ideas that we may have.

Business Mentality Checklist
Before we move forward…
1. Are we thinking logically, rather than emotionally?

2. Does this idea fall in line with what we are passionate about?

3. Does this idea fit into our long-term goals?

4. Does this idea/goal make sense logically?

5. Does this idea/goal make sense spiritually? (meaning that is doesn’t interfere with our spiritual beliefs and morals)

6. Will this idea/goal be a blessing for our family?

7. Does this idea provide value and quality of life for others?

8. Are we acknowledging our strengths and weaknesses?

9. If considering having any partners, do their strengths cover our weaknesses?

After we’ve decided to move forward…
10. Are we taking advice from people who are successful in the field?

11. Are we taking the time to cast accurate predictions? (financial growth, etc.)

12. Are we becoming an expert in our field?

13. Are we doing the work that will make the money? (not shuffling papers, because we’re scared of the “hard work”!)

14. Are we growing within our current means?

15. Are we “running faster than we have strength”?

16. Do we believe that we will be successful?

Always blows my mind!

“Most people think that making decisions is hard, especially financial decisions, so they end up burying their heads in the sand, hoping someone else will make their decisions for them. The thing to realize is that by not making decisions, we are really making decisions anyway. We are really deciding that we will continue to do what we have done up until now.”

-Clayton J. Moore

It’s amazing to me that we were inspired to write the post for today about “leaping”, before I saw this. I hadn’t read this email I received yesterday until just a few minutes ago! Further confirmation that we are doing what is right! Love it!

-Camber

The REAL reason why Will Smith is so successful!

I wanted to repost this video since it’s been a while and we have so many new readers. This is the video that I referenced in the last post. It’s amazing for Scott and me to study and understand the mindset of men and women as successful as Will Smith! I know you’ll enjoy this!

What are you waiting for?

Scott and I are reading the book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It’s a great story, with wonderful lessons within. If you remember, it’s the book that Will Smith refers to in the video that we posted of him last month. If you haven’t seen it, or would like to see it again, I’ll repost it again, because it’s so great! As I was listening to Scott read, a line jumped out at me, and I thought I needed to share it.

“There is only one way to learn,” the alchemist answered. “It’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey…”
We will be posting the rest of this week about some of those lessons we have “learned” along the way, and they weren’t learned from anything less than digging in, putting our necks out there, and JUMPING! A number of times over the past few years there have been lessons learned; most through trial and error honestly. We didn’t learn what NOT to do by reading books, but by experience.

Are you waiting for someone to tell you what to do before you… DO? Don’t wait. You’ll never take that first step. If you have something that you’ve been wanting to do, find someone who has been successful in that area, and learn and take advice from them. Even once that is done though, you still have to leap. It can be scary, but honestly the more you do it, the easier it gets, and the higher your odds of success are. We’ve decided to make a checklist for ourselves with all of the lessons that we have learned, easy or hard, over the last number of years. We will share that list with you this week. We know there will be some beneficial things in it for all of you.

-Camber

Daily posting

Never before this moment have I thought so much about a current goal. Every morning when I wake up I am online looking at blog page views and Facebook fans. I am definitely happy with our decision to make our goal public and share our journey with everyone. I know that our success will be in part attributed to how much we keep this goal in our mind.

The other week Camber wrote this post outlining what she had done mentally that helped her bring our family one of the greatest blessings of our life. In her post, she discusses how she memorized and repeated to herself daily five things that she wanted in our life. In a way that is what we are doing every day with this goal. Every time we see it, talk about or read about it, we are thinking about our goal. I truly believe that the more we have our goal on our mind, the more we will notice opportunities shape themselves in our lives that will bring us closer to where we want to be. I have not ever been this mentally aware of a goal. I am very excited for what the future will bring.

-Scott

2 Month Update

Just over 2 months ago, we set our goal of reaching millionaire status within a 22 month time frame. Over the last 2 months we have shared our thoughts and feelings with you regarding many subjects. Our purpose for doing this has been to document where we are mentally as we take the initial steps toward our goal. As we progress from this point forward we will attempt to journal more of a day to day progress report regarding events that are occurring during our journey. We will continue to offer our thoughts on specific subjects as they occur in our life, but we will focus more on the transformation that is going to take place in the near future.
Sometime in the next few days we will also be posting a list of other short term goals that we have a desire to accomplish over the next 20 months. Our reason for doing this is twofold; one, we would like to establish a routine of accomplishing all of our goals so that our millionaire goal becomes a natural habit engrained in our subconscious minds, and two, we would like to keep our audience excited and entertained. We want to have fresh and exciting accomplishments to post that will keep you motivated in reaching your own goals, and excited to continue following us. The more goals you see us reach, the more drive you will have to reach your own.
We are very grateful for all of your support, and we urge you to continue commenting on our posts and giving us feedback. We have some very exciting things happening here and we will continue to share them with you. Good luck in your own personal journey; we wish you the absolute best.

-Scott

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone! We decided to go out of town this weekend with our family, so we probably wont post again until Sunday. I hope that your Thanksgiving holiday went well. I know that ours did. Enjoy your time off and we’ll catch back up soon. Have a great weekend and remember to be thankful.

-Scott and Camber

Who holds your best interest?

All through our lives we encounter people who want to influence our decisions one way or another. It is our job to determine if their influence is for our benefit or for theirs. I remember a time about ten years ago when I thought that my parent’s only agenda was to ruin my life, and my friends wanted what was best for me. I think that we have all been there before. It was not until just a few years ago that I discovered that I had things backwards. It was my friends who had the negative agenda. My parents just wanted to make sure that I was making decisions that would give me the best opportunity for success.

While I did not understand this very well in my teenage youth, I do have a fair comprehension of this principle as a young adult. I have friends, mentors and coaches now, who truly do have my best interest in mind (in most cases we BOTH benefit from the relationship), and I ignore the people who attempt to use me to accomplish their own personal agenda. The question is how do we determine who has our best interest, and who does not? Which people want to build us up for our own benefit and not tear us down for theirs? In high school it is easy to see what the teenage boy with raging hormones wants with a young girl, or what the kids who smoke are going to ask you to do if you hang out with them. It is not however, always as blatantly obvious with adults. People are more subtle with their intentions. So ask yourself these questions:

-Is this a person of integrity, honesty, punctuality, etc? This might be a difficult thing to determine in an initial encounter, but professionalism speaks volumes for people that I want to associate with.

-Does this person exude success? There are some people who radiate success in their personal lives and in their business lives. You know who they are; it seems like “everything they touch turns to gold”. These people generally have a good knowledge of how to accomplish goals.

-Is this a glass half empty or glass half full type of a person? I don’t like being around pessimists all of the time. I know that there can be strength in seeing the other side of things, but you will not get anywhere if all of your associates are negative about your goals.

-What is this person like in their personal life? Do they have a good family? What do they do in their free time? Generally if a person is not very reputable in there personal life, they will not be a good influence in their professional life.

-Does this person have experience in the field that I am interested in? This is the primary question that I ask myself when taking business advice from anyone. It may seem a little arrogant, but if you don’t have experience in the field I’m interested in, I’m probably not going to take your advice.

These are four questions that I ask when I meet a person, and I always assume that they will ask these questions of me. Most of these questions I use in a business context, but they will work well in a personal context as well. The most important thing to understand of a person is their general outlook on life. I have said it before in my other posts, the type of people that you surround yourself with in the present are those who you become in the future.

-Scott

Og Mandino

“Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward with the life that God intended for you.”

-Og Mandino

Thanksgiving

With this being the Monday before Thanksgiving, is seems only fitting to spend some time talking about gratitude. We are part of an organization created by one of our mentors. At one time there were a few ladies discussing their Thanksgiving traditions, and I was very inspired by them so I want to pass them along to you.

As I was growing up, like many of you I’m sure, we would go around the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day and each say one thing that we were grateful for. It’s pretty easy to show gratitude for things that have already happened or are currently happening right? The insight given between some of the gals who are part of this organization was to give thanks for specific things that were to come, rather than things that have already happened. “But how can I be grateful for something that hasn’t happened yet? What if it doesn’t even happen?” That’s probably what you are saying, right? It’s called FAITH.

When Scott and I were really struggling financially this past June, we changed the way that we prayed. Rather than praying FOR things TO happen…we started expressing gratitude for the blessings we were receiving and for the changes that were occurring in our life. We prayed with gratitude that we were blessed to be able to take care of our financial promises. All that I can tell you is that as soon as we made the change from ASKING for things to expressing gratitude for things…that at that time hadn’t shown up yet, changes began to occur.

I share this with you so that you can choose to try this instead this year. I’ll give you an example of what I will say Thursday.

-I am grateful for the opportunities, business and personal, that will be ours in 2010.
-I am grateful for the amazing lessons that we are blessed to learn and grow from in 2010.
-I am grateful for a healthy and vibrant body in 2010
-I am grateful for the health of my family and the desire we have to fill our bodies with healthy foods in 2010.
-I am grateful for the leaps of progress 2010 will bring us financially.
-I am grateful for an amazing life and the desires that I have to focus on all of my blessings.

Try it this year. It’s actually a little bit challenging, even for me, because it forces you to think ahead. Most of us are just along for the ride. We let life define us. Why can’t WE define us…and let life follow suit? I choose the latter! I hope that your Thanksgiving this week is full of wonderful times shared with dear family and friends, and especially that it’s full of gratitude and ABUNDANCE!

-Camber