What’s REALLY important?

December 14, 2009 | 10 Comments

Seems like such as easy question to answer. The average, normal person would quickly say “my kids,” or “my family” or “being healthy” and so on. I bet those answers are about what you came up with when you first read the question too.

It’s just that I’m not buying those answers. I’m not calling anyone a liar who recites those quick and easy answers, it’s just that I don’t buy that’s what is really important to most people. Why would I say that? Because their isn’t too much proof to suggest those answers are the truth.

One of my basic philosophies is that your time, your energy and your money go to what is important to you. So if kids and family and being healthy was as important as most people say, it would follow that is where people would focus their time, energy and money. Follow? Well, it isn’t happening. Look around and you’ll see that people are clearly not putting their actions into the important things in life. People are putting their time, energy and money into lots of things but more often than not, it’s the temporary, the mundane, and the instantly gratifying. The ridiculous occupies people’s time, saps their energy and seduces the money from their fingers. And the media helps with that fascination. But I don’t blame the media because they only give us what we beg to see. It’s not their fault they are capitalizing on our preoccupation with the stupid; it’s our own. Watching stupid stuff on television is voluntary participation. No one forces you to sit there and see who the newest stupid celebrity is and what he/she is doing. You choose to do that. People choose to participate in things of no importance and neglect what is really important. I dealt in great detail about this problem in my book, The Idiot Factor: The Ten Ways We Sabotage Our Life, Money and Business (formerly titled People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It.)

Are there exceptions? Of course there are so don’t get all fired up and write me a bunch of comments about how wrong I am and how my premise doesn’t apply to you. Fine. You may be the exception. Read this and be satisfied with how none of this applies to you and find some satisfaction in pointing the finger of blame at everyone else.

“I get it, Larry. So what is important?”

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Posted by Larry Winget | Filed Under Money & Personal Dev 

How do you eat an elephant?

April 15, 2009 | 14 Comments

One bite at a time! Old joke. Sage advice. And it applies to what most people are going through right now in terms of their lives, their health, their relationships and their money.

People are looking for miracles of a large scale to fix their problems. That simply isn’t how it works. There are no quick fixes – no miracles – no overnight successes – no silver bullets.

When you suddenly look in the mirror and see a big fat person looking back at you – it should hit you that you didn’t get fat overnight. But seeing yourself like that can create a sense of urgency in you that demands action. At that point, you want the old you back as quickly as you can find them so you start on a program to get back to the old self you used to be. Sadly, many people go to drastic measures and expect all the fat to drop off immediately. So they indulge in ridiculous diets that put their health at risk or have liposuction or gastric bypass surgery. Any sane person realizes that long-term weight loss doesn’t work that way. That is why most of those approaches don’t yield long term change. You didn’t gain the weight overnight and you aren’t going to lose it all overnight. It is going to take time. Planning. There will be ups and downs. There will be setbacks. You will be disappointed and disillusioned. You will want to give up. But you know if you just keep your head down and stay focused, eventually the weight will come off.

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Posted by Larry Winget | Filed Under Money & Personal Dev 

Get Negative To Get Ahead

April 10, 2009 | 25 Comments

Get Negative to Get Ahead

You read it right: get negative! I am so tired of listening to the motivational idiots and the self-help bozos and all of metaphysical new-agers talk about the power of a positive attitude that I could puke! Just put on those rose-colored glasses, dust off the smiley-face button, plaster that big fake smile on your face and get after it and you will be happy, healthy and successful. Really? How’s that worked for you so far?

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve!” Thank you Napoleon Hill. What if the mind can’t conceive anything and you believe you are an idiot? What are you going to achieve then?

I saw so many people on facebook right after January 1, talking about their resolutions and saying, “If I can believe it, I can achieve it!” Which is another favorite line of the positively handicapped and in my opinion, the positively disillusioned!

Here is the way to make real positive change in your life: GET NEGATIVE! Yep, get negative. Take a realistic look at your life. Slip off the rose-colored glasses and instead use a magnifying glass. Look closely at your results. Recognize and own up to the fact that it was your actions that produced those results. If your results are bad, then your actions were bad. If your results really sucked, then the actions that created those results really sucked. At that point, get negative. Go through every stupid thing you have done. Identify each stupid thought, every stupid action, and feel horrible about every asinine result. Cry about it – tie some emotion to your stupidity! Get so negative about how stupid you have been that you make yourself sick!

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Posted by Larry Winget | Filed Under Money & Personal Dev