A couple of days ago I uploaded a time-lapse video of me working on my front yard, doing some landscaping with my John Deere 2320 tractor.
I got a very positive response from people who really enjoyed the video, so today I decided to shoot another time-lapse of me working on the front yard.
Unfortunately my GoPro ran out of battery before I was done, but I did manage to capture most of it.
Check it out here:
As a coach / mentor, often times people seek out my help and mentoring when they are in a really bad place in their lives.
Often times they tell me about a whole list of things that have “gone bad” for them recently, and how their “bad luck” streak just keeps getting worse and worse.
When we get ourselves into a situation where things aren’t going well, and before we can get past the FIRST challenge that popped up another challenge pops up, it may start to feel like we’re on a downward spiral…
… and the reason it seems that way is because in those situations we ARE in a downward spiral!
Pretending like we are not, isn’t going to solve the challenge.
When people get into a downwards spiral, what I usually find is that they are focusing 95% of their attention on all the negative things going on in their lives, and refusing to see any benefits to their situations.
In essence, something happens which they choose (usually subconsciously) to see as “negative” and then they FOCUS on the negative aspects of the situation, feeling victimized, frustrated and angry.
Then, this anger and frustration turns into a state of “Argh! FINE! I’ll deal with this issue.” and they try to solve the challenge by taking “angry action”.
Of course, when taking action from a state of anger and frustration, usually those actions don’t yield a very good result, and do more harm than good!
This feeds the problem even more, and soon after that ANOTHER challenge pops up seemingly at the worst possible moment.
This of course leads to more anger and frustration, which leads to more “angry actions” , which leads to more challenges.
So what’s the solution?
The solution is very simple, yet difficult at the same time.
The only way to get out of a downward spiral like this, is to essentially PAUSE for a moment and to pull your awareness into the PRESENT moment and to look for the positive benefits of your current situation which counterbalance any negative aspects of the challenge.
It doesn’t have to be a huge thing either.
Got laid off or fired from a job? The positive side might be that you now have more free time to work on your business, or to go back to school, or to find a much better suited job for yourself.
Now, the difficult part is in being able to SEE the positive side in the present moment.
Meaning, if you lose a job I’m not saying that the positive side will be that maybe in the future you’re going to find a better job, but until that day comes you’re still in “Man, this sucks!” mode.
What I’m saying is that you have to find a way to see the positive side of the situation in the PRESENT moment, right now, regardless of what happens in the future.
A downward spiral is kind of like a small tornado that feeds off of your frustration and anger…
… and the only way to stop it is to stop feeding it energy by focusing your mind on creating another tornado going in the opposite direction.
Find SOMETHING to be positive about right now, and then amplify that a little bit more…
.. and then a little bit more…
… and then a little bit more…
The hard part is not allowing your mind to jump right back into the negative side which is what it’s going to want to do.
The truth is, is that we’re ALL always in a spiral, either going UP towards our dreams, or going DOWN towards anger, frustration and depression.
Which way you’re going is entirely up to you, especially during times when it doesn’t feel that way.
Are you looking for a way to make money blogging without feeling overwhelmed?
In today’s episode of “Driving With Paul” I discuss how to do just that.
Check out the episode right here:
If you’d like to join my Empower Network team, and get your personalized plan setup and executed, click here now.
Today I spent the day ripping out a giant tree root in my front yard.
It must have weighed at least 500 lbs – maybe more.
It my third day working on this project.
The other two days I spent digging a big trench around the root to get at the big roots an to cut them.
Here’s a picture of the tree stump before I ripped it out today.
…and here’s a picture of me standing by the root, taken from the other side, for scale…
What you see in these pictures was the starting point for me this morning.
It appears that with all that digging that was done around the root, it should just be easy to just push the root over right?
Not likely. 🙂
The roots on this tree were so deep and they intertwined themselves between a whole bunch of rock and very heavy and sticky clay soil.
My John Deer tractor couldn’t even budge this thing a millimeter when I started.
In fact, about 5 hours in to the “mission”, I had dug out an even deeper trench around the root and used a chainsaw and a reciprocating saw to cut out some of the more larger roots and the stump STILL wouldn’t even budge when I tried pulling it with a heavy chain attached to my tractor.
Not even a wiggle.
Nothing.
Solid just like it was before I started digging on Thursday!
A part of me really wanted to just give up, and call in a professional with a bigger tractor or heavier equipment to just do it for me.
However, that would have meant that I had let the stump beat me.
And I didn’t want that to happen.
See, as an entrepreneur, one of the most important skills you can develop is mental toughness.
The ability to face unfavorable situations and circumstances and to keep going even when it seems like NOTHING you’re doing is working.
It sure felt that way today when I went to pull that log out with my tractor and even after all that digging for HOURS, it wouldn’t even move a millimeter.
I was exhausted.
I wanted to give up.
But I didn’t.
I took a short break, got something to drink and then went back out there to finish the job.
About 6-7 hours into the digging and cutting of the roots around the stump, I finally saw the stump wiggle a tiny little bit when I pulled it with the tractor.
Once I saw that, I knew I has this sucker beat.
I did manage to move it over a few feet, ripping out any roots that were holding it to the ground, but then I learned the battle was just beginning.
Just because I got the stump to move didn’t mean I had it out the hole!
It took everything my John Deere had to flip the root over on it’s side, exposing the underbelly.
The underbelly of the root was FULL of rocks, roots, and CLAY.
Ever try to lift anything made out of clay? It’s HEAVY!
Now imagine a tree root made up of nothing but rocks and clay – LOL.
Let’s just say it was heavy.
When I tried leaning up against the root and pushing it with everything I had, it didn’t even budge a little. 🙂
What I had to do then was to flip the root on it’s side, then move the tractor to the other wide of the hole and fill the hole with some dirt, then flip the root back over on top of that dirt – essentially raising it a few feet.
Then I had to flip it again the other way, and now fill the other side of the hole.
That’s what I kept doing. Re-positioning the tractor to opposite sides and flipping the root back and forth, and filling the hole with more and more dirt each time.
Then I FINALLY had the root OUT of the hole at ground level.
Then it was just a matter of cutting the stump flush with the root since I didn’t need to use it for flipping leverage anymore, and getting it dragged to the other side of my property.
All in all, it took me over 9 hours to get this done and by the time I was done I was exhausted but feeling very accomplished.
I worked on this all by myself, with just my tractor, my chainsaw, my reciprocating saw, some shovels, a super heavy duty chain and my MIND to help me.
Once in a while I like doing stuff like this to help me build my mental toughness as an entrepreneur.
Since I mostly make my money with businesses that are Internet based, I don’t have to do any “manual labor” to make my income like some people do.
Sometimes I forget just how fortunate I am to be able to make money from home running Internet businesses and taking on a challenge like this tree stump helps me to stay grateful for how awesome my “job” really is.
I have a lot of respect for people who have to work manual labor jobs every day, but I definitely don’t envy them.
Especially people who have had to work hard labor all of their lives and are now in their later years and their bodies just can’t do it anymore, but they’re forced to in order to pay the bills.
It’s people like that who I think would most benefit from building a business income online to augment and eventually replace their hard labor jobs.
What have you done lately to challenge your mental toughness?
Have you been shying away from a challenge?
If you’re an entrepreneur, you may want to consider taking on a challenge outside of your comfort zone.
It may just be the thing that helps you to develop the mental toughness needed to take your business to the next level.
It doesn’t have to be ripping out tree stumps.
It can be anything that challenges you.
One thing I can definitely say after working on that tree stump for 9 hours today is that I’m so glad that I get to make money from home as a blogger. 🙂
P.s. If you work a manual labor job, and you’d like to one day be free of it, I highly recommend joining me in Empower Network so that one day you don’t have to work so hard anymore!
When I was still a teenager in high-school, my older brother got a weight-lifting bench, a barbell and some dumbbells for working out at home.
And so began my journey of trying to build muscle at home, on my own.
Over the next 25 years I read all kinds of books on working out and tried all kind of programs, plans, systems, exercise videos etc.
I had some success with some of these programs, but nothing that produced any lasting results.
When I got a bit older I met some people who were getting great results by working out with personal trainers.
To me though, it didn’t make sense as to why someone would hire a personal trainer.
I thought that working out seemed like a simple enough thing, and I didn’t understand why someone would need to pay someone to help them with it.
Of course this probably comes from my European upbringing where we are taught to mostly try to do everything yourself, instead of paying a professional to help you with it – LOL.
Sometimes this can be a handy thing, but a lot of times having this “oh I can just do it myself” attitude can hold you back in a big way – especially as an entrepreneur.
Often times you can produce MUCH better results in life and as an entrepreneur by getting professional coaching and mentoring from someone who knows more than you and who has real-life experience that you can learn from.
I’ve learned this lesson so many times in so many ways, and again I just learned this lesson recently when I *FINALLY* decided to try working out with a personal trainer, instead of trying to do it on my own.
I’ve only done 6 workout sessions as put together by my personal trainer, but already I see how incredibly more effective they are than anything else I have tried to do on my own in the past.
If I’m feeling this way about my results after just 6 sessions, I can’t even imagine how awesome it will be when I’ve been working with my trainers for a year!
Why didn’t I start this sooner!?!!
Building a blog is very similar to this.
Back in 2007, after struggling to get any traction with my blog for over a year, I finally stopped trying to figure everything out on my own and I hired a personal blogging coach.
Back then there was a mentoring program that was available which cost $15,000 and I was paired up with a 1-on-1 coach who helped me to get my blog up and running, and producing results, and helped me to eliminate any mental and energetic blocks that were previously holding me back.
Within weeks of starting to work with my coach, I had gotten more clarity on the direction I wanted to take my Blog and online business than in the previous year and a half.
Within a few months I had a Blog that was starting to grow, starting to attract an active audience, and starting to generate an income ever month.
I had friends and met a bunch of people online who were also starting to Blog, and most of them thought I was crazy to spend $15,000 on a personal blogging coach back then.
But you know what? My blog continued to grow, and to produce results for me, while theirs didn’t.
Eventually all of those other people’s motivation to Blog fizzled out as they didn’t produce the same results I was producing, and so they gave up and their Blogs are now part of the Blog graveyard of lost dreams.
For me, it’s been over 9 years now since I started Blogging and I’m still here continuing to blog and absolutely loving this journey.
I’m so glad I made that decision to hire a personal blogging coach when I did.
I recommend that you consider doing the same.
Blogging on your own, without a personal blogging coach is very similar to trying to work out on your own at home.
Yes you can go to the store and buy a set of dumbbells, or some exercise machine on TV, or pick-up some book at the book store which shows you 200 different strength training exercises you can do, but are you actually going to do it?
Chances are, probably not.
And even if you do end up doing it, are you going to do it with proper form? Probably not.
Are you going to achieve the best results with the effort you put in? Probably not.
It takes extreme discipline to be able to work out at home with just a few pieces of exercise equipment if you’re not working out with a personal trainer or coach.
In most cases, most people don’t have nearly enough exercise equipment at home to do an effective workout, but even if they do, it often just sits there collecting dust.
Heck, I had a TRX Suspension trainer for like 2 years and all it did was just collect dust until my personal trainer showed me how to use it effectively a few weeks ago! 🙂
To get in the best shape of your life, it’s not just about buying some book and reading it, or about buying some piece of exercise equipment which you’re probably not going to use.
You need to have the right combination of equipment to help you strengthen each area of your body, and you need proper instruction on how to use that equipment, coupled with a proper plan and guidance / coaching on how to stick with your plan!
I see Blogging the same way.
You need to have the right combination of tools to help you build a professional blog, and the right training on how to become an effective blogger, coupled with a proper plan and guidance / coaching on how to stick with that plan!
This is why I’m such a fan of Empower Network.
Empower Network provides you with the right combination of tools you’ll need to build a successful blog, and the right training as well.
Then, by joining my team in Empower Network, you can also get the guidance and coaching you’ll need to put together a proper Blogging strategy and to stick with that strategy as well.
Having a personal blogging coach can also help you to save a LOT of time, and wasted energy, by revealing to you all the pitfalls and mistakes that virtually all new bloggers make in their first few years of blogging.
By avoiding these mistakes and pitfalls you’ll start to produce results with your blog a LOT faster than if you tried to figure it out on your own.
For a limited time, I am offering personal blog coaching and mentoring to anyone who joins my Empower Network team.
You will not have to pay $15,000 for the coaching like I did back in 2008.
In fact, you won’t have to pay anywhere near that.
I’m offering my personal blog coaching and mentoring to a very limited group of people who join my Empower Network team at no extra charge.
I’m most likely going to be limiting this to just 10-12 people, and as of the writing of this post I have 5 slots already filled.
The slots are offered on a first come, first serve basis so I highly recommend that you get started by clicking here.
If there are slots still available, you will see a link right here -> Click Here to Get Started
If you don’t see a link above, this means all the slots have now been filled.
