Knocking Down Your Mental Blocks
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue #2604
- WEALTHY: Are you setting yourself up for a nightmare tenant? (Julie Broad)
- HEALTHY: Staying fit while flying (Lori Allen)
- WISE: Scott Hamilton on attitude
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Time for a mental spring cleaning (Bob Cox)
- When a word has two forms, be sure to choose the right one (Don Hauptman)
- It’s Fun to Know… about luxury cave living
- Add “blackguard” to your vocabulary
== Highly Recommended ==
Are Recession-Proof Profits Really Possible?
While many are rightfully worried about what happens next with the economy, here at ETR we are very excited about the significant profit opportunities you can still take advantage of right now. May we share them with you?
This April, Early to Rise invites you to join us in sunny Orlando, Florida for a 3-day wealth-building summit we’ve named “Profits in Paradise.”
We intend to hand you everything you need to set up and reap the rewards of passive income streams. You will get some of the SAFEST and yet most PROFITABLE business-building, income-generating and entrepreneurial opportunities available today!
And this isn’t speculation or pie-in-the-sky theory, but proven methods that WORK.
Our select team of experts will show you detailed, step-by-step “how to” advice for quickly creating income streams that throw off cash even in these difficult times. You can consistently profit whether the markets are up or down. Isn’t it time you get your fair share of the profits that are still available today?
Join us and you can be on your way to shockingly high returns from a variety of passive income streams. Register today and you will lock in the lowest possible rate for early bird registration.
Rental Real Estate 101: How to Find the Best Tenant for Your Rental Property
By Julie Broad
Owning and managing rental properties can be very profitable. (From just two rental properties, my husband and I make $1,200/month in positive cash flow.) As a rental property owner, you may find yourself dealing one-on-one with tenants. Make sure you handle these encounters as business transactions, and don’t let your emotions – or your desire to fill a unit – prevent you from making sound business choices.
A few years ago, a prospective tenant explained her bad credit by telling us that she didn’t pay rent at her last apartment because of a rat infestation. We believed her story. We were short on cash and time, so we just took her money and let her move in with a roommate.
It wasn’t long before there was trouble. Around 2:00 a.m., the tenant threatened her roommate with a knife and he called the police. While the cops had her in holding, he moved out.
We were stuck with an unstable tenant with bad credit who decided she shouldn’t have to pay all of the rent because her roommate had left her in the lurch. It took us almost three months and nearly $5,000 in fees and lost rent to legally remove her from the premises. The most painful part was that the situation was totally preventable.
Now, we follow a strict process for finding and screening tenants:
1. Show the property in good condition. If it doesn’t show well with the existing tenants living in it, wait until they move out. Good tenants have choices, and if the property doesn’t look attractive, why would they want to rent it?
2. Price the unit slightly below the market rate. $20 per month below competing units will attract more applications.
3. Run each applicant’s credit report and call their previous landlord – the landlord before their current one. If they have caused problems, their current landlord could be anxious to get rid of them and may not be truthful.
4. Verify the applicant’s employment. We usually ask for a recent pay stub and call the company to verify that they hold the position they claim.
Taking these steps is common sense. But when you are a beginner and you don’t have much money (or you’re spending most of your money on renovations, like we were), dealing with a vacant unit and the prospect of missed rental income is terrifying. You may find yourself justifying bad decisions that you otherwise would never allow yourself to make.
[Ed. Note: Renting properties is a great way to make extra cash in any market. For more expert advice on making money with rental property, sign up for Julie Broad's free monthly newsletter. Get your free report for making money with real estate here.
Real estate is just one of many strategies you can use to reel in big profits - even in this economy. Learn how to get your hands on over $17.3 million in moneymaking ideas right here.]
“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”
Scott Hamilton
Knocking Down Your Mental Blocks
By Bob Cox
Why is it that some people succeed and others don’t? This is a conundrum that I puzzled over for years.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are multiple reasons – and one of the big ones is purely mental.
Ryan Crawford of Sunapee, New Hampshire wrote to me about this very problem:
“When you know what to do to achieve success, and you know it works, how do you make yourself do it? This is a problem most everyone has. All the business smarts in the world won’t do you one lick of good if psychology is standing in your way. How do you rid yourself of mental blocks?”
Good question. I’m sure that many ETR readers are struggling to find the answer.
So today, I’m going to give you some simple guidelines for clearing out the mental clutter that is blocking your success.
3 Simple Steps to Changing Your Attitude
Just as you “spring clean” your house, you can rid yourself of the negative thoughts and feelings that are holding you back and the people who are sabotaging your goals. Here’s what to do:
Step #1. Change the way you think.
Our thoughts govern our attitudes and, therefore, the actions we take. If you work on improving the quality of your thoughts you improve your ability to take action.
Shift from negative thoughts such as “I can’t reach my goal because it will take too long” to “My goal is taking longer than expected, so I need to adjust my schedule accordingly.”
Successful people guard against their own negative thoughts – as well as those of others. This brings us to…
Step #2. Limit your association with negative people.
Sadly, there are many people who choose to view the world in negative terms. They always see the glass as half empty. This doesn’t mean that they are bad people. But it does mean that if you are around them on a regular basis their sour outlook will begin to affect you.
You may not be able to let go of the negative people in your life completely (maybe they are friends, family, or co-workers), but you can limit the time you spend listening to their moans and groans.
Step #3. Let go of the past.
This is huge. And because it is difficult, it takes practice. And then more practice!
Whatever has gone wrong in the past… whoever slighted you… whatever didn’t work out quite the way you intended… let it go! Just let it go.
Banish it from your mind and focus on the here and now. Past failures, rejections, or injustices will hold you back if you keep dragging them forward. They will inhibit the productive thinking and feelings that are needed to establish effective solutions and results.
Cut those chains! Your future is built from today forward.
3 Exercises to Get Yourself Going
• Read something inspirational.
We are thrilled that you read Early to Rise. But what do you do with all that great information?
Embrace just one of the insights or strategies you find in any issue of ETR, and let that inspire you to take action. Michael Masterson has often referenced The Power of One – focusing on just one idea that you can put to work in your life immediately. Why? Because it works!
Here is something else that works…
• Visualization.
Here at Early to Rise, we are big on using the Power of Visualization to keep your motivation strong to accomplish your goals. It also works to remove the mental blocks that get in your way.
Tiger Woods visualizes each and every swing – in detail – before he drives, chips, or putts.
Say you are gearing up for your annual job review or interviewing for a promotion. Visualize exactly what you will wear. Visualize how confident and positive you will be. See yourself answering every question quickly and correctly. See the interviewer smiling and nodding at your answers. Now… go in the room and take your shot.
• Have an upbeat conversation.
This simple exercise is a favorite of mine.
Have an upbeat conversation with your spouse or significant other, a friend or a family member, a co-worker or your boss. Maybe you could reconnect with an old mentor. You could even take this opportunity to speak with someone new. Perhaps the new hire in your office or your new neighbor.
The only rule is that the conversation has to be positive. Put no limits on the topics… just limits on your attitude.
It All Begins With Choice
Toss out those blocks! Toss out the bad and let in the good.
Choose to take action on your thoughts to feel good about yourself, and see how natural it becomes to take action on making any goal a reality!
[Ed. Note: You can turn your dreams into reality just by implementing a few simple techniques. Success mentor Bob Cox has dozens of powerful strategies that can help you achieve new heights in your business and personal life. In fact, these very same techniques helped four "ordinary Joes" become BILLIONAIRES. Discover how to get Bob's proven advice right here.]
Billionaires Are NOT Born – They’re Made
You might be thinking, “It takes money to make money.”
And that the only way to become filthy rich is to be born into it.
But you’d be dead wrong.
Four men climbed their way up the billionaire ladder. One was a factory worker… another began as a file clerk… and two others toiled as a grocer and a shop assistant.
They never based making their fortune on “luck” or connections.
Nor did they have “daddy’s money” to bank roll them.
And yet, they all went from zeros to heroes.
Now, you can crack the very same “wealth code” that put them on the path to massive wealth.
Which Airlines Have the Healthiest Food?
By Lori Allen
An overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that if you want to eat healthy food on an airplane… bring your own. If you can’t do that, here are your healthiest options:
United – Rated the healthiest airline by DietDetective.com, United offers a good variety. The “Rightbite” or “Smartpack” snack boxes might be your best bet. Especially the Smartpack, which is full of all-natural or organic munchies with no trans-fats. Price: $6.
U.S. Airways – Avoid the carbohydrate-packed In-Flight Cafe Snack Box, with its sugar cookies and grape jelly. Go for something more substantial, like the turkey-ham on molasses bread. The mayo is on the side, and it comes with a cup of yogurt. Price: $7.
Midwest Airlines – Steer clear of the complimentary baked-on-board cookies, delicious but high in calories (240 calories for two). Choose the cranberry nut mix, which has just enough protein and fiber to keep you satisfied, or Newman’s Own organic dried fruit. Price: $4.
Delta – Formerly serving up some of the least healthy airline food, Delta seems to have turned over a new leaf. Now, on flights longer than about two and a half hours, you can select from healthier meal and snack options – e.g., yogurt with fresh fruit and granola for breakfast ($3) or hummus with veggies for lunch ($8).
JetBlue – Snacks are included in the ticket price on JetBlue, and you can ask for as many as you want… so the biggest health risk here is eating too many. Try to stick with one package of peanuts or animal crackers.
QUICK TIP: Ask your reservations agent about special meals. Vegetarian, kosher, and Muslim meals, for example, are often lower in fats and high in whole grains and beans. Continental and United also offer low-fat and low-calorie meals.
[Ed. Note: Stay up-to-date with the latest travel tools, tricks, and tips by signing up for The Right Way to Travel FREE e-letter, brought to you by the AWAI Travel Division. Sign up here.
Which airline, in your experience, has the best food? Let us know here.]
The Language Perfectionist: Words That Come in Two Flavors
By Don Hauptman
I read The New York Times regularly. Notwithstanding its reputation, this esteemed newspaper often proves to be a fertile source of misuses for this column. Within the space of a few days, for example, I found these two sentences in its pages:
• Photo caption: Jed Walentas, a real estate developer, says that an 18-story building would not be obtrusive, and that a smaller one is unfeasible.
• Headline: Town Mourns Typical Businessman Who Took Untypical Risks
The words unfeasible and untypical are not necessarily wrong, but they are nonstandard. The preferred forms are infeasible and atypical.
Garner’s Modern American Usage, one of my favorite authorities on matters linguistic, uses the term “needless variants” – “two or more forms of the same word without nuance or differentiation.”
The English language contains numerous word pairs with identical meanings but which differ in minor ways, as the examples above demonstrate. One form is usually regarded as standard, however, and that’s the one you should use.
Here are a few more words to use – and avoid:
• complacency, not complacence
• ironic, not ironical
• orient, not orientate
• preventive, not preventative
When in doubt as to which version of a word to use, consult a good dictionary or style guide.
[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book recently published by AWAI that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]
It’s Fun to Know: Luxury Cave Living
Twenty million people in northern China are full-time residents of caves. The Chinese first turned to this unconventional lifestyle because of poverty. But even now, as the region becomes more prosperous, many feel more comfortable living underground.
It turns out that cave dwelling ain’t all that bad. There is no mortgage to pay, for one. And since the caves, known as yaodong, tend to be passed down for generations, they’ve become customized with electricity, running water, and even cable TV. Also, the natural insulation keeps temperatures warm in winter and cool in summer.
(Source: McClatchy Newspapers)
== Highly Recommended ==
It’s Time for Revenge on Wall Street’s Low-Lives Who Robbed Us Blind!
There’s no shame in admitting you were conned by Wall Street – you and about 300 million of your fellow Americans! But now if you are rethinking your investments (and who isn’t)… there’s a better way. Come join us in a new society I’ve dubbed “The Liberty Street League”. It’s the “Off Wall Street” alternative for independent thinkers looking for respectable gains, even in these difficult times.
Word to the Wise: Blackguard
A “blackguard” (BLAG-urd) is a rude or unscrupulous person, a scoundrel. The word originally referred to the lowest servants of a nobleman’s household, jokingly called the “black guard.”
Example (as used by Saul David in Prince of Pleasure): “The years, as time went on, imparted to him that peculiar majesty that white-haired blackguards, successful (and unpunished) criminals, seem generally to possess.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009
Southwest, because the peanuts come at the right price…free, as is luggage checks, carry ons; and the airline fare is reasonable, imho.