What Value are your Ears?

Your ears are a gateway through which you are given feedback about your world. You get feedback almost non-stop from a billion different sources every day.

But what I wanted to mention to you today is about the kind of sounds that you have control over.

So many of us human beings spend an incredibly huge amount of time in front of tv's or other media streaming devices. Are you consciously choosing what u are watching? Why are you letting some media corporation decide what is going to enter your ear gate? Don't you know how very valuable your ear gate is?

If you want to be mediocre, then just keep floating along with what everyone else is listening to and watching. You don't want to accomplish anything significant now do you?

But, hey.... maybe you do want to accomplish something fresh and new. Maybe you have a competitive spirit and you want to win. Nothing wrong with good competition. Without competition, most of us would lapse into the status quo.

Ok, so you decide you don't want to become an average Jane or Joe Blow.
Then, it's going to become significantly crucial for you to gather sources of motivation and knowledge specific to your goals to feed into your ear gate.

Yes, you can control what you listen to. Your car commute time or your train ride or your bus ride or  sauntering walks can become a hallowed hall of profound self led education.

What I am talking about is about TAKING CONTROL of what you are listening to throughout your day. I am talking about hunting down some "high octane" audio books to listen to through your day.

You  can download them to your smart phone or listen to them on an old fashioned CD player. I am talking about getting downright aggressive about finding good  powerful stuff that is geared towards your goals. Non-fiction audio books. Real paper books. Valuable media that is going to help you move forward intelligently towards your written and spoken goals. Some of it you may find for free online or at your local college or public library. Some of it, you may have to pay some good money for. But every single time I have spent good money on a high quality audio book or paper book, it has always MORE than paid me back with good advice and information.  High quality media is worth every single penny!

By the way....you are reading out your goals for this year aren't you? If you don't have a goal....you aren't likely to move toward anything of substance.

Successful people make a point out of seeking out high value resources with which to feed their decisions. Quality resources produce higher quality decisions.

Well, that's all for now. You are powerful. You are so intelligent. Stay focused on your goals and feed them with the right resources. It isn't really possible to turn your ears off....so you might as well take advantage of your own powerful ear gate and steer the good stuff toward it.....every day....all day....all year.

Peace out,
Carla






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Dear Mr. Napoleon Hill

Dear Mr. Napoleon Hill,

Hello Sir,

Yes, yes,, i do know that you are not in this earthly realm any longer. But I have learned about the power of gratitude and i thought it would be proper to write you a short note. Perhaps the angels can show you a copy of it?

Well, as I said, i need to keep this short. But  i wanted just to say thank you for sharing what you learned from the best of the best who were living in your lifetime. Thank you for patiently pondering their words and organizing that knowledge into books that we could consume. You took the time to write these ideas in  a style which is accessible even to those of us, and yes us women included, who
are not necessarily graduates with Master's degrees.

I know that your work is still being talked about and studied by thousands of motivational speakers and self help coaches around the globe. They are still inspired by your words and your work.

I wonder, dear Mr. Hill, while you were alive, if you ever had a vision of how many human lives you would impact with the simple  words your wrote? I dare say ....i don't think there are many truly successful billionaires alive today who have not read your words. Many of them have discussed your your concepts with their colleagues and their own children and grandchildren.

Your legendary book "Think and Grow Rich" is still being sent as a cherished gift to many human beings. So many parts of that book, still ring true in today's quickly changing economy. Cultural norms flex and change, but good solid ideas have staying power through multiple generations.

Well, that's all for now. Thank you from this chubby mom of four, who has conquered so many mountains.....while being inspired by your words.

Peace,
Carla.



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The Right Friends

I quote Warren Buffett when he says ""It's Enormously Important that you Have the Right Friends"....


Yes, I am middle aged now. One would think that by this age, i would have figured this whole thing out.....but alas I find myself frequently at the same crossroads.

What do you do when someone you have known for so many years turns out not to respect who you have chosen to be? You have to walk away....slowly. Somehow figure out how to back away slowly from that person, so that you can continue towards your goals. Because at the end of the day....my goals matter more to me and my family, than my friendship with that particular human being. It isn't that I am going to cut the friendship completely off, but that I will drastically reduce the amount of access this person has to my life.

We choose which friendships to feed and which ones to starve. The good ones you feed,....the bad friendships you starve by ignoring.. You try your best to do this the Canadian way....by not getting confrontational about the dying of the friendship. You just permit the friendship to slowly lose steam.

One would also think that it gets easier to let go of people as you get older....but it doesn't. I find that I love sticking to the same people, in  much the same way that I still pretty frequently choose the same brand of dishwashing liquid that i've used for decades. I am a creature of habit....and fiercely loyal.

But when you work this long and hard to gain the territory to actually begin to see some good fruit from the goal setting you've done over the past few years, you become more adamant than ever to protect that personal progress.

I won't allow anyone to undermine my speed and progress toward the fulfillment of any of my goals.

Goals are everything you think they can be. Life transforming, ...motivating, challenging, compelling, taunting, and the best ride i've been on ......ever.


Would you let go of a "problem friendship" to stay on track to accomplish your goals?

Do share.....
Peace out,
Carla.





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Sometimes the Opposite is True

Years ago, when I started blogging, i would visit the sites of other bloggers...with the colorful links and bling...and i would feel so underwhelmed by what I was doing with "only" the written word.
Yes, I know, I do use links, and ads and yes, I do use Youtube videos as well to add to the playful mix....but most of my posts are usually just full of the written word.

Then I stumbled upon the living legend,  Mr. Seth Godin. I felt so encouraged in my heart by what he was saying. He was on the side of those who simply try to be authentic. He loved the written word and took great efforts to form his words in ways that were precise and tasteful and artistic all at once.

Seth spoke about how you don't need to be writing to the whole world....and that in fact, all you really need to earn a decent income from your passion, is simply to acquire 1000 true fans. Those 1000 true fans would become your "tribe"....and that tribe would potentially empower you to quit your dead end day job and allow you to do full time what you have done thus far only as a side hustle.

So, I just want to say thanks to Seth Godin for showing me that just being myself was still a worthwhile endeavor....even if my blog was a "plain Jane" compared to so much glitz and glamour all around me. Seth encouraged me to just keep writing...The beauty of it all, is that it turns out that the search engines prefer my "original content" rather than all those links and ads that fill so many blogs.

The writing has continued.

Thanks Seth,

Carla.



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Time to Think? Heck ya....

If you don't have time to think.....what are you doing with your life?

I was listening again to James Allen's audio book "As a Man Thinketh" and I was so excited once again for those confirmations of what I have believed for years. I have blogged about this extensively as well. The point that Mr. Allen confirms again, is that it is so very very VERY                                     ( YES ALL CAPS!!!) important for human beings to have "thinking spaces".

What is a "thinking space" ? It is simply the space and time reserved on a regular basis solely for the purpose of "thinking time".

If we are not spending enough time to think....what are we doing? We are running around pell mell with our heads cut off like chickens after the chopping block. We are not living in any kind of sane or orderly fashion. When we refuse to spend time thinking we live more like animals than dignified humans.

I have only two minutes left to finish this post. But I want to encourage you today, to not only spend time today on eating and drinking and fixing your hair.....but to also spend just a few quiet moments alone in thought.
\
It is blessed.

Peace out,
Carla.



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Designed to Make You Not Think?

We are all familiar with the dazzling lights that Vegas style casinos use to intoxicate and mezmorize
gamblers..... so that they lose count of what money they have or what they have bet and just want to keep playing....no matter what the personal cost is for their 'play" time.


But I wanted to mention a quick idea today. What things distract you in your "normal life" that prevent you from learning anything valuable?  Are the books too expensive? Are the best books that suit your interest too hard to find? Are your roommates noisy and your cat chews on your library books and now you owe them 10$ in book damage fees? Are your eyes too tired from staring at computers at work all day to read  or listen to anything of substance after a long day at work?
Does your your "significant" other demand all the energy you have left once your workplace has taken it's daily cut?

But I want to ask you. Where are you headed? Are you letting life lead you? Or are you leading your own life with your own goals?

People who read, people who carefully choose books or audio books or seminars based upon their life goals are moving forward....on their own terms. It's called self-led learning. No need to let anything or anyone or any circumstance get in the way between you and your ability to move toward your goal.

Just a thought....

Peace out,
C.




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The Lips of the righteous Feed Many..

Such an elegant and inspiring verse from scriptures:

"The lips of the righteous feed many:".... Psalm 10:21a kjv


Do you have someone in your life that puts a fire in your soul? Someone who inspires you to
move toward your dreams and propels you forward at lightening speed towards the accomplishment of your goals? If  you do....you are a truly blessed human being.


Words are not just words.....whether they are typed or spoken. Words can build you or words can break you. Some beautiful person who chooses to build you up with his or her words is worth more than silver or gold.

Tis a short post today..... peace out.

Bullish on life,
Carla.






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Fame Does not Always Equal Great Wealth

I have noticed over the past year, with the rising fame of some "reality tv" folks, that even though many of these shows garner avid fans and followers and happily glean millions of views for the benefit of the networks that own the shows.....the stars who fuel the shows' success do not always earn very much for their fame.

If you are curious, do a few google searches of those who star in shows such as
"Life Below Zero"....you will be surprised by what you see.
The website may tout the $500,000 net worth of a star of this show, as if that is a large amount.
But that is a mere pittance compared the millions of dollars these shows earn from the hard work of these stars who expose their personal lives to the intrusion of cameras and camera crews for years.

I also think back to one of my wacky fave shows from several years ago, which was
TLC network's "Extreme Cheapskates". I recall one of the most compelling guest stars of that series, who was an American named Victoria Hunt. Her cheapskate antics garnered millions of views. However, I don't feel like she has been able to truly cash in from the fame of her popular episode which catapulted her to nationwide recognition. Perhaps she was uncomfortable with the attention?
But she sure was great with saving money. Perhaps she could have hired someone to help her more effectively monetize her new found fame.

Do you know of someone famous who wound up with less than a million in net worth? Did it surprise you, because you were a big fan and mistakenly thought that "star" was fabulously wealthy???

With the proliferation of the internet over the past decade, airing so many "home grown" net stars, there are untold millions of humans across the globe who have  millions of fans and viewers, but little cash to show for their hard work.

If you happen to get famous, be a smart cookie ....... hire a good agent, marketing manager, and at least sign a grrrrreat book deal ok???

In peaceful productivity,
Carla.



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Hill's Notion of Setting for Ideas

For those who have read, perhaps more than once, the legendary paperback
"Think and Grow Rich" by  Napoleon Hill, perhaps you recall him explaining the process of
"setting for ideas".

It is a profound respect for the process and value of simply being still, and solitary and thinking productively..

I have been enjoying my read of Edward O. Thorpe's book "A Man for All Markets"....which is available btw in both print and audio format.

One of Mr. Thorpe's remarkable discoveries when he began to conquer some gambling games successfully, was illustrated in this one statement of his:

"What intrigued me.....it was the possibility that merely by sitting in a room and thinking.....I could figure out how to win".    (found in Chapter 5: first page, of his book "A Man for All Markets".)

I want to ask you today. What incredible ideas could you create if you gave your mind the credit and space and time to work that it requires?

Perhaps you live and/or work in noisy places. Noise can clutter your thinking power, unless of  course it is predictable white noise which your mind may find comforting and conducive to concentration.

But if you find you are chronically distracted and unable to focus, you may need to carve out for yourself an authentic "thinking spot". It may be a picnic table isolated by the creek  or lakeside so that yu can look out on some moving water. Or perhaps you may find yourself able to think simply by downloading some white noise onto your smart phone so that you can listen to it, as you walk solemnly around the block.

Everyone is different. But we are all the same in that we are much more productive when we have access to the space and time and place that is conducive to thinking in solitude.


Be blessed, my smart friends and colleagues. You have unlimited potential.

Peace,
Carla





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On the Hunt to Audio-Ize

Over the years perhaps you have noticed that  I have a particular fondness for soaking in nonfiction books via audio recordings.

It has become a passion to hunt down the most cost effective format in which to locate an audio  version of my current book of obsession.

So today I went to go  see some computer nerds. I brought in my fave crisp new book,ready for them to magically transform into an audio format for me....only to be shocked by their retort. Perhaps the dude had just spent an all-nighter coding, because his reply was rather chalky.
He stated that it would cost  thousands of dollars for him to manually feed my book   into a scanner which would then be turned into a text file which would then be fed into a software that could transform text into a computerized voice file. He said the computerized voice would suck....why would anyone want to listen to that......and would most  likely contain errors from either the paper to text file conversion, or from the text to computerized voice conversion process.

He seemed  to be quite adamant that my request was not ideal....nor reasonable. What a waste of a treacherous drive up our slippery newly snow covered streets.

Sigh..... But alas,  i am not one to give up too easily! I considered briefly the idea of contacting our  local CNIB to see if perhaps they had more user friendly methods for their visually impaired clients when transforming some written works into audio formats.

Instead I called our local book  store. The clerk did a search for me, to see if there was any kind of audio version for sale globally for my current book obsession. Woot woot! They found one. And guess what .....it was very easy to purchase on my phone via Kobo.

I had thought that Kobo was only an e-reader type of gadget.....like an ipad  for e-books.

But lo and behold, because the clerk in the book store was willing to do a search that did not in any way benefit  her employer, I have been able to listen to my fave new nonfiction book on my phone.

Perhaps some day  computers will have advanced so far into artificial intelligence, that it will  be a simple and cost effective feat simply to convert a paperback or hardcover into a seamless audio book.....but for now at least I have another method with which to chow down on my next new must-hear non-fiction book.
Be courageous friends in your lifelong learning. It leads somewhere good.....and is worth the effort.

Peace,
Carla




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