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Greetings!
I have to be honest with you, I have struggled with this month's newsletter - more so than any other in the past. This newsletter is intended to provide you with business solutions and / or personal solutions that will greatly impact your business. And as much as I didn't want to discuss next month's election in a business newsletter, I felt obligated. The difficult question I've faced was how to do so, without disenfranchising you in the process. Don't worry, I'm not going to discuss the candidates, their positions, or even what party they belong to. You can get plenty of that from just about every other form of media out there. But . . . I am going to talk about Choice and the power you wield everyday by choosing the life you want and by choosing the world you want to live in. So, no matter who you are going to vote for on November 4th, please take a couple minutes out of your busy day to learn about the power of CHOICE and how that can affect your life, your business, and the world you live in. JJ Reich CEO, Impossible Futures There are two primary choices in life;
to accept conditions as they exist,
or accept the responsibility for changing them.
Denis Waitley |
Video Clip of the Month
Finish Strong
This month's video is from SimpleTruths.com. In this short video, you will revel in the triumphs of a variety of individuals who all shared a common value - they choose to overcome their obstacle and ultimately Finish Strong. Click here to watch the video. Enjoy it and feel free to share it with your entire support team.
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Taking Charge of your LIFE!
by JJ Reich
"We have chosen the life we have.
The sooner we realize and accept that fact,
the sooner we can begin to alter our current reality
to create the world we want."
 I have told many of my clients and perspective clients these words, and I can't tell you how many have responded with, "But JJ, I didn't choose to be in the situation I'm in right now. Do you think I'm nuts? I would never have chosen any of this." And honestly, they are right! So how can they be right at the same time the quote is right? Simply - every thing we do, every day, is by choice. We wake up in the morning in time to get to work. Or we choose not to. We pay our bills. Or we choose not to. We decide to eat dessert at Dairy Queen. Or we skip dessert. All of these things are "our" choices. And quite honestly, most of us are pretty good at accepting responsibility for our actions. We can see that we choose them and we are usually very good at accepting the immediate consequences on our life - getting reprimanded for being late, getting calls from creditors or having to loosen our belt from a full belly. But we struggle in seeing how our choices - simple every day decisions (or indecisions), we made years ago, have created the world we live in today. We fail to see that every thing we have done in
the past has lead us to this point in our lives, even though we may
not have specifically chosen this exact situation. I've heard people say (and often thought it myself) that bad things have happened to them and that is why they are in their current situation - not because of the choices they made. It was all completely out of their control. If that's the case, then I guess you might as well give up, and just let life continue to happen. Because if you can't accept responsibility for getting where you are, then there really is very little hope of accepting you have the power to change your current condition. So how do we change our current reality to begin to create the world we want. Believe it or not, it's simple - make sure every decision you make, every day, is made with your long term goal or vision in mind. Easy for me to say, right? Not so easy to actually make happen in the real world. The reasons it isn't that easy are three fold: - First, we don't even know what we want long term - so we simply let life happen as it might - but get frustrated when it doesn't turn out the way we thought it might. - Second, most of us are easily distract by short term wants and needs to really stay focused on anything long term - we are an ADD culture. - Third, we fail to recognize cause and effect relationships that are separated by space and time. We can't see which of our current decisions are moving us towards our goals and which ones are keeping us on the same old path. To read the rest of the article and learn how to overcome these two difficulties, click here.  |
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Tip of the Month
Starting Simple!
To grasp the power of your choice - and recognizing that you do have the power to make things happen the way you want them to, start by convincing yourself that you actually can make a difference in your life and that your life isn't just a series of accidental errors. Pick one of the following three goals (or make one of your own) and think about this goal every day, every time you make a choice in your life (whether it seems to have relevance or not. The three choices are:
- Lose 5 (or 10 if you are really bold) pounds within one month.
- Read at least one book (fiction or non-fiction) in the month of November.
- Save $100 (more than you are already saving) and put it into a brand new savings account by November 30th, 2008 (yes, you can do this in spite of the current market, no matter what your current financial situation is).
How do you do this? Just think about the goal every time you have a choice in your life - and do your best to pick a choice that will get you closer to your goal - even if it is not the easy choice.
When you wake up in the morning, think about this goal, and think about how everything you are choosing to do is contributing to you reaching the goal.
For example, what time you get up each morning is the first decision you make everyday, and what you "choose" will have an impact on whether you reach the goal you choose.
- You can get up early enough to take a quick walk before your spouse ad kids get up in the morning. Or you can do the same thing you've done every other morning.
- You can get up early enough to read a couple of pages in your brand new book, before the sun even gets up and the phone starts ringing. Or you can do the same thing you do every morning.
- You can get up early enough to make yourself a cup of coffee, instead of stopping at Starbucks on the way to work.
Each day, every day, all day long, make sure that you have your ONE goal in mind when you decide to act. And I think you might surprise yourself, how much power you actually have over your life - how you aren't a victim of circumstance, no matter what the circumstance is.
I think you will learn that you can take charge and make your life what you have always wanted it to be.
If you would be interested in having an accountability partner for one month, to help you reach this goal, feel free to contact me at 888-439-6843, ext 101 or coach.jj@impossiblefutures.com and I will be your personal accountability partner for one month for FREE, just to show you the power you have over your life.
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Freedom -
The Power of Choice
by JJ Reich
On
November 4th, we, as Americans, will cast a vote for President of the
United States and many other elected offices as well. And if you are
like most Americans, you will walk out of the voting booth, thankful
that the day is finally here - because it means the end of all the negative ads. And you are thinking to yourself, with any luck, all the signs, cluttering up the scenery, (regardless of who wins) will all come down.
In truth, we are told that it is our
one vote that we have to choose the world we want to live in. Or is it?
Now before you get all excited thinking that I'm here to promote the concept of "vote early, vote twice" - forget it, that isn't my point. You do only get one vote for President (and one for each of the other local items on the ballot), but to tell you the truth,
that is just a political vote. Your voice is SO much louder than that.
What if I told you that in reality, every day you cast hundreds of votes for the world you want to live in.
Some
of the votes you cast daily come in the form of the money you spend - what you spend
it on, where you spend it, and why you spend it. You see, every dollar you spend is a vote for the world you want to live in.
For example, if you choose to shop at Walmart, then you are voting for big
corporations, against unions, and against small retail shops. If you
buy an Ford, GM, or Chrysler SUV that gets 15mpg, then you are choosing
to support "Big Oil" and unions and against the environment. If you invest your 401k in a mutual
fund, in hopes of making money, then you are voting for capitalism, a
free-market system, and quite honestly, in big business. And whether
you like it or not, you want the best fund manager in the world running
your mutual fund - regardless of how big his bonus is - so long as you
see superb growth.
Wow, be careful what you vote for, you might just get it all.
And still, even more so than through your dollars, you votes cast everyday are done so by the ACTIONS that
you take every time you do (or don't) stand up for what you believe
in. Yes, those votes count to, although most of us forget
that.
You see, whether it is helping an old lady cross the street,
flipping off a driver that just cut you off driving down the road,
volunteering at a soup kitchen, or making sure your kids say "please"
and "thank you" when offered a piece of candy, you are voting and impacting the world you live in.
And let's not forget YOUR VOICE.
That's right, you have an opportunity to cast a vote for the world you
live in every day, simply by speaking out and letting your opinions be
heard with your voice. Whether it be through the spoken or written
word, you always have a chance to speak your mind - to let your opinion
be known - to whomever you wish to speak it. And in today's global, highly connected world, you would be surprised how far your voice carries.
You might be surprised how powerful your voice is if you stop and think about it.
So, before you start thinking that you are just one person - how important could all of these "alternative" votes be - in today's world? Why bother being concerned with how you spend your money, what actions you take, and what you speak for or against? Before you start thinking that you can't make a difference - that you are just one person.
Trust me - YOUR VOICE has incredible power. And don't forget it!
Because, if no ONE person cares, then 300 million people don't care. And we end up with a whole lot more of the same. But if each of us just stands for what we believe in, it will make a difference. It always has - because it is what our nation was founded on.
A little story to close this. Almost three years ago, I had people laughing at me for
buying a Honda Civic Hybrid - telling me, that the impact I will have
on the environment or our dependence on foreign oil is negligible
compared to the cost of the upgrade. And to be completely honest, they
were absolutely right. In fact, even Consumer Reports stated that it was NOT cost effective to
buy a Hybrid, you just couldn't recoup the sunk money. But I didn't buy it just to save money at the pump - I
bought it because I recognized that I had an opportunity to vote for
the world I wanted live in and for the world I wanted my kids to grow up in. I didn't just buy it for today, but I bought it for the impact the purchase would have on tomorrow's world. Now, I doubt that one my car has changed the industry, or changed the environment, but I do know that I have made a difference. That I, as one person, have gotten the US, 1 / 300,000,000 closer to reducing our demand on foreign oil. I was willing to pay a bit more then, so that the world can be a better place in the future.
Now, I just have to use my other votes to convince the rest of the country or at least the part of the country that can hear my voice.
And guess what, I just did - because you read this article.
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