Chris Widener's Ezine
November 7, 2007
Issue 73

Welcome!

Life always presents us with interesting scenarios and through those often provides opportunities for thought and learning. For example, quite some time ago we had a new riding lawn mower delivered with a large attachment that hooks onto it and sucks the grass up and into a container. I think they called it a grass catcher...

Now, you have to know that I have, and I can't stress this enough: ABSOLUTELY NO MECHANICAL ABILITY WHATSOEVER!! So I did what any normal guy like me would do: I paid my son to put it together for me. He gets ten bucks, I get a grass catcher - we're both happy (on another note, I didn't pay my wife when she put together our barbeque grill - I'm hopeless, I know!).

So an hour later he comes into my office and announces that he's done. I promptly hand him ten bucks and he says, "I can't believe that I just got paid $10 for doing something I like to do." To which I said, "No, you got paid $10 for doing something I don't like to do."

Well, that got me to thinking about who gets paid what in our society. Think about it for a minute:

Doing things that others could do but don't want to do will get you paid very little. Things like garbage collection. That will get you $18-30,000 a year.

Doing things that others could do with a little effort and education but choose not to do will get you paid more. Things like tax preparation. That will get you $60-120,000 a year.

Doing things that others could do, but would require a lot of effort and education and so they choose not to do will get you paid quite a bit. Jobs like being an attorney or a doctor come to mind. That will get you $80-750,000 a year.

Doing things that others can't do but would like to do will get you paid a lot! Things like being able to dunk a basketball, hit a 95 mile an hour fastball over a fence or throw a football 60 yards to a man running a 4.2 forty come to mind. That will get you from $400,000 to $25 million a year.

Have you ever given thought to why you earn what you earn and how it is related to what others are able and/or willing to do? It is insightful because if you want to increase your revenue, you can just tweak what you provide to others based on what they are willing to pay for it.

Chew on that... I know I am.

P.S. Today's issue is going out to 95,885 subscribers. If you've gained value from what you read in my Ezine, then I would like to thank you in advance for forwarding this issue to friends, family and associates!

In This Issue.......

1. Charting Your Course to Success Article
2. Made for Success Quote and Commentary
3. The Last Word...
4. Special Chris Widener/YSS Sale - Only a Few Days Left!
5. More Information

1. Charting Your Course to Success Article

Ignite Your Life! by Chris Widener

Where have you come from this past year? What have you accomplished? Don't like the answers? Wish you had better ones, more fulfilling ones? You can - just one year from now!

You have within yourself the power to decide that when someone asks you just one year from now, "What did you accomplish in the last year?" you will respond, "Let me tell you - I was on fire!"

You aren't getting any younger, and neither am I. If nothing changes, next year you will be one year older and still stuck in the rut wondering when you will achieve your dreams. But you can change!

Here are some thoughts to apply so that you can take control of your world and ignite your life!

Decide what you want this year. What is it - exactly? You will never pursue it, nor get it, if you do not know what "it" is. Crystallize it in your mind. See it. Know it.

Put some sort of physical reminder where you will see it every day. Maybe you want to lose weight. Put a picture of someone who looks the way you want to, or perhaps a picture of yourself from when you weighed what you want to weigh again. This will keep it in your mind each and every day.

Increase your positive self-talk. Stop telling yourself negative things, and I include thoughts, not just verbal talk. Instead, start telling yourself positive things. "But Chris, those thoughts just run around in my head. I don't put them there!" Well, catch them. Take them captive and throw them out! When you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts, stop and ask yourself what the exact opposite would be. Then begin to think it. Let the positive thought expand and take over the terrain of your mind the same way the negative thought would have before you ran it out of town!

Act. Yes, act. I don't mean join a theater group. I mean, get some action going in your life. Want to get out of debt? Ask the boss for 5 hours of overtime a week. Over a year that would be 250 hours (I give you two weeks for vacation. Aren't I nice?). If you normally make $15 an hour, you will make $30 (or something like that - go with me here). $30 multiplied by 250 is $7500. Your action will move you toward your goal. Worrying about money won't. If you want to lose weight, go to the gym on a set schedule. Whatever you do - act! Just make the action something that will propel you toward your goal.

If you do the above - if you decide what you want, put a physical reminder of it where you will see it, increase your positive self-talk and take actions that will propel you toward your goals, you will ignite your life! And next year when someone asks how you have been your eyes will light up and you will boldly say, "Man, I have been on fire! Let me tell you all about it..."

Chris Widener

2. Made for Success Quote and Commentary

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." -- Yogi Berra

Chris' Commentary:
Decisions. Tough things aren't they? Many people end up not making decisions at all because of the fear that they will make a mistake. The fact is though, that even the bad decisions are rarely fatal. Most of the time they are simply short setbacks that, given the proper attitude, are actually learning experiences. A friend of mine who was the VP of Marketing for his company once made a business decision that was so bad it ended up later being listed in a book on the worst business decisions of all time (the funny part of the story is that his future son-in-law, having not actually read the book to realize his future father-in-law was in the book, gave it to my friend for Christmas one year - but I digress). What happened to my friend? Well, the countless other decisions he made over the years turned out to be pretty good, and now he is the President of that company, with well over 10 billion dollars a year in sales. The point? You have to make decisions. Some will be bad, most will be good, but you can't just sit and stare at the fork in the road!

Action Point: Got a decision you have been putting off? Make it today. If it is good, you will be glad you did. If it is bad, you will learn from it and have more time to correct it than if you put it off any longer.

3. The Last Word...

I recently saw a report on what people are afraid of in life. Obviously dying was near the top of the list. That is understandable. Truth be told, I'm not in a hurry to take that trip myself, but I know it is coming.

Want to know what I am even more afraid of then dying?

Here it is:

Not Really Living.

I am more afraid of not really living than I am of dying. So of course, knowing me that made me wonder why that is? And I think it's for a couple of reasons:

One, there is nothing you can do about the fact that you are going to die someday. It is something we all have to accept.

Two, there is something you can do about how you live.

Jim Rohn, one of my mentors, says that everyone has to experience pain: Either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The very last pain I want to experience in my life is the pain of regret. I don't want to get to the end of my life and say, "I wish I would have…"

No, I want to REALLY live. How do you do that? Here are a few thoughts on how to REALLY live:

1. Decide what you want to accomplish in life. Write down 100 things you want to do, places you want to visit, etc.

2. Get used to the idea of taking risks. Nobody really lives unless they take risks. Playing it safe will get you through life, but it won't let you really live.

3. Laugh. The people I know who are most successful in life are people who have a great sense of humor.

4. Do something crazy. Do something no one expects you to. Say something no one expects you to say. Leave people astonished sometimes.

5. Live with integrity. That will keep you from crashing and burning along the road. That's never fun.

6. Give more than you receive. Be a person that others see as a generous, "go-to" guy in time of need.

7. Take your vacation. Seems simple but too many people don't even take the vacation they have earned and deserve.

8. Dream BIG! Let others have the tiny dreams and limp through life. As the saying goes: Go BIG or go home!

C'mon my friends, lets you and I REALLY LIVE from here on out. Let's commit to making a big difference in the lives of those around us.

And in the end, even though you will have to check out eventually, you will look back on your life and say, "Boy, I really did this life right!"

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YSS does have limited quantities of many of these titles, once they are sold out they are gone (no back orders).

Make sure and order today while supplies last.

5. More Information

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