Indulgence.

As per my last post, you probably came to the conclusion that I was having a bad day. If that was your hypothesis give yourself a round of a applause, because you are absolutely correct.

I think that entry serves a good purpose, and let me tell you why. First off, it shows that I am trying. If I was never mad, upset, or frustrated, I would not have the urge to change. If I was always content and thought "that's just the way it is!" I would never become successful. It proves to me that I am fighting for this and I want it now! This is the inner drive I was talking about, coming out in full force. I know it will be a long journey, and I should become upset with myself if I slack off or don't live up to my full potential. So, don't worry if you ever get mad at yourself. It is good sometimes! But don't become the person who gets angry at himself, others, or his situation and does nothing to change it. Understand why you are feeling that way. It is probably because you want something to change. Find out what it is, and work at changing it, instead of waiting for it to go away itself. If you lose, and are not upset, you do not want to win.

Next, it shows that I am real; I am having struggles. I've said it many times before, I'm a broke kid! I'm not some rich guy in a suit screaming, "You can do it!" (Please note I am not saying rich guys in suits can't teach you anything, because I have learned much from them and you should listen to what they say!) I am just a normal everyday person who wants to excell in life. If I document my journey and prove it's possible, there is absolutely no reason why anyone else can not do it.

Also, I heard a very good quote a few times which I will try to remember, "Nothing that is easy to get, is worth getting." Now the quote may be off a bit, but the meaning is the same. I remember when I was a young child trying to beat a video game on Nintendo, and I kept saying to my mom, "Why do they make it so hard?! I just want to beat it! It's impossible!" Now my mom could have said anything, or just laughed at the ignorance of her 5 year old child. Instead, she said, "But if it was easy then you wouldn't feel as good when you beat it!" And guess what, when I finally beat the game, she was right!

It's the same with anything. Think really hard for a moment. Think of a time in your life that you accomplished something. Think of that feeling; the feeling of winning. Everyone has won at something in their life, so don't say you have never won anything. It may be harder to picture for some than others, but just try. It can be something as silly as an airplane flying contest where your paper airplane flew 15 feet farther than anyone else's, or the first time you tied your shoe without mom or dad. Sports will probably play a big picture in a lot of people's past visions, and I find sports to be very inspirational and amazing - but I was never good at them! Don't get the definition of winning mistaken with the context of this experiment. 1st place is defined as "winning" an event, but you need not come in first to win. Think of something where you beat the odds, where you gave it your all and came out smiling. Maybe it was something that wasn't on a scale of placements (like 1st, 2nd, 3rd.) Think of the time you helped out your grandmother, the child you gave assitance to when his bike tire popped. Anything that gave you the satisfaction of knowing you did something right. It's that feeling that I desire. Not because I want to think "I am a good person" and become addicted to thinking I am great. I believe a good person knows that he or she is doing good things, but does not see them as great. They simpley do not have the time to reflect on how much they changed the world because they continue to change the world. That is ideal. If life was easy (and we all know it isn't), it wouldn't be worth living.

Now the title of this post is "Indulgence" so I should probably talk about what I am indulging myself into, right? Well, so far so good in the 20 minute per day rule. Actually, I am killing it. Since my angry post on May 31 I have read for a total of 145 minutess, which is 65 minutes over my quota! I am not saying this will be sustainable, but I am becoming excited to read! Even now, writing this entry I kepe thinking about being able to read. I want to keep learning more and more, but I becamse so excited that I just had to write!

Right now I am focusing on a few different kind of books. Personal Development, Investing, and General Success. I want to talk about each of them and why I feel they are the best topics for me to be reading right now:

When it comes to being successful, as per my last post, it is defined on the persons perception. So, it would only make sense to develop into the best Carl Carlson that I can be! If I were to have won the lotto or something of that sort a couple years ago, who knows what I would have done. I was not prepared to have that kind of money, so I probably would not have had a very good experience. I believe this is why many lotto winners and jackpot hitters often talk about how they sometimes wish they never won a lot of money, because it created so many problems in their life. I was not mature enough to handle such amount of money. Sure, there may be people who are and people who have; but I surely wasn't. But back on topic, I want to learn how to become a better person, to deal with people, to gain confience, to highten my attitude, treat others with respect, and how to think big! This is a very large part to becoming successful. I don't want to become one of those rich arrogant people that created a bad stereotype for business owners, and I won't. Actually, every successful person I have ever met to date is very generous and helpful; which is also a common trait amoung people with success. And if that is the one trait that is shared between them, I think I would be a good idea to learn it!

Investing is just something I am beginning to learn, and become very excited about. If you look back a few entries at my list, you will see Investing and the Stock Market at 4 and 5 (even though this was just a brainstormed list and items were in no particular order). However, I would now like to pull them off the list and turn up the gear with them. I picked up a few books (which I will mention later) on the topic and am very excited about the information I will learn.

General Success should be a no-brainer. "If you want something, find someone who has it, and ask them how they got it." That is a very interesting quote that I heard a while back, and it makes sense. Although it may take a while before someone who will actually help you out, why does it hurt asking? I never really thought about it until recently. I've always wanted things, like nice cars, vacation homes, etc. But I never thought about asking someone how to get one! There is a good quote from a very successful busines owner, Chris Brady, when he describes a conversation with 2 younger men as I heard it on a CD:

"I had two guys in my driveway the other day, they wash cars for a living. They're half way into washing my Jeep and they ask me 'Do you mind me asking you what you do?' I said, 'Well have you heard of a guy named Orrin Woodward? Well he pioneered an online business and it really took off, (etc etc.) You see these 15 houses on this road? There are 15 houses on this road. I wish someone would have told me this at your age; there's not a house owned in here by anybody that has a job. All 15 homes are either people who are either self-employed doctors, or business owners, or both. There's not a single person here who has a job. This guy named Orrin Woodward taught me all about this stuff, do you think that sounds like anything you could qualify for someday?'"

Now that was just a sample of the story, and regardless of the industry and who knows if anything ever came of it, but can you see how something big could happen just from asking a question? What if, just for the sake of saying, because they had asked him that question, he met with them and helped them along the path that he took to become successful? You really don't know when your next opportunity can come; just keep an open mind.

What I am doing to really indulge? Well, I purchased about $500 in books and CDs to better myself both personally, and financially. Am I recommending that you do the same? Not really. If I could do it over again I would have done it differently. Why? Well, because I bought everything about 6 months ago, and am just now truely starting to learn it. It sat around for a very long time before I made this decision. I don't want to recommend that someone spend more than they can afford in one lump sum. $500 was a lot of money for me, and still is. I would recommend going one book at a time, or a few CDs at a time. $10 - $20 here and there is a much better approach for a book per month, or CD per week, rather than overwhleming yourself. After all, you can only read one or two books at a time anyway, and I much prefer just one at a time to give it your full focus.

Currently I am reading two books, The Psychology of Winning, and The Intelligent Investor. I had started reading one book at a time, which was the Psychology of Winning, but today I got very excited about investing and picked this one up. Both are very very good! It's amazing the epiphany you notice once you start to change the media that you input into your brain. The first thing I realized is how bad television was for me. There is (hardly) anything good on tv these days, and most shows are just mind numbing programs that will teach you nothing. A good book, or a CD, is so much better for your life. On the topic of CDs, I don't mean your favorite rock band, anything by Anthony Robbins can really open your eyes to new things. Also, there is a website I had recently came across (http://www.stevepavlina.com) which is ran by a man named Steve Pavlina which is dedicated to personal development. He has pod casts and articles on hundreds of topics. Now if you're thinking, "listen to people talking on a CD? That's weird.." Yeah, maybe. But I find it very strange that people will spend 5 hours in front the tv after work watching reality shows about other people. Just give it a try, pick up a book, or a motivational CD; if you have come this far into the book I think it is fair to assume that you will enjoy it. Now I know there are thousands of books and CDs written on these topics, and that can be prety overwhleming. My goal to help conquer this is to indulge myself as much as possible to create a shortened list to help you out.

Now this chapter/entry has become very long. Quite longer than I expected. I actaully wanted to bring up one other idea that came to me while brainstorming with my friends, but I will save it for next time. (It's a great idea!!) But before I leave, I need you to do something. I need you to dedicate yourself to something right now. I need you to pick a book, and start reading. If you have come this far, and want to keep going, you have to do this. I'm not going to come over and rip your book apart if you chose not to, but it will better yourself. (If you are reading this already in my book, I should have a list of top 5 books that I have came across during my journey and I suggest you pick one of those 5 to start. If not, why not find a copy of The Psychology of Winning and read it with me?) If you are already writing, then great! Don't think of it as another chore you have to do, think of it as an investment of your time. It doesn't even have to be often; just read instead of turning on the television. Even if just for 10-20 minutes per day, it will benefit you!

Until next time, write until you're rich!