Work From Home Training

I bet you’ve heard someone who was in a dire situation say something like ‘Well, it can’t get any worse so I guess the only way is up!’.  I was thinking about that just recently and realised it isn’t true. There’s an important piece missing from that statement.

It should read…

“The only way is up… if I change what I am currently doing.”

I would never have even thought about it if not for the influence of Jim Rohn. He used to say that success was a study of the obvious, so when you apply the obvious  to the statement that the only way is up then you get a very different result. If you really have hit rock bottom, then common sense would have to suggest that if you don’t change anything at all then you are going to stay right where you are. It’s not as if we fall on hard times, hit rock bottom, plateau there for a little while and then somehow, magically turn things around. Like Jim said – “For things to change, YOU must change’.

It all comes down to the ‘IT’ and ‘THINGS’. I know that in the past when I was having tough times in life or money I honestly expected that things would just right themselves. What I probably didn’t realise was that I was making changes without realising. Think about it – when you have little money you tend to spend less. When you don’t seem to have enough time to get things done you either increase the number of hours you work or you make some little changes to use your time more efficiently.

Now imagine how much easier and better it might be if you consciously made those changes. How much greater and faster would the improvements be if you assessed where you are right now and mapped out all of the changes you need to make in order to turn things around?

I firmly believe that the biggest obstical when you find yourself enduring tough times is… YOU.

By blaming ‘it’ or ‘things’ you are pretty much placing your future in the hands of something you have no control over. I can tell you that ‘it’ probably won’t get better and ‘things’ probably won’t improve – at least not without you taking control of those ‘its’ and ‘things’. That was another important lesson that Jim taught me. You really have to take responsibility for where you are right now. Don’t beat yourself up over it, but realise that your current situation is the cumulative effect of the decisions you have made throughout your life.

Once you get to that point where you aren’t blaming external factors which you can’t control, you will find that you are able to get back on track and set your own course instead of just cruising around with your eyes closed most of the time.

That’s pretty heavy stuff but definitely worth pondering…

It happens to me all the time – heck, it’s been over a month since I posted so that should at least prove that I’m not one of those prolific writers who can sit at a keyboard any time and pound out some literary gems. Or am I?

I think timing and the ability to write things down has a lot to do with it. We all tend to have good topic ideas for our blogs from time to time, but if you don’t make a note of those ideas then you may well be depriving your audience of some of your best thoughts and tips. I think that one of the biggest problems is that ideas don;t always come flooding through your fingers just because you happen to be sitting at the computer. In fact, there’s a good chance that sitting at the computer with the intention of writing a little masterpiece may be counter productive.

You often hear musicians talking about when and where they wrote some of their greatest works – and it’s rarely because they set aside some time specifically to do that. I remember Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees talking about how one of their biggest hits – Jive Talkin’ – was inspired by the rhythmic sound that their car made when they were crossing the Julia Tuttle causeway in Miami each day on their way to the studio (it was originally called ‘Drive Talkin’). Another good example is the opening lyrics to Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’. The lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin and came to him while he was driving near his parents house. He ran in and told everyone not to talk until he wrote them down.

So that’s the first lesson in preventing blog writers block – keep a list of ideas and add ideas to your list whenever they come to you. You should end up with many topics to choose from.

Another good source of ideas is your own wealth of experience. Experience in your job, life experiences, things you have seen, heard or done. It depends what your blog is about of course – I often feel like writing about politics or social issues but those topics aren’t relevant to this blog. We are all experts at something though, so it’s always worthwhile to write about the things you are proficient at or particularly interested in.

Believe it or not, most people who find your blog in a search engine aren’t looking for things to buy – they are looking for solutions to their problems or answers to their questions. Think about some of the questions you’ve found answers to recently, or some of the problems you have solved. You may find that they make for excellent content for your blog!