The Best Years of Your Life… Now!

This strange countdown to higher cost gasoline proves to me that complacency has overwhelmed and curtailed the kind of consumer outrage that would in years past resulted in immediate Federal Government action.

Case in point:

Back in the ’70’s the speed limit was rolled back to 55 mph and it saved gas plus we all got a lot better gas mileage because of of it. Today’s cars get their best mileage at about 62-65 mph… Reducing from 75 mph to 65 mph could save the average driver 10-15% fuel… but nobody’s talking about it.

There could be an organized national no-drive day. Everyone picks one day a week and simply does not use their car. Probably very doable with an immediate result because you’d have a full day’s worth of fuel not pulled out of the pipeline each week. Fuel stocks would rise, price would go down…but nobody’s talking about it.

Have you changed your personal driving habits over the last few weeks?

Or are you just pulling out the credit card and your denial as the cost of filling up your twenty gallon gas tank heads toward 100 bucks?

By the way did you know that at the current price of oil, which is around $135 plus (as I’m writing this), the actual cost of a gallon of gasoline should be around $6 or more! You see, that high priced oil hasn’t hit the refineries yet.

Did you know that if you put a frog in cold water and slowly turn the heat up a frog will not jump out of the pan of hot water…no matter how hot it gets. Is this happening to you? Are you becoming “frog soup”?

The ripple effect of high oil prices is forcing one of the largest inflationary spirals since the 1970’s. Dow chemical announced an across the board 20% increase to their customers starting next month… Watch for this type of thing to start happening with a lot of “raw materials”…

To put things into perspective: This is a price increase at the most basic level of the raw ingredients used to grow food and make things.

FYI: A twenty percent increase in the cost of raw materials doesn’t reflect itself in an item costing 20% more. By the time you purchase that item you will pay 5 to 10 times that cost. If the raw material cost an additional $5 to the manufacturer, you will pay $50 - $100 more for the item… not $5 more.

This is one of those times in your life when you should get out some paper and a pencil and start figuring out how you are going to adjust your lifestyle to the upcoming changes. It’s better to have some kind of strategy than sit like a frog while the water gets hotter.

The Intentional Prosperity™ System provides the information and techniques to create whatever lifestyle changes are necessary for you to have abundance in your life.

No matter what the price of gasoline happens to be.

-Bob Baran

What if someone approached you and presented you with a fantastic proposition:

“Begin right now to live your dreams…

Money will not be a problem. Everything will be taken care of for you. Debts wiped clean, more money than you could possibly spend. Just stop what you are doing and begin immediately to live your dreams”…

Could you do it?

Now you have to face reality:

Will your (husband, wife, children, relatives) support and encourage you to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity? Could you walk away from your job knowing money will not be a problem? What about your other commitments, relationships and friends? Would you be able to keep them and begin right now to live your dream life?

If your dreams were handed to you on a silver platter with no strings other than you must begin at once to live those dreams …Could you do it?

Or would you be shocked to find out that your life has become a series of barriers which prevents you from living your dreams?

The greatest barrier being your inability to “see” how living your dreams, should be enhanced and supported by all of the other things which make up your life. If you couldn’t begin right now to live your dream life and “bring your existing life” along with you, then something needs to change. The relationship with your life is the first thing you need to think about.

Does your life serve you and your dreams or do you serve your life?

What if you could begin living your dream life right now? How many seconds or minutes would pass before the first “doubt” or potential problem comes up? Write it down and make a list. It may prove to be very self-revealing … and the best place to start the process of transforming yourself so you can live your dreams.

-Bob Baran

Even with the best directions there will always be a trial and error process involved with taking the journey from where you are to where you want to be in life.

Think of it as the learning curve.

It should be viewed as a process of internalization. These are the steps you take in order to make the understanding and implementation of that understanding “second nature”. In other words, once you “get it” you are able to apply the new information automatically whenever the need arises.

You’ve probably already experienced this many times before. (It’s a natural process) Whenever you begin to do something new, you go through a learning curve. It always gets easier to do the new thing as time goes on. Ironically, this doesn’t always apply to those “new” things you may embark upon which are associated with self-growth.

Let me explain:

You’re not a finite piece of software or a machine. Yet, in order to get from where you are now in your life to where you want to be, you still have to understand and master your own “operating system”.

What differentiates your operating system from any other type of software or machine is that your “OS” has infinite capabilities, is fully relational and constantly evolving.

1. Infinite capabilities: The outer limits of your imagination constitute an ever changing limitation to what (you believe) is possible in your life. As you recognize the limitation you have placed upon yourself you can choose to change it. (your belief) Remember: This point within yourself is never permanently fixed. The “edge” of what you believe “is possible” is always what you currently accept it to be. At any given time, your imagination, coupled with your belief, determines that “edge”. Think of it as the current height of your personal “glass ceiling”.

2. Fully relational: This means if you change one aspect of what you imagine or believe, your attitudes, opinions and other beliefs begin to realign in relationship to that new belief. This is the part that can cause a bit of frustration at times. Especially when the new belief creates a conflict with previously held beliefs. It takes time for the new belief to fully propagate itself into your “consciousness”. So you are going to entail some trial and error during this part of the process. Think of it as “testing” whether or not the new belief holds up under real-world situations.

This is going to require some paying attention, on your part, when these situations arise. You will have to consciously apply the new belief to the situation and determine whether or not the results are what you hoped for.

3. Glass ceiling: This is always a temporary situation! For all intents and purposes, it’s an invisible resistance to actually living the belief or dream. You can “see” it but you’re not “there” yet. Your learning curve is what dissolves the glass ceiling and turns a belief or dream into reality. Just remember: Because you can “see” it means you are already in the process of dissolving the glass. Just don’t give up on the learning curve before you’ve achieved your desire.

One of the great lessons of life is that you can create your own future…and that it will always be what you expect it to be. Change your expectations and your future changes. Your new reality will be the result of your internal evolution coupled with your external actions which support your expectations. The real learning curve are those trial and error activities which will serve to either reinforce or discourage your belief in those expectations.

Ironically, whether or not an outcome from a trial and error activity reinforces or discourages your expectations will always be a decision only you have the power to make.

-Bob Baran

Stop using others as a means of measuring your progress!

I’m not talking about getting their approval, I’m talking about using what you perceive to be their achievements as the yardstick to measure your own!

You are a unique individual with experiences and abilities no one else has. The “place” you start from and build your progress upon, is going to be different than any other person’s. To look around at what other people seem to have achieved is a waste of time and will always make you feel bad.

After all, someone will always seem to already have what you may be striving for.

A couple of things to remember which will put “what others have” into perspective:

Most people are in debt up to their eyeballs! That new car or truck carries a hefty monthly payment. Few people have the where-with-all to pay cash for a new car. The same thing applies to a house. Many people in nice houses are what is known as “house poor”. They have a nice home in a nice neighborhood but it’s furnished by “Wal-mart”! Because they bought the house for 5% or less down and have enormous monthly house payments!

What I’m saying here is that things are never what they seem.

When I was a young man in my twenties I remember questioning myself after visiting one of my cousins. He went directly from college into the management training program of a major corporation. I felt bad about my choices because this guy was living in a brand new house and driving a brand new car. I was in a rented house, nursing an old car and had just decided to go into business for myself…I was 26 years old at the time.

I made a different decision about my life. I didn’t go into the “corporate” lifestyle. I wanted to make it on my own. But my cousin, who was the same age I was had the “trophies” that I was still dreaming about.

I was making a mistake using what he was doing with his life and comparing it to mine…Luckily I stuck to my “guns”.

To make a long story short, less than two years later my business activities made it possible for me to buy a new house and FIVE new cars, in one year! (really) I was increasing my income by 20-30% a month. I don’t think he ever recieved more than a 10% increase in salary and bonus in a year!

I came to realize that he sold his time for a fraction of it’s real value… for the security of a weekly paycheck. On the other hand, I learned how to go “out into the world” and create money. That was my security!

What it comes down to is this: Don’t be deterred from “staying the course” in your life because you see others who seem to be “getting ahead”.

What you see is probably a facade! A false front. Your personal determination and commitment to be the best that you can be, at what ever undertaking you have chosen, will always have a pay-off much greater than those who opted for “security”.

The intrinsic differences are by themselves astonishing! I’ve always been amazed at the limited real-world experiences and subsequent knowledge and wisdom those who choose security cheat themselves out of. It’s like living a partial life. They never really had to test themselves, so they never had to find out what they were made of. The more years they spend in the secure job the more fear, uncertainty and doubt they feel about their own abilities.

Opting for security has a way of robbing you of experience and self confidence.

The personal commitment you make to start from where you are and go to where you want to be, is its’ own reward…and is a journey with a value only you can measure. The pay-off is huge! You get to live a full life, learn and prosper from your experiences and make decisions based upon your own criteria.

Stop looking around at what other people seem to have and focus your time and energy on recreating your self and your reality.

Living life on your own terms is its’ own reward…And is something money (or going into debt) will never be able to buy.

-Bob Baran

Another cost of greatness will be the effect upon your existing relationships.

Most people define themselves by their relationships.

How their friends, acquaintances and family members “see” them is who they believe they are. This changes as you become self-actualized.

Your friends and acquaintances will become a byproduct of who you believe you are.

You will no longer feel the need to be a “part of a crowd” or to “fit in”.

This will be a radical departure from the norm for many who undertake the journey into personal greatness. So much so, that it’s not unusual for some to feel apprehensive about even considering any change to their current friends and acquaintances. Let me put your fears to rest.

You will find any changes that take place will be a normal natural progression. If you decide that your current friends and acquaintances are a bad influence. You may have to “cut the umbilical cord”. This would be the most extreme situation. In most cases however, one of two things is probably going to happen:

1. Certain friends and acquaintances will turn out to be fully supportive of your desire to do what is necessary for your journey into personal greatness. You may find that they too have embarked upon their own journeys. These relationships will continue and deepen over time. Both of you will discover mutually fascinating aspects of each other as your trust and support becomes the cornerstone of your relationships.

2. You will find that certain friends and acquaintances will react with skepticism, question your motives and your approach or will be offended that you somehow think you are better than they are! Pay attention, this can happen on a subtle level or be very obvious.

It’s hard to believe that people who you now consider to be your friends or acquaintances could be offended at your desire to better yourself.

It’s a fact!

It will surprise you who (if any) will have this reaction. You see, your personal determination and decision to take a journey into being the best that you can be is a direct threat to those who have decided (for whatever reason) that the life they are now living is as good as it’s going to get. You are in essence telling them that you have decided that there is more that you want to discover…that you want more out of life.

The “oh you think you’re better than me” reaction is more common than you think.

Overtime as you become more familiar with the infinite degrees of personal greatness you are capable of achieving, you will begin to recognize those individuals who have “given up”. What you may also find is that they also recognize you as someone who has not “given up”. You may without any intent on your part, become an intimidating reminder of their own lack of desire and determination to better themselves. Your energy and enthusiasm is overwhelming. Your light is too powerful for those who cover and subdue their own.

What I’m saying here is this: If you embark upon a journey into personal greatness your friends and acquaintances are going to change over time! They will be replaced wonderful new relationships with like-minded individuals. You will have the kind of people in your life who will enhance and empower you. This is a good thing!

The “others” who see you as a threat to their own “world view” will remove themselves from your life. Just don’t be surprised at who it is or when it happens…because it will!

-Bob Baran