Bumps in the Road

In the support group for Winning the Game of Money, many people say that they have some resistance to completing the program.  I took a few days off.  I became depressed after having a seizure on Friday afternoon.  I was following the autoimmune paleo diet to the T.  I assumed that my seizures were of an autoimmune nature because there was no injury that triggered them.  I think my body was actually going through a Herxheimer reaction.  As it was eliminating built up toxins, it may have triggered a seizure.  The good news is that I felt it coming on, got in bed and didn't get hurt at all.  Only my ego was slightly damaged.  I'm going to continue on with the autoimmune paleo diet.  I read some blog posts that talked about sticking with it for a good 3 months before declaring that it doesn't work.  I'm only at 3 weeks right now.

Keeping momentum is easier than building it up.  I kind of lost my momentum this weekend.  Now I have to reform some of those awesome habits that I had last week.

My profile on Rover.com has been somewhat active.  I had a few requests for dog sitting.  Unfortunately, their neighbors volunteered to take their dogs while they are away and I lost their business, but things are looking up in that area.

This week in the Winning the Game of Money program, the homework assignment is to make out a list of all the things that you need to do during the week.  Then you are to prioritize the activities by highest income earning activity and high impact activity.  It is hard to say that my appointment setting is a high income producing activity right now.  I get a lot of wrong numbers and haven't set an appointment yet, but I've only done it for four hours.

Week 3 of Winning the Game of Money Complete!

I started the Winning the Game of Money program in order to increase my income and discover new revenue sources for myself.  It is a 12 week program.  Some people realize more money and income faster than I have.  This is the end of week three.  I will be honest, my overall attitude and resolve has increased, however, that has not resulted in money.  Yesterday, I received my first inquiry from Rover.com for a  pet sitting overnight.  While this isn't a ton of money, and I haven't actually booked the overnight yet, I'm going to count it as a "win."

One of the things that has been difficult for me with this program is getting into the habit of scheduling my days.  For someone who has suffered with epilepsy, unexpected seizures have forced me to become a flexible person.  I tend to associate an open schedule with flexibility and planning to accomplish a lot of things and have a full social life just seems overwhelming.  The good thing is that I'm working on changing that attitude.  Not only have I started working a second job, I have applied for some weekend sales positions.  While they haven't been a good fit, I'm certain that I'll find a great way to earn money this summer.

During this program, I have started talking to more and more people.  I have chipped away at my fear of rejection through my Zero Down Solar telemarketing gig.  Although, I will admit that I have gotten frustrated with phone calling after about an hour.  This may be in part due to the fact that I'm exhausted from substitute teaching all day.

My gratitude exercise for today!  I love that I'm writing this blog for ninety days because it reminds me each day to write something that I am grateful for.  It forces me to reflect on the skills and knowledge that I am acquiring and slowly but surely it is increasing my self-confidence and self-esteem.

1. I am grateful for a response in Rover.com!  I can't wait to meet their dog and see if the overnight will happen, but even if it doesn't, the response has lifted my spirits.
2. I am grateful that the summer is almost here and the kids will be out of school shortly!
3. I am grateful for the delicious foods that I am learning to make that are Autoimmune Paleo friendly.  (I made sweet potato fries the other day!)

Winning the Game of Money Day 20

I've almost completed 3 weeks in the Winning the Game of Money program.  I feel like I am well on my way to earning more income, but I haven't seen that manifested in paychecks just yet.  My substitute teaching job essentially ends next week.  By the end of next week, I should have been able to schedule a few appointments for Zero Down Solar.  So while the Winning the Game of Money program doesn't hand you a way to make money, it primes your brain to look for more opportunities for earning income.  It also helps you to release the fears that are holding you back from trying new things.  Throughout the program, John Assaraf gives you assignments to get you more organized and focused on the top income producing activities.

This week's focus has been on clearing the clutter in my life.  I got off to a fantastic start with throwing out a lot of random paperwork and sending off some tax forms that I had been avoiding.  I started listening to a Prosperity Consciousness program by Frederick Lehrman that is in cassette tapes.  Since that technology is so dated and the tapes have been on the shelf for years, I took the liberty of throwing them out after hearing them.  It felt great to get rid of that clutter and benefit from some of his ideas.  I can't say that I accomplished everything on my clearing the clutter to do list, but I started making a dent in my clutter.

One of Frederick Lehrman's ideas was to write down your positive affirmation 20 times for 20 days.  If you don't believe the affirmation, you can also use the affirmation, "My affirmations are working for me whether I believe them or not."  This is a strategy that I've started incorporating into my life in addition to reading the Winning the Game of Money affirmations out loud and carrying my vision board with me.  I'm definitely priming my brain for success every single day, now to see what the action produces!

In my life, I am grateful for the ability to learn these many strategies and attitudes of success.  It has started taking me on a whole new path in life.  The three things that I'm most grateful for today are the following:

1. The work from home telemarketing position that I have
2. The internet and craigslist where I can easily find more opportunities 
3. The simple strategies to change my mindset and help me become more successful and happy!

Try to do this gratitude exercise in your life and write three things daily that you are grateful for in your job or with your family.  You'll be amazed how much better you feel in only 21 days!

Winning the Game of Money - Day 19

I must have heard the audio from Winning the Game of Money this morning, but in my early morning haze, I didn't really remember much of it.  That actually could be a good thing.  Information tends to slip into your subconsciousness when you are between awake and asleep.  Some people insists that your results are a reflection of what your subconscious believes.

Right now, my subconscious must believe that I am not a telemarketer.  I've started making phone calls for Zero Down Solar in the San Antonio area.  After about an hour of calling, I find some excuse to quit.  Yesterday, I was supposed to have a role playing phone call with the owner of the company, but he cancelled on me.  I quit because I was exhausted from working all day at school and I felt insecure about my own abilities.

I've started listening to the ThinkRightNow Accelerated Success program while I make the phone calls.  I have it low so I can still hear the people on the phone over the audio.  I'm optimistic that the program will turn me into a sales achiever.  I've always had an aversion to sales, but this experiment could be great.  I bought the program as I was trying to start a business, but my sales didn't take off because I needed better transportation to reach more people.  I wasn't making presentations to the people who were decision makers and that impacted my results.  Now, I'll be on the phone and can easily contact many people.  Transportation isn't an issue.  I won't be selling, but I will be setting up appointments, which is the first step in the sales process.

It is uncomfortable to make phone calls to people who aren't expecting to hear from you.  I've been nervous about calling people who are my friends.  However, getting out of my comfort zone is part of Winning the Game of Money program and earning more in life.  It is part of living a more fulfilled life.

I'm concluding today's blog post with my gratitude exercise.  Three things daily that I am grateful for in my own life.

1. I'm grateful for my sales/appointment setter position with Zero Down Solar
2. I'm grateful for the technology that allows me to call people who are interested in using solar energy
3. I am grateful for my treadmill desk to make the phone calls from and help me get exercise and better posture at the same time.  

Life is getting better everyday and I'm improving myself in multiple ways.

Making Changes

Some changes are easier to make than others.  Listening to the daily audio for Winning the Game of Money is a simple and easy change to make.  Working more and focusing on things that I've been avoiding most of my life is one that is not so easy to make.

Yesterday, I got some important tasks done.  I mailed off some tax forms, I fixed my Rover.com application in case there are dogs in the neighborhood that want to be walked by me or an easy dog sitter job comes up.  I don't want dog sitting to be my primary form of income, but I wouldn't mind comb
ining my exercise with a furry pooch in order to make a few bucks.  I doubled my telemarketing time to an hour and started enjoying some of it.  My goal is to work up to a few hours per day.  I got my blogging in yesterday, but I fell a bit short and didn't put any links up or make it pretty with memes.  I can forgive myself for that.  I'm creating consistency and putting something out there every day and that is good.

Tackling my mindset was an easier task yesterday.  Whenever I started thinking about my failed relationship, I reverted to my most important positive affirmation that actually has nothing to do with him.  I wrote that affirmation down 20 times during the day when I had some down time at work.  In between phone calls, I repeated the affirmations in my head.

I fell short with planning.  At the end of the day, instead of planning, I curled up in my bed and went to sleep.  Today, I will change that.  I will evaluate the day and plan out the next day.  While Winning the Game of Money hasn't manifested itself with more income in my life, I'm currently pursuing more income earning possibilities.  I still have nine weeks left of the program.  My goal is to increase my income by $5,000 per month by the end of the program.

My gratitude for today is going to revolve around forming new habits.

1. I am grateful for the ability to see my mistakes and correct them.
2. I am grateful for customer service people who helped me fix my rover profile yesterday.
3. I am grateful for the inspirational videos on youtube that help me to understand some of the secrets to success.  

To do today!

This week's focus in Winning the Game of Money program is to clear the clutter and get organized.  Yesterday, I tackled my bathroom cabinets and threw out tons of products that while still useful, I didn't use.  For example, I threw out lotion.  I never use lotion.  My skin just doesn't get dry.  I also started tackling my filing cabinet.  Yikes!  I have files mislabeled and thing waiting to be filed.  I was able to go through and toss a lot of papers and put some much needed labels on some files.  Getting organized doesn't produce income immediately, but it is an important task.  Everyday this week, I'm going to dedicate 15-20 minutes to cleaning and clearing the clutter in my life.

To do list:

1. Clear the clutter in my filing cabinet
2. Throw out junk mail
3. Spend 30 minutes applying for jobs/searching for job opportunities on craigslist
4. Listen to the meditation audio
5. Plan!
6. Work
7. Write and say affirmations

As I cleared my clutter yesterday, I came across a Prosperity Mindset set of cassette tapes by Frederic Lehrer from the 80s.  I decided that they had to go.  I listened to half of them and gained some insights into increasing my prosperity mindset and organizing my finances.  One thing that he talked about doing was replacing your old negative thoughts with positive ones.  He gave an example of writing his affirmation 20 times per day to get it to gel in the subconscious.  I know that the Winning the Game of Money program has subconscious programming built into the audios, but I decided yesterday that writing my affirmations out twenty times for twenty days couldn't hurt.  I am repeating the Winning the Game of Money ones out loud each day, but I think that writing is a lot more powerful.

Now for my daily gratitude exercise:

1. I am grateful for the Prosperity Mindset tapes that I came across and the ideas that I gathered from them regarding crowding out my negative thoughts
2. I am grateful for my healthy breakfast of tuna, broccoli and a banana for helping me to feel full and keeping me on track to eliminate my autoimmune condition.
3. I am grateful for my cute dog that gets me out on a walk

Clearing The Clutter

Today is my third week in the Winning the Game of Money program.  I watched John Assaraf's video yesterday on getting more done in less time.  Today is Sunday and I'm going to take one component of his message and implement that today.  Today, I am focusing on clearing the clutter in my life.

Every aspect of your life has clutter in it.  A routine of clearing the clutter helps you prioritize the important things in your life.  Clearing the clutter helps you let go of the unnecessary things in your life that are holding you back.

Where to start clearing the clutter?  Where does clutter hide?  Clutter is everywhere.  You'll discover it in your refrigerator, your medicine cabinet, your desk, your closets, filing cabinets and even files on your computer.  There is even mental clutter that you have.  You sometimes may find yourself focusing and replaying events in your mind that didn't go the way that you wanted.  It is important to let go of those thoughts and replace them with positive affirmations and goals that you can reflect on instead.

Clutter represents indecision.  If you are holding onto something that no longer serves a purpose in your life, but may serve a purpose in the future, you are hanging onto the past.  Hanging onto objects that you aren't using because you spent a lot of money on them is something that I have done many times in my life.  However, it becomes a reminder of a financial mistake.  Letting go of it and allowing it to be useful to someone else helps you to move on.  Make a decision today to let go of your clutter.  Allow other people to get use of things that you aren't using.

If you feel like you don't have enough time to clear the clutter from your life or if you are overwhelmed by the amount of clutter that you have.  Start small.  Make a goal to get rid of one thing each day that you aren't using.  Schedule fifteen minutes a day to throw away things that are unnecessary or pieces of paper and notes that have collected on your desk.  As you meditate, take 5 minutes to think about the mental clutter that is holding you back.

One of my favorite programs is the Think Right Now organizational program.  It is relatively inexpensive, but it is chock full of positive affirmations that refocus your thoughts on getting organized.  It works wonderfully and quickly.  When I lend it to my mother and play it, she starts cleaning up and throwing things out.  She shortens her television time because the lady's voice is going through her head reminding her to clear the clutter and get organized.

Today, I will attack my desk and clear the clutter there.  In conclusion, I'm going to share three things that I'm grateful for in my life.

1. I'm grateful for the ThinkRightNow organizational program and affirmations that push me to succeed.
2. I'm grateful for the Autoimmune Paleo diet which helped me lose 3 pounds in 2 weeks and start feeling great.  
3. I'm grateful for the Winning the Game of Money program which is teaching me this week to clear my clutter and focus on organization.  

How to Get More Done in Less Time

Week 3 of Winning the Game of Money program focuses in on how to get more done in less time.  Did you know that 20% of your actions are responsible for 80% of your results.  The other thing that is important to know is that the importance of the task that you have to do is inversely related to the time frame that you give it.  If you give yourself a lot of time to finish a task, you will not feel it is as urgent and important to get done.  I learned this concept when I wrote my first book with Alicia Dunams, Seizure Free - Addressing the Causes of Seizures Naturally.  She had us focus in on tight deadlines and meeting them.  Most of the people in that Bestseller in a Weekend course finished their books within a month.

Make a list of all the things that need to get done each day.  Then mark which ones are the most important based on highest importance, highest income earning activity and highest impact activity.  When you start doing this, you will start increasing your income.  You will discover that the important things are getting done and the least important things are leaving your life.  Most individuals don't take the time to analyze the question, "What is the most important income earning activity in my life?"  Take the time in your life to answer this question and ensure that you are focused everyday on an income producing activity.

Develop a routine with the most important activities.  My routine starts with meditating in bed with the daily Winning the Game of Money audio.  I then proceed to breakfast.  I eat a healthy autoimmune paleo breakfast to jump start my day.  Then I move on to the 15 minute rebounding workout.  Rebounding on a mini-trampoline is a maximum effectiveness workout.  It stimulates the immune system and maximizes the force of gravity.  It isn't the only workout that I will do, but building it into my day as a habit keeps me on track to achieving my health goals of eliminating my autoimmune condition.

Organize and simplify.  Everyday you should take the time to organize and simplify your life.  Eliminate the clutter and confusion.  Make it a daily or weekly routine.  This will help you eliminate the chaos in your life.  This is an essential step.  If there is junk in your environment, there is junk in your head and it is causing chaos.  John Assaraf uses Friday as his decluttering day.  I like to clear the clutter on Saturdays.  Once you clear the clutter, it gives you the time to implement these time tested techniques to get more done in less time.

Make sure that the habits that you are forming support your goals.  One of my important habits is to express 3 areas of gratitude each day.  I write them on this blog everyday.  I do this because it has been shown that expressing three things that you are grateful for each day can improve your mood, your happiness and your self-esteem.  That is something that I want in my life.

1. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have today to clear my clutter
2. I am grateful for my vision board to help me refocus on my goals daily
3. I am grateful for the healthy autoimmune paleo pumpkin bread recipe that I found that will help me stay on track with my healing.

Week 2 Complete

I'm on week 2 of the Winning the Game of Money 12 week program.  What has changed?  What has improved?  What hasn't?

Although eating isn't a part of the Winning the Game of Money program, the focus on developing good habits and setting goals helped me to dive into the Autoimmune Paleo diet.  It has become much easier than I expected to develop meal plans that exclude dairy, grains, nightshades, peanuts, eggs, preservatives and legumes.  Now, I simply focus on vegetables and meats.  I rotate my favorites throughout the week and I experiment with different recipes.  I discovered that I love sweet potato fries (which are an exception to the nightshade group because they are not in the solanace family and don't cause the gut irritation).

I found a telemarketing position that I can do in my down time instead of watching television or surfing the internet!  I actually just did my first half hour of calls yesterday.  It was pretty discouraging, but I'm going to figure out how to keep my spirits up and enjoy it.  I have some sales audios from Think Right Now that are supposed to propel you towards sales success.

I started planning my days better.  Following through on the plan is something that still needs work, but you don't always change overnight.  I still have ten weeks in this program to start hitting sales goals.

The other great thing is that I started this blog!  I have blogged for 14 days straight.  While that doesn't gain me a huge following and I'm not going to earn money off this affiliate link without people clicking on it, it does help me refine my blogging skills and get back into writing.

To close out each and every blog post, I share three things that I am grateful for today.  Showing gratitude improves mood and self-esteem.  A daily habit trains you to be more focused on the good things in you life, so here we go:

1. Grateful for the telemarketing job opportunity even if I didn't like making phone calls yesterday.
2. Grateful for my ability to learn daytrading and succeed in that area
3. Grateful for my blog as a method of reflecting on what I'm learning and solidifying new knowledge that will propel me to success!

Day 13 - Just Keep Swimming

Some days you don't feel like following through.  Some days you want to revert to your old habits.  Today would probably be one of those days.  I didn't wake up excited to start my Winning the Game of Money habits.  However, I peeled myself out from under the covers.  I wanted to write something inspiring on my Winning the Game of Money review blog, but I'm coming up a bit short.

As I watched some videos for the Autoimmune Paleo diet, I listened to Sarah Ballantyne talk about the proper foods and amounts that you should be eating to heal from an autoimmune disease.  In one of the videos, she said regarding eating offal, "You don't have to like it, you just have to eat it."  That has been going through my mind since yesterday morning when I didn't season my frozen spinach well and I had to muster the courage to finish it.

Yesterday, I was ready to collapse into my bed, but I hadn't planned yet.  I knew exactly what I was going to do today and could do it on autopilot.  However, planning and reviewing your progress is part of the  Winning the Game of Money program.  It is one of the big habits that successful people count on.  Planning leads you to your goal.  So, I whipped out my red notebook and wrote down my "wins" for the day.  I also wrote down areas of improvement.  Writing down my "wins" helped me to feel as though I was on my way and accomplishing the things that I set out to accomplish.

These habits and tasks in Winning the Game of Money aren't difficult at all.  Changing your routine just takes a bit of effort and time.  In fact, I almost forgot to do my gratitude exercise for this blog post today.  Here it is for today:

1. Grateful for the inspiring stories on youtube of people healing from alopecia so I can stick with the autoimmune paleo diet.
2. Grateful for my coworkers who make life enjoyable
3. Grateful for the encouragement I receive from other youtubers and bloggers.  It made my day when someone told me they liked my blogpost yesterday.  

Action is the Great Separator

I was listening to the Darren Hardy interview again today.  The first time I listened to it, he said we don't need more information, we need to apply the information we have.  We need to study more.  I took that to heart.  I decided that I would review the information more and apply it.  So, this morning, I replayed the interview for myself.

What stood out to me today is when he was talking about interviewing Richard Branson.  He said that the biggest thing that separated him from the rest was that when opportunities presented themselves, he took action.  John said, "Make decisions quickly and change your mind slowly."  I think in my life I have been making decisions slowly.  I can blame my anticonvulsants and slower thinking for 25 years of slower decisions.  Now it is time to amp it up and make decisions faster.

Plan out your success.  Make sure that you are going through your day with a plan to earn money, a plan to obtain better health, a plan to improve relationships or whatever you want to achieve.  I'm working on planning out my time better each day.  Yesterday, I had a great plan and stuck with it until the evening.  Then I came to a bump in the road.  My headset wasn't working.  I solved the problem by ordering a new one on Amazon.  I felt good about problem solving, but was a bit disappointed that I couldn't complete my daily plan.

Create good habits and be consistent with your success habits.  Remember the parable of the tortoise and the hare?  The tortoise beats the hair all the time.  You don't need to be the best.  You need to be consistent in order to achieve your goals.  Consistency in your actions is the great grand separator of them all.  Become persistent.  Small behaviors over a long period of time create exponential growth.

One of the habits that I am focusing on consistently is to write down three things that I am grateful for each day.  It is an activity that has been show to boost your self esteem, improve your mood and prime you for success.  A habit of gratitude helps to keep you focused on what is going right in your life.  Today, the three things that I am grateful for:

1. My nutrient dense breakfast that I enjoyed this morning
2. I am grateful for the ability to learn from successful people.  
3. Grateful for having food and shelter