The SnowHow

Author: thesnowhow

  • The Secret Power Of Tiny Gifts!

    I always dream of changing the world for the better. I really do. Long gone are my plans for Bond Villain type world domination. Now it is all about making the world a little bit better with each step I take on my path.

    So how do we change the world? Do we dream big dreams? That is what most people tell you, have grand plans. For many people that is absolutely right. Dream the big dream, fight the big fight.

    Many people are succeeding with this (Just go take a look at what the Gates Foundation is doing.)

    The thing is, for most of us it is hard to change anything other than our small corner of the world.

    So why not start with that! What can you do to make the world a tiny bit better?

    Well you can be a tiny bit generous for one! Generous with your time, generous with your energy for others, generous with your smile. Care that tiny bit more for your fellow traveler on the human path.

    Smiling is easy, give away at least five to ten smiles away. To whoever you want, friends, family or to an absolute stranger. The better you get at giving them the more you will get back (and who does not love a returned smile?).

    Ok now that we are warmed up to the idea of giving I want to address the “Elephant In The Room” Money.

    Is this the point where I tell you to give to charity and help those who are less fortunate than yourself?

    NO!

    (You can do it if you want, let your conscience be your guide.)

    Let me explain what I do in the form of a story, but before I do just so as you know while writing this  I just got a smile returned (winning).

    I was recently with a gathering of friends and I was telling my mate Benji about my condom pocket (you know the little pocket in a pair of jeans just above the right pocket at the front. Yep that is what that is for). In it I put every 50 pence piece I receive in the form of change.

    You never get that many of them maybe a couple a week. So it does not really weigh you down 🙂

    I keep them there for a very important reason. I keep them there to be easily reachable for when I want to give them away.

    I give them to buskers and other street performers. I give them to people carrying around charity buckets. I give them to people selling the big issue (charity magazine). Finally, I give to people who are homeless or begging on the street.

    I used to be really judgmental of the latter thinking thoughts like “why don’t they get a job”  or ideas to that effect. Then I realized that I don’t know them or their story, so why judge?

    The point of the matter is 50p is such a meaningless amount of money for most of us. So why not give it away? It is far more valuable to those who you are giving it to than yourself! For many of them it is meaningful.

    I’ll tell you why I use 50p, and not say 20p or a £1 coin. Giving 20p makes you feel cheap. You can look someone in the eye when you give them 50p and not feel embarrassed. You get too many £1 coins so it could become really costly if that was your coin of choice. You don’t get that many 50p pieces. Around a table of 8 we had 3 of them. So you are not going to break the bank.

    So 50p is a perfect coin for this idea. So save yours and give them away. Just imagine a world in which we all did this how many peoples lives would be helped.

    There is a payoff to all this. There is no such thing as a one-sided transaction. Remember Newton’s Third Law “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” well in the case of giving it is more like “Sow and Reap”. With your smiles, with your time and yes with your money. The more you give the more you will get back in happiness, in quality of life and of course money.

    In each of these actions we always make a positive return. There is a compounding effect in all the good things that we do. If we are abundant in our mind and our actions we will reap abundance in return.

    So that which we want we should give first. It does not have to be big at first. Think tiny gifts to start and eventually as time moves on your gifts will get bigger both from the giving and receiving side.

    So start giving tiny gifts today and start changing the world.

    Snowy

    P.s. If you think that his idea might be helpful, please feel to share it with your friends in any way you like. There are buttons to make it easy somewhere on this page.

  • How To Create Your Fate Not Be A Victim Of It!

    Do you know, absolutely know, what your future looks like?

    Ok let me ask the question in another way let’s say you were reading this article 12 months from now, 3 years from now or say 10 years from now where do you think you will be.

    Do you have a clearly defined answer to each of those time frames? Or is it a wishy washy hope, or worse an “I don’t know!”

    If not why not?

    Let’s face it none of us knows the answer to those questions as anything could happen right?

    After all we could get run over by a car tomorrow or contract some sort of deadly disease that finishes us off in a blink of an eye!

    No point in planning, as tomorrow we could be dead!

    Crikey that’s not good!

    Maybe there is a better way for us. Maybe we should get all biblical with this one. Hey, you have got to get your wisdom from somewhere and some of the “religious” books do offer us some occasional wisdom, I think that’s why they became popular in the first place.

    OK so in Provers 29 it says words to the effect that “Without a Vision, The People Perish”.

    Or to put it in plain old english “if you don’t know where you are going then you’re f**ked”

    Think about it this way, if you were going on a journey normally you need two things, a starting point and a destination. That way you can plot a path to get you there.

    You have a  point of origin and a point of destination. If you remove one of them, how easy do you think it is to get where you are going. Think about that for a second! Did you think about it? Then let us continue.

    With the first one you have a point of origin, you know where you are, so you head off, but with no final destination you could end up anywhere. You would be zig zagging all the time hopefully ending up somewhere worthwhile. You know what, you may get somewhere good along the way, and hey the journey may be really enjoyable, that is definitely possible. The probability however, is that you would just end up lost and frustrated and have wasted so much time along the way.

    Second option. You know where you want to get to but you don’t know where you are. So you want to get to Timbuktu but you don’t know where you are right now. So do you head north, south, east or west. Do you need a plane, a car, a bicycle, a boat or is it just around the corner and you can walk there? You just don’t know and if you set of in the wrong direction, as you don’t know were you are starting from then, your journey may be a very long and tedious one. Also like in the first option you may stumble upon it by accident. There is definitely that possibility.

    The obvious thing in this situation is to go back to our original idea. Know where you are and know where you want to get to. Then you can draw a straight line between the two points. Or at least plan the quickest and shortest route!

    So now we are starting to see why having a destination is such an important part of the equation in travel.

    The same thing applies to us in our life, the time equivalent of a destination is a personal vision. Knowing what we want from life and how we want our life to look in the future.

    If we just wing it with our life then we could just end up anywhere, thrown about on the ebb and flow of the tide of life. Hey we may end up somewhere good and we may not. But I want to ask you a question. Do you think that is a good strategy for your life? Do you think you might have a better time of it if you knew where you wanted to end up, and you knew what you had to do in order to get there?

    Well, who knows! There are no guarantees, but the thing is I would suggest you stand a much better chance of getting somewhere that you want to get to, if you know where that place is.

    There is a second thing that you need as with our travel analogy. You need a starting point!

    In “The Art Of War” Sun Tsu tells us to know your enemies and to know yourself!

    Our point of origin, is the second part of the statement “know your self”. This means if you know where you want to get to, firstly, you have to self evaluate the person you are right now. You will need to know all of your strengths and weaknesses, you will need to be completely honest with yourself and who you are.

    Then and only then will you know the person you will need to become in order to get to where you want to go.

    So here is what you need to take away from this article today. You need to start to develop a personal vision for yourself. Start small, start thinking about where you want to be one month from now, then start to expand it out six months, a year. Then start going for the big numbers 3 years, 5, then push it out to 10 and 20 then all the way to the end.

    Take some time today just to start playing with the idea, then when you have some ideas and you realise just how fun this can be, devote some time to some serious thinking about where you want to get to. What your hopes and dreams are, what a perfect life looks like for you.

    OK there is also a hard part, you also have to turn a pointing finger back at yourself and really make an honest analysis of yourself. This can be really hard. We as humans are incredibly good at self deception but take the time to do this. An easy way to start is to write down a list of what you are good at, all your strengths. Once that list is long enough it makes the shortfalls that little bit easier to list. Don’t worry if the shortfalls list is longer than the strengths list. You are just looking for a starting point. Once you have that then you can begin your journey.

    Do this please, you will find the process incredibly rewarding and will give you immense personal clarity.

    I will talk at length in another article about the second part of getting to where you want to go to. That deals with having a strategy. But that is for another time. For now take the time to give this gift to yourself.

    Go create your Vision and your Starting Point!

    Until next time.

    Snowy

  • Why You Should NEVER Delay Your Plans!

    The fact of the matter is based on our best evidence we only get one life. (Reincarnation and those who believe it aside.) Let me say that again. WE ONLY GET ONE LIFE!

    Really there are no second chances or do overs. This is all we get. If you understand the magnitude of that it’s bloody scary.

    How many days/weeks do you think you get? 100,000, a million more?

    On average we get about 28,000 days or 4250 weeks. If you’ve reached your 20’s you’ve already blown through 7,300 of them (1040 weeks) see what I mean scary.

    With time in so limited supply we should treat it like gold, we really should, but we don’t!

    Many of us treat time like we have an unlimited supply and the fact is we definitely don’t.

    Look we all drift from time to time. Time just seems to get away from us. That’s fine if it is a for a day, a week or maybe for one month no biggy. Any more than that and you are starting to get in real trouble.

    You see we as human being are really good at delaying and deferring our life. We never quite get around to doing the things that we want and we often defer our life for a later date when this or that might happen.

    We make no plans, set no goals we just flow on the directionless tide of life. Days and weeks go by, then months, then years and then we look back and think to ourselves where the hell did that decade go?

    Worse as you get older time seems to speed up. As a child summers were endless. Now they go in the blink of an eye.

    We look back and see nothing to show for the time that has been spent. Our memories are a blur of the mundane and everyday!

    This just won’t do!

    I recently spoke to a lady about her hopes and dreams for the future. She told me she was very ambitious, she had a plan. She had a job (she hated) but she was going to get a house, she was going to spend the next 25 years paying off the mortgage. Once that was done she was going to sell the house and go traveling around the world. She thought it was a good plan.

    Can you imagine delaying your plans for 25 years? Deferring all of that joy and wonder for 25 years?

    Maybe she will do it, and maybe she will have all the adventures she hopes for, and that all the hard work and toil will pay off. Or maybe by then she will be so jaded with life that the spirit of adventure will have left her.

    There is a short story by Haruki Murakami it is called “ On seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning” you can find it by searching for it on google. In it two people find a person who is perfect for each other. They realise this but decide to test fate and say, “well if we are meant for each other we will meet each other again” so they don’t exchange details. In time they both lose their memory of the other and by the time they meet again they are too jaded to recognise each other. (Go find and read the story, tis beautiful and much better than I have written here.)

    That’s what happens in life if you put it off for too long. The spark of adventure that was given to all of us that could be a raging wild fire, well without fuel it goes out. When we put off our hopes and dreams, when we don’t plan our life to be one of adventure and glory we allow our spark to fizzle out.

    How does your plan look? What are your goals? Or are you just waiting for life to happen to you by accident. Hoping that wonder will fall in your lap?

    Don’t defer life or life will let you! Go and claim your own glory!

    Snowy

  • 10 Life Changing Books (That Actually Can Change Your Life!)

    So this is going to be an ongoing series of articles I will write that have the number 10 in them. This one is about books that can actually change your life.

    Ok, so let me just say one thing. No matter what the authors may say, very few books have the power to change your life.  That said there are a few flecks of gold hidden in the dirt. Some of which I have put here. Now these are a personal choice and you may argue against them or think you know better. If so put them in the comments section below. Hey I am always willing to be wrong or learn something new. 

    Ok so let’s get to it. Here is the list. 

    The list is not in any particular order, so don’t read it that way. That said maybe you should start with the first book on my list…..

    1. Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson

    If you only ever take one tiny bit of advice from me it is this… Read all of the books of RAW, he will give you an education of the mind, like few other people can. He has a teaching method that he called Guerrilla Ontology (He literally forces you to think). His breadth of knowledge in far reaching subjects are in my opinion unmatched by anyone in the written world. He was the writer along with Robert Shea of the Illuminatus which can be considered the definitive conspiracy theory novel (this was back before the looney fringe got involved).

    Anyway Prometheus Rising is his master work on brain change willed! He takes you through Timothy Leary’s 8 circuit model of human consciousness, to show you how your mind works and how it is conditioned. Then he gives you techniques and strategies to smash through your own “reality tunnels”. 

    WARNING: This book is not for the faint of heart. If you have courage, and the willingness to do some personal experimentation, this book can make you really see the world for the very first time. 

    2. The inside out revolution by Michael Neill

    There are many books written about the 3 principles that were extolled by Syd Banks. This is in my opinion is the easiest to digest. In the book you will get to re-examine the nature of reality and the nature of mind, consciousness and thought and how the world really is. 

    You may get a few oh my god moments when you read this book. The way you think the world is, may be turned on its head. 

    This book is a must read!

    3. Choose Yourself by James Altucher

    This book offers clear and practical wisdom in the 21st century. For most people born in the last part of the 20th century, the old rules no longer apply. All the advice you have been given by well meaning people, is starting to look more and more wrong and outdated. No longer can you let your life be dictated by the whims of someone else. This book offers you a practical methodology to go about choosing the life that you want, not one that is foisted upon you. 

    The book is well written and James Altucher has a lovely writing style and the lessons contained in here are easy to digest and apply. Again I think this is a must read book. 

    4. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

    This book is very well known in the US but not so much here in the UK. That said if you are looking for a philosophically challenging novel, then this is your boy. This is a book about what happens when the mind goes on strike. It deals with Rand’s Objectivism philosophy and extolls the virtue of value creation as being the highest moral ideal. It also deals with what happens when you penalise people for success. The book was written 60 odd years ago and some of the insights are uncannily accurate in our modern world. 

    If you have some time on your hands give this ago. You will also find an answer to the eternal question of “Who is John Galt?”

    5. As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

    This is a relatively short book, that said it is packed with so much wisdom per sentence you would be lucky to find its peer. This might be one of the earliest examples of the self-improvement book. In the 130 years since its original publication few books in the genre have risen higher or outshines this simple little masterpiece. Allen has many other works that are worth reading but this is his magnum Opus.

    Must be read and read often. 

    6. Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

    You ask enough successful people for a top ten book list, and this is the book that will appear most often. In fact W.Clement Stone once wrote this… Although I have no real way to prove it I believe that Think And Grow Rich has helped more people achieve success than any other book in history save the bible” 

    I have no idea if that is true but I do know that I have taken so much from this book over the years and before I went digital my copy had been battered and bruised by the amount of times I had read it. 

    7. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

    There is a funny thing that happens with this book on first reading. It will probably polarise you in one direction. You will either love it or hate it. 

    The book shows you 48 ways to gain through strategy or deception or force of will, how to gain power over people. For many on first reading this is unpalatable after all who wants to do that to other people, clearly it is morally wrong? 

    There is a funny thing that happens with this book. I have recommended it  to many people and they have read it, and come back to me and told me they hated how manipulative it shows you how to be. 

    I then have told them to read it again, this time with the notion that you need to be aware of how these techniques are being used on you, and how you can protect yourself from them. On second reading from that perspective, people always say how much they love the book. 

    8. Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant

    You can only love the world/someone else to the extent that you love yourself. This book will show you how to up your game. This book takes about an hour to read. Please Please Please take the time to do that the/your world will be a better place because of it. 

    9. The Richest Man In Babylon by George S Clayson. Money by Anthony Robbins

    Have you ever wondered why they don’t teach financial literacy in schools? Surely that is more important than say Chemistry (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve needed my knowledge of ionic and covalent bonds since I left school, it’s practically a daily occurrence) Understanding money and to have knowledge and power over it is clearly unimportant as I don’t use it every day…. Oh now hold on a second!!!!

    There are few good books written on financial literacy, for years the only one I could recommend was The Richest Man In Babylon. Even though it is written in parable format, the wisdom is sound and should be read and understood by everyone. 

    Now Anthony Robbins has a new book on the subject that is well written and teaches the layman how to go about understanding then winning the game of money. Go read both. 

    10. Jonathan Livingston Seagull/ Illusions: The Memoirs Of A Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

    I just love both these books. Although they are a lot more whimsical than the rest of the books on the list i genuinely believe they offer some really practical wisdom. I must have read both at least ten times and every time I do I get new insights. Give them a go, they are perfect for when you have a spare hour. 

    Ok so that’s it 10 books that can change your life. I hope you read some if not all of them. Hey and maybe your life will change for the better. 

    Until next time. Go read a book!

    Snowy

  • Want to be an Entrepreneur? Try this!

    The Rapid Entrepeneur

    therapid

    LEARN: How to be Quit Your Job And Quickly Become A Successful Entrepreneur.

    Working for someone else sucks! We all know that the real money comes from owning your own business. The thing is if you don’t have a methodology then jumping on the entrepreneurial bandwagon can be risky, really risky! What if someone could guide you step by step through the whole process. Would that make it a little easier for you?Read on if you said “Yes” to that questions…Being an Entrepreneur can be fantastic and the rewards can give you everything you ever wanted. However sometimes It can also be a right royal pain in the backside. You see for most people who go down the business owner route for the first time they tend to fall apart at the seams. It’s not their fault! They have too many challenges to deal with at the outset. It’s all too much of a learning experience and in essence they don’t know what they need to know.That said, it is not all bad news, as long as you know the fundamentals you can give yourself the best possible chance of starting a successful business.

    RIGHT NOW: You Need The Secrets To Rapid Entrepreneurial Success!

    To Become a Successful Entrepreneur is not really that difficult. You just need a few key skills:1. You need to be able to come up with your million dollar business idea and fast!2. You need to know that there are people who are craving to buy your product or service before you waste any real time or money on your business idea!3. You need to obtain the resources to get your business idea going and growing. 4. You need to know how to bring your business to the market and launch it successfully!5. You need the right mindset to deal with the inevitable ups and down.In the book, The Rapid Entrepreneur, we walk your step by step through all of these areas. You will have a complete methodology for quickly getting your business up and running.

    DOWNLOAD: The Rapid Entrepreneur: How To Quit Your Job And Start A Business, From Idea Generation To Launch!

    This is a simple, fast methodology that is designed to get you into your own business as soon as humanly possible, with little or no stress and worry, with a step by step process to guide you all the way. This will give you every chance to be your own boss and to enjoy all the rewards that can bring.

    Do You Want To Know More?

    Buy from Amazon.co.uk!
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  • The 10 Currencies Of Living An Awesome Life!

    Time it’s in short supply. No one gets more than the next person on a day to day basis. 24 hours each! Some get more over time, some get less, after all we all die at some stage. (Well, maybe not me I’m probably going to live forever.)

    So the currency of life is time!

    Time is precious yet we spend it like it is in limitless supply. We think that it will never end, but inevitably for all of us it will. The thing is, how we spend this currency is directly proportionate to the quality of our lives. We become the sum of accumulated memories over time.

    So how are you spending your time? Is it to build lasting memories ones that are magnificent and defining, or are you building a bank of mundane unimportant memories, most of which are forgettable (pun).

    How about this as a measure of success (I have a few, but I like the simplicity of this one) the person who get’s to the end of their life with the best stories/memories wins!!!

    So in those terms the systematic accumulation of great stories means that you will improve the quality of your life.

    OK with that idea in mind, we can start to think about how we go about spending our time to accumulate good stories.

    There are some areas of life, that if you spend your time there, then that can help with the acquisition of great memories.

    I have ten areas that I focus on, that I make time for every week. I write down each area and figure out what I am going to do to make sure I pay my time currency into that account.  For you the areas may be different, but I suggest you make a list and if you want hey just copy mine until you figure your own out.

    I make time each week to make sure that area of my life has some input in it. This I feel lifts me as a person. I think sometimes we concentrate on one area of life to the detriment of others. Sometimes when we lift the whole at the same time, we can make radical advances in the quality of our life and the quality of our memories.

    Ok here are my ten areas and why I think they are important.
    1. Art/Beauty: The world is an amazing place full of so many beautiful sights to see. From mother nature to man made wonder. Every day we get bombarded with negativity from all sorts of sources, from people we know to the media. So isn’t it obvious that we should counter that with balancing our life with some beauty? At least once a week you should saturate yourself with beauty. Spend some time looking at great art in a gallery/museum. If you don’t have that option go to a book store or search the web for great art. Get out in mother nature away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Go find something green or look at water and just breath it in. After all in life who really wants to experience ugly?

    2. Relationships: As the quote says no man is an island, we each are affected by the people we surround ourselves with. The thing with relationships is that we should rate them by their quality, but we really don’t we just let one relationship take equal standing as the next. If you are going to spend your time with people make sure that they are the people who provide you with nurture, love, fun and growth. Your whole purpose with relationships is to build great ones and limit your time on the mediocre ones.  (I will at some stage fill this idea out a bit more in a later post.)

    3. Fun: Isn’t that the point of it all! I know some people live for the weekend, and some people are so tired by the weekend all they want to do is relax. That said, if you are not making time to do one really fun thing each week then crikey make that change. Figure out what is fun for you and diary that in. The point of life is to enjoy it. So make time for fun.

    4. Health: Your body is the engine of your life. It should be capable of taking you through the journey of your life with little in the way of adversity. It is meant to be pain free and in good shape. So think of it like the engine of a Ferrari. It should be carefully maintained and only given the best fuel. If yours doesn’t work well start taking steps to get yourself in some sort of optimum health. This is one of the easiest areas to let slide in your life. Sometimes it can happen from bad treatment of yourself, or sometimes too much good living. Like in all things there should be balance and care taken. Build a body that will last you for the journey.
    5. Home: I try and do one thing each and every week to make my home an environment that nurtures me and allows me to have more tranquility in my life. I can put my hand up though and state I am by my nature laid back when it comes to tidiness and I could do better that is why once a week, I try and up my game a little bit. We can all learn to be a bit better when it comes to creating the ideal environment to live in. Think of it as your own fortress of solitude. (excuse the superman reference.)

    6. Income:  Money is not the be all and end all of life, it really isn’t but it does help fund some of the great things in life. I have talked more about the accumulation of this in other articles and books so for now you should look for ways to grow and maintain this “awesome memory fuel”.

    7. Love: In all its forms is what we are looking to give and experience. Much has been written about love and I have very little to add to the subject. Maybe just that love is an act not just a feeling.

    8. Thought:  Our mind like our health needs nurturing we have to give it time to rest and de-clutter. If you don’t take some time out each week (preferably each day) to give your mind some time to relax then you should. For me it is meditation and mindfulness. For you it may be something else. Give it a try it could change your whole world.

    9. Study: In the 21st century virtually all the knowledge of the universe is available to us on tap. Every great discovery or idea has been presented to us in some form or another. It is there for us to learn from and improve ourselves. If you are not reading one great book a month you are going to fall behind. I would suggest at least one a week. If you want to get ahead. Make time for reading or its equivalent each week.

    10. Travel: This is and can be the greatest source of lasting experiences and memories. There is so much to see and do in the world and for many/most of us the whole world has become available to us at the cost of a plane ticket. (There are not too many places you can’t get to these days for less than one months wages). We should always be thinking where we want to see next. That said it doesn’t have to be foreign travel. It could be visiting a new town in your country. It could be using a method of travel that you wouldn’t normally take. A bike ride, a boat trip, a train journey or maybe something really adventurous like paragliding, gliding or skydiving. Go have some sort of travel adventure.

    OK so there are my ten. Maybe they could be yours also. If not go figure out what your areas are and spend time doing something each week in those areas.

    Start making deposits of time in your ten most important areas and start to build your memory bank.

    Like I say the person with the best memories wins!

    Until next time…

    Snowy

  • The Villain Is The Hero Of His Own Story!

    It’s always someone else’s fault! No, it really is! It is definitely not your fault right?

    My boss is an asshole and he does not pay me enough, my partner just does not get me, the world is unfair, the little guy does not stand a chance, the rich/banks/government stops me at every turn, in fact everyone has got it in for me!

    Well, that sucks!

    You might be surprised how many people walk around each day with variations on that theme. The thing is they are right! All of those things are true. Let me explain.

    Your reality is based around the thoughts that you think each day. If you believe it, then it is true. Well, at least for you. You see as many people have stated we become our controlling thoughts. If we see the world as “out to get us” then more often than not you will find a way to make that true. As Robert Anton Wilson stated “What the thinker thinks, the prover proves!” actually quick tip go read his book Prometheus Rising it is one of the few life changing books, in fact read all his books.

    Moving on, you see most of us think we are the good guy that we are doing right and that we are good people. The thing is this works for virtually everyone. John Dillinger when asked why he robbed banks said “because that is where the money is” he didn’t believe he was a thief he believed he was a liberator of money from the evil banks/government.

    Hitler probably believed that bringing forth the master race was a noble pursuit no matter how he achieved this. Same goes for all empire builders in history Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon etc.

    You see pretty much no one sees themselves as the bad guy.

    So in human terms we have normally three categories of people The Good Guys, The Bad Guys who think they are good and The Victims.

    The Bad guys we have discussed, so lets get on with the other two.

    Before I discuss the Good Guys let’s talk about The Victims.

    The Victims as I have mentioned believe that everyone has got it in for them. They see no opportunity, they think everyone doesn’t seem to understand them. They believe life’s golden ticket has been stolen from them, and as I have mentioned for them this is true.

    Does this hold up under examination?

    Well do you know what if you live in the third world, a war zone or say sub-Saharan Africa, then do you know what you may be justified in your stance. For the rest of us well, I’m not so sure.

    I’ll tell you the reason why. Pretty much all of us are the product of each and every choice we have ever made. In fact if you are reading this every choice you have ever made led you to reading this at this moment in time.

    Each day we make a plethora of different choices that affect us in the moment and also our future.

    The more good choices we make on average the better our life turns out. The more bad choices we make then on average the worse our life turns out. Yes there are exceptions to every rule, but for most people that runs true.

    Victims tend to point fingers outwards and blame other people. They never point the finger back at themselves and take personal responsibility. They think their fate is set by the hand that they have been given. And so it is!

    The Good Guys, they have a different mindset to The Victims and The Bad Guys, you see the good guys often started out just like The Victims or could have taken a pathway that would have led them to becoming The Bad Guys. The thing is they didn’t they made better choices!

    Let me say that again, they made better choices.

    You see the good guys take a look at their lot in life and decide they will take a stand for themselves. (hey, for some the lucky ones this is almost inbuilt and requires very little in the way of effort. Good for them!) They make solid choices that lead them onwards and upwards.

    The Good Guys if they start in The Victim place, don’t accept that as their final outcome and ask themselves how they can go about improving their situation. They make a better choice for themselves.

    Maybe it is to study hard in school, maybe instead of going to the bar for a beer or sitting at home watching soaps and drinking wine, they go to the library and pick up a book. Maybe they go ask the advice of someone who has already lifted themselves up and out of a similar situation. Maybe they work doubly hard on themselves rather than complaining about the way life is hard.

    You see we all get to be who we are… The Good Guy, The Bad Guy and The Victim by our choices.

    Yes, I know sometimes bad things happen to good people, sometimes really horrendous and horrible things happen to good people but the person we become after that happens will also depend on how we choose to deal with it. We are our the accumulation of our choices over time.

    So for now make better choices! Choose one area of your life right now that is not working for you and choose to do something about it.

    Snowy

  • The Fastest Way To Rapid Knowledge Acquisition!

    Back in ancient Egypt when they were mummifying a corpse one of the things that they did was remove all the vital organs from the body. All that is except the heart! Back then the Egyptians believed that the heart was the intelligence centre of a human being so they left it in. The human brain was thought to be superfluous to requirements and was treated with very little in the way of reverence. Hooks were inserted up the nose and they were jiggled around to scramble the brain and then they would proceed to scoop it out back through the nose. Oh those crazy Egyptians smart in many ways dead wrong (pun intended) in others.

    So what has that got to do with the acquiring of knowledge I hear you ask? It is a good question! After all this is all about questions.

    Well I will do my level best to bring it all together with just one terrible segue.

    Brain Picking!

    See what I did there 🙂

    If you are unfamiliar with the concept of brain picking it is the systematic approach to obtaining information, skills or knowledge from another person by asking specific and well constructed questions.

    The thing is most people when they look to learn something new, try and gain the knowledge of that thing by trial and error.

    Hey it works that’s why we do it. The thing is using your own effort to acquire a new thing that someone has already done is, if you think about it clearly not the most efficient way.

    I mean let’s say you wanted to be a doctor you wouldn’t just start trying to come up with new ways yourself to see if you could make someone better. You would consult the existing body of work that has been accumulated over the years. Obviously!

    The thing is in so many other fields we ignore this wisdom and just start by plowing ahead trying to learn as we go. No thought to the easier way.

    Let’s take business as an example you decide you want to start one but have never done so. Let’s say you decide that you want to offer a personal concierge service. Hey people are busy and they need to be organised often they don’t have the time to do things for themselves. You know that people are doing very well in this business but there doesn’t seem to be anyone doing it in your area. You’ve found your gap in the market.

    Now all you have to do is figure out how to get this up and running. So you do all the usual things get some cards printed, get a website done, get your business registered and you start trying to find clients by asking friends if they know anyone who could use your service and head to local networking events to pitch your service.

    Over time you barrel through picking up the occasional bit of business and hoping your business improves. With each new month you learn a few more skills that make your business better and after a year or two you are getting quite good at what you do.

    Well that’s one way.

    Another way might be this….

    Part 1.

    You go on the internet and find everyone in that industry who is a successful and not geographically competitive with you. Get a list of at least 20-30.

    Take a look at each persons website and see what is good on there and what is bad. You look at services provided and the pricing structure if available. You make a note of all the things that you could adopt yourself. You create a spreadsheet with the details of each person/business what they do how they do it good and bad. You get all their contact info for part 3.

    Part 2

    You brainstorm a load of questions that you would love to have answered by someone in the know. So that would shorten your path to knowledge of the industry.

    Things like…

    How did you start your business?

    What have been your biggest successes?

    What have been your biggest mistakes?

    What would you have loved to know at the start that would have made you more successful quicker?

    What marketing strategies have been the most successful?

    What do you think you would do differently if you had to start all over again?
    So you would get a list of relevant questions. That would if answered, fast track your knowledge.
    Part 3

    You contact each person on the list tell them that you really admire what they are doing and say that you would love to have a chat about how they became so great. Tell them that you are thinking of doing something similar and that you are not going to be in competition with them as they are operating in a different area.

    The thing is everyone likes to tell their story and we are all starved for the attention of someone who will listen. This is your advantage you are prepared to listen.

    Get them to tell their story. Then ask your questions. Make notes.

    When you finish, thank them and ask if it would be ok to speak to them from time to time if you ever have any questions. Job done!

    You do this for each and every one of the people on your list. Well, at least those who will speak to you and you again take lots of notes.

    Very quickly you will have virtually all the knowledge that you need to get your business off the ground. You will know how to get it going and growing really fast and you will know what mistakes to avoid. You will have more than a few people to help you should you get stuck.

    There is a secondary benefit to speaking to lots of people. Often many different people in an area have different knowledge and never do anything to improve that knowledge. You will be the only one who has the complete picture as you have talked to everyone. This can give you a massive advantage if you have competition, as the people who you are competing against never take the time to do this.

    This usually does not take long you can normally get this done in under two weeks.

    You now get to hit the ground not only running but running like Usain Bolt.

    You have a far greater degree of confidence in what you are doing and you are not wasting any time with trial and error and second guessing yourself. You have shortened your learning curve to its bare minimum.

    You can do this with any skill that requires knowledge and is the fastest way I know to shortcut that journey.

    Use this technique in every area of your life and your speed to knowledge and skill acquisition will be the stuff of legend.

    Oh one final thing you should memorise the first 4 questions as you can use them on any person you meet. It is good for you and it is good for them you gain knowledge, they get to tell their story.

    So go Pick Brains non-Egyptian style.

    Snowy

  • The Ultimate Mastermind Group!

    I don’t know if you have ever tried to get a mentor but often it is so much harder than most people will tell you.

    Especially if you want a world class mentor. Those guys are near impossible to get to.

    So what’s a guy to do if he really wants to get a world class mentor?

    Imagine you were in the tech space what would it be like to have say Mark Zuckerberg or if he was still alive maybe Steve Jobs as your mentor? If you were into business how good would it be to have someone like Richard Branson or Donald Trump giving you advice? Or say you were into personal development and peak performance imagine you had Anthony Robbins in your corner.

    Do you think that would make a difference in your life? I guess you would say “you bet your ass it would”.

    So what are your chances of getting these guys to mentor you anytime soon? Practically a big fat ZERO!!!

    Hey you could try begging and pleading, you could go one step further by trying to be useful to them. By offering yourself and your services in free of charge in exchange of being in their orbit. Still seems unlikely. Hey maybe we can up our game a little maybe we can come up with 10-50 good ideas about how to improve their world. Hey that might help. Maybe it is worth a try… You never know!

    For the most of us this is a hiding to nothing, and you stand about as much chance of getting them as a mentor as landing on the moon.

    So what is plan B?

    Well, I have a rather weird alternative! Oh and a warning this is not for the faint of heart and does require some serious effort! That said the payoff can be nothing short of incredible.

    So let’s begin…

    I have mentioned in another article that in the classic book “Think and Grow Rich” the singly greatest idea in there is completely overlooked by the majority of readers. It is called the “Internal Mastermind”

    So what is an internal mastermind? Well, for those of you who for a start don’t know what a Mastermind group is, it is basically a collection of people who get together to come up with ideas for a common pursuit of purpose. i.e business people getting together to exchange ideas on ways to improve their respective companies.

    The internal mastermind group is exactly the same it is just imagined in your head.

    Did I lose your there? Did I?

    Please bear with me and I might just give you something that can radically alter your life.

    Why do you want a mentor? Because you believe they will bestow upon you ideas and information that will help you improve your lot in life. Agreed? Good!

    You can’t get to the good ones in the physical world but you can get to them in the mental world!

    Let me explain how I went about doing this.

    First I built with an imaginary boardroom in my head (I could tell you that it is wood panelled and sumptuously furnished but that is unimportant!) It has a large table with 5 chairs on either side, a large seat for me at the head of the table and two guest chairs at the end.

    Each chair is filled with people who have skills, knowledge or characteristics that I admire.

    How do you find out who has characteristic that you admire? Well, look to the place you want to get to in life and ask yourself “who is already in that place?” Or alternatively ask what characteristics do I think I am going to need in order to get to where I want to go?

    Next decide who best fills that role?
    And here is the tricky part find out all you can about that person. Read their biography if they have one. Read articles about them. Watch videos of them on YouTube. Saturate yourself in your knowledge of them. So much so that you can get a really good mental impression of them.

    Then sit them in a chair. You can do this with one or many it does not matter what your preference is.

    But this is the good part. You get to ask them questions! This is the really, really good part. They will answer you back!!!! This is the most extraordinary part if you do this often enough they will give you answers that you will genuinely believe did not come from yourself. Yep read that again. I know you know that it is just you and your imagination, but believe me these characters take on a life of their own and genuinely give you insights that you will think, “Where the hell did that come from?”

    Why this happens I have no idea! Maybe it just allows you to get out of the way of yourself and allows your subconscious to work through you, that’s my best guess but like i say I have no real idea. Either way, the results can be wondrous.

    To give you some ideas as to who you should put in your board room I will tell you about some of the people I have put in my chairs over the years (you will start to swap out people over the years as you will feel that you have acquired the skill you brought that person in to gain, or that you find a more useful person to provide that skill.

    Richard Branson (business acumen)
    Sir James Goldsmith (Passion/business acumen)
    Anthony Robbins (Motivation)
    Leonardo Da Vinci (creativity)
    Don Vito Corleone (Leadership)
    Keyser Soze (force of will)
    Paul Atreides (seeing the future)
    Edward De Bono (lateral thinking/problem solving)

    You will notice that the list contains some fictional characters. This is allowed as they were the best representation of skills that I could come up with.

    As I also mentioned if there was a specific problems that were not being able to solved by the fixed members of my board then I would bring in guest members to ask them questions.

    Anyhow by now you might think that this makes me schizophrenic but I assure you, I never once forgot that this was just taking place in my head. All I am stating is that when I go there I often get extraordinary help if and when I need it.

    It can be a remarkable tool if you use it I suggest you do.

    Oh, one final thing for some of you who want a soft intro into the power of this technique i suggest this.

    Whenever you have a problem ask yourself the question “What do I think X would do in this situation?” You might find yourself getting a better answer. If you do maybe you will decide to up your game and take it to the next level by trying the boardroom.

    Snowy

  • This News Could Cost You Money, Maybe Even Kill You!

    The world is out to get you make no mistake! There is a mugger around every corner, someone ready to rob you, rape you or murder you! Your neighbour is probably a serial killer, pedophile or criminal mastermind. Every person who does not look like you is probably a religious fundamentalist terrorist, with sarin gas, anthrax, dirty bombs or weapons of mass destruction hidden in their back pack.

    It’s true it really is! Well it is if you believe the world that the media portray. That world is fucking scary. Worse than any horror film or futuristic dystopia. In their world everyone and I mean everyone is out to get you. That friend you have always had doubts about don’t trust that motherfucker he is likely to be planning something very nasty for you!

    Hey and if it is not the people, then it is some sort of disease! Right now as I write this I can tell you just exactly what is going to kill me according to the news! What I hear you ask is this horrendous thing? Well I will tell you! Are you ready for this? It’s EBOLA!!!! There I said it. oh my god Ebola is going to get me I should not write the word ebola too many times I may be chancing fate after all that shit is deadly.

    In fact it is so deadly i’m probably going to die from it before I finish this article! I better type as fast as I can.

    The thing is Ebola is serious it does kill people but unless you are a medical worker in Africa, you are really unlikely to catch let alone die from Ebola. As of writing 13 americans have contracted the disease.

    1 died from failing to receive proper treatment. The other people are up on their feet and back on the street. They were all in some way involved in the providing of medical care.

    Thus far here in the UK precisely none not one nada zip zilch have died of the disease.

    So why the furore. Well fear sells stuff! News people like diseases great for a panic.

    Most media organisations rely on advertising as their main source of revenue. Advertisers know that if people are unhappy they buy stuff. The more unhappy/worried they are the more stuff they buy. Advertisers want people to be unhappy so they go to where people are the most worried and most unhappy and put there adverts there. Bad news = More Sales. It is a simple equation.

    I get it this sounds like a bit of a conspiracy theory doesn’t it. So don’t take my word for it (never do) go look it up.

    See I told you.

    Unhappiness/advertising costs you money lots and lots of money added up over a lifetime it is a fortune, because to quote Tyler Durden from fight club “advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.”

    Still don’t believe me well in my life alone there have been a number of things that were going to kill me that failed to. I can remember when HIV/Aids was going to kill 1 in 4 people! No joke that was the story going around.

    Hmm what else? I know the Flu’s… Avian and Swine remember them? They were touted as the next big Pandemic. Hey after all Spanish Flu killed 50-100 million from 1918-1920. So maybe it could! As long as you forget how quickly medicine and effective medical care is available to people from the latter half of the 20th century onwards. Not to mention medical/scientific advances in understanding the disease and how it spreads. Oh and back then they didn’t have the world health organisation and the center for disease control.

    Hmm what else well there was the potential for another outbreak of small pocks (never happened)

    CJD/Mad cows disease well that got a few people in the UK over a hundred in the last 20 years. That said drowning kills 400+ people a year in the UK and we don’t hear the news telling us the dangers of water!

    You get the point!

    For a bit of fun just type the words “set to kill millions/thousands/tens of thousands” or derivatives thereof into google see how many of the set to kill millions etc actually came true.

    I will tell you what is a killer of people and makes people miserable and unhappy… Stress!

    That shit will kill you son! That’s no lie.

    What is the number one causer of stress? I have no real idea but I would bet “The News” is up there on the list.

    So turn that horrendous lie filled filth off. It could save your life.

    Here’s to a news/stress free life!

    Snowy

     

    NOTE: I wrote this article about 3 weeks ago at the start of the ebola crisis. Already we barely hear about it anymore. Surprise Surprise!!