If you are curious as to what the acronym means than continue down the path of reading this article to discover the meaning. If, however, you are annoyed that the answer hasn’t been spelled out for you already then this is a good opportunity to stop reading and go back to the black hole of your facebook page.
For the record, this article is dedicated to all the haters who never commit to that first step or risk anything only to lose everything in the process. Furthermore, if you have a hard time accepting the principle of “nothing ventured, nothing gained” than the good news is that you are human. The bad news, however, is that similar to most things in life just because you choose not to accept them doesn’t mean it isn’t true, think gravity and choosing to jump off a skyscraper or how it was once believed the earth was flat.
First and foremost, we never stop asking questions at Principles. Questions no matter the quality are inherently open-ended and when approached in the proper manner, expand our minds and the possibility to which we operate. This is critical to any development simply because if we think we know we are trapped by our own limited thinking without even knowing it. Moreover, and before we are capable of structuring quality questions it’s important to smoke out the excuses, we all so conveniently hide behind in order to justify our inadequacies or at least the perception of our less than favorable qualities.
Second, let’s begin by asking a direct question aimed at you, the reader…Can You Imagine Unlimited Opportunity? Is it even possible for you? Maybe it is, or maybe it isn’t -- only you can choose to accept this reality.
If you can’t or have no clue what we are talking about then take a deep breath and let the silence engulf you for just a few seconds…Now, imagine how different your life would be if you actually realized that the lens to which you viewed the world was overwhelmed with opportunity, as opposed to stress, mortgage payments, kid's expenses, planning for retirement, or whatever the concern du jour is at the present moment.
Whether you believe it or not, we create our own reality based upon how we perceive it.
For instance, if we wake up in the morning and believe that the future is going to be positive, then we lean toward feeling jovial. If we think or get a sense that we are going to experience hardship, we often feel depressed or disenchanted with our lives.
Still confused? Think about the last time you went on vacation and we're around other people that were also getting away…This cycle or shift in mindset happens on a macro and micro basis throughout the year, month, week, day and for most of us, on a microsecond basis. So often we get trapped into allowing it to infect our self-worth that we tend to sabotage ourselves by acting in accordance with how we want to support that perception. It can be so intense given our reaction to life’s circumstances that we have trouble discerning the why and the what that constitutes our true reality -- if such a thing even exists.
Take a moment right now to hit the pause button…Now ask yourself how different life would be if you knew you could get any job you wanted or could start any business you desired, or could date anyone you fancied? Try it for 16 seconds or better yet for the entire day and see how vastly different your outlook feels and eventually evolves over time.
Hopefully, by doing that simple exercise, you can now see what is possible as opposed to focusing on what you think is possible based upon the failures and/or negative influences in your life thus far. The next question to ask yourself is, what is the only barrier to reaching that state of possibility or at least striving toward that potential? If you dig deep enough the answer always comes back to an excuse and unfortunately these days most people spend more time given oxygen to the reasons why they can’t do something as opposed to putting one foot in front of the other and finding all the reasons why they must do something.
Listed below are the most frequently used excuses known to mankind but ignored by the true masters of the universe…proceed with caution because we all get cozy with most of these when we stare into the abyss but have yet to realize it is of our own creation.
“Not enough time” Put simply, time is a concept. It truly doesn’t exist, yet most people spend their entire adult lives worrying over not having enough of this particular commodity. If this one is high on your excuse list, then it’s time to write down what you are doing each half-hour of each day until you realize that YOU are simply wasting time all throughout the day. Please stop blaming something that doesn’t exist – it's inhumane at best and if that’s not enough to stop, do it “for the children.” Using myself as cannon fodder, when I started down the path toward mastery, I dedicated a half-hour each day in the mornings and it was truly a game-changer. If you can’t slice out thirty minutes to develop a skill set that has the potential to allow you to never be an employee ever again than you really need to get your priorities re-aligned.
“Too Busy” If I hear another person say they are too busy to make more money and truly make a dent in their universe I am going to projectile vomit. Seriously, ask yourself whom you are lying to? Can you honestly say that developing a scalable skill set such as investing or trading or speculating would not afford you the freedom in life that we all strive for? If you can I'm genuinely embarrassed for you...stop reading this now and re-login into FB and waste their time.
“No Money” Regardless of the endeavor if you never risk money you will never be rewarded, period. It's a principle of the universe, Google it…
“Not Smart Enough” Really...??? Investing is a skill game, the less you understand the less you make, the less you can make...and down the rabbit hole, you will go...only to wake up in your old age to be labeled the old fart curmudgeon.
“Don’t know the Secrets” The only secret to the universe that I've discovered in my pursuit to discover any secrets is that there are none, it’s all been done before. The only thing in life you have to figure out is that there is nothing to figure out...once you get to that mental state then you can actually expand in a constructive manner toward whatever pursuit you decide, ie, the universe will open up to you in ways you won't believe but we all need to walk down the path, no one can do it for us...
“Not talented enough” Micheal Jordan, for lack of a better example was known to shoot thousands of free-throws per day and we all know he was cut from the team before he became "the rising star". Does this mean that he wasn't talented? Of course not, but our ability to distinguish between raw talent (if there is such a thing) or what we believe he was born with is a set of variables that we may never fully understand, thus, why waste another moment thinking about it? Furthermore, think about the great talents that become cliche's simply because their ego and the competition trap them into forgetting what got them to their so-called status -- the forging of their craft through countless hours of trials and tribulations.
“It’s an esoteric endeavor” At least this one has some genuine thought behind it…however, the ego has many talents not the least of which is fooling us into believing that by failing at something it will hurt less than ever attempting. We even go so far as focusing all our energy on isolating certain people in culture as “super-stars.” If you ask one of these so-called divine figures how they got to where they are they will say they worked their ass off.
“The Markets Can’t Be Beat” If you actually believe this then it probably makes more sense to stop reading and go back to your fantasy football league or playing call of duty on your little brother’s Xbox. I get it, I also wasted many years of my life being distracted and misled because of a lack of clarity. What we’ve learned is that these overwhelming bits of conventional wisdom are pushed into the marketplace because…here it comes…businesses want to make money and in order for them to do this they must sell you a product and the only way they can sell you a product is to convince you that their product is going to solve all your problems that may or may not even exist – think big pharma – you were unhappy 10 minutes ago for 3 milliseconds – they have a pill for that…side effects may include dependency on the very pill you are taking – get it? Believe it or not but most of this isn’t the result of malicious intent (best case scenario) but due to societal pressures as well as not digging deeper to discover your purpose and getting quiet until the noise stops being as pervasive as it currently may be… Ask yourself if you would prefer to “hit the easy button” or “take a pill” in most difficult to swallow life situations and you will soon realize that you often create your own trap…(that was deep, did you catch it?) Think of it this way -- Can you beat your 3-year-old son in old maid? Life, as well as investing is a skill game – period. The better you are the easier you are able to beat the next investor.
“You don’t have any testimonials” This is less of an excuse and more of a critique on the prevailing trend of businesses during the internet era to bury prospects with meaningless comments from people that may or may not even exist. Moreover, if you actually believe your experience can be paralleled with a complete stranger than you should go experience life a little further and come back when you come to grips with two realities – one, you are on your own unique path and only you can put one leg into each pant leg every morning – two, how valid is a testimonial if the business itself has control over which get posted on their digital storefront (rhetorical question).
Are you still looking for an excuse or simply justifying the ones you have in your sturdy arrow quiver?
News Flash -- If you have read through this entire section and are still wondering if this is a sales pitch than it might be time to go on a retreat to save the puppies in Africa. Not because we don’t like man’s best friend, but because the reality of life is that it is ugly out there when you come to grips with the truth that no one really cares about you other than you. All the positive thinking in the world will never change this truth because we are born selfish. Case in point, take a bottle away from a newborn and watch them wail.
Questions are great to ask about how to get better, but excuses are the black hole of the abyss you are fearing the most, which is to have no money, no freedom, no income, no options...
Question for you...what's the only difference between crazy and genius? The answer is Success. That said, ask yourself what is more important than your success? Stop delaying the opportunity you have to develop a scalable skill set because the other guy in your office, neighborhood, and/or the chat room you just left before reading this signed up yesterday and he wants to be your boss.
Here at Principles, we understand that everyone is on a unique path in their respective lives. Aligned with this mode of understanding, we are also strong believers that there is no such thing as coincidence. This doesn’t mean that we are naïve enough to think that “everything happens for a reason.” Although, it is quite possible that there is a reason for everything that happens. That said, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step -- will this be yours?
Hopefully, at this point you can discern that this isn’t about Principles, it is about YOU. All the excuses or delays or so-called reasons YOU keep leaning on will never help you achieve your objectives. Take a deep breath…now ask yourself, whom YOU are actually lying to?
Breaking News – “The Past"...didn’t matter then and it doesn’t matter now -- what actually matters is what you do next and then rinse, repeat until you get to where you want to be…it is truly that simple and whoever says it isn't hasn't done it - period.
We wish you the best in the pursuit of your potential, not ours.