Michael Neely's Blog

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Success

Whose Voices are Inside Your Head?

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What’s the Chatter in Your Head?

If you were raised like I was, you have heard before that only crazy people have voices in their heads. You’ve seen the “psycho-killer” movie where he (or she) seeks revenge until it becomes an all-consuming obsession. They hear voices in their heads that make them do the things that they are not responsible for. As most TV shows illustrate, only crazy people hear voices.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

We all have voices in our heads telling us what to do based on our conditioning. Our parents may have taught us how to avoid risk. “Don’t touch that.” “Play it safe.” They were just making sure that we didn’t hurt ourselves as we were growing up. At some point in our lives, we have to begin deciding what is better for us. Sadly, most  people go to their graves still listening to their parents’ warnings.

Are They Helping You or Hurting You?

I can’t count the times that I have had a thought run through my head that I have had to stop and question where it came from. These thoughts usually begin with “I can’t.” Many times these thoughts get in my head from past experiences or people in my past. Sometimes those people aren’t even alive anymore. An old drinking buddy tells me that we have to drink every day because we were waiters and need to be “products of the product” we sell. He’s dead from alcohol and drug abuse and I’m not a waiter anymore.

The people you are around the most are the ones who influence you the most. Jim Rohn said that you are the sum of your five closest friends. Your income will be about what their income is. If they go to more ball games than concerts, you will most likely go to more ball games than concerts. Whatever you and your closest friends believe, you will also believe. This can work to your advantage or to your detriment.

Basically speaking, your closest friends and associates have a huge influence on how your life turns out. That can be either inspiring or depressing and it’s something you have control over.

Your Self-Talk Decides How Your Life Turns Out

If you believe that you are a failure, you’re right. If you believe that you are an outstanding success, you are also right. Whatever you tell yourself over and over, becomes your reality. This is no longer something that some self-help guy said decades ago, it is a psychological fact.

Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become reality. -Earl Nightingale

Here is the ugly truth. Assuming you don’t have a disease that robs you of your physical and mental resources, you are responsible for how your life turns out. What you hear consistently is responsible for that. In sports, it’s called mental conditioning and it can decide the outcome of a sports event, a business deal, or your life.

Choose What You Hear, Choose Your Life

Occasionally, the TV cameras following a big sports event will catch the players coming off the plane or walking from the bus to the locker room. Almost all of them have headphones on. They also have an almost laser-like focus on anything but the media and the attention they are getting. What are they listening to? They could be listening to a special recording their coach has made for them. They could be listening to inspirational music. They are staying focused on one thing- winning the game or match. In life, just as in sports, if you aren’t focused on winning, you’re losing.

I listen to Grant Cardone for my inspiration. He faced financial disaster in the financial meltdown of 2008 and has rebounded to real estate holdings of $800M in AUM (accounts under management) according to his Twitter account in September 2018. He is a winner in the business world and I want winners in my corner telling me what move to make next.

If you are serious about changing your life, I would highly recommend listening to Grant Cardone’s Core MP3 Package. You can download and start listening today. I have a personal testimonial that listening to these four audios were key to my earning the largest commission check of my life at over $41,000. I invested $179 for these MP3’s in 2014. Would you invest as little as $100 to develop the skills and mindset to earn $41,000? I thought so. Order them today.

Redefining Success: Building My Best Year Ever

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How I Learned from Becoming My Biggest Setback

It’s 2018. The past couple of years have been tough, but negotiable. Fortunately, I am still breathing to write more about this bizarre journey for personal success. I have earned a lot of money and lost a lot of money. I have done everything I can to gain the respect of people who do not matter, usually at the expense of my self-respect. I have battled to regain my self-respect and start putting together something that looks like victory. When it all comes down to it, there has only been one struggle I have had to deal with. That obstacle is me. [Read more…] about Redefining Success: Building My Best Year Ever

The Book That Helped Me Earn My Biggest Paycheck So Far

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Alright here’s my confession. I didn’t buy the book The 10x Rule, I bought the mp3 audio, which is even better than the book in my opinion . The audio is also called The 10x Rule by New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, sales trainer, and real estate mogul Grant Cardone. I bought it from GrantCardone.com on July 7th, 2014 as a package deal with three other audios (except I spent $179 on those four audios). I immediately got into them. The 10xRule is a fresh, no-holds-barred approach to the subject of success and getting everything successful people want out of life. If you want more success out of life, I highly encourage you to buy this mp3, listen to it often, and 10x your successes. I have used the information in this audio to greatly transform my life, and to get on and stay on a track of success. This information can help anyone who truly wants more success in their lives.  And yes, there are affiliate links in this post.

[Read more…] about The Book That Helped Me Earn My Biggest Paycheck So Far

Why Getting Rich and Famous are Essential to Your Entrepreneurial Success

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Getting rich and famous are almost taboo these days.

Like a lot of busy solopreneurs these days, I have a few tools that are in auto-pilot on my Twitter feed @michael_neely. Yesterday, I saw the article “5 Wrong Reasons for Becoming an Entrepreneur” by Jayson Demers on my feed from Entrepreneur magazine and I had to read it. I don’t keep it a secret that I am a big fan of Grant Cardone and his various works on entrepreneurship and sales training.

To be fair to Jayson, it seems to me that he is writing about primary motivations to starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur. I agree with him that starting a business for the sole purpose of getting rich probably won’t work. If you want to get famous, I would turn to Hollywood (or another film-making city like Atlanta), dropping a CD, devoting your time to become a “reality TV” star, or even social media. Even then, it won’t happen overnight.

[Read more…] about Why Getting Rich and Famous are Essential to Your Entrepreneurial Success

“Good Job” vs. Entrepreneurship

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Everyone Wants a “Good Job,” Right?

I guess it depends on who you’re speaking with. And what do you mean by a “good job?” I’ve heard this term a lot over the last few years, especially around election time. You hear statements like “There just aren’t enough ‘good jobs.'” What better excuse for mediocrity can you have? Does that mean that you graduate college and then get hired within a few weeks as CEO of a multinational conglomerate earning millions with six months vacation? Maybe a good job is with the government or a union job. Maybe you’ve been able to make this work for you. “I’m not making as much money as I would like because there aren’t enough ‘good jobs’ out there to supply me with the income I desire.” That’s because you’re looking for what you want in the wrong place.

[Read more…] about “Good Job” vs. Entrepreneurship

Focus on Achieving Success

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focus

Focus On Positive Change

Success is the habit of creating positive change. To create positive change, you have to concentrate your attention on your desired result.To me, this is one of the most overlooked requirements of becoming successful. Google defines “focus” as the center of interest or activity. It is where you concentrate your attention and activity on what you want instead of what you don’t want. If you seek success, it is vital to stay focused on what you want. Not only because you get more work done, but because what you focus on expands. In other words, if you concentrate your attention on succeeding, you will succeed. If you concentrate on making excuses, you will find a multitude of excuses of why you can’t succeed instead of the success you desire.

Pursuing success means creating positive change. To create positive change, by definition, you have to end negative change by eliminating negative habits. When you end negative habits, you concentrate on positive habits. When you flood your mind with positive thoughts, you develop positive actions that take you in the direction you want for your life.

“What we focus on is where we go. Where focus goes, energy flows.” -Jordan Belfort

It works every time. If your attention is on injustice, you will get more injustice. If you focus on earning a new income level, you start finding new opportunities to earn the income you desire. What you concentrate on expands.

Change Creates Fear

Changing your life is scary stuff. Your comfort zone will fight back. You will start thinking that you aren’t good enough to achieve the success you want. You must focus on what you want in life, not that which you are afraid. If you focus on your fear, you will get more of what you fear. When I first got started in business, I had a track record of successes from earlier career successes in the military. I could not fail in my eyes. I failed anyway because I did not do my research on the company with whom I was working. I did everything they told me to do but did not get the desired results. I accept responsibility for this event, but the memory of this failure created a fear in my mind. I had to end this fear to move forward in business. I began focusing on what I wanted instead of what I didn’t want, and eventually got what I wanted.

Focus is What Gets You Results

In 1959, Earl Nightingale recorded “The Strangest Secret.” This recording was the predecessor to the Personal Development industry as we know it today. It was the first spoken record that sold to Gold Record status. The main message of The Strangest Secret is not a new message. Many authors, teachers, and magnates have said this throughout history in many forms.

“You become what you think about most of the time.” -Earl Nightingale

Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Allen, and long before them, Jesus of Nazareth have echoed similar thoughts. It is the secret of success that cannot be overturned or ignored. “The Strangest Secret” is not a secret at all.

Have Lots of Problems? Stop Looking For Them

If you consider the quote above if you think about your problems most of the time, they expand. Your problems get bigger than they were. What you focus on expands. If you concentrate on your problems all the time, they don’t get solved, they get bigger and bigger. The bigger your problems seem, the more insurmountable they become. Then, your problems convince you to take no activity and nothing changes. Stop dwelling on your problems. No one else wants to hear about them anyway.

Concentrate on What You Want

Since you become what you think about, think about what you want to become constantly. Stop thinking about who betrayed you in the past, and start thinking about how you will make your dreams come true. Fill your mind with your goals and how you can achieve them with integrity.

Desire Is Where Success Starts

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Desire is where success beginsDesire is where business success starts. Success will not come to you just because you are awesome. There are people who say they desire success, but they don’t want success badly enough to work hard towards their vision of success. They think that their friends will not approve, and these people are probably right. Their friends probably wouldn’t approve. They can say they want success all they want. The truth is that if you aren’t working towards your success every minute that you have available, you will never create the momentum necessary to break through the seemingly insurmountable resistance it takes to create the life you want.

“The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.” –Robert Kiyosaki

Your Vision Can Create Desire

Let’s say that I see a bright red beautiful sports car driving down the road one day. I decide that I want a sports car just like the one I saw. Wanting a new car isn’t being covetous of my “neighbor’s” sports car. I want the sense of accomplishment and pride in ownership of this beautiful car like the one I saw, but not that exact car. I cut out pictures of this sports car and place them all around my house and my office. I write out how I am going to buy this car, how I will earn the money and fulfill this desire. Maybe I see someone who has a lifestyle based on freedom. He works when he wants to, with whom he wants to work, makes more money than he can spend, and works from home. Maybe that is something I want to create in my life. I start finding pictures of things that remind me of this lifestyle, write out a plan and begin taking steps to fulfill this destiny. Your vision can create your desire to create positive change.

Immersion In the Outcome Increases Desire

When I was a little boy, I got into car design for a little while. My favorite car in the ninth grade was a 1969 Corvette convertible. I also liked looking at pictures of the flying cars that we would certainly have by the year 2000. I enjoyed designing cars based on what the future would resemble. I would lie in the floor and draw what cars would look like when I got older. This activity was a lot of fun for me. Fast forward 40 years. Now, I get excited when I think about my vision for my future. I develop goals as stepping-stones to my vision, and it creates desire. I see myself enjoying living on the 30th floor (or higher) in my condominium, enjoying my coffee before I get started with my business day, and I get excited. When I see myself driving down the road in my favorite car for that day, I get excited. You get the point. No one gets excited about goals because meeting goals is the work that fulfills the vision for your future. Your vision gets you excited, keeps you working late at night and getting up early, and working on creating your future. Your vision creates your desire to achieve what you want.

Desire and Vision Inspire Goals and Action

Desire by itself is not enough. If you desire to change your life, but don’t put action behind it, then you are fantasizing about the results you could have and settling for less that you can be. First, you must want something different or want something to change. Then you imagine the outcome of what you want and how it can benefit you and all others involved in the outcome. Then, you set the goals or the action steps to get from where you are now to the desired outcome. It all begins with a desire to improve one aspect of your life. Without a desire to change or improve, no one can help you.

How Important is Success to You?

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Money and Success

What is this elusive thing called success? To some, success means nice cars, nice houses, vacations, and lots of leisure time. To others, it means merely getting the bills paid and making ends meet. To other people, it means making sure they get their government check every month. To most people, success means doing better than they did. It means that their quality of life is improving, and financial success is a part of that success. This post is for those that work for business success daily. These are the business owners, the entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs who work to make their dreams come true in the business world.

I always knew that I wanted success in my life. Early in my career, I allowed the people with whom I used to associate influence me negatively. Success to them meant drinking and smoking in their favorite bar every day after a long (or not so long) day at work. This picture was my vision of success, and it was the vision that I pursued for many years. This path led to some of the darkest days of my life. After I crashed my business and my life in 2001, my friends left me, and I was no longer welcome in the places that I used to go. I also crashed financially.

I moved to Florida to turn my life around in 2002. To make this part of the story short, I did not turn my life around. I continued to live by the habits of my former life, the drinking, the smoking, and the hanging out in bars. I struggled to get my life just a little bit together and moved to Atlanta. I returned to my source of income that was my old standby of waiting tables and slipped right back into my old habits. If you can do these things and still meet your goals, then that’s great. But, for me, after the age of 40, the time came for me to wake up and change.

I started listening to different information from different people. My mentor at the time said that I needed to throw myself into something called personal development. I heard about a man named Jim Rohn. I bought some audios and listened to them. I wrote down some ideas and applied them to my life, and I changed my life a little. I bought a couple of books and some more audios from people like Earl Nightingale, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitley, and Zig Ziglar. I listened to their audios, read their books, and I changed my life a little more.

Then I stopped for a little while. I got tied up in a job, made some more money, and changed my environment. I experienced some success.Why did I achieve a little success? I was listening to some new ideas. I applied some new, successful ideas, and I got different results. What was the secret? I found some new ideas and applied those ideas to my life. I changed the people with whom I was associating. I started working on myself. And I got results.

About a year later, I got restless again. I plateaued at what I was doing, and it was time to find some more answers. I started selling my services as a freelance marketing consultant with very little success. I discovered Grant Cardone in 2010 on Twitter, but I had no idea who he was. Two years after I first heard of him, a Twitter conversation led me to his website. I discovered that he was a sales trainer, and what I needed was sales training. I bought his book The Closer’s Survival Guide. I got much more than sales training. I got a bunch of attitude from someone who had been where I had been before. That was something I desperately needed in my life. The answers did not come to me by magic, or by some other mystical forces. They came to me because I searched for the answers that could change my life.

The success you seek does not come to you by luck or magic. You have to start looking for the success that you seek. I have made a lot of progress since I started this blog in 2011. I am always looking for new information and associating with new people who can help me get where I want to go. Applying new ideas to your life can help you become more successful than you were. How hard you look for those ideas reflects how important success is to you.  The harder you work towards success, the sooner you will find what you seek. I am constantly seeking greater successes.

The Best “Failure” I’ve Ever Had

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In the past, when I stopped a business that I had been working on, the results were disastrous.  This time, not so much. 

I was incredibly fortunate to have been involved in the last business I got into and I met  some really great people.  I was challenged to do things I’ve never done before…like move to Atlanta with no financial backing and visit Oklahoma City for a weekend convention.  The business opportunity that I got involved in made me grow.  I accepted challenges that I would have never done by myself.

 Without taking a chance, I would have never quit drinking and smoking.  I would have never realized that the money I was wasting on cigarettes and alcohol could have been invested in my well-being and personal growth and personal development.  I am a better typist, a better writer and a better businessman.  I am now accepting new challenges and meeting them.  I have new business concerns and new contacts. 

The best thing that I’ve encountered in this “failure,” is the knowledge that I am just getting started!