How Bad Do You Want It?

My Surprise Mentors

Each summer I travel thousands of miles from home to a small conference center in the countryside of Lithuania. It's there that I meet my friend Simon Black and we spend four days with dozens of young men and women from all over the world at his BlackSmith Liberty and Entrepreneurship camp. While Simon and I are the instructors for the event, I leave feeling like the kids taught me as much as I taught them. And they have a big lesson for you today.

Craig Ballantyne

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."-- Dale Carnegie 

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By Craig Ballantyne

They came from all over the world. Fifty young adults from thirty-five countries, often traveling thousands of miles, pay their own way for an opportunity to better their future. Each accepted to our exclusive camp only after submitting impressive video applications demonstrating how they would add value to the world.
It amazed me how much effort the kids put in to get there. Two of the attendees were only 18 years old and yet they too paid their full fare to Lithuania. One was an American girl - the type you'd expect to be a typical entitled teenagers. And did I mention that she looked like a model? However, she didn't pay her way there by doing commercials or photoshoots. Her story is much more interesting than that.

This young woman from the mid-west saved her way there by working several manual labor jobs, many of them on farms. Once she had acquired enough capital, she bought herself a doublewide trailer and rented it out to her first tenants. It was with this entrepreneurial pluck that she was able to attend our camp over 4,700 miles from home. Others came from as far away as Bangladesh, Australia, and Uzbekistan.



Many of these kids had accomplished more - and traveled more extensively - by the age of 22 than I had by the age of 30. I was truly inspired by their boldness, and it brought me hope that there will be great leaders for the future.

"But," you might protest, "They're kids. They don't have any adult problems to deal with that can hold them back from traveling the world and going to your events."

And you're right. They are just "kids". Most of them didn't have adult problems (although two attendees did have young children at home). But as an adult, we must be mature enough to take personal responsibility for our problems. If you have something holding you back, then you, an adult that reads ETR, should know that you alone are personally responsible for where you are, and for where you are going, in life.

If you have problems that prevent you from traveling or attending seminars and events that will advance your career or education, then it is up to you to solve those problems, not to make excuses. That's what you'll do if you want it badly enough.

You see, everything in life simply comes down to how badly we want it. We all have obstacles. There are roadblocks on everyone's path to success. The simple fact is that some folks give up before they've exhausted all the ways to eliminate these obstacles. Many others, sadly, don't even bother trying at all.

But the bottom line that a responsible adult must accept is this...
It's you that got yourself into this mess, whatever this mess may be, and it's only you that can get you out of this mess. You can't rely on anyone else. You can't depend on the government to save you. You can't wish your way out of trouble. You can only take the high road, which is often the hard road.

The path to success, the road to riches, or whatever avenue it is that you seek does not promise an easy journey. However, it is often a simple journey.

In the Tough Mudder races that I've run, the event is simple. You just follow the path laid out for you. But it was not easy. There was always at least one, if not two or three sadistic hill climbs. If you've ever climbed a hill, and I'm sure you have, you know it's not complex. You just put one foot in front of the other. But it's remarkable how such a simple thing can be so hard.

Such is our journey in life, business, relationships, and self-improvement. The success stories of yesterday have left a well-worn path to the destination we seek. Unfortunately, it's up steep hills, through muddy swamps, over great barriers, and if you're doing a Tough Mudder, through obstacles booby-trapped with live wires, too.

If you want it badly enough you will not let these problems become an excuse. You don't quit from the frustration. You simply endure. You lean on others (you can't depend on them to be there, but if they are, accept their offer), you find a way to get to the top of that hill, and you find a way to clear the obstacles in the way of your success.

You keep going, and going, and going - when you want it bad enough. So...

• How badly do you want it?
• How badly do you want to change your circumstances?
• How badly do you want to achieve those goals that you've set on January 1st?
• How serious are you about getting outside of your comfort zone?
• How badly do you want to rid your life of the constant pain that comes with being unfulfilled?

There are few real limitations in our lives, few physical barriers that prevent us from at least trying to change. The obstacles are more often walls set up in our minds. We can just as easily make those walls fall down as we built them up.

It is we who tell ourselves what we can and cannot do. Sure, our spirits might get dampened by the news, the talking heads, those who are below average and hate to see us succeed. But we are adults. We are capable of rational thought. We can decide for ourselves what is possible and what is not. We don't need to leave the thinking and decisions about our life up to someone else.

On the other hand, for every one hundred naysayers, there is always a positive voice. There are great people out there that want to help you. They want to make it easier for you to accomplish your goals.

The kids that attended our BlackSmith Camp recognized this early in life. They looked around at what was in their schools, their communities, and even in their social circle, and they knew there had to be more. They also knew that there were others out there, just like them. And so, because they wanted it badly enough they found a way to get to a place where they could feel at home, even though it was thousands of miles away.

Fortunately for you, you don't have to travel halfway across the globe to find the same type of community that is happy to support you. Instead, you can find those people online, if you know where to find them. Luckily that's never been easier than it is today. There's never been more opportunity available to anyone in the world. It's all right at your fingertips, available to us in the comfort of our own homes.

So how badly do you want it? 

Enjoy The Design

What is it you’d like to experience?  Give yourself some room --Breathe into it. 

 

Remember, no one is repeatable.  Just as rare and unique as your own thumbprint is, the Universe knew what it was doing when it made you. 

 

You are made of the stuff of the Universe, the Spirit of the Universe, the Creativity Itself.  Allow that Creativity to move and rise up in your awareness.

 

What would it be like to live that life you truly desire?  As best you can, step into that life imaginally.  Walk around as the person who is living the life you imagine.  Like building a house step-by-step, we begin with drawings and we move forward systematically until completion. 

 

Spend some time today designing the mental blueprint of your ideal life.

 

Happy Harvesting

Nature herself does not distinguish between what seed it receives.  It grows whatever seed is planted; this is the way life works. 

 

Even though the universe is for our good and the Law of Life is for this ever-upward expansion and freedom, when you and I get focused on that which is smaller, contractive or little, the Universe can only grow for us that which we are planting.

 

Be mindful of the seeds you plant today, as they will become the crop you harvest.

 

Happy Harvesting

Here's To Letting Go

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “All the water in the world cannot drown you unless it gets inside of you.”

 

No matter what the problem, financial situation, history or whatever difficulty is around you --let it be around you.  It's a circumstance.  It's around you but is not meant to control or determine your internal weather.

 

Our internal weather comes from our state of mind, and the state of our heart.  Let us keep our mind and our heart focused on gratitude and appreciation.  Gratitude is a harmonious vibration with abundance. 

 

All the water in the world can be around us and we can float on top of it; what we find is that the ocean delights to lift us up as we let go.  On this day, let us let go and be lifted up and supported by an ocean of abundant good. 

 

Here's To Letting Go

Make Things a Little Better

Even in the worst day, there is good. Maybe you were caught out in the pouring rain, but eventually you ended up dry, right? Perhaps even in your favorite sweat pants and curled up with a good book on the couch. It's the little things in life that make or break a day. And so we must be grateful for all the details that make our lives better. I recently was reminded of this lesson...

Craig Ballantyne

"Always be thankful for what you do have, even if it's not ALL that you want to have" - Author Unknown

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Cure for a Bad Day

By Craig Ballantyne

The stench of wet dog was overwhelming inside the cramped interior of my rented Toyota Corolla. Alas, it was raining outside, so there was no reprieve. I couldn't roll the windows down, and the air conditioning couldn't keep up with the heat and humidity that enveloped the car.

Traffic snarled. It was the worst rush hour in the worst weather that the summer had seen. Usually I was smart enough to plan my travels earlier in the day before everyone and their dog (like me) tried to exit the city and return to their home in the 'burbs. But that day was one of those days where everything and everyone on my schedule was running late.

I wouldn't be in home in time for dinner. Worse, I wouldn't be home in time for the dog's dinner. And when I did get home (with home being the family farm where I was dropping off the dog for a two week vacation), there was still plenty of schlepping to do. As it continued to rain, there were still bags and boxes to bring into the old farmhouse, all while a famished dog ran around my legs anxious to be fed.

But that too did pass.

And looking back, I now recall it as just another interesting adventure with ol' Bally the Dog, rather than a series of frustrating events that elevated my blood pressure that afternoon.

In fact, as soon as we were settled, dried, and fed, there was one simple thing I was able to do that completely changed my attitude toward the day.

I gave gratitude for all that I had gone through.

Each day, usually right before dinner, I sit down with my Daily Documents and go through the wisdom I've collected from such (virtual) mentors as Dan Kennedy, Yanik Silver, Michael Masterson, Vishen Lakiani, Dan Sullivan, Dave Kekich, Frank McKinney, Jim Collins, and Bedros Keuilian. If you're a fan of Napolean Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", you'll recognize this as being similar to his Mental Mastermind.

My daily ritual starts with writing in a Gratitude and Achievement journal. It's a black moleskin notebook filled with page upon page of my illegible scribbles. On the left hand side of the page is the Gratitude column, and on the right is the Achievement column.

From Vishen I learned the gratitude exercise. It's where I write down the "who, what, and where" that I'm grateful for, as well as for what I'm excited to do the next day.

And from Dan Sullivan's book, "The Gap", I learned the Achievement exercise. It's where you simply write down up to five things that you achieved that day. No matter how stressful or frustrating your day, this is a pleasant reminder that some progress was made, no matter how small the achievement might seem in the grand scheme of things. Sullivan recommends teaching this exercise to your children so that they develop a habit of appreciating the abundance of achievement in their lives.

Next I went through some business reminders from Kennedy and Silver before I stumbled across one powerful phase from Bedros that completely switched my attitude from frustration to pure gratitude. It was though he was sitting beside me and giving the advice in person.

"Be grateful for what you have."

That was it.

It was this reminder from Bedros that allowed me to snap out of my funk. There I was sitting in the old farmhouse, the one full of four decades of memories, the one my mother still has stocked with enough food to feed an army for several months, and one that was warm, dry and full of all the comforts a person could need. There was absolutely no good reason to remain frustrated or annoyed with the day's events. The day was done and gone.

I realized this: You can't do anything about the past. You can't do anything about the behavior of others. You don't control them. But you do control your own thoughts.

So be grateful.

You and I take more conveniences for granted than societies from over a hundred years ago could possibly have imagined humans would ever have.

Tomorrow I'm going to take you through each one of the documents and exercises that I do that help remind me of all the abundance in my life. These Daily Documents remind me of the easy living I've been blessed with, and they have been the cure for a bad day on more than one occasion in my life.

We live in a time where the majority of North Americans live more abundantly than the Kings and Queens of over 100 years ago.

The next time you're having a bad day, cure your thoughts with gratitude. Write down what you are grateful for in your life. You'll find that it's often the little things that we take for granted, and that it is really the relationships with others in our lives that bring the biggest smiles to our faces.

I often find myself writing down the words, "This easy life", to start my list. Think about it. Even on my worst day I'm able to magically travel over 100 miles in under three hours while protected from the rain in an automobile under my control that gives me the option of listening to music from dozens of radio stations. And I get to do this while traveling with a companion that thinks I'm the king of the world (even though he stinks to high heaven).

This is an easy life. A great life. And when you understand that, when you realize the incredible abundance that you have, then you can never have a bad day again

Make Things a Little Better

Even in the worst day, there is good. Maybe you were caught out in the pouring rain, but eventually you ended up dry, right? Perhaps even in your favorite sweat pants and curled up with a good book on the couch. It's the little things in life that make or break a day. And so we must be grateful for all the details that make our lives better. I recently was reminded of this lesson...

Craig Ballantyne

"Always be thankful for what you do have, even if it's not ALL that you want to have" - Author Unknown

---

Cure for a Bad Day

By Craig Ballantyne

The stench of wet dog was overwhelming inside the cramped interior of my rented Toyota Corolla. Alas, it was raining outside, so there was no reprieve. I couldn't roll the windows down, and the air conditioning couldn't keep up with the heat and humidity that enveloped the car.

Traffic snarled. It was the worst rush hour in the worst weather that the summer had seen. Usually I was smart enough to plan my travels earlier in the day before everyone and their dog (like me) tried to exit the city and return to their home in the 'burbs. But that day was one of those days where everything and everyone on my schedule was running late.

I wouldn't be in home in time for dinner. Worse, I wouldn't be home in time for the dog's dinner. And when I did get home (with home being the family farm where I was dropping off the dog for a two week vacation), there was still plenty of schlepping to do. As it continued to rain, there were still bags and boxes to bring into the old farmhouse, all while a famished dog ran around my legs anxious to be fed.

But that too did pass.

And looking back, I now recall it as just another interesting adventure with ol' Bally the Dog, rather than a series of frustrating events that elevated my blood pressure that afternoon.

In fact, as soon as we were settled, dried, and fed, there was one simple thing I was able to do that completely changed my attitude toward the day.

I gave gratitude for all that I had gone through.

Each day, usually right before dinner, I sit down with my Daily Documents and go through the wisdom I've collected from such (virtual) mentors as Dan Kennedy, Yanik Silver, Michael Masterson, Vishen Lakiani, Dan Sullivan, Dave Kekich, Frank McKinney, Jim Collins, and Bedros Keuilian. If you're a fan of Napolean Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", you'll recognize this as being similar to his Mental Mastermind.

My daily ritual starts with writing in a Gratitude and Achievement journal. It's a black moleskin notebook filled with page upon page of my illegible scribbles. On the left hand side of the page is the Gratitude column, and on the right is the Achievement column.

From Vishen I learned the gratitude exercise. It's where I write down the "who, what, and where" that I'm grateful for, as well as for what I'm excited to do the next day.

And from Dan Sullivan's book, "The Gap", I learned the Achievement exercise. It's where you simply write down up to five things that you achieved that day. No matter how stressful or frustrating your day, this is a pleasant reminder that some progress was made, no matter how small the achievement might seem in the grand scheme of things. Sullivan recommends teaching this exercise to your children so that they develop a habit of appreciating the abundance of achievement in their lives.

Next I went through some business reminders from Kennedy and Silver before I stumbled across one powerful phase from Bedros that completely switched my attitude from frustration to pure gratitude. It was though he was sitting beside me and giving the advice in person.

"Be grateful for what you have."

That was it.

It was this reminder from Bedros that allowed me to snap out of my funk. There I was sitting in the old farmhouse, the one full of four decades of memories, the one my mother still has stocked with enough food to feed an army for several months, and one that was warm, dry and full of all the comforts a person could need. There was absolutely no good reason to remain frustrated or annoyed with the day's events. The day was done and gone.

I realized this: You can't do anything about the past. You can't do anything about the behavior of others. You don't control them. But you do control your own thoughts.

So be grateful.

You and I take more conveniences for granted than societies from over a hundred years ago could possibly have imagined humans would ever have.

Tomorrow I'm going to take you through each one of the documents and exercises that I do that help remind me of all the abundance in my life. These Daily Documents remind me of the easy living I've been blessed with, and they have been the cure for a bad day on more than one occasion in my life.

We live in a time where the majority of North Americans live more abundantly than the Kings and Queens of over 100 years ago.

The next time you're having a bad day, cure your thoughts with gratitude. Write down what you are grateful for in your life. You'll find that it's often the little things that we take for granted, and that it is really the relationships with others in our lives that bring the biggest smiles to our faces.

I often find myself writing down the words, "This easy life", to start my list. Think about it. Even on my worst day I'm able to magically travel over 100 miles in under three hours while protected from the rain in an automobile under my control that gives me the option of listening to music from dozens of radio stations. And I get to do this while traveling with a companion that thinks I'm the king of the world (even though he stinks to high heaven).

This is an easy life. A great life. And when you understand that, when you realize the incredible abundance that you have, then you can never have a bad day again

Enjoy Every Minute

You have, in your hands right now, five hundred twenty-five thousand and change!  Just imagine that for a moment.  How would you feel if you had five hundred and twenty-five thousand and change you could spend any way you choose?

 

The truth is that every one of us, even the most successful people you know, have exactly the same amount of commodity --five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes.  If you live twelve more months, you are going to have 525,000 minutes to invest.

 

Many of us have been trained to invest a great amount of that commodity in rehearsing our past, cursing a circumstance, nursing a problem, or fueling resentment.  If we are not careful we will spend our time doing just that. 

 

Thought seeds are just like physical seeds.  Let us invest our minutes in thoughts and activities that lead to the life we want to live, rather than a life we want to avoid.  You have gold in your hands today.  Spend it on your dreams.

 

Enjoy Every Minute