Successful? Why, yes I am.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Investing

Was listening to Tony Robbins, Get the Edge program, and in particular his take on finances.

He also talks about investing about 10% of your income into stocks. Basically he states that over a time average, the stockmarket has always provided greater return than other investments such as property.

He staties strongly in paying yourself first. This really applies for people who have high debt. Fortunately a lot of the personal finance stuff out there does not apply to me because I do not have a high risk debt like credit cards etc. My university debt is around $25000, but thats inflation adjusted and doesnt really bother me.


So if I were to start investing $200 per month on stocks that I CHOOSE, and assume that my average per annum return is 12% which is re-invested, in thirty years I'd be sitting on just over $700k.

He also talks that a key strategy to investing and getting rich over the long term is asset allocation. For example he talks about investing into two different baskets, one named security, the other growth. The security basket is one where you put a certain percentage of your money like say 50% and the other 50% into your growth basket. So lets say your growth basket is doing really well, if you pull money out, make sure some of it goes into the security basket. Its basically assuming that the growth basket has high risk associated to it.

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Helping others helps you?

Ive heard this many times over in many different forms but for some reason it sunk in tonight. I was listening to a Deepak Chopra interview (HotType - check YouTube) and he said something along the lines of help others get what they want and you will get what it is that you want.

Now can this be applied to every person I meet and come into contact with. So the question I have now is how do you determine what it is that other people want?? How does one genuinely find out so that you can genuinely and humbly assist that person in getting it?

This is a concept I have literally heard a hundred times, but I never really understood. I guess I still I dont understand it. I'll have to experience it to understand it I guess. Im going to have to read up more on Deepak Chopra's teachings. His stuff certainly sounds much like what I read on www.stevepavlina.com. Perhaps I may find material that goes more in-depth than Steve.

Hmm something to think about and do.

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Sunday, April 29, 2007

Deepak Chopra

Was watching ONE on ONE on Al-Jazeera this afternoon and Deepak Chopra was being interviewed by Riz Khan. Some things I got from his interview;

He exercises everyday.
He meditates everyday.

Im almost a regular on the exercise, I need to begin meditating. And meditating regularly.

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Monday, April 09, 2007

Fitness update

After a two day break from any major physical activity, I skipped rope for 25 minutes. Did it relatively comfortably, was not easy mind you, but I set my mind that I was going to skip for 25 minutes before I started and made it happen. Setting a purpose before you start anything helps heaps in achieving goals.

Physical exercise a lot of the times is lost and won in the mind. I cant remember where I read this but its true. :)

Im slowly getting into push-ups. I do two sets of about 8 - 10 pushups (one where my hands are wide, and then one set where my hands are closer together). Those triceps start hurting after a while. Ive also started doing some sit-ups. This time I only did 1 set of 7 - 10.


Im getting there, getting fitter, feeling lighter, feeling quicker, and not forgetting, looking much better. :)

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Real Estate Agents

House prices here in Sydney are averaging around $450 000. For simplicity's sake, assume its $500 000. Thats half a million dollars.

Take the job of a real-estate agent. These guys charge on avg, anywhere from 2% - 4% of sale price as their commission. Assume again its just 2.5%. Now lets see what it is they do.

They come and take pictures of the place.
They put a huge styrofoam board outside.
They advertise the house in the local 'Homes Pictorial' (or any other local free house publication)
They take out 15 - 30 minutes on Saturday or Sunday to put that house as an open-home.
During the week, they may field calls from 'potential' buyers about queries etc.

This is all they do. But if they make a sale, thats $12500 per house sale!!! Its no wonder real-estate owners, and people who work in real-estate are multimillionares, most who choose to drive 3-series BMWs or C-class Benzs.

From a business point of view, I dont see it being that difficult to operate. I guess patience is a compulsory requisite, as is the need to invest some odd hours. (Especially weekend work)

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Learning to learn

So I'm going through some CCNP BSCI reading. BSCI is one of the four exam components for the CCNP certification.

Im reading first with the intention to preview the material first, writing down any trigger words that I want to focus on my second pass. Anyway Ive just done my second preview, a relatively quick pass through the first half of the material, and I'm thinking....... how effective would it be for me to write down words, key words infact, and then use neuro association to learn the facts.

I'm going to experiment with this for the next two days and see how it goes. The advantage I have at this point is that this new material I'm reading is more organised than the previous text I had bought.

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Sunday, April 08, 2007

Random thought...

Was watching a music channel, and they were showing some classics from the 90's like Salt N Pepa etc. Anyways it got me thinking;

If someone were to write a song that is potential top-ten material, would it still be top-ten material if the song is released not today, but 10 years from now, or even 20 years from now??

Basically, do songs hold their value, provided they havent been released? I know sometimes people re-do other peoples songs (happens quite often from what I can observe).

Anyhoos... just writing my thoughts down.

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Saturday, April 07, 2007

Space vs. Time

Space and time. Einstein talked about. *I think*.

How is it that we value our space so much, for example, land space, car space, house space, personal space. Yet, I still see so many people that fail to value their time.

I myself did not care much for time, when I was in my early 20's. [Im in my mid to late 20's now]. But having started personal development, and getting to a point where I try and think and focus on success, personal success.... I keep thinking how valuable my current time is. How valuable my current time will be for my time in the future. How valuable the the time that has passed, has been for me in allowing me to learn from my experiences. These lessons point to the future, I want a good future, a successful future.

Case in point. Take investing, especially when used with building capital gains via compound interest. In 20 - 30 years, I know I will be a millionare. 30 - 35 years, I'll definitely be able to say I'm a multi-millionare. As of now, I'm still a passive investor, just putting regular amounts of money into a fund manager. I really want to start investing into stocks that I pick. I want to get into commercial property, because I see HUGE benefits of having such property, 20+ years from now. The best time to all of this is NOW. Using the time I have to now and the time that will pass to make the most of my life when Im in my 50's.

Take my intention and goal to get my CCNP and then go for my CCIE. I want my CCNP by this years end. I want my CCIE by next years end. Having these two certifications, should easily allow me to earn $50k more than what I earn presently. Again time is the issue. Well time AND effort.

So back to space and time, or more specifically time. I was listening to my Zig Ziglar CD (I listen it to everytime Im in the car alone) and he says to practice winning habits. I have been practicing winning habits of late. Ive been in regular attendance at my Toastmasters club. I regularly read material, from personal development to technology, to news. My prime focus is to read good positive material I can learn from. Ive been regularly exercising. My reading has also started include a little on health and fitness. My body is getting in shape, Im starting to look better, and I definitely feel better. My thoughts, Im now almost (and I say almost) always in a happy positive mood. Its a feeling I haven't maintained in ages!! It feels good. Very good.

I realise that these winning habits, and more winning habits that I'll start to do regularly in the future, all include the wise use of my time. For instance, today before coming to work, after showering, I sat on my bedroom floor, and meditated for about 2 minutes. This isnt much, but its a start. I can definitely see that it can have a lasting benefit if done regularly. Preferably daily.

My other goal, which includes this very post is to write more and write often. Even if the outcome is garble, (like this post) at least Im practicing. Once I get into the habit of writing more often I can then start to focus my thoughts on more pointy subjects.

Alright, no more to write. Adios.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Bruce Lee

Super motivation article I found on a thread at StevePavlina forums.

Click Here

Must read, and watch. It contains some rare Bruce Lee footage.



Its got me thinking, if he was so determined, can I associate the image of Bruce Lee to achieve something ridiculous in my own personal life/career.

Im thinking Bruce CCIE!! As Tony Robbins says, the mind is a associating machine, associate Bruce Lee, the power, the discipline, the dedication, the fitness, the success, the aura..... to me holding my CCIE. Im a CCNA at present. I haven't even passed one CCNP exam. Heck I dont even work in Data/IP, Im currently working in optical networking.

Im going to play with this thought. As Ive been exercising very regularly for the past 3 months, I believe, that combined, with my positive thoughts, patience, affirmations and my ability to work smart, I'll have my CCNP in no time. Then its a matter of simply working hard for getting my CCIE. That will be a pinnacle for me in my telecommunications engineering career.

With a CCIE I will boldly claim that Ive made it!! And I can then move onto other more challenging roles.

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Secrets?

Many book titles, (and I'm not discrimating against any particular type or area) seem to have titles that begin with Secret to... OR Secrets Revealed..... If these authors are writing about so called "secrets", once they are out in the public, doesn't it go against it being a secret??

Nothing against the contents of these books, just why not call, "[Stuff] you may not know...." etc.

Something to think about.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Acting Like Godot

A simple personal blog, but I really love some of the things he writes about, especially his experience with life, intention manifestation and law of attraction.

Found these two links for Scott Adams (Creator of Dilbert) discussing his succeesses and his use of affirmations.

Acting Like Godot

Dilbert links:
Here and Here

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Success with speech #2

I did my second speech at Toastmasters this evening. I was happy with it. It was much better than my first speech, however it didnt quite go as well as I would have liked.

Issues I noticed. I seem to choke up. I need to focus on putting my energy OUT, rather than let the energy come IN.

I was on time, Although my practice was like over 10 minutes, I finished just after 7 minutes from memory.

l felt good that I provided something of value to the listeners/audience. Some of the other speech makers used some of my content in their speeches are reference. One noted evaluation for me was that I did the transition thing very well early on in the speech.

I think my next speech will be next month as from memory all speech slots are filled out for the next meeting. oh well.