Since when is good not good enough?

In the old days it was good enough to be competent. People wanted quality, they wanted skill, they and they wanted experience. It was good enough to go to school, get a diploma and get a good job until you turn 65 and retire. Life was simple and easy.

If you were competent and qualified, you were guaranteed a place on the assembly line at the factory and you would make a very nice living.

However, the days of competency are gone.

The proliferation of the internet and social media has changed the way we see the world and competency is no longer good enough. We must not just communicate in the new economy, we must connect.

Consumers, business partners, investors, fans, clients, and customers are all bombarded with competency every day. There are millions of quality products, there are thousands of people with integrity to buy from. Honesty is no longer good enough. What our customers are looking for these days is connection.

Our customers not only want to buy from us, but they want to connect with us.

Social media has become a game-changer in the last 10 years where consumers can instantly connect with other consumers to exchange information about another person, product or service. Likewise, these same consumers are not only looking to purchase from their favourite brands, they expect to connect and interact with them online.

Communication has become a two way street where consumers are now able to communicate with their favourite brands and service providers and expect to get real time communication back. There is a global, online, real time conversation happening 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The question is, what are your customers saying about you? And how are you connecting with them?

Your customers are expecting to connect, how are you able to connect to start a conversation?

In my own business, I have chosen the following 3 channels to connect and interact:

1. Facebook: One of the world's leading social media sites, I provide relevant, valuable and original content to my fans and customers regularly through this media channel. I also look to share anything they may find valuable that comes across my feed. My business growth has exploded through Facebook and I find it be an extremely valuable tool for connecting with customers and fans.
   
   
2. YouTube: Youtube is quickly becoming one of the most powerful search engines in the world. The younger online generation is bypassing Google all together and is searching only on Youtube. I am making video and youtube a priority in my business by video taping every deal I do and putting it online. Your youtube channel is your mini television network and your fans and customers are waiting to hear from you and give feedback.
   
   
3. Linked-In: Linked-in is the online “professional” community designed for professionals to connect. I have used linked-in mostly for a branding tool and a tool to collect endorsements and testimonials. The days of a paper resumé are gone and many potential partners or employers will google you and look at your linked-in instead. In my business I use linked-in less as a connection tool and more as an online resumé or track record. Your linked in profile is very powerful, even though it may or may not have the same traffic as Facebook or other popular social media platforms.
   
   

If you are not already harnessing these three ways to connect with your audience, you must do so immediately. The world is changing, the market is changing and we must connect to stay relevant in the new connection economy.

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

Jim Rohn, an american entrepreneur, once said "If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."

I always struggled with the idea of getting a job. Some people call their job a J-O-B which stands for Just, Over, Broke.

From age 17 to 24 I struggled every year with employment. When I was in university, every summer, I had to go out and "get a job" to pay for next year's tuition. Every year I would procrastinate, the idea of a job bored me, and I felt in my heart that I didn't want to work for someone else. Every summer was different, I worked at Tim Hortons, local restaurants, odd painting jobs, and even had a short taste of direct sales. Nothing felt good and every year as the summer would approach I felt myself feeling depressed.

In 2008 when I graduated from university with an Arts degree, the game was over. My parents and society both agreed that it was time to leave the fantasy world of school and join the "real world" and get a "real job".

I had made most of my money in university by teaching guitar lessons out of my mother's living room and had made a good little cash business out of it. I also played numerous music gigs throughout the city and had experienced the life of being self-employed. Now that I was done school it was time to "wake up", shut down my little business and join the real work force.

I followed the advice of my parents, society and the status quo and got a real job in telephone sales. I worked in the middle of the night, on straight commission and although I was one of the top performers in the office, I only made about $10 an hour selling on the phone. My life was completely upside down, I was making less money at my "real job" than I was making it my guitar teaching business, my quality of life was the lowest it had ever been, and I was isolated by working the graveyard shift.

After a few weeks of working my real job, I fell into a depression. Everything I had done was "right". I went to school, got a degree, and got a job, but I was living a miserable life and was making less money than I made in school doing things I enjoyed less.

What was wrong with me?

Looking back, I realize that I was living a life of convenience, not a life of choice. Everything that was in my life came to me by way of convenience. Nothing was consciously chosen by me and this was the source of my unhappiness.

They say there are only two sources of unhappiness in the world:

#1 is not getting what you want
#2 is getting it (not what you want)

When we get something we do not want, unhappiness ensues.

The downward spiral of unhappiness and dissatisfaction continued for years until I learned to take control of my own mind and use it towards endeavours of my choice.

As the great Napoleon Hill writes in his book "Think and Grow Rich":

Everyone comes to this world with the privilege of controlling the power of his mind and directing it to whatever ends he may choose.

At birth, everyone carries the equivalent of two sealed envelopes:

1. The RICHES You May Enjoy If You Take Possession Of Your Mind & Direct It To The Ends Of Your Own Choice.
2. The PENALTIES You Must Pay If You Neglect To Take Possession Of Your Mind & Direct It

In the contents of the first envelope named RICHES are the following blessings:

• Health
• Peace Of Mind
• A Labor Of Love Of Your Own Choice
• Freedom From Fear And Worry
• Positive Mental Attitude
• Material Riches Of Your Own Choice & Quantity

In the envelope labeled PENALTIES are the prices one must pay for neglecting to take control his/her own mind:

• Ill Health
• Fear & Worry
• Indecision & Doubt
• Frustration & Discouragement Throughout Life
• Poverty & Want
• The Evils of Envy, Greed, Jealousy, Anger, Hatred and Superstition

For many years I allowed others to take control of my mind and I drifted through life living a life of convenience with very few elements being of my own choosing. After I hit "the bottom" through depression, poor health, fear, doubt, worry and debt, I began to design the life that I wanted.

Today, I have made drastic changes and every aspect of my life has been chosen by me. Perhaps there are parts that are not 100% of my choosing, but every single aspect is improving steadily towards my vision and my ideals.

All of the improvements in my life came from having a concrete vision of what I desired. I began to write down my goals, my wants, and my vision. I began to reverse engineer and design the life that I wanted. I am very happy to enjoy the blessings that Napoleon Hill names above and be free of the penalties he warns against.

In your own life, ask yourself: Are you living a life of convenience or a life of choice? If you are living a life of convenience, begin to write a vision plan detailing every aspect of your ideal life. When your vision is put into words and written down, the subconscious brain will begin working towards the life of your dreams.

Thanks for reading,
By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful

 "All I know is that I know nothing"
-Socrates

Why is it that in life, the smarter we become, the less we know?

When I was 7 years old, I was the smartest person in the world. I knew everything there was to know about space, the planets and the solar system.

When I was 7, the facts of the solar system were as follows:

1. We have 9 planets
2. A sun
3. A bunch of stars

If I knew these basic facts, I knew everything there was to know about outer space and received a gold star.

With this limited knowledge, I knew 100% of what there was to know about space and was an expert until junior high when suddenly, the subject of outer space expanded and became more complicated.

I started to learn that I was no longer an expert on outer space because now we had to know:

1. That the sun is made of gas
2. Gravity holds the solar system together
3. The planets have multiple moons that orbit them etc.

Suddenly, I went from being a 7 year old expert to a 12 year old ignoramus who had to re-learn the facts of the universe.

When I was 7 I knew it all, when I was 12 I suddenly became ignorant about the universe.

In high school, I ran into the same problem. New information about the universe flooded my context through physics and chemistry. My knowledge base exploded and I could not keep up with all of the new information. With each new level of proficiency, I learned that in-fact, I knew nothing about the universe.

With each new level of information,  I knew less and less. The more I studied, the less I knew.

Today I know virtually nothing about space and the solar system.

Even facts that used to be true are suddenly un-true. For example: We used to have 9 planets and now there are 8. 

Pluto is no longer a planet... what changed?

What I used to know is no longer relevant in today's world. 

As Einstein says: "change is the only constant in the universe".

How is a person supposed to keep up with all of the new information that is introduced to us every day in this brave new world?

We become experts in a field, learn everything there is to know and suddenly the information changes, the market changes, or we find the "next" level in our field.

No matter what we do, we know nothing.

ENTER ZERO BASED THINKING

Zero based thinking is the concept of always knowing nothing. 

In zero based thinking, we are always at the beginning... we forget everything we used to know.

The reason why we must forget our prior knowledge is because what we knew yesterday no longer applies in our current context. 

The same concept applies when we want to take our business or our life to the next level and bring it into the future.

"If you do what you have always done, you will receive what you have always got."

Zero based thinking applies when we want to take our life and our business to the next level.

For example, when you are a child and begin to earn money, you are 2 figure earner or a 3 figure earner. You get a paper route, work part time, save up your pennies and make dollars.

When you're in high school, you have a part time job babysitting or flipping burgers and become a 4 figure earner working 2 or 3 months of the year at a summer job. Becoming a 4 figure earner is a different process than becoming a 3 figure earner.

Of course, the chain continues...

To become a 5 figure earner, you enter the world of "full time employment". Through promotions and proficiency in the corporate world, you can transform into a 6 figure earner. However, this is where most people get stuck.

When we become 6 figure earners, our context usually becomes frozen. We think we know everything there is to know and our egos keep us from learning how to get to the next level.

To jump to the next level, we must use Zero Based thinking and forget everything we used to know about earning money because a 7 figure earner follows a completely different process than a 6 figure earner.

Usually a person can reach 6 figures by pure effort and energy. Hard work, blood, sweat and tears can produce 6 figures quite easily these days and many people achieve this accomplishment.

However, to reach 7 figures is completely different. 7 figures is a different set of actions and a wildly different mind set. Hard work alone will not allow a person to jump from 6 to 7 figures.

To become a 7 figure earner, we must "build a business", build a team, build systems, build marketing campaigns, manage people, sell, and essentially run an enterprise.

We must unlearn what we used to know as a 2 figure, 3 figure, 4 figure, 5 figure and 6 figure earner stages because 7 figures is a completely different ball game.

Naturally, the chain continues. 8 figures is completely different from 7 and 9 figures is completely different from 8.

But what is the lesson?

No matter what "level" we are on in life, we must always employ Zero based thinking and approach our situation with fresh eyes. We must deconstruct what we used to know and re-learn the new facts of the world as they become relevant to us in a new context.

Unfortunately, egos and pride stop us from using zero based thinking consistently and often, we need outside personal help from a coach or mentor to expand our context and allow us to see outside of our tiny "box".

For myself in my business, I have completely changed my thinking this year from January 2012 until now December 2012.

I started off with a 5 figure mindset and through coaching and mentoring, I have been able to expand my context. This year alone, I have expanded to a 6 figure mindset and am now approaching a 7 figure mindset.

All that I have to do is execute actions based on my mindset and let the results catch up to my thinking. This process will likely take 12-24 months.

What is wonderful about expanding the mind through Zero based thinking is that: "an expanded mind never returns to it's original size".

What becomes challenging throughout the process, however, is to keep the Zero based mindset and to refrain from becoming a "know it all". 

This year I have re-built my website 4 times, re-designed my business cards 6 times, changed my business model 6 times and will likely re-brand before the year is over.

I am constantly "back at the beginning" in my learning process and this is where major growth comes from.

If you are interested in taking your business to the next level,  using Zero based thinking can be a simple process.

Find someone who is more successful than you and get them to coach you to the next level.

To become 6 figures, you must learn from a 7 figure.
To become 7 figures, you must learn from an 8 figure.
To become 8 figures, you must learn from a 9 figure etc.

The chain never ends and goes on forever... this is the beauty of life.

The real question is, where on the chain do you want to stop?

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

P.S: Please share this article if you found it helpful

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio

A wise man once said "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

Today was an exciting day in my life. Less than a month ago, I was nominated for Joint Venture Partner of the year in the Top Investor Awards by Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine. Competing in my category were 5 other very competent investors, all of which I admire greatly.

I had a fair amount of time to think about the strategic possibilities of my nomination and ran through all of the possible scenarios that such recognition would bring.

My competitors were all very successful investors, and depending on the metrics used to determine a "winner", any one of us could have won the award.

Three ways to determine a winner would be:

1) The winner could be determined by dollar volume, in which I would certainly NOT be the winner.

2) The winner could be determined by profits, in which I would certainly NOT be the winner.

3) Or the winner could be determined by story, in which I would have a chance to win.

I had to prepare myself for two scenarios:

1. A scenario in which I win
2. And a scenario in which I do not win

It is truly an honour to be nominated alongside such successful investors and the nomination alone is worth a tremendous amount of value to me.

I thought about the two scenarios above for a long time and determined that I would rather lose to a champion than win over an inferior competitor.

In my head, I created a no-lose scenario.

I would either win the award and run with the temporary boost to my brand/marketing or lose and still run with the temporary boost to my brand/marketing.

The only way to create a no lose scenario is by learning to create profit from failure.

I have failed in my life more times than I have succeeded.

They say that the formula for failure is to try to please everyone.

The formula for success is to take your current rate of failure an double it.

I have doubled my rate of failure many times over and continue to  increase my quota. I am not afraid of failing because when life gives me lemons... I have learned how to squeeze out a delicious glass of lemonade.

I have made lemonade so many times in my investing career that I could open up a lemonade stand.

Although, I have had many chances to wrestle with failure, many people have not had the luxury of having so many experiences to study and learn from failure.

The school system conditions us to avoid failure at all costs. In school, we treat failure like the same way we treat death: if you fail, you don't get good grades, you can't get into a good university, you can't get a good job and you will starve to death on the street because you have no money.

In many ways, we are learned to treat failure like death.

In reality, failure is the essence of life.

We learn our greatest lessons when we fail and often, we use these experiences to craft our identities, our character, our philosophies and our stories that make us into champions that can press forward against all odds.

My thinking has changed dramatically over the years when it comes to failure.

I used to get upset when I failed. However, I no longer get upset. When I fail in my current endeavours, I identify and correct my mistake as fast as possible. I then ask myself, "how can I prevent this in the future?". Failing is no longer a negative emotion for me, in fact, I get excited to fail now because it means that I will get an opportunity to learn a lesson. Lessons make me smarter and increase my chances of winning in the future.

FAILURE MANAGEMENT 101

Imagine you are an olympic athlete for an obscure sport like Javelin in which you take a running start to throw a single spear as far as possible.

You train for 10 years, put in 10,000 hours plus of training, forgo sex, good food, alcohol, sleep, professional career opportunities, children, money and lifestyle for a chance at winning the olympics.

The day of the olympics comes and you get one chance, one throw and in that moment you will become one of two things:

1. A winner, a medalist and you will become immortalized in the olympic hall of fame
2. A nobody, you do not qualify, you miss the distance required by inches and your javelin efforts vaporize into thin air

On monday morning, when you get back to your home, what do you do when you sit down at the kitchen table and ponder your next move?

Had you achieved success, you would have got a sponsorship, a great career opportunity, recognition, and fame, etc.

However, you failed... What next?

How do you make lemonade out of the lemons?

How can you create success from the experience?

I have been in situations like this many times. Life is a performance based sport, you often only get one chance to make something happen and if you don't, how do you deal with it?

It's not what happens to you in life that matters, it's how you deal with it.

Today when I was waiting for the speaker at the podium to announce the winner of the Joint Venture Partner of the Year award I had fully prepared myself for failure.

I desired success, understood that it was possible, but the final decision was out of my hands - I did not worry.

In hindsight, I was 95% prepared for failure and only 5% prepared for success.

I was shocked to learn that I had won the award and did not have a speech ready. I winged a few words at the podium, thanked everyone I could think of and proceeded with my "success plan" that I had to quickly engineer.

I was so convinced that my competition would win the award that I had given up the idea of success. To avoid disappointment, I had created a plan to deal with failure and had a solid plan to create an asset out of failing to win.

I have become so good at losing and dealing with situations that go wrong that I had forgot to plan for situations that go right.

Getting good at losing, however, is one of the major pillars of success. It helps us take risks and allow us to win - even when we lose.

Life becomes very easy when you can find ways to win from failure, especially when we learn to monetize these situations.

When I think about the Joint Venture award that I won, I am convinced that my story is what captured the judge's imaginations.

I did not have the biggest deal, the biggest profit, the highest dollar volumes or the sexiest deal.

However, I had a great "rags to riches" story that explains my investment career. My story for 2012 begins with failure and ends with success.

Most people give up when they fail, I have learned to push through failures until I can turn them into successes.

In your own life, learn to spot the "good" in the "bad" and package it into a marketable asset that you can use to your advantage.

Failure is a necessary ingredient to success and many people do not understand that success comes in cycles and is more like a wheel than a destination.

Picture the ferris wheel at the local fair. When you are at the top of the wheel (success), the only way to get back to the top (success) is to go through the bottom (failure).

Life is much like a ferris wheel: to get the top, we must rotate through the cycles at the bottom.

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
http://www.facebook.com/stefanaarnio

"Pressure makes diamonds" - General George S. Patton.

What do you do when you are under pressure?

Do you crack? Do you fold? Do you avoid and hide from the world?

Or do you stand up, get stronger, and push harder to persist?

Pressure makes diamonds... but it can also crush people.

Years ago, when I attended my first Real Estate seminar, the speaker asked "And what about stress...? After you have made your money, do you think the stress goes away?"

Almost every hand in the room went up and the room was silent.

After a long pause, the speaker continued "Stress never goes away, and you must learn to manage it. Just because you have more money, does not mean that your stress levels change."

Throughout my life, I have constantly placed myself in high pressure situations. I played music at a professional level, I was a national leader in direct sales and I'm currently playing the highest risk/reward game in the world: entrepreneurship.

Somehow, I have always been attracted to high pressure situations because I am naturally a competitive person and have always wanted to compete and work with the best.

For me, the pressure has always been necessary for me to push to the next level: pressure makes diamonds.

Of course, being under pressure is extremely uncomfortable and it can take it's toll on your sleep, your comfort and over all quality of life. But looking back on my life so far, the greatest, most exciting, relevant moments have been the ones of greatest pressure and greatest importance.

In contrast, my most unhappy, joyless, depressing moments have been the moments of absolutely no pressure.

We all remember the days of high school where we would have an exam in 3 weeks...

3 weeks would go by and we would neglect to study.

30 hours before exam, we would still neglect studying...

8 hours before the test starts we are up all night trying to learn Calculus while trying not to over dose on caffeine.

Somehow pressure can bring out the best in people.

Pressure brings clarity, decision and action to people who normally have confusion, indecision and passivity.

Pressure shows us who we really are and can bring out the hero OR the wimp inside of us.

Pressure lets us know what we are made of and lets us know how far we can be pushed so that we can see where our limits truly are.

One of my favourite things about pressure is that it brings out our natural instincts.

Instinct is not a common topic of conversation in our modern world because we think of feral cats, wild dogs or rabid beasts as having instincts - not civilized people!

Civilized people do not have instincts...

Or do they?

Kathy Kolbe is a theorist and educator who developed a test called the Kolbe index.

The Kolbe index is a series of short questions that measure your instincts show you what your strengths are when under pressure.

For myself, this information has been unbelievably helpful. It also explains why I am happiest under pressure.

The reason why I am happiest under pressure is because I am forced to become my natural self. 

Pressure brings out my natural instincts and allows me to pursue the "best version of myself".

My Kolbe index tells me that under pressure I "improvise". People with instincts similar to mine make great salespeople, public speakers, on camera people, radio hosts, interviewers, storm chasers, video game designers and non-conventional educators.

All of the above "careers" are high pressure, performance based career paths that require little or no formal training to achieve success.

This would explain why I am least happy in low-pressure situations and most happy in high-pressure situations. 

Pressure forces me to become who I naturally need to become.

Pressure is what turns coal into diamonds and it also turns a raw undeveloped average person into a refined success.

I would encourage you to take your Kolbe index and find out what your instincts are and find out how you work under pressure.

Find out what your natural skill sets are, where you are happiest and then focus your whole life and business around that skill set.

For myself, I need to "improvise" all day long to feel full-filled and happy. I have re-organized my entire business around myself being able to "improvise" while key team members around me handle all of the other tasks.

By pursuing this strategy, I have seen greater success, experienced more fun, and felt more excitement. All of this can be had from selecting the tasks and roles that excite my instincts.

Please take a moment to invest in yourself, learn about your instincts and harness your talents. You're worth it.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
http://www.facebook.com/stefanaarnio

P.S. Please share this article if you found it helpful

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you find it helpful!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of giving a talk to a group of 50 local real estate investors in Winnipeg. The subject of the talk was "how to raise capital and take the limits off of your real estate investing career."

In business, raising capital is the #1 skill any real estate investor or entrepreneur needs to be in business. So many entrepreneurs fail because they can’t get funding for their businesses initially or they can’t expand to a profitable level.

While I was giving the talk to the 50 investors in the room, I was shocked by the following:

• 0 people claimed that “Sales and Marketing” was their #1 skill
• 0 people had raised capital for a “no money down” joint venture (1 person may have raised his/her hand, but wasn’t confident so I wasn’t sure)

• 0 people had a “Capital Raising” binder/presentation ready to show to investors

Many of the investors in the room have purchased at least one or more investment properties in the past few years, but were still using their own cash and credit.

Statistically, most seminars have a 2% success rate. In any given room of 100 people , 2 people will apply the knowledge they are learning and 98 will fail to apply anything.

Statistically speaking, out of the 50 people I was speaking to, 1 will apply the knowledge shared, 49 will not.

Yesterday, there were many real estate investors in the room who wanted to take their businesses to the next level. I think most of the audience in the room saw value in learning how to raise capital. Most investors want to use“other people’s money” to purchase investment properties, but many do not know how to do it.

Although, what I was teaching was the "missing piece of the puzzle" for many of the people in the audience:

• 0 people approached me after the event for any for of help or advice.

Perhaps I gave a bad talk.

Perhaps not.

I did receive numerous compliments on the content and delivery of the speech and I think the audience enjoyed the presentation for both entertainment and content.

More often then not, when I attend a seminar, talk or presentation, I approach the speaker after the event to

1. Thank them for speaking and
2. inquire about how I can learn what they had to offer (whether I can afford it or not)

My primary objective with attending a seminar, talk or presentation is to learn something and find a way to bring change into my life.

Why don’t we change?

Why don’t we take action? 

Why don’t we pursue freedom at all costs?

The answer is simple.

A wise man once said “everything we want is on the other side of fear.”

Some call this invisible wall of fear the “terror-barrier”. 

The Terror-Barrier is the only thing that keeps us from having what we want in life.

In my life, the terror barrier has held me back many times, and the only way I could break through it was by getting myself in a “no options” situation.

For change to occur, the pain of staying the same has to be greater than the pain of making a change.

People are mysterious creatures and I find that we are all motivated more by pain than by pleasure.

The average person will go to great lengths to avoid pain but will do very little to achieve joy or pleasure.

There are two decision making centers in the body:

1)   The head (The brain)

2)   The body (made up of the gut and the heart)

All thoughts pass through the head, but all actions are made through the body.

There are 4 phases of change and only in phase 4 do we achieve freedom.

Phase 1)

In phase 1, we have an “old idea” in our head, and our body (who controls the actions) performs the “old actions”.

An example of this would be a person who says: “I’m a smoker” and as a result; he or she smokes regularly.

Phase 2)

In phase 2, we get a “new idea” in our head, but our “old idea” co-exists with the "new idea". The body, who controls our actions, still acts on the “old idea”.

An example of this would be a person who says “I’m a smoker, but I’d like to quit” and as a result; they smoke regularly and show no actions that indicate quitting.

Phase 3)

We get a “new idea” in our head, and our “old idea” co-exist. The body who controls the actions acts on both the “new idea and the “old idea”.

An example of this person who says “I’m a smoker, I’d like to quit” and as a result; this person will smoke sometimes and quit sometimes.

Phase 4 is where freedom and change happen. However, few people achieve phase 4 of change because they are held back by the Terror-barrier.

The terror-barrier is a fancy way of saying “irrational fear” and the cure for fear is a disciplined, rational approach or "the luxury of no options".

However, I know first hand how hard it is to break through the barrier and in my own life, I have most often penetrated the Terror-barrier against my will.

The Terror-barrier is so strong for most people that they will never change unless they experience a divorce, job loss, large financial loss, bankruptcy, cancer, death or deadly illness.

These catastrophic life experiences push you through the terror barrier because most often “the worst” has already happened.

Once we have experienced "the worst", we become free of fear. We suddenly play the game with nothing to lose.

Usually people in these very uncomfortable situations have “the luxury of no options” and become very successful after failing. 

Phase 4)

In Phase 4, we achieve freedom. We have a “New idea” in our head and the body, who controls our actions, acts on the “new idea” only.

An example of this would be a person who says “I’m quitting smoking” and as a result, they quit.

Change is never easy, but it’s a necessary process in life. 

Einstein used to say “change is the only constant in the universe”. 

Learning how to adapt and change ourselves according to the fluctuating conditions of life is the new primary skill set in this modern world. 

This skill set is especially valuable in the new economy that we live in today.

In the past, a man or woman could count on having a career from college to retirement. Today, young people change career paths every 4 years or less.

The future does not belong to the fastest, strongest, best looking or smartest. It belongs to those who can change the fastest and re-adapt to surroundings as external change occurs.

In the information age, we experience accelerated change at an unprecedented rate and learning to change will be #1 skill set in the very near future.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Please share this article if you found it helpful