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When we get frustrated by our conditions, we inevitably end up becoming frustrated with ourselves. It can take us over and we tend to run with it. It can creep into every aspect of our lives, from how we relate to the people around us, to how it will impact our business.

If the frustration builds for too long, pretty soon we might forget altogether what the hell we were frustrated at in the first place, yes?

This happens in business all the time, especially when, in the early stages of the business, cash flow can fluctuate maddeningly, which then leads to all other kinds of frustrations from payroll to profits.

There’s an energy attached to frustration that sucks the life out of your business, and if you’re not dealing with this as a business owner, it’s only going to go downhill from there.

Moving back away from whatever the problem is, step one toward a solution is simply being able to classify your frustrations. Is it with your team? Your results? A process that doesn’t seem to flow efficiently?

Some typical early-stage business frustrations include time (there never seems to be enough of it), feeling like you’re too bogged down with menial detail-work instead of bigger-picture tasks, or relying on people to get things done that don’t follow through. Just to name a few.

This is where the importance of systemizing your business processes plays a huge role. First you name your frustration, and then you develop the system to address it.

So if you’re having problems with freeing up your time yet ensuring that essential tasks still get done, then the real problem is the absence of a system that will hire the right people rather than you doing it all yourself. That way, not only is your time freed up, but the right people will also help micro-manage the way processes continue to develop and flow.

The good news is that frustrations within your business are fairly easy to identify and deal with, though they may take time. Inner frustrations, on the other hand, not only take more time and energy to deal with, but may also be harder to identify in the first place. You could be mad at yourself because you’ve done something poorly for so long, and you get frustrated about not seeming able to turn the corner. Or worse, you externalize that frustration toward everybody else—the customers, the suppliers, the vendors, the client; everybody but yourself.

We know the power of blueprints, so we won’t address that here.

When it comes to outer frustrations that we can identify, though, the questions are much simpler. What’s my frustration? What’s the gap in the system? What system is missing altogether?
If your frustrations begin with ‘I’, it’s about you. It’s inner directed. If it’s about ‘them’ or ‘those people’ or ‘those lousy clients’ or ‘those suppliers’ or ‘that lousy machinery’ or ‘that way' of doing something, it can then be addressed systematically and objectively.

What do you think? Have you experienced similar or even different kinds of frustrations, and how did you address them? Did systemizing play a role? The Millionaire Mind Community wants to hear from you!

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That’s got to sound ironic coming from someone who believes whole-heartedly in the benefits of being rich. Forget about getting out of debt, paying bills, buying nice things, etc. That stuff’s great, but at the end of it all you’re not going to give a damn about your credit rating. Money’s the last thing on your mind in that moment, I would imagine.

Money can reduce the stress of living, but it can bring just as much if not more anxiety. I’ve gone through my cycles of accumulating and losing money, getting more and losing it again. The money wasn’t burning a hole in my pocket. I just had a big hole in my pocket and didn’t bother to sew it up. That hole represented something in my mental blueprint that kept me from being stable with money. There was nothing wrong with the money.

On the other hand, people without money often think if they just had enough to do this or that, then things would be better. While that may be true, what happens when the mind goes into ‘Only if …’ consistently? That’s exactly what you get … ‘only if.’

‘This will only happen if…’

All of a sudden nothing’s happening and you don’t even know or remember that rule you created. In business that thinking often translates into “It takes money to make money.” No! If you have money it can certainly grow more money, but it doesn’t take money to make money. It takes creativity to make money.

Throwing money at a problem is disaster! In business there’s no such thing as a money problem. That problem grew out of somewhere else. You want to fix the root of the problem. If you throw money at a business problem, you’ll have the same business problem for the rest of your life and no money. Creativity and knowledge are the answers, not money.

It’s also not logical to blame money for people’s shortcomings, or the world’s for that matter. Obviously there are people that are rich and greedy, but there are poor people who are greedy and there are middle class people who are greedy. There are rich, poor, and middle-class people who are generous. There are rich, poor and average income people who can be both generous and greedy, depending on the stress they’re going through at any given time.

To say rich people are greedy as a blanket statement is just as unfair as saying poor people are lazy. I’ve met many a hard-working poor person who just hadn’t yet turned the corner on working smarter instead of just harder.

Money can’t be the root of all evil. Envy, jealousy, and greed—all based on fear of not having or getting enough of something we want—pre-dated currency (think about the story of Cain and Able). It’s a part of what it means for us to be human.

If money isn’t the cause of all that’s wrong, it’s not going to be the cure either. It’s not the answer. It’s the fruit of our expansion—or lack thereof—beyond ourselves and of the impact we’re having on the world. What we choose to do with that is a result of who we choose to be, not because of money.

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Turn on the news and there are plenty of reasons not to be so optimistic about a lot of things. There is no denying the new realities we’re forced to reckon with as the world turns, but we have to keep in mind that we are part of a larger tapestry of cycles, both natural and man-made. There are always ups and downs as sure as there are seasons.

We’ve had severe economic recessions before. We’ve had whole world economies change before. Social and political controversy is nothing new. Yet, as wildly as the pendulum swings, the world always seems to also move back through stages of equilibrium.

No matter how bad things may seem, there will be an upswing at some point. Just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare for it. This isn’t mere “positive thinking.” If you’re not preparing for your eventual success and happiness, then what the heck are you doing?!

The fact is that most people don’t reach their full potential—even if the economy were booming—because most people operate on a very superficial level of life based only on what they can see in the visible world.

We need to connect our inner reality with the inevitabilities of universal reality. Most people never understand and/or utilize the fact that the results of interacting with physical, material world are nothing more than a print-out of our mental, emotional, and spiritual worlds; individually and collectively. Our results are the fruit, but there are roots that create the fruit.

So we take a look at the fruit of our lives—our results—and maybe we don’t like them. They don’t taste so good. There aren’t enough. They’re too small. But these strange fruit didn’t just come out of nowhere.

Who are you? How do you think? What are your beliefs? What are your habits? What are your traits? How do you really feel about yourself? How confident are you in yourself? How confident are you in others? What’s your ability to take action in spite of fear and worry? What’s your ability to take action in spite of inconvenience, discomfort, or when you’re not in the freaking mood?

There’s a saying: ‘It’s not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You have to be the right person in the right place at the right time.’

How do you know when the time is right? You don’t! That’s why it’s so important to be who or what you strive to be now! We do this because that’s what it means to show up in excellence even when you think there’s really nothing on the line. There’s always something on the line—you! Your principles. Your values. Your mindset. Your habits. Your actions. Your results. We constantly have to till our own soil no matter what. Only then will we be in a position to reap the rewards of the inevitable change of seasons.

Now it’s time to share your thoughts with the community. How are you showing up in these difficult times? How are you keeping your mental, emotional and spiritual center? What are some strategies or tricks you’ve employed to keep fear and anxiety at bay? We want to hear from you!

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In tough times like these, people are doing more than just making economic and lifestyle adjustments that aren’t always chosen or even wanted. People just do what they have to do.

With these outward changes, though, I believe it’s more important than ever to reexamine our attitudes and beliefs. For those who have been in the Millionaire Mind community for some time, you’re familiar with how blueprint impacts our mental, emotional lives, and economic lives.

We all have our own mental ‘File Box.’ It labels and stores information, yes? Certain ways of thinking and belief systems? The way you think can only come from the information in those files. If it’s not in the file box, you don’t think it.

Unfortunately most of us have file folders that have mixed messages in it. Mixed messages create mixed results. So if you believe that you don’t have the experience to start your own business even though you want to, you’ll act accordingly and never have the experience of starting your own business.  If you don’t believe that you have enough money to manage, you won’t manage your money, which means you’ll never have enough money to manage.

When you don’t periodically challenge your own beliefs, it’s kind of like driving with your foot on the gas pedal and on the brake at the same time. We’ve got mixed messages going out to the universe and to ourselves. We believe we want to get to where we say we want to go, yet some of our other beliefs hold us back.

We’ve got to revise some of those files or add some new ones so we can make new choices that seem perfectly logical and sensible toward what we want; files that support happiness and success versus those that don’t. We want to delete those files or at least neutralize them.

Whether you are naturally pessimistic or just facing uncertainty due to the current economic climate, develop the skill of challenging your negative, unconscious beliefs. However, instead of looking only at your beliefs, first look at your results and your ways of being! Look at your life and that will tell you what you MUST believe for those result to be there.

Describe your current life situation in the financial and work arena. Do you work for others, yourself, or not at all? Do you earn a lot of money, a little money, or a moderate amount of money? Where do you put your money if you have some? Are you a saver or a spender? Are you a risk taker or not? Do you love what you do or not?

Regardless of what you find, the truth is our lives are the way they are not just from circumstances we can’t control, but also because of that one area we can control though we don’t always take the time to do so: our belief system. We always act or not act in accordance with our beliefs. We co-share the results of this with the universe. Control what you can, and let the rest take care of itself.

Now it’s your turn. What are some of the things you’ve discovered about your belief system that may have surprised you? How long have you held on to these beliefs? How are you actively editing or deleting old, unsupportive beliefs? We want to hear from you!