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Lifeboat Ethics

Posted on by 93
floats stuck in sand on beach

 

There’s an interesting exercise in ethics I’ve taught commonly called Lifeboat Ethics, based on true stories where people on a sinking ship have to decide who should get a spot on a lifeboat and who should go down with the ship and face—at best—extreme uncertainty of whether or not they’ll survive; most likely, they face certain death.

I was always curious about the people who volunteered to give up their right to petition for a seat on the lifeboat. Why are they doing that?

‘Because it came from my heart’ is one I heard a lot—the idea of sacrifice for another. That’s kind, but is that coming from truth or a desire to be seen as “self-less” for reasons that have more to do with, say, a learned behavior of other people’s expectations that may not actually be serving their truest interests?

Here’s another one: single, unmarried people gave up their seats to people who had families. They didn’t want other kids in other people’s families to have to grow up without parents like they did.

In other words, other people’s kids and families were more important than their own well being.

Does that ring true? How does that kind of thinking work out outside of this theoretical game?

The thread that runs through all these answers is that the people who gave up their seats considered other people more important than them. For those who think, “I’ll give up my seat for others,” well … it’s pretty obvious that complacency could actually kill you!

Secondly, you’re a thief, literally. That’s because you’re robbing the world of your gifts.

Never forget that you have plenty to give. Every single person on this earth does.

In our Lifeboat Ethics experiment, a vast majority of people who chose others to live did so because the people www.healthandrecoveryinstitute.com/adderall-adhd/ they chose to live were able to articulate specific value in some kind of way—the contributions they would make not only to themselves but also to the world.

The criteria for such a choice were the clarity with which they were able to state their case and the commitment to their purpose.

Don’t ever let someone try and take your seat from you! I’m not talking about Hunger Games, fight to the last person standing. I’m saying come from an authentic place where you know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, how you’re supposed to contribute to this world, and why it’s important that either you or your mission (bigger than you) needs to live.

There’s only one entity that can take your life from you, and that’s the One that gave it to you in the first place. It’s not up to you or anybody else to take you out.

Your contribution is essential. If it wasn’t you wouldn’t be breathing right now. Nobody takes your seat again.

When you are inspired by a great purpose, all your thoughts break their bonds and transcend limitations. Your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great wonderful world. Dormant forces—your faculties and talents—come alive. You discover yourself to be a greater person, far greater than you ever dreamed you would or could be.

Okay, now it’s your turn! Given the same choices as our “volunteers” in Lifeboat Ethics, would you still give up your seat? For what reasons? Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. I love hearing (and even learn) from each and every one of you so make sure to leave me a comment below!

For Your Freedom,

harvsignature

Make It Clearly Important

Posted on by 68
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That’s the easy part—it only seems difficult sometimes if we feel guilty about wanting what we want or scared of what others might think. Once you get over stuff like that, knowing what you want isn’t that hard.

Among the many things we all want in life, more money tends to be in the Top 5. Money makes life a little easier, at least financially. You can do more things with more money. That leads to another connected want on most everyone’s list—greater happiness, which includes less stress about financial security, more personal time, more freedom, greater joy.

These are things that lots of people say they want, but most people aren’t financially secure and barely get by while working jobs. This job might be “more money” than they were making before, but is that the road to financial freedom or simply retirement, and how long will it take to get there playing the money game like we were taught?

And is that a joyful way to live?

That second key to getting what we want in life is the “Why”: why do you want what you say you want? Does it really mean something to you? Is that someone else’s imposed thoughts echoing in your head or your own, from your spirit?

I always wanted to be free. I love doing what I do, but the worst thing I could think of is being forced to do this. I wouldn’t love it anymore. People just don’t like to be forced to do things. You want to do it from choice.

That choice has to be backed by reasons that are honest, true and excite you to your core, like a kid who can’t stop jumping up and down and clapping in anticipation of pure joy.

In my experience working with thousands of people, more than 50% of the people that do this one simple action doubled, tripled or even quadrupled their income within a year:

Write down want you want. It must be clear and it must be absolutely important to you. Write at least five reasons why you want what you want, especially in terms of wanting more money. Put that sheet of paper on a wall you can’t avoid.

You want to see miracles in action? You’re not sure Spirit exists?  Think the Universe is trying to support you if you would just get out of the frickin’ way? Do this!

It’s unbelievable, but you have to do your part, and it starts with putting it right up there front and center in your consciousness.

Now give us stories of your miracles in action. Did a door that you didn’t expect open for you after making a life-changing decision? Were there times when your income jumped drastically? What choices were you making at that time? What goals are you proud to have checked off your list?

Share your stories! Together we can continue to grow and learn with each other!

For Your Freedom,

harvsignature

Putting a Face on Frustration

Posted on by 46
man in ropes

 

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 micromanage 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? Leave me a comment and let me know your experiences and how you overcome those frustrations (or are still working on identifying/overcoming them).

For Your Freedom,

harvsignature

Rich Intentions

Posted on by 1066
dollar sign with roots

Whether you’re rich now, on your way to being rich, or just thinking about it, everyone has fantasized about what it would be like for money—or rather lack of it—not to be a problem.

Most people stay in the realm of fantasy, maybe dipping out occasionally to buy a lottery ticket. Another group, not satisfied with the 9 to 5 grind, takes a few more risks and pours their energy into business ideas, opportunities and companies. Most will fail within three to five years.

But there are those fewer people with the skill (which can be learned through modeling), willpower and creativity who are successful. There is another attribute, though, that separates them from the poor, and that is intention.

Most people say their financial goal is to make money. Yes or yes? That’s a good reason, but the issue is that’s not specific enough. If you have a wishy-washy intention, you’re going to get a wishy-washy result.

Rich Business People Have Three Financial Intentions:

  1. To have a very high working income

  2. To create passive income

  3. Dramatically enhance the value of their company

What’s the intention that poor people have? To earn a living. To earn a decent living. That’s what they’re in business for. They don’t even consider they’re in a business as a way to create passive income and even more importantly to create wealth.

A business is not a job. A business is too much work with too many challenges to just go out there to earn a decent living.

The business is designed to be a vehicle to set you free and create nothing short of wealth! Rich people understand that business is simply two components: either buy or create something and sell it for more than it costs you. That’s it!

Most broke people have struggles, put most of their energy and attention not on the buying, creating, and selling but on the administrative and operations arena—the organizing of those two things—and that is a mistake.

Operations are very important, but it’s not the essence of the business. Go back to the cave people: ‘Here’s a piece of meat. I want your stick.’ That’s it! There’s no customer service. There’s no tech support. There’s no finance department. There’s no reporting. There’s no furniture and there’s no computers. ‘Your stick, my meat! Let’s go!’ That’s business!

Buying and creating and selling. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

This knowledge helps focus the intention of why we’re talking millionaire success strategies. The basics help, but the intention has to come from the simplest truth. When we’re going into business, we’re not going halfway. You could, but would that be much better than working a typical job?

When we’re talking about our money blueprints, these basics of why we go into business have to be drawn up into the foundation. It’s so simple and powerful yet not very well understood. Knowing this helps put you back into focus when the inevitable challenges arise, or when you face disappointments and setbacks.

You are doing this because you are going to be rich! Whatever other intentions are attached to that—for family, to buy nice things, to travel, to be an artist, whatever—don’t have to conflict with this truth.

You are doing this to be rich and to be free!

Now it’s your turn!  What are you financial intentions?  Are they wishy-washy and you need to change them now?  Are they solid and moving you forward?  Share below—I want to hear from you!

For Your Freedom,

harvsignature

Imagination Always Wins

Posted on by 114
child with balloons on chalk board

There are internal principles we use to create whatever we want to create. You’ve got to be congruent with who you are; an honest statement to yourself and to the world. You can’t get wealthy if you’re not congruent with that.

We have this desire to be financially free, but there’s this other part that says, ‘It’ll make my life more complicated,’ or ‘I don’t deserve to be.’

‘God doesn’t want me to.’

‘Mommy doesn’t want me to.’

‘The government doesn’t want me to.’

That never ends until you change the tune. You need to decide on something you’re going to do. Get congruent about it and go get it done. Take action on it.

There’s a saying I think is one of the most profound sayings I’ve ever heard by Émile Coué: “When the will comes into conflict with the imagination, the imagination always wins.”

It means you may want to do something, you may will it, you may write it down as a goal, you may say to yourself ‘That’s what I want to do’, but if your imagination is not congruent with that desire, you will conform to your imagination about it—even if you’re imagining the worst.

The deepest parts of you know what is right for you. That’s what intuition is. The problem is following your intuition can sometimes be a very fearful thing because you’re usually going against everything that everybody else is telling you. They’re usually saying, “Don’t do it.” You have to know and affirm that it’s right for you. It’s your thing. You’ve got to do this.

You would worry a lot less about what people think of you if you realized how little they do. But we have this façade we put up around ourselves, yes or yes? We try to play a role. And this façade takes half of our energy.

Fear is the most expensive habit we have. How much does your fear cost you? Go back five years and change your life, take all the fear away. No more fear of rejection. Live five years forward up to today without that fear. Where would you be today?

If you move and act in a different way, in a more congruent way, in a less fearful way, what happens? If we could take all of that and put it into money and relationships, time and physical health?

The question isn’t meant to draw thoughts of the past into the realm of regret. We learn what we learn when we learn it, and we get it into our bodies when it happens. Sometimes the Universe makes those turning points obvious, sometimes it takes us awhile to get there. Better late than never.

The point is to get it into our systems now; our desires deserve an imagination that will allow intuition, integrity, knowledge, and humility to go after what we want guilt free—free from the echoes of past that are no longer suited for your real ambitions.

What do you think? Has fear literally cost you money, or time, or something else important? Even for those who have found some level of financial success, do you ever still hear negative whispers from that old money blueprint? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

For Your Freedom,

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