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Looks Like Rain…But Are You Ready…Right Now?!

30 Nov

Looks Like Rain…But Are You Ready…Right Now?!

by Jon Bender

Faith! It is everything if you aspire to success. If you are the kind of person who says, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” you don’t need faith because you don’t KNOW faith. Faith is believing before seeing .  If you are that kind of person who has no understanding or need of faith, then it is very likely that the POWER that faith unleashes may never be available to you.

2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “…now is the time of God’s favor.”  That means that God wants to show you his goodness, his favor right now…not tomorrow, not next week, but right now!  But are you ready to receive His favor.   Well the answer depends on your faith because faith especially, ”right-now” faith, is needed to fully receive “right -now” favor. (Favor is word that simply means undeserved blessings from God…also known as Grace)

Imagine you have been in a desert without “water” for days maybe weeks.  You feel as though you are literally dying of thirst.  All around you, there is nothing but parched earth, sand and no vegetation.(Sound familiar?) Now imagine, right now, God wants to quench your thirst by raining down fresh living water, but how will you collect the water? Where is your container? What is the size of the container?   What no container…that could mean you get little to NO water.   The container is a metaphor for your faith and water being a metaphor for God’s favor or grace.  The GREATER your faith the MORE you are able to receive God’s favor.  And the greater your RIGHT-NOW FAITH the greater your RIGHT-NOW FAVOR. So here is a question. How’s your container?  Where’s your container? Is it ready right now?  How big is it?  Are you expecting rain today, how about right now…or are you expecting more thirst and more desert?

Take for instance Mel Fisher, a dreamer, a visionary, and a legendary treasure hunter.  Mel Fisher had extraordinary faith and suffered many personal losses to keep his dream alive during his 16 year search for the Spanish treasure galleon the Atocha. He endured over 100 court battles which would finally end in victory in the US Supreme Court. The riches Mel Fisher and his team had worked so hard for all those years were finally theirs. The $450 million dollar treasure cache or “Atocha Mother Lode” would be found on that momentous day, July 20, 1985. Over 40 tons of silver and gold were located including over 100,000 Spanish silver coins known as “Pieces of Eight”, gold coins, Columbian emeralds, silver and gold artifacts and over 1000 silver bars. Everyone on his team knew Mel Fisher’s faith-driven mantra by heart, “Today’s the Day!” He would say over-and-over every day for 16 years. His mantra continues to inspire people who back their dreams with “right now” faith no matter how grandiose by human standards.

Let’s now take “right now” faith and apply it to business.  How big is your faith in your business or career “right now?”  Are you expecting rain or more desert…right now?  Would you be willing to change your attitude and faith right now and follow Mel Fisher’s famous mantra and say, “today is the day!”  Today is the day that you are expecting God to do something extraordinary.  Today is the day you are expecting breakthrough.  Today is the day you are expecting that sale.  Today is the day you are expecting that contract.  Are you willing to say right now, this very moment I am getting out my container and expecting rain?  When God said in His word that I AM the great I AM.  He did not say I AM the great I WAS or I AM the great WILL BE…no He said I AM…that is as in NOW!  Right now!  Again, are you ready?

Can you imagine how sad it might be if you had the most incredible business opportunity in front of you, the most perfect timing, but the WRONG attitude…an attitude that kept you from having RIGHT-NOW FAITH…an attitude that kept you from God’s RIGHT-NOW FAVOR?

Your challenge this week:

Find your container (or get one), decide if it is big enough and if not…find out how to enlarge it AND EXPECT RAIN!

  1. Repeat throughout the day and EVERY DAY THIS WEEK, “Today is the day!”  I am expecting great things today!  “Breakthroughs are being prepared for me right now!”  “A Breakthrough is coming. I can’t wait!”
 
4 Comments

Posted in Business, Faith

 

7 Proven Tips to a Successful Growing Relationship

14 Jun

7 Proven Tips to a Successful Growing Relationship

By Greg Montoya

Having a successful relationship is a two-way street, and the reality is, it involves hard work.  However, what may seem like hard work in the beginning usually ends up being easy work in the end, and the payoffs can be huge!

I’ll start by saying that there’s no such thing as the “perfect partner”. If you happen to find a “better than usual” partner, that’s a bonus, but it’s only half the battle. When the newness wears off you’ll find that people are people, and you will have to continuously work on keeping the fire alive in your relationship. As a rule, six months is “mostly show” in most new relationships.  After that you will start to see who the person really is! At that time you can better decide if this is the type of person that you would like to continue a relationship with.  If so, the following are 7 tips to help you build and maintain a successful relationship moving forward.  Please note, if you are just starting a new relationship, I’m not suggesting that you wait for six months to begin applying these tips. Instead, I recommend you apply them from day one.

Tip 1  Communication- I believe this is the first step in building a successful relationship. If you aren’t able to openly communicate about anything, and everything, it’s going to be almost impossible to have a solid relationship. From time-to-time you must be able to let off steam (in a loving way!), or else undoubtedly the matter will manifest itself into something much bigger.

Without communication, it becomes easy to hold a grudge, which is poison to a relationship! Keep in mind that it’s important to not simply spew venom each time you are concerned or offended about something. That’s not communication at all. It boils down to, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. And remember, the best communicators spend more time listening than they do speaking!

Tip 2  Honesty- All it takes is one “white lie” to destroy a relationship. As easy, and tempting as it may be to stretch the truth, you’re always be better off to be honest with your partner.  Doing so will also remove the worry of wondering what you said previously.  It also causes your partner to respect you more because they know that your word is your word!

Tip 3  Respect- A healthy relationship always has an element of mutual respect for one another. Its okay to disagree but you must respect each others opinions and differences.  As I’ve previously written in other articles dealing with relationships, when my wife Marie and I disagree on something we have agreed to open God’s Word (the Bible) and see what He has to say on the subject. Regardless of our individual opinions, we have agreed to settle our disagreements based on God’s Word, not our opinions. This is the “perfect tie breaker” and has always resulted in a positive outcome for us.  Most important it relieves us from the burden of  thinking we  always have to be right!

Tip 4  Reliability – It’s vital for both partners to be reliable and dependable. When you say something you need to mean it and follow through! This creates a great sense of security within the relationship. 

Tip 5  Compromise – Compromise is crucial.  Don’t always think that everything has to be your way. Often times you will find that what you give up comes back ten fold!

Tip 6  Be a good listener!  Don’t be quick to jump in and cut off, or correct your partner when they are speaking.  Instead, listen, listen and listen.  When they are finished you can share your thoughts, as long as they are expressed in a loving way.  If your thoughts are counter to your partners then you may consider doing what Marie and I do in tip 3.  I guarantee you that you will become much closer in doing so, and you will keep the house together, which is critical. “A house that’s divided will not stand!” (Matthew 12:25) 

Tip 7 Give more than you take!!  This in itself is the most important tip to a successful relationship.  It’s right up there with the second greatest commandments of all… “Love your neighbor as yourself!” (Matthew 22:37-40)   If everyone followed this step it would not only solve virtually every relationship problem, it would also prevent every war on the planet!

Your challenge this week is: 

  1. Print out these seven tips, and review, and apply them in your relationship each day. If you are not getting desired results within a few days, ask yourself, am I really following these 7 tips?? If not, go back to the list and see where you are missing the mark.  I guarantee you will get amazing “positive” results if you do!
  2. On Tip 7, for one week don’t ask for anything from your partner, instead focus on what you can give. They will be shocked, and so will you when you start to see the love returned! 
  3. At the end of the week show this list to your partner so they can learn your secrets too, and then challenge them to review and apply the 7 tips for the following week toward you. If they do you will have as close to a “perfect” relationship as possible.  Even if your partner falls short, stick to them yourself regardless. I assure you that you will have a much better relationship than you do now.

Important! On week 2 don’t stop applying the tips yourself.  If you do you will be back to square one.  Instead, follow them even closer while your partner is doing the same and watch what happens…Your relationship will not just be on fire, it will be exploding with rewards beyond your imagination!

Copyright 2010 – Success Builders, Inc.

 
2 Comments

Posted in Relationships

 

Where Are You Financially And Where Are You Going?

05 Jun

Discover 7 Realizations To Help You Get There!

By Jon Bender

Robert Kiyosaki, in his bestselling book Rich Dad: Poor Dad introduces the idea of the Cashflow Quadrant®.

The Cashflow Quadrant is a concept and diagram that simply organizes how we generate income into 4 distinct categories.  These categories are E for the employed or employee, S for the self-employed/professional which are on the left-hand side of the quadrant and B, the leveraged business owner, and I, the sophisticated investor on the right –hand side of the quadrant.

Kiyosaki makes it clear that most of us need to do whatever we can do to get on the “right side” of the quadrant if we ever aspire to become financially free.  Otherwise the probability of ever achieving true financial abundance is too slim if we stay on the left side of the quadrant.

Interestingly enough, we get to choose which section and side of the quadrant we want to ultimately wind up in if we are aware of them.  Our choice largely depends on how we are “wired,” our temperament and our level of drive an ambition.

Regardless of what you do, you can choose to do it in the section of your choice. For example, suppose you are a translator for Chinese (i.e.Mandarin)

If you are in this section of the quadrant, you might:

E – Work for a firm where you are an employee translating and working with Chinese customers and clients. You like the comfort of being told what your next assignment is and what you will be doing.  Financial Definition: You are swapping time for money and getting paid what the JOB is worth.

S – Be an independent translator for hire where you would translate materials, correspondences and conversations between Chinese and US clients.  You are the best so you do the translating as you believe it’s too risky to have someone else do translation for you. Financial Definition: You are swapping time for money and getting paid what YOU are worth, but are restricted by YOU and your available time maximized at 24 hours.

B – Start a company that would provide a variety of services to companies or entities looking to work in China or that are Chinese or Chinese speaking.  Language and document translation may be your main services, but you have many other translators and support team members that work for you that allow your business to continue to produce income and grow even when you are not there. Financial Definition: You are leveraging people’s skills and time and creating synergy between their skills and time that can provide you with unlimited income, but still may require some of your time.

I – Take the income that you have produced in either the S or now the B quadrant and begin to invest in both active and passive investment opportunities. Many of these opportunities may have become available through the relationships created through your activities in either S or B.  The key here is your financial assets are now invested to produce more financial income (and thus more assets) for you and your estate. Financial Definition: You are leveraging your own money to create other financial assets that produce income which allow you to buy even more income producing assets.  When you have enough assets, you can do absolutely nothing or anything you want and can afford to do…best of all with more and more money continuing to pour in.

So you can clearly see that a person can take their skill and/or passion and choose to use it in any of the four sections of the quadrant, but if you want to be truly free financially your goal and focus should be getting to the I quadrant as soon as you can work yourself up to that level.

I have been blessed to have made millions in the B quadrant (Network Marketing is one of the few B businesses where you get all the upside leverage and 7-figure income potential without the overhead financial and loss-of-time risk associated with most B businesses.) and have had the joy of participating actively in the I quadrant, but there are some important things I have learned along the way that I would like to share with you.

  1. Moving toward the B and I quadrants are a process. There is an old entrepreneurial maxim that goes like this.  In the early days you work a lot and get paid a little so in the later days you get paid a lot and work a little.
  2. God’s delays are not God’s denials.  Don’t make the mistake and not see the important value in the delays in YOUR timing.  What you will find usually in hindsight is that if you would have gotten it when you wanted it, you wouldn’t know what to do with it. This is hard to “buy” while you are feeling delayed, but it is the truth.  Delight in your delays. Remember God IS ALWAYS ON TIME!
  3. You have to invest to be an investor.  Don’t be scared of losing…especially money.  If you do your best and learn from your losses, you will ultimately start to win. Losing is part of the process of winning. Fear goes away when you realize this and are diligent and energetic in your learning and preparation.  Once you get in the practice of winning…you will get better at winning and continue to win…Lord willing.
  4. A road map is good, an experienced guide is better.  Always seek to find a mentor who has gone to where you are going, done it in the style that you want to emulate and TODAY are where you ultimately want to “pass through” in fulfilling your created intent.  Mentors are out there and the good ones love to share…don’t be scared to pay the price they may ask you to pay.
  5. The quicker you make mistakes the FASTER you succeed.  In other words, if you want to succeed quickly…double your failure-rate.
  6. Learn to manager your time.  You can ALWAYS replace your money, but you can never replace your time.  Study my six-list article for how to do this.
  7. Last BUT most important is trust in yourself…SECOND.  Trust in God…FIRST.  You will fall-short from time-to-time, be deceived and just make plain stupid mistakes.  However, and hear this…GOD NEVER MAKES MISTAKES, IS ALWAYS ON TIME, TOTALLY RELIABLE AND WILL NEVER FAIL YOU.  It may seem like this previous sentence is not the case if you take a page out of the story of your life and read ONLY that page. However, if you will read the whole book that is your life or even look back to chapters that you have already lived, you, if you look hard enough, will see that the previous sentence is absolute.

Your challenge this week is:

  1. Identify where you are on the Cashflow Quadrant.  Ask yourself where are you ultimately committed to going and why.
  2. Read my 7 realizations above and ask yourself which of the 7 you already buy into.  Then ask yourself what you might need to learn, see or believe to buy into the others.

*CASHFLOW, ESBI and the Cashflow Quadrant diagram are registered trademarks of Cashflow Technologies, Inc.

 
3 Comments

Posted in Business

 
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