“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.” — George Bernard Shaw

I read this recently and I loved it.  I have been reading it every day.  I am developing a deep passion for the idea contained within it.  Losers blame circumstances.  That’s why they are losers.  Period.  Circumstances don’t happen to you.  You create your own circumstances by how you respond to events in the external world.  If you “do nothing” then that is the action of non-action and thus even then you are creating your own circumstances.

Did you get laid off?  If so you, you laid yourself off by your actions prior to the event.  How are you reacting to that event?  Your reaction is creating your circumstances.  Is the stock market drop impacting your finances?  Why?  How are you responding?  How did you get into a position where it could hurt you?  Did the universe force you into this position?  How are you reacting?  You are creating your circumstances right now.

This is a money making opportunity.  Volatility is where the big money opportunities always lie.  Stability doesn’t provide anywhere near the opportunity for creative people that instability and change does.  We are living in exiting times.  **** the news media and everyone else who is crying crocodile tears.

If you want to have a pity party, I’m not interested. Nobody would show up for mine and I’m not showing up for yours.  I threw myself a pity party a few months ago and it was almost a funeral.  Accept your feelings because they are real, and then adjust your mindset to one that is positive.

You have a basic choice about how you create your life and create it you will no matter which choice you make.  You can:

1. Float aimlessly in the turbulence like a ship without a crew and end up shipwrecked.
   OR
2. Take massive and decisive action to create the life you choose.

What can you do?

1. Accept responsibility for where you are and accept it totally.
2. Write down your vision, purpose, and goals.
3. Create a 30-day massive action plan to begin the process.
4. Give that 30-day plan a chance to show progress, even a small amount.  Whatever results you see will encourage you to do more.
5. Understand that you will struggle.  It takes courage to take action.  Inaction allows you to be safe and say “Life did it to me”.
6. Stop complaining.
7. Focus on one thing at a time or you will dilute your results and fail.
8. Find like-minded people to associate with.  You can encourage one-another.
9. Do not accept ANY limiting talk or behavior from anyone and that includes yourself.
10. Keep your eyes on your prize; the ultimate goal for which you act.  This will keep you motivated.

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” — Henry Ford

Let me close with another quote from George  Bernard Shaw.  This is an inspiring and incredibly positive view of life.

“Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” — George Bernard Shaw

Burn up your life. Leave something of yourself in those you touch along the way. Decide right now to start taking decisive action to change your circumstances and weave your own dream.

Do you wish you could make a living while at the same time doing what you passionately love?  I bet you do, but if you are like many people you think your passion can’t make you enough money to live on.  Along comes Jonathan Fields to the rescue.  He shows you how to make money doing what you love and how to do it in your spare time until you get established.

Jonathan has written an excellent book: Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love.  This book has 31 reviews on Amazon.  28 are 5-star and the other three are 4-star.  That’s about as good as it gets.  I give this book 5-stars and I very highly recommend it.  If you buy the book you can join Jonathan’s tribe (and me) at Career Renegade Flight School.

This book covers about everything.  He gives you the techniques you need to make it happen.  It won’t be easy, but by reading and following the advice in this book, you will increase your odds dramatically.

Jonathan, unlike the get-rich-quick-schemers, does not suggest you sacrifice your passion for another money making scheme.  Instead he guides you step by step through how you can find a way to make good money while following your passion.  He wants you to love what you do.

As Jonathon guides you through the process, he points you to many resources and tools you can use along the way.  Here are the chapters in the book and the path you will take.

1. You Don’t Have to be World-Class to Make a World-Class Living
2. What’s Your Secret Passion
3. Introducing the Career Renegade Paths
4. Turn Your Passion Loose Unexpected Places
5. Got Information?  Sell It!
6. Want to Teach?  Expand Your Reach?
7. Exploit the Need for Stuff
8. Exploit the Need for Community
9. Make It Easier for People to Do What You Love
10. Planning and Protecting Your Vision
11. Is the World Ready for You?
12. Are You Ready for the Renegade World?
13. Launching Your Quest for Authority
14. Getting Social Online
15. Building on Blogging and Social Media
16. Marketing that Won’t Break the Bank
17. Cultivate the Renegade Mind-Set
18. How to Be a Renegade Without Ending Up Divorced and Penniless
19. Don’t Do It Alone
20. Hold On to Your Life Preserver Until You Can Swim
21. Be Your Own Guru

Running the Rat Race

A daunting 42-to-1 “scam ratio” in online work-at-home job leads is costing Americans millions of dollars annually and turning the online environment into a “job hunting minefield,” reports home-based career experts Staffcentrix. Moreover, the ratio is growing at an estimated 50% per year.

Your odds are pretty good of getting scammed repeatedly if you are looking for alternative money-making methods on the Web.

These sites will help you with legitimate Opportunities:

Real Home Employment.com is really good source of legitimate opportunities

The Rat Race Rebellion is a source for legitimate work at home opportunities.  It focuses on the Virtual Assistant.

Check out the 62 out of 68 five star reviews of this book!  The subject is the exploding Virtual Assistant market.  This is a legitimate way to earn money from home.

Virtual Assistants (typically abbreviated to VAs), are entrepreneurs who provide professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients from a home office.^[1][2] They usually work for other small businesses and consultancy groups. It is estimated that there are as few as 5,000-8,000 or as many as 35,000 Virtual Assistants worldwide; the profession is growing in centralized economies^[3] with “fly-in, fly-out” (FIFO) staffing practices.^[4][5][6]

Unless you want to be caught in the claws and jaws of the rat race predators, you need to pay careful attention to what follows.  When you look up toward the sky, you will see a large kettle (group) of vultures circling overhead and the hawks and wolves lurk near you in the trees and bushes.  They are waiting for you to take a step outside where they can gobble you up.

When you decide to follow your dream and escape the rat race, you are vulnerable.  You are going to see so many get-rich-quick schemes and scams flying in your direction you won’t know which direction is up.  These will be presented in very convincing presentations, using tried and true marketing techniques, wrapped inside the most powerful testimonials from the allegedly new rich.  There is no way you can lose right?  All the money you ever wanted is just around the corner and all you have to do is reach out and grab it.

It simply doesn’t work that way.  Yes you can achieve your dreams.  Yes you can be happy and successful.  Yes you can earn more than you ever have before.  No it is not easy.  No it is not quick.  And no it does not come without a price.  If you want something and are not willing to pay the price to get it, you are going to end up very disappointed.  I am not going to link you to dozens of sites promising rivers of money will soon flow your way.  You need to learn the principles that will sustain you over the long-term.  I want you to be part of this community for the long term and so I am going to earn your trust.

There are two strategies you can follow right now to achieve your escape.
The first is to make major changes in your current life situation and the second is to change careers and do something entirely different with your life.  You must apply the first strategy regardless and the second one around career change will also be used by many people.  However you do not have to use the second strategy.  Many people won’t and will still benefit enormously.  The whole point of this article is to convince you to make this decision carefully and deliberately.

The first strategy detailed below is very important as it will sustain you during your escape and for the rest of your life no matter what you decide in regards to career change.  Please don’t rush into that decision or you will find yourself in a heap of trouble.  I will post some information in the next few days on some resources you can begin looking into if you feel a change is necessary right now.  I suggest that you get your life in order first and then you will have the necessary foundation to make a very successful career change later.

Make life changes now, no matter what your current situation.

There are very few people who won’t benefit tremendously from some major changes in the way they approach their personal and professional lives.  Make these changes now and continue to grow positively, and you almost certainly will find happiness and success in your current job or business.  You will benefit from these changes for the rest of your life.

I will continue to provide a lot of content in this blog to help you achieve these changes.  They are remarkably straightforward if you know what to do.  Here are some resources to help you get started.

• Follow the steps to finding happiness that were described in the Find Happiness Outside of the Rat Race series.  Here is a great article from Zen Habits: First Your Feelings: Then Your Action Plan.  This article from Goodlife Zen is also very good: What is the ONE Thing in Your Life
• Check out Derek’s Success Tips.
• Drink in everything Leo Babauta.  I realize I’m bordering on hero worship,  but I simply think the guy is fantastic.  Here is his book: Power of Less, The: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life by Leo Babauta. Here is his web site: Zen Habits
• Continue to participate in The Rat Race Trap community.  I am committed to doing everything possible to help you get that great life you deserve.  There is so much more to come and I can hardly wait to put it out there for you.  We can all help each other here by actively participating in the comments and getting discussion threads going.
• Review the Must Read and Killer categories to your right in the link sidebar.  You will find a lot of good information there now and it will continue to grow rapidly as the site content builds.  Some of those articles were mentioned above.
• Get your finances in order.  You must at least be financially stable before you make any major changes.  Stable finances are a key to long-term success and you must start right now.  The following link is to a nice blog on personal finances, and there is a ton of content.  You probably will have to browse around to find exactly what you want but it is a great resource  Here is the link to the basics category of Get Rich Slowly.    There are a million articles on the Internet and so just start Googling personal finances.  You can expect a lot of future content here on this blog around financial success in the future.  Here are a couple of starter articles to get you going:
  • http://www.surfersam.com/articles/personal-finance-plan.htm
  • http://www.muzi.com/library/ar/english/122502.shtml

Much, much, more to come.  Please let me know what you think.

Stephen.