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WHAT WOULD BUSINESS ROBOT DO?

It has been said that business is a primarily rational endeavor conducted by primarily emotional beings. In this week’s show, I share one of the most powerful techniques I use with business owners, CEO’s, and entrepreneurs around the world.

To phone in and speak with me live during the show:

Inside the US (Toll free)
1-866-254-1579

From the UK/Outside the US
001-760-918-4300

You can listen to the show this and every Thursday – simply go to hayhouseradio.com at Noon pacific/8pm UK and click on the button marked “Listen Now”.

Did you miss last week’s show on The Possibility Game? For a limited time you can listen to it here. You can also download and listen to any of my shows at any time as part of your subscription to the new and improved Solutions Café – click here for details!

New! – You can now listen to the show from your iPhone!
Simply go to the Apps Store to download your free Hay House Radio App and within minutes you’ll be able to listen to great shows from Wayne Dyer, Cheryl Richardson, and of course, me!

Would chess be any fun (or even playable) if you could move any piece in any direction at any time?

Or think about a car race where drivers were allowed to take shortcuts across the middle of the track – would there even be a point in participating in that kind of an event?

The point is this:

It’s the rules that create the game.

Change the rules of poker and you’re playing blackjack – change the rules again and you’re playing gin rummy or even old maid.

Now, one game that a lot of us play in life is “the results game”. In fact, many people spend the majority of their time in pursuit of results – career results, financial results, relationship results, and more.

And while we all have made up slightly different rules for how the results game is played, there are a few that most of us share:

• Set goals (i.e. define “winning”)
• Keep score (i.e. track progress)
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (i.e.the “golden” rule)

Over the past six months, I have added one additional rule to my version of the results game which has revolutionized the way in which I play. I call it the “no suffering” rule.

Simply stated, the “no suffering” rule dictates that I be at least as committed to not suffering in my pursuit of results as I am to creating them. This means that according to the rules of my game, the results I create only count as a win if I don’t suffer while creating them.

This is no different to a rule stating that if a runner or cyclist takes steroids their results don’t count, even if they “won” the gold medal or Tour de France. With the “no suffering” rule in effect, I have to find a way to win (i.e. create the result I desire) without suffering or my results will be “disqualified”.

Instituting this rule has actually led to a number of changes to the way I pursue results:

• I’m now sleeping an average of 7 hours a night (up from 5 -6 in the past)
• I’m now starting on projects earlier so I don’t bump up so hard against a deadline
• If a path to my result looks unpleasant to me, I will not take it, even if it seems the most direct way to my desired result. Instead, I will find a more enjoyable and creative path.
• If the people I’m working with are contributing to my suffering, I either find different people to work with or, if I can’t or won’t do that, I take the time to transform my relationship with them
• Instead of always seeking perfection, more and more of the time I seek satisfaction

Remember, the “no suffering” rule doesn’t mean you are no longer committed to results. it just means that you may need to become a bit more creative and flexible in how you go about creating them.

Here’s how you can put this rule to the test in your own life over the next month:

1. Choose a practice goal – a result you would like to create in your life in the next 30 days.

Examples:

• Writing the first/next fifty pages of my book
• Losing that last 10 pounds
• Making an additional $100/$1000$10,000 income

2. Commit to achieving your result without suffering. That means that if you’re dreading doing it the way you’re about to do it, DON’T DO IT THAT WAY!

3. Take action and keep moving forward. To paraphrase the military strategist Hannibal, “We will either find a way or make one – without suffering!”

Have fun learn heaps, and remember:

Suffering is optional -
but you have to provide it for yourself!

THE POSSIBILITY GAME

Are you a possibility person or a dream killer? Listen in as Michael shares three questions which have changed his life and talks about making the impossible possible!

To phone in and speak with me live during the show:

Inside the US (Toll free)
1-866-254-1579

From the UK/Outside the US
001-760-918-4300

You can listen to the show this and every Thursday – simply go to hayhouseradio.com at Noon pacific/8pm UK and click on the button marked “Listen Now”.

Did you miss last week’s show on The Art of Sprinting? For a limited time you can listen to it here. You can also download and listen to any of my shows at any time as part of your subscription to the new and improved Solutions Café – click here for details!

New! – You can now listen to the show from your iPhone!
Simply go to the Apps Store to download your free Hay House Radio App and within minutes you’ll be able to listen to great shows from Wayne Dyer, Cheryl Richardson, and of course, me!

“The problem with you”, my mentor said, “is that you come up with all these great ideas, distinctions, and techniques for your clients and students. But then you get bored with saying the same thing and you come up with a new one. So unless someone in the room writes it down when you say it, it disappears forever.”

While I didn’t really have the level of self-belief it would have taken at that time to believe that any of my ideas, distinctions, and techniques had any value beyond the people I was sharing them with in the moment, what he said struck me. And on the day we moved to America, I resolved I would begin to write down some of those ideas, distinctions, and techniques and would continue until I got bored or it started to feel too repetitive.

Four books, two CD programs, and 685 coaching tips later, it’s moving day again. I am writing this on my laptop on the kitchen table, hidden from view by stacks of boxes marked “KIT” and wondering how long I have before they tell me they need to take the table and chair out from under me.

What began as part of a tip called The Possibility Game only six weeks ago has culminated in our moving into our dream house today – and while Nina and the kids are settling into our new home, the dogs and I have remained behind to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.

And wonderful though making your dreams come true can be, like most transitions the excitement is tinged with a touch of sadness. We have loved this neighborhood, and wandering around it one last time last night for Halloween reminded us of what good friends we have made and how much we have enjoyed living here.

At one point in the evening, Nina was tearing up as she told one of the neighbors how happy we have been here and how much we will miss it.

“Then why are you leaving?” asked the neighbor.

Nina paused as she tried to answer what was a seemingly obvious question.

“Because we want to be even happier?”

We all laughed, because we recognized one of the great paradoxes of being human. A life well lived is filled with curiosity and exploration, and you do not have to be unhappy with where you are in order to want to experience being somewhere else.

The new house is lovely, and I have no doubt we will be very happy there. But I’m sure we will also be very sad there, and occasionally frustrated, angry, or even a bit frightened. That is, or so it seems to me, a part of what it is to be happily alive – to experience the full range of human emotions against a backdrop of innate mental health and well-being

This week of joyful transition has brought with it transitions of another kind, as no sooner did we find out that my uncle has gone into hospital with a potentially fatal condition than we were told a day later that Nina’s aunt has unexpectedly died.

In other words, life is and will continue to be “a contact sport” – and that means we will continue to come into contact to things we love and things we don’t, and feel feeling we like and feel other feelings we don’t.

And at another level, I recognize that while everything around me is changing, nothing is different. Our lives will carry on in a similar rhythm as before – school runs in the morning, clients and writing in the day, homework and bedtimes and cuddles (and the occasional hot date) in the evening.

I have been reminded several times this week of one of my favorite questions to contemplate during times of transition and change:

Are you the ocean, or are you the wave?

As I consider it afresh in this moment, I celebrate the peacefulness of the ocean, the excitement of the wave, and the impossibility of being one without the other.

This has, for me, been a very moving day indeed…

Have fun, learn heaps, and may all your success be fun!

The Art of Sprinting

When you see your life (or work, or marriage, or pretty much anything) as a marathon, you tend to conserve your energy. When you see your life as a series of sprints, you are able to give your all for short bursts. Listen in as Michael tells you how to train, rest, recover, and “leave it all on the track.”

To get coaching and speak with me live on air, phone:

Inside the US (Toll free)

1-866-254-1579

From the UK/Outside the US

001-760-918-4300

Did you miss last week’s show on The Eight Styles of Contribution?

For a limited time you can listen to it here. You can also download and listen to any of my shows at any time as part of your subscription to the new and improved Solutions Café – click here for details!

New! – You can now listen to the show from your iPhone!

Simply go to the Apps Store to download your free Hay House Radio App and within minutes you’ll be able to listen to great shows from Wayne Dyer, Cheryl Richardson, and of course, me!

The Fourth Mastery:
Managing Money

Managing your money is perhaps the most practical of the money masteries, and many of the basics of financial literacy can be easily learned online or over a coffee and donut at your local bookshop. (Just be sure not to get any donut crumbs on the books if you’re not planning on buying them later… :-)

So instead of spending a lot of time on the details of how to manage your money, let’s take a little bit of time to explore what it entails and why it’s worth doing.

In its simplest form, effective money management answers three questions and involves three basic skills:

Because ultimately, the mastery of money isn’t about money at all – it’s about you being able to live your life from your authentic, wonderful self.

Money is not, as far as I can tell, the secret to happiness – but getting yourself to the point where money is neither what gets you out of bed in the morning nor keeps you awake at night is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Have fun, learn heaps, and may all your success be fun!

THE EIGHT STYLES OF CONTRIBUTION

Have you decided that you want to make a difference in the world?

Given that there are so many ways to contribute to the well-being of the planet, and so many seemingly good causes and worthy places to give of your time, your money, and yourself, how do you decide where, when, and how to make your difference?

To get coaching and speak with me live on air, phone:

Inside the US (Toll free)
1-866-254-1579

From the UK/Outside the US
001-760-918-4300

Did you miss last week’s show on A Thousand Minutes a Day?
For a limited time you can listen to it here. You can also download and listen to any of my shows at any time as part of your subscription to the new and improved Solutions Café - click here for details!

New! – You can now listen to the show from your iPhone!
Simply go to the Apps Store to download your free Hay House Radio App and within minutes you’ll be able to listen to great shows from Wayne Dyer, Cheryl Richardson, and of course, me!

This full-year course is for those who want to incorporate advanced skills training and turbo-charged business development alongside personal coaching.

http://www.geniuscatalyst.com/apprentice.php

There are currently only three spots available.  Program begins December 2009!

Thus far, we’ve talked about the two masteries of money that most people who struggle with money claim to struggle with – creating it and accumulating it.  This week and next, we’ll move into two of the subtler masteries.  Without next week’s mastery, it won’t matter how much you earn or how much you keep because it will continue to mysteriously disappear.

Without this week’s mastery, it won’t matter how much you earn or how much you keep either – because you haven’t yet made it matter…

The Third Mastery:
Using Money

I’ve always suspected that the first official “financial” transaction between nations involved the trade of several chickens for a goat, and that both nations (or what we would today consider to be “tribes”) had members who violently protested that “our chickens are worth way more than their goats” and vice-versa.

Far fetched though that may seem, compare it to this highly-abridged history of currency in the modern world.  In some ancient Oceanic cultures, conch shells were used to facilitate the exchange of goods and services, as people “shelled out” for food and lodging.  Later, workers in the salt mines of Mesopotamia were paid in salt, or “salarium”, creating the first “salaried” workers and no doubt the first grumblings of comparative salt envy.

As trade grew more complex, and it became completely impractical to carry shells, salt, or even chickens in your purse for barter, precious metals began to be the universal currency, leading to the establishment in the 19th century of the gold standard system that enabled easier international trade.

In the last 70 years, what we call “money” has changed forms again, and the coins and paper we carry around are no longer backed by gold but rather by faith – our faith in the government’s ability to continue to back our currency at a comparable level to other government’s ability to back theirs.

So if what we use as money has progressed over time from chickens to shells to salt to gold to faith, what exactly is this money stuff that seems to have everyone all worked up?

Well, one answer is “whatever we make it up to be”, and while this is essentially true (see the launch of Brixton’s own internal currency last month as a startlingly modern example), it might be useful to create a shared definition, at least for the purposes of our conversation through these tips.

So here is what I’m talking about when I use the word “money”:

Money is a practical tool created to facilitate the exchange of goods and services.

When viewed in this way, much of what we believe and/or worry about money becomes nonsensical.

One of my favorite money experiments, which I first came across in the book “Money Freedom” by Patricia Remele, involves substituting the word “shovel” (another practical tool) for the word “money” into many of the most limiting beliefs and ideas that are present in our culture.

Here are a few of my favorites…

• The love of shovels is the root of all evil
• It takes shovels to make shovels
• Shovels don’t grow on trees
  
• Shovels are a corrupting influence in our society
• He is better than me because he has more shovels than I do; he is worse than me because he has more shovels than I do

So if money is just a tool, how do we decide where to place it in the hierarchy of values of our life?  In the grand scheme of our lives, how important should money be?  How do we evaluate the value of a tool?

The answer is surprisingly simple: by its suitability for the job we are using it to do.

How valuable is a hammer?

If we are looking to pound nails into wood to construct the frame for a house (or stakes into the ground to hold up our tent), incredibly valuable.  If we are looking to  turn a screw, screw in a lightbulb, or get a table at our favorite restaurant, not very valuable at all.

How valuable is a paintbrush?

If we want to change the color of a room or forge a copy of our favorite Picasso, indispensable.  If we want to learn how to dance or go traveling to the South Seas, utterly useless.

How valuable is money?

It depends entirely on what you are trying to use the money for.

Here are some of the most common things people attempt to use money for with a few of my thoughts on the relative value of money as a primary means to that end:

1. Using money to get security

In Supercoach, I tell the story of a client with a net worth of nearly 600 million dollars who told me that he woke up every morning wondering if today was going to be the day that he lost it all.  In my research into the differences between miserable millionaires and happy ones, it quickly became apparent that financial security doesn’t come from the amount of money in your bank balance, it comes from your ability to create more of it whenever you want.

In this sense, money is as poor a substitute for the mastery of creating as the handle of a screwdriver is for a hammer.  You can sort of get the job done with it, but it won’t last forever and it won’t necessarily work for you when the going gets tough.

2. Using money to get power and/or freedom

Any time you attempt to create an internal experience (power, freedom, etc.) through external means (accumulating a certain amount of money), you are bound to struggle.

There is a famous story of Alexander the Great’s encounter with the ascetic philosopher Diogenes.  When Alexander asked Diogenes what he could do for him, Diogenes’ only request was that Alexander step out of his sunlight so he could continue to enjoy the day.  So impressed was Alexander by this encounter that he is reported to have said “Truly, were I not Alexander I would have wished to be Diogenes.”

What did the most powerful man in the world admire about this poor philosopher who lived in a barrel (literally) by the side of a road?  He was as free to live his life on his own terms as Alexander himself.

While it is certainly true that you can use your money to influence the actions of others, it cannot ultimately take away from the ultimate power within each individual, what holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl called  ”the last of the human freedoms – the freedom to choose.”

3. Using money to save time

One of the interesting things that came from my research is that happy millionaires don’t value money nearly as much as they value time. While many people will spend hours and hours to try and save a few hundred dollars, the happy millionaire will (happily) spend hundreds of dollars to save a few hours of their time.

4. Using money to get stuff and/or experiences

This is the specific use money was actually designed for – to facilitate the exchange of goods and services.  Using money to get experiences (like a great vacation or an amazing seminar :-) or stuff  (like food, clothing, and shelter) is the equivalent of using a hammer to pound a nail.

Which nails in particular you choose to pound (and of course which experiences and stuff you choose to use your money for) is a function of what you’ve decided is important.  And as always, the most important choice you make is what you choose to make important.

5. Using money to get money

The comedian Jerry Seinfeld used to do a routine about why he wasn’t an investor:

People always tell me, you should have your money working for you. I’ve decided I’ll do the work. I’m gonna let the money relax. Youknow what I mean?

‘Cause you send your money out there – working for you – a lot of times, it gets fired. You go back there, “What happened? I had my money. It was here, it was working for me.” “Yeah, I remember your money. Showing up late. Taking time off. We had to let him go.”

While many people in the current economy could find cause to agree with him, there is no question that one of the ways you know you have mastered money in your life is when a certain portion of your money is working to earn more money for you while you sit back and relax at home.

The only danger with getting too caught up in the investor mindset is that it is easy to lose sight of what the money is for – that is, why are you seeking to accumulate more money in the first place?

If it is for greater security, power, or freedom, well, as the disclaimer always says, “the value of your investments can go down as well as up and cannot be guaranteed.”

If, on the other hand, it is to purchase a more diverse set of stuff and experiences for yourself and others and your experience of the creation is a joyous one, well, the more the merrier!

6. Using money to give hope, possibility, and a chance for a better life

Most books I have read on charity or philanthropy talk about the value of giving of yourself, rather than of your money. While there is no doubt that giving of your time, energy, and attention can be a wonderful gift to both yourself and your community, what nobody ever talks about is how much fun it is to put your money to use, even if you don’t yet have very much of it!

Each December, we give money to each of our kids with the instruction that they find a way to use it that will create a better world for others.  Last year Oliver used his to support Breast cancer research; Clara used hers to support a children’s hospital and 6 year old Maisy split her money between a charity that prevents cruelty to animals and one that builds schools in impoverished areas because she couldn’t believe there were kids who didn’t have the chance to go to school.

Over the years I have given away as little as $10 to feed a hungry child and so much to one organization that they thought we were joking, but in both cases the fun we had doing and the sense of contribution it engendered were the same.

So whether you’re struggling to make ends meet or pretending you don’t have ten years worth of savings put by and need to continue to struggle, consider borrowing this line I wrote on the back of my checkbook nearly twenty years ago:

“A portion of all I earn is mine to give away.”

By doing this, you transform money from an object to be hoarded back into a tool to be used. And while a great workman may love his tools, he’s unlikely to ruin his (or anyone else’s) life in order to get more of them.

2. If you knew that a portion of all you earn was yours to give away, who would you want to give it to?

Make your list, get out your checkbook, and write out a check today.

I once asked a particularly persistent fundraiser what the smallest amount I could give was that would make a worthwhile difference to her cause. She replied, “Even if it cost us more to process your gift than the amount you gave us, it would make a difference to our cause because by giving us money, you are enrolling your heart.”

Have fun, learn heaps, and use your money wisely and well!