I received an email today from a business associate of mine that inspired this post. Often times I get asked how I can blog as often as I do wondering how I come up with my content. That’s the cool part, I don’t come up with my content. Everyone else does. So thanks to all of you and everyone else. You inspire me!

The quote he sent me was this, “Don’t ask your children what they want to be when they grow up… Instead ask them, Who they came here to be.” Just as it got him thinking, it got me thinking as well. Who did I come here to be?

This post might just be a bunch of questions for you to ask yourself. It know that as I write this, that’s pretty much all that seems to come to mind. Who am I to be while here on this earth? Who am I to be as a mentor for those looking to create success and wealth in their life? Who am I as a father of three girls and a husband to my beautiful wife? Basically, who is the ultimate me?

Finding the answer is simple….Who do you want to be? Think of the details, get clear on it.

Once clear, the questions is how do we become that person? What are the steps to getting there?

Well, I am a very successful home based business Entrepreneur. Why? Well, I before I become the successful entrepreneur, I saw myself as the successful entrepreneur. Once I truly believed myself to be the person I was to become, I started to act as though I was already that person. I just lacked the results. But what happened to my results once I started acting as my future self? That’s right! They starting to come.

So in order to act as our future selves, do we do it all in one day? No! That would be too difficult. Just add one or two things per day that move you closer to becoming your future self. If you are in my business and are only placing a few ads a week and are getting only a few leads a day, what is going to move you closer to that future self who is generating 20 leads per day? Quadruple your marketing efforts! It’s simple. That is one thing, put into practice daily, that will move you closer to your ideal future self.

But becoming your future self is not as simple as just taking the same actions. Most of these actions are inspired by your mindset, or your vision for you future and who you are. You must dig deep in your visualizing. Put yourself in the shoes of your future self. If you are to become the most successful person that ever existed in the direct sales industry, how do you think? What are your priorities? Who do you hang out with? What do you do during the day? What books have you read? How do you inspire others to greatness? It’s all part of the package!

“In order to become the man or woman you have envisioned becoming, you must first become that man or woman mentally, and then start acting like it!”  –David Allred (My future self is a best selling author, so why not start quoting myself right now! Right!)

Ask yourself honestly, are you the person, right here and right now, that you ultimately would like to become? If the answer is yes, congrats. Are your results in order as well? If the answer is no, in the words of Gwen Stefani, “What you waiting for? Take a chance…!” Choose something to integrate into your day that will move you closer to your future self. Imagine the difference you will see in just 30 days. It’s not that far off. It’s just waiting on you!

Thinking outside of the box has become a very popular phrase. Corporate America has adopted the phrase in an attempt to increase productivity from employees. Entrepreneurs use it to inspire creativity and uniqueness. It seems to have a pretty nice effect. People actually start to thing larger and bigger than before as if they were automatically given permission to do so. I mean, the results are in the positive, but I can’t help but think, was there ever a box to begin with or did we all just sort of create our own box. Or maybe our so called created “box” was created by other people and we just automatically or gradually assumed it as our own?

First off, let’s define the box. The box is some sort of mental boundary. I mean, picture yourself living in a box. You can only see as far as the box allows you to, right? The box is the block that prevents your method of operation or your vision to expand. So the concept of thinking outside of the box is all about getting outside of your comfort zone. It’s about thinking differently, bigger or better. It’s about getting results that you never thought were possible.

So what’s up with the box? Understanding the box is the first step to progress. The box, was created by our own self belief and contains what we believe is possible to achieve. So, we created this so called box of limitations, or adopted someone elses box or beliefs of what is possible and made them our own. Living in a box would leave no room for growth. Limitations would be and are expected and accepted.

The fact is, there is no box. The box resides within your own mind. If you think about it, fear is the same concept. Fear isn’t some kind of huge monster staring down at you when you are about to go skydiving. It’s a mental condition. It is created by our minds and is a limiting belief. Just the same, it’s obvious that we don’t all walk around in cardboard boxes. It’s all just a mental state we all choose to operate in.

The truth is, we as powerful, spiritual beings are capable of anything. The sky is not the limit, there is no limit. Think of what it is that you want to do. Stretch your belief of what is possible because your understanding of what is possible is your only limit. Increase your understanding and you increase your potential. Understand though, you are capable or becoming anything you desire to become. Millionaire, Billionaire, Astronaut, Pilot, Entrepreneur? Take your pick! All it takes is a belief that it can be done, focused consistent action, and you. There is no box!

We have all heard of the common phrase: “For wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” It’s a simple theory really. Whatever you value as most important in your life will get the most attention and most likely, come to pass. So with that said, I think it is very important to know what our treasure is and where our hearts will be. So we must choose consciously and wisely.

Here is a very simple way to know where your treasure lies: Look around you! Look at your lifestyle, your family life, your income, your possessions, your job, your decisions and all that surrounds you. So far, that is where your heart has been.

Now, this mindset thing is very important in obtaining your treasure. Fact: Knowledge is power, or energy. Thoughts are energy. So I think it’s safe to say that if you focus enough thought energy toward one thing, eventually, your heart will take the action to get it. So what we think about is vital in obtaining the treasure, the lifestyle, the income, the job or whatever it is you desire.

Choose: Coupons or Wealth

Here is an example of how simple this really is: When you do your shopping, do you take coupons? Do you look at the price of everything you buy and always choose the cheaper version regardless of quality? Are you most concerned with pinching pennies and saving a buck here and there? Does it hurt to spend money, if you know what I mean? Do you try to spend as little as possible during your trips to the store or do you just get what you want, or need I should say? Or do you really get what you want?

If these are the things you do, your thoughts are focusing on the lack thereof instead of prosperity and abundance. When all of your thought energy is focused on saving, lower prices, spending little, low quality, fear of spending, and pinching every single penny, that is exactly what you will get. You will always have just enough money to get what you need and will have a lack thereof in your bank account. Pinching pennies can be seriously damaging to your mindset and thus be reflected in your income, effecting your lifestyle, causing you to stay in this poverty game of saving a few bucks.

Is it really worth the effort? Is sacrificing your mindset honestly worth a few bucks here and there? In the big picture, it will kill your prosperity and success. Don’t do it. It is so much easier just to get what you want. Ignore the prices. Ten cents here or there will not matter to your bank account, but will to your mindset.

Every thought and every ounce of thought energy should go towards making more and thriving? Imagine if you spent more time thinking about prosperity than you did on saving at the grocery store. What and where would your treasure be then? Think about it!

What do you do when things just aren’t going right in your business and when it feels as though you are right there at the door of success but just aren’t making progress like you had hoped you would? Sometimes it seems as though you are spinning your wheels even though you are doing everything you feel you should be doing.

Most people will go inside themselves. They will in a sense, implode! What I mean by implode is that they will get inside their own heads and start to think of all the things that might be wrong with themselves, with what they are doing or with the business they are involved in. They will, in a sense, be their own worst enemy and go at destroying their confidence and all they have built. They will start to get a small case of schizophrenia, in my opinion, making up things that don’t exist in hopes that it might be the solution.

Successful Mindset

My Advice: Stop Thinking! Get the heck out of your own head and just take consistent action. Do you think for a moment that during all of Michael Jordans success that he really thought each game winning shot through? No! Michael made so many game winning shots because he knew the basis of success, he knew what he had to do, and he just acted! And he did it in a serious way!

Success, at times, comes from somewhere else other than the brain. Know what you have to do, set a plan of action to do it and then go to work!

I attribute my knowledge of this philosophy to the one and only Jim Rohn. I am sure this analogy has been around for some time now. What a visionary he truly is and what an entrepreneur. I guess it makes complete sense that in order to effectively teach people to become entrepreneur minded, you must know what you are teaching about. True knowledge comes from doing and doing creates results. What better way is there to gain a perfect knowledge than experience?

So on behalf of Entrepreneurialism, I bring you the 10 philosophies of the ant. What better way to understand, than by analogy. Some of my most respected mentors and role models have always taught by story. The relation between philosophy and real life stories embed principle and trigger memory to recall those principles because they are tied to those stories. So that sometime down the road of life, one might be going through a similar situation and remember the principle. How valuable is that?

So here are the 10 philosophies of the Ant:

1. Hard work always pays off.

2. Know your objective, or the task at hand and do just that.

3. Never quit. If an obstacle arises, find a way around, over, under or just go through it.

4. Take shelter in a storm and dodge the bullies with magnifying glasses.

5. Selfless service. When you assist others in getting what they want, you will get what you want!

6. Remain loyal and honest. True depth in any business comes from respect and a good name.

7. Prepare for Winter while it is Summer.

8. Think of Summer while it is Winter.

9. Strength comes in numbers.

10. Never say Die!

The list could probably be longer but 10 will suffice for now. I will expound on each of these philosophies in the next 10 articles and will relate each to a principle vital to the success of any entrepreneur. Now that I think of it, luck could be number 11, but I think luck has such a small part in success. Either you want it, or you don’t! That is my philosophy.

I am not defined by my circumstances, however my circumstances define who I am being! How many people think just the opposite? How many people live in trailer parks thinking of themselves as trailer trash or live on the streets and consider themselves bums? There are very few people who understand the fact that their surroundings, their income, their clothes, their language, their job, and their results in life are not what defines them. That is just telling them who they are being, acting, and thinking as.

Many of the great and successful entrepreneurs of our time knew, even in times of bankruptcy and serious hardships, that they were successful and great! When I first started in Network Marketing I was making about $40k a year working a job. This is a great example of knowing who I was to become instead of who I was being for the previous 10 years of my life. I was speaking with people who were making well into the 6-figure income range and was a little intimidated. I was speaking with CEO’s and big business owners and thought that these people knew more, had more going for them, and were larger and better people than me. At first, that is the mindset I had, and that was who I was being. Do you think anyone wanted to get started with me in my business? Not very many did until I could change the view I had of myself. I had to change my belief of who I was and what defines me. My income surely does not define me nor does a label such as CEO. That is just who I was being at that moment in time.

In order to be successful in any venture and especially in Network Marketing, a person has to have a clear understanding of where they are going, who they want to be, and how to get there. Coming from a person who used to make the national average in income to someone who makes well beyond that now, I had to envision that for myself and become that person before I even had the results. I guess you can call it “Thinking outside the Box!” In other words, having the ability to look beyond your current situation. That, is what defines you!