It Pays To Be A Problem Solver

The Japanese have become the second most powerful economy in the world because of one simple word. Innovation. Their ability to problem solve, to take an idea and make it even better is what has brought them to the point that they are in the world economy. You ability to be a problem solver is what will help you become a financial power house. Everything that has ever been created, everything that has ever made someone money has done so because it has solved a problem for people.

The most successful people in the world have the ability to solve problems. They are able to see something that people need fixed, be it in themselves or in their lives, and find a solution for that problem. They are able to see a problem in their business, be it in the systems of the business, or the marketing, or employee relations, or whatever the problem is, and find a solution. Being a problem solver is one of the highest paid jobs out there. Your ability to recognize a problem someone is having, and your ability to solve that problem effectively will dictate at least some of your success. There are always me too kinds of people out there, and those are the people who do what someone else is doing. But it is the individual who is first to the market with a solution that usually rakes in the most amount of money.

So where do your strong problem solving abilities lie? Where do you find yourself solving problems most of the time? Where do you enjoy solving problems? Are you the type of person who has all of your friends coming to you for solutions in their relationships, or are you the type of person who is able to look at something physical, like a car, and see what is wrong with it? What do you have a passion for when it comes to solving problems, and how can you take that ability to a whole new level and turn it into a money making opportunity for yourself?

People will always have problems, and the better someone is at solving those problems for people, the more money that person will make. I know life isn't all about money, and it shouldn't be. Life is about abundance and wealth in all areas, and money happens to be a part of that, and if you are able to find something that you have a burning passion for that you are able to make a lot of money at, then so much the better. Learn to solve people's problems, and they will not only love you for it, but they will hand you money to do it. Think about it. Cell phones, cars, houses, running water, electricity, toilet paper for goodness sakes. All of these things are things that we could do without, but we pay for how convenient they make life and how much better our quality of life are because of them. Problem solvers are some of the highest paid people in the world. Become a problem solver, and get good at it, and your financial problems will be solved for you.

Do You Respect Your Intention and Show Courage?

It goes without saying that being Fearless is all about taking a risk. But most of us shy away from the risks because we're too afraid. It's a vicious cycle.

There is something about taking a RISK that puts everyone into a tailspin. We feel our chest tighten, our hands become unsteady and worst of all, our minds go into scramble mode and we turn into complete idiots about the simplest things.

You see when we take a risk, we also have to choose. We have to choose what is potentially good for us versus choosing to stay where we are and be miserable. Either way, you make a choice. Isn't that an interesting proposition? We get to choose to be miserable.
I was in my forties before I realized the truth of that one.

In the middle of a huge fight with my husband, while I blamed him for everything that was limited about our life, and blamed him for creating the circumstances that created these limitations, he said something prolific and simple. "You chose to be here".

It was one of those lightening bolt moments when I stopped in mid-sentence and swallowed my next round of invective. Suddenly, all these years of blaming him, of blaming other people for the misery I was experiencing in my life, was no longer true. I was responsible for my choices. I had chosen to be in these circumstances. I had chosen to be with the people in my life. I had chosen to limit or expand my universe based on which direction I was going.

In my book, it doesn't get more profound than that.
I have an acronym for risk. It really sums up what it's all about for me. When you take a RISK, you Respect Intention and Show Kourage.

When we respect our intention we set the program for change.

Twelve years ago, I began writing a book about my family. It was a difficult story full of rape, incest, unwanted children, physical abuse, retarded children and adoption. Many families are complicated. I just happened to think that mine was a little more than most.. But there was a burning desire to tell the story, and although I was afraid, I knew it was essential that I make sense of it. I wanted to know why the same patterns kept showing up generation after generation, destroying the lives of so many along the way.

I took a risk in writing it for several reasons. Firstly, I had no track record as a writer when I began it, and secondly, because I was talking about the secrets that had burned their way through three generations of my family. We had three generations of women having children born outside of marriage, including me, and I wanted to know what that was all about. My journey was to unlock these secrets from the people who were still alive to tell them, and they did. In the process their lives were transformed also.

An aunt, the first of the illegitimate children, disclosed after 65 years, the secret she had been holding back from everyone. When I wrote about it in my first draft, she was angry with me that she had been forced to tell her children. When I questioned their response, she told me they had said 'So!" The secret that was held for too long had lost it's power all these years later.
Over the years, the story segued from being autobiographical to a novel, because I realized that I needed distance from the characters to make them believable and to discover who they really were. I was writing about my grandmother, who I hardly knew, and my mother and father, who I knew but only to a certain point. How many of us really know who our mothers and fathers really are? They are identified as parents, not as individuals. It was my task to find out who they were as people.

I had no idea how writing this book would change my life.

How many of us hold family secrets because we're too ashamed, too afraid of what harm they can do, too afraid of hurting someone else. We believe that if don't take a risk, we will protect ourselves, when in fact it is the complete opposite. When we limit our existence, we feel miserable. You then enter the cycle where you wish you had taken a risk, and then don't, growing into being more limited, more miserable and so on. We say no to choice when we refuse to take a risk.

There are many reasons for holding back the family secrets but unfortunately, they poison the well. They seep down through the rich soil of who we are and leech out all the spontaneity and life that is ours. We sacrifice ourselves to the stories of previous generations. We carry so much baggage around with us and the truth is... it's not ours to carry. We have to set it down. It's old stuff. These are someone else's story; someone else's expectations; someone else's limitations. We are straight laced by our history.
So what can we do? We must make a choice. We must step outside of our comfort zone, and we must take that risk to invent new stories. We have to reinvent our own lives. We have to step outside the confines of our old belief systems, take a RISK by making a choice, and become the woman you were meant to be before you inherited the lies.
I did that when I created this book When The Crow Sings. I had to make a choice. Was I going to be carrying the weight of failure around with me forever, or would I choose to change it. I chose to change it because my life was a mess. Writing this down became my way of making sense of the history. Of knowing where I came from so I would know who I was.

I learned I wasn't my mother, my father or anyone else outside of my body. I wasn't their language, their limitations or their belief systems. I was me. I had developed a life confined within the narrow boundaries of who they were, and I spent a great deal of my life breaking free of them.

Thankfully today, I am free of the past, although I've learned how to take RISKS and I've taken plenty, there are still moments when taking that RISK is difficult. I doubt myself, I worry about the future, and I get involved in stories that are lies. I started Fearless Fifties on an idea with only a sense that I had something worth saying. I took a RISK that people would want to hear it. But now, when I face the fear of taking the next RISK, I know that it's been done before and I can do it again. I just have to believe it's possible.

We all need to believe in who we are. When we can do that, miracles do happen. We become the person we were meant to be. We become true to who we are. And the most amazing miracle of all is this. When you truly know who you are, people respond in the most amazing ways. They respect you. They admire you for your courage. They want to have a little of what you've got. They make you feel special because you are.

"We're in a free fall into the future. We don't know where we're going. Things are changing so fast. And always when you're going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. But all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It's a very interesting shift of perspective . . . Joyfully participate in the sorrows of the world and everything changes." (Joseph Campbell in Sukhavati)

You Can't Get There From Not Here

Today almost everyone is on the path of personal development. Self-help books are some of the best selling books out there. It is a very noble path to be on. The greatest enemy anyone will face is not over seas or in some other country or a follower of some other religion. The most challengin and difficult person to face is the one who stares us back in the mirror every day. But this is also the most rewarding of all journeys to be made. A journey deep within the soul and mind of yourself. Who you are, what you are, and what all of that means.

The problem that so many people run into on the path of personal development and the path of success is that they have a place that they want to go. They know what they want, usually. They have this grand vision in their mind of the kind of person they want to be. They read book after book after book. Over time, most people give up because they never seem to make any progress. This is all fine and dandy. It is essential to your success to know where you are going, however, you must also remember to take one very important step. You must evaluate where you are.

If you were to say that you wanted a thousand dollars, what would your first step be? Most people would jump right to how they intend on getting that money. That is a great idea, however, the first step you must take is to evaluate how much money you have right now and how much further you have to go. If you already have four hundred bucks sitting under your mattress, you don't have any where near as far to go as someone who has six bucks. We have to take time to evaluate where we are and what we need to get to there, where ever there is. How can you possibly begin to travel some place if you don't know where you are right now and where you want to go. Imagine trying to take a vacation and trying to get to Miami Florida, but not having a clue where you are right now. How could you possibly decide which way to travel. I guess you could jump in a car and start heading south, but then you would have to hope that you are north of Florida. That strategy wouldn't work if you were in Mexico.

Take the time to evaluate your current situation. Your strengths and your weeknesses. What you lack and what you have. Only then will you be able to realize what needs work to get to where you want to go. If you are a fast typer but you have trouble letting the thoughts flow from your head onto the computer, you aren't going to practice typing. You must know that your problem lies in how the thoughts flow from your head onto the screen. Then you can begin to practice things that allow your thoughts to flow better. If you are strong at telling stories but have trouble typing, you wouldn't practice telling more stories, you would practice typing. If you tend to start projects but only complete them half way, you wouldn't practice starting new projects. You are already strong there. You would practice finishing those things you start. The opposite is also true.

Take the time to realize where you are and what needs work. If you are already strong at something, recognize your strengths but practice and work on those things that need the work. If you know where you are going and what you want to accomplish then you should know what it takes to get there. After you know where you are, know what it takes to get to where you want to go, then you are able to work on those things that need work to make that happen. You can't get there from here if you don't know where here is. Also be sure to take the time during the journey to reflect back on all that you have accomplished. Many times we can get caught up in how much further we have to go. Especially since there keeps moving the closer we get to it. Take the time to look back on all you have accomplished so far and be proud of it. You can get there from here, just know where here is.