Brain Improvement

In Range Job Change

Garth Beyer
Where do you fit in?

 

Brian Tracy said in Global Competition, “A recent study said more than 90% of everything you know about your job or field today will be obsolete in 5 years. It will be irrelevant and have nothing to do with your work. It will have to all be replaced with new information, ideas and understanding.”

That was said more than 13 years ago.

In 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was 4.4. To apply it differently, the average number of workers would change jobs before their fifth year in the same position. The most obvious explanation is that the job changed, not them. After more than a year, very few workers do the same thing as they did the day they began the position. The rate at which a job changes by means of information replacement, idea improvement and administrative direction is so high that the job you entered will be completely different a year from now.

It is now 2012, would you agree with me that this information still stands true, but the number of years until the information you know about your field becomes obsolete is now only two to three years? Four years tops.

The answer behind it is that only a select few go into a position with the hope to climb the success totem pole. Not to mention, the average number of jobs that allow position advancement (promotions) with reasonable ease is 4/10. The reason for the number being so low is that those who continue to gobble up new information, form the improvement concepts and devote themselves to further understanding of the occupation, not only take the higher positions in the workplace, but they keep them.

If you’re not constantly devouring new information, if you’re not consistently getting better, you are getting worse. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, people die standing still.

For me, I would prefer that instead of changing jobs nearly every other year, we incorporate an aggressive “success” mindset. It’s also wise to consider the fact that when you start a new job, you have to learn all new information anyway. New information and the same low wage and respect? Or new information and a higher wage and more respect? Both of which require the same amount of effort.

 

Stay Positive & Keep In Mind That Changing Jobs To Keep Yourself Low On The Totem Pole Is The Same As Standing Still

Garth E. Beyer

100th Post

Garth Beyer

In reflection, it has been a long five months full of successful change and improvements. Originally my hopes were to write five blog posts a week. Although some weeks had fewer and other weeks more, the average actually comes out to five  posts a week. Isn’t it incredible how things can manifest, especially when they are not in the way you originally thought or hoped for?

As with any habit, in my case writing, you have the ability to increase and improve that habit. In fact, that is exactly what I plan to do with this blog. Beginning now, I am shooting for a minimum of six posts a week, with a goal of one a day. With this effort I am asking you to push me to write even more and stronger posts, including posts that answer questions you have.

Which leads me to announce a big improvement to GarthBox. In two days I will be creating a separate page for you to contact me with a question and I will write a post answering that question. But this will be unique, there is a trick to it so make sure to check the page out for details.

Back on track, just as the content I provide is meant to hold you accountable to incorporate what you read into your life and to push yourself. The way you can push me to do much more than I say I will do is to post comments, pose questions and give me and everyone else your own thoughts about each post, “like” a post on Facebook, tweet content and simply make a ruckus out of what I write.

By extension, you deserve the credit for anyone who is helped by the posts I write if you are the one who shares it. In fact, all I did was make you aware of your own success and life-improving abilities. You have all the knowledge and power to begin changing and creating the perfect life you want with all the positive relationships, passive income, persistent motivation and much more.

With that being said, I will be retiring the motto that GarthBox is a place for you to find all the resources that will “Get you out of your box one life lesson at a time”. While I fully believe that everyone needs to step out of their comfort zone, including me (that’s how I get my content), I also believe that we all have the tools inside of us. I simply write to make you aware. GarthBox’s motto is now “Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What’s In It?” With this change, it calls upon me to increase the strength and amount of content I provide. Rather than the 80/20 rule, I will push myself for the 90/10 rule, the GarthBox law. Because after all, no one needs (or wants [referring to Occupy movement’s anger toward]) to be in the top 1%, you can be just as happy, maybe happier, to be in the top 10% percent. It also puts the (positive) pressure on you to use what you have been given to get yourself where you want to go.

Besides all the improvements, this 100th post is about giving my thanks. I am extremely grateful for every person that has viewed a post, shared a post and decided to make a change in their life after reading any of my material. If there is one thing I have learned from blogging, it is that people are busy. No. They are overloaded – incapacitated with busy-ness. With my life experience, the one detail to this busy-ness that I have learned is that often people are so busy doing nothing that they don’t have time to read a post that will encourage them to do something to improve their life. So with that, this 100th post is to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule and even more thanks if you took more time out of your day to apply what you learned to your life. It is also a reminder to step back from life from time to time, to center yourself, to direct yourself and to fuel yourself to go after what it is you truly want. And of course all of this can be done by simply taking less than 6 minutes a day to view one of my posts.

Stay Positive & Live On

Garth E. Beyer

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Bonus:

I’ve been asked “What do you think we ought to do about education?” and my answers take much more time than a person is capable to stand and listen to. The reason being is that my answer, or rather, answers, incorporate thousands of other students’ responses because I have asked them, I have grown up with them and I am one of them. I have heard every improvement idea and route a student would rather take than what is placed in our education system now. My question to them, to parents, to taxpayers and other ruckus-making educators…”Why don’t we do anything about the way school is taught?”

Instead of waiting for the answer, I am one of few that is standing up and taking action. Anyone who comments below with their email address or likes this post will receive the earliest edition of my eBook “Start Schooling Dreams”.

Stay Positive & Make School Different

Garth E. Beyer

Success Learning Formula

Garth Beyer
Enter Your Knowledge Base

What I learned about people that make time to read and learn everything about how to be successful in their life and their specific life interest (Marketing, Sales, Writing, Blogging, Spartan Racing, etc.), is that they very quickly have no time to study and practice because they suddenly start living the successful life.

It’s only a short (very short) matter of time after you begin applying what you learn that you become a success and begin doing what you love rather than reading about it. Don’t let the extent of information and lessons there are in your area of interest that you think you need to learn prevent you from starting. You won’t get through all the books. You won’t listen to all the success CD’s. You won’t attend all the seminars. All you need to do is access 1/10 of all the information on your muse in order for you to be happy and successfully living it.

Stay Positive & Fill, Apply, And Begin Living Your Passion Before You Realize It

Garth E. Beyer

A Happy Life Written In Stone (The Path You Walk On)

Garth Beyer

After reading a post on Positvely Positive:  6 Tips For Designing Your Own Happiness Commandments  I had to create my own 12 commandments (now of course, you will too). While reading the article I thought of 5 of them and made it a mission to think of what thoughts, actions or feelings truly mattered to me and that I take to heart to finish the goal of writing 12. After reading mine, I encourage you to write your own. (You’ve probably thought of a few already and it’s perfectly okay to use any of mine!) To help you figure out the laws you want to govern your life, here are 50 questions that will free your mind of any uncertainty about your life’s direction. The answers may help you discover a few commandments you believe in with all of your power.

Garth’s 12 Commandments

1. Stay Positive.

It was hard competition to decide which to list first and which to list second. I end every post with a reminder to Stay Positive but I also have a tattoo that holds the saying of my second commandment in it. I chose to have “Stay Positive” first because it is a mental state. The beginning of all the paths we will ever walk. I think, therefore I am. I think therefore I blog. Staying positive is a mental battle, a constant one, and if always winning…well, there is just no greater life than that. Our thoughts create our lives and if we can manage to stay positive even 70% of the time, we will have a life worth lived.

2. If you don’t try, you fail.

Thoughts first, actions second. As mentioned, I have this tattooed on my body and I take tattoo’s quite seriously. The fact I designed my own enforces my need for originality. I have loved this quote ever since the first time I heard it in a song by the band Silverstein and I have lived it ever since I realized that everything in life is a choice. You can choose risk or safety. You can choose to try something new or stick with the old. I feel this quote breaks the security of habit. (Habit:  A conveyor belt in reverse. You think your going somewhere, but you’re only going backward.) There can be no failure as long as you try new things, try old things again, try what you know you may not succeed at (you’ll surprise yourself), try the impossible –  just try. They say showing up is 50% of success in life and you have done that, you are here, you are alive. The other 50% is trying.

3. All you need is good shoes, good bed, good food.

My NaNa (1911 – 2007) engrained this into my brain since I was old enough to know that I got my Irish traits from her. When I look back at my life since knowing this, I realized that the times I was most unhappy (and showed it) was during times that my situation was breaking what I needed (good shoes, good bed, good food). Wearing uncomfortable, non-fitting, wet, worn out, and no-cushion shoes can be the most problematic. We walk in them day after day and if our shoes are bad, well, each negative impact on the ground you make also reverberates in your life. Also, I don’t know about you but I have slept on stone, wood, dirt and rocks and I have slept in a comfy bed. I know the difference in each day depending on whether one sleeps on a good bed or a bad one. If you don’t have a good bed then you wont have a good sleep and if you don’t have a good sleep you wont have a good day and days are what our lives are made of. Lastly, there is the idea that you need good food. If we label countries as 3rd world countries if there are people living starving, impoverished and malnourished lives then by not having good food we are living in 3rd world bodies. There is a saying that you can’t love anyone else until you learn to love yourself, well I’ve altered it: You can’t do anything meaningful until you have good food yourself. All efforts that we make for others requires energy and that comes primarily from the food we eat. Good food, good energy.

4. Forget the past but remember what it taught you. If you can’t remember, don’t try to.

The most leviathan sized problem in the world is that we hold on to the past. Yes we need the past so that we can remember the life lessons we have learned, but we don’t need to remember how we learned them. Imagine if we let go of all the past mistakes, of wrong decisions and regrettable actions. Forgetting the past is like breaking the dam in your brain that is holding back all of your potential and energy to move forward, to create, to make more positive change. All that will remain from the dam is pieces, the lessons the past taught you. Also, you may or may not have experienced this, but at times people try to remember a memory and then wish they hadn’t because it was attached to something negative. To prevent this from ever happening, if you can’t remember something, move on.

5. Be Human.

After discussing the art and skill of public speaking with a friend, we lead ourselves to the epiphany that the greatest speakers are human. “Well of course their human. Humans are the only ones who can really speak.” That may be true but the point of this reminder is that no one can be flawless in everything they do and no one should want to. Great public speakers become great because they connect with us, their audience. How do they connect? By being human. Unfortunately people try to be robots, flawless, perfect and everything in gear but we know this world isn’t ready for that. Take pride in being human. Be nervous, mess up, make mistakes, try new things, make an impact on other people, do whats right because that is who everyone can connect with.

6. Perfect practice makes perfect.

It really does.

7. If your going to do something, do it right. Then do extra.

The most difficult action to take when you have a task you don’t want to do is not to “just do it”, but to do it right. Again, I added on to the statement because if you want to be even an inch of successful then you need to do more than is called on you, more than what is asked and you have to do it right. There is no space for the mediocre, the average, the “good enough” in the top 10%. Look at it like this, if we destroyed all the work that was half-assed in the world we would have little left. But the little we would have would be more than enough, not only because it was done right, but because more was done than was asked.

8. Take time, make time, while time lasts. All time is no time if time is past.

If “YOLO” and “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath away” were morphed together and had a baby with Father time, this is the quote you would get.

9. Overcome fear without hesitation.

Conquering a fear is a story worth being told. However, it does more good for the listener than the one who conquered the fear. In a story, you can skip the part where you were filled with anxiety, where you were stressed and hesitant and the part where you nearly backed out of the challenge. But it all happened and it can make conquering fears exhausting and lessen the chances of fears being conquered in the future. From now on, do it without hesitation. You have 90 seconds from the beginning of the idea before it reaches the section of your brain that makes you question it, that reveals your fear of it. 90 seconds. That’s your time frame, anything over, you might as well not waste your energy considering it.

10. You can never be overdressed or over educated.

Don’t you hate it when you are going to a meeting, job interview or dinner and you aren’t sure of the dress code? You can settle for business casual, but maybe you need to dress up for business, just in case. Unless your told face to face from the boss or coordinator of the meeting, you will never feel 100% sure on if what you are wearing will be acceptable. I actually don’t remember the last time I have had that feeling because I overdress for everything. This quote is from Oscar Wilde and why he combined the two, we may never know but I can understand why he chose each of them. You can never ask too many questions, there is always room for improvement. Thus, you can never be over educated. If anything, most promotions in work and life are based off of your appearance (dress + attitude) and your knowledge base.

11. You learn nothing by doing nothing. You learn everything by acting on impulse and wishing you hadn’t.

I created this saying by accident after talking with a friend about sports. We were saying how lame life can be without sports because in them it’s all about acting on impulse and in life you have to be cautious. This is ultimately the basis and reason I had number 4 in the commandments. Humans at our core are led by our intuition and able to make split decisions. It is how we learned to survive and if we make positive impulses we can really thrive in the benefits.

12. A small axe can take down a big tree if there is enough motivation, positivity, and lemonade.

Really, anything can be done with the smallest of resources or even the lack of them. If we have a burning passion and a spirit of motivation, we will find a way. If we remain positive, the way will meet us half way. All the while, it’s nice to have a glass of lemonade. In other words, you can go after anything you want with as little as you have as long as you enjoy the little things, the small successes, the tiny moments of surreal happiness. We are meant to achieve the impossible in life but there would be no point if we couldn’t enjoy ourselves in the process. It’s okay to have some lemonade from time to time.

By writing your own commandments, you are showing that if all else fails around you, you know that you’re still on a solid path.

What ones popped in your mind? Share them now, get accountable and come back with more.

Stay Positive & Write Them On Stone, Prove Them In Life

Garth E. Beyer

So, You Want To Start Blogging

Garth Beyer

I read a quote the other day after I published a post and it said “the first thing to do to become a blogger is to read other blogs.” I’m sure when you wanted to learn how to blog you have read and been told something similar. Everyone says to read blogs that get a lot of attention and that are in your niche of writing so you can get accustomed to the way your future viewers want to read.

But,

what is problematic is that they  suggest doing it BEFORE writing your own posts.

There are two points to this. The first is that if you want to write a blog on a specific topic of your interest, you better already be reading blogs, books, articles, blurbs, press releases, references, magazines and any other material related to your field of interest.

The second problematic point is that when you follow other people’s blogs, when you interact with the authors of the books, when you connect with the writers of the articles you read, they are going to want to see what you have created. For example, every time you follow a blog or “like” someones post on WordPress, they get notified that you are following them or liked their post. The writer gets a message like this sent to them: ” They thought article title was pretty awesome. You should go see what they’re up to. Maybe you’ll like their blog as much as they liked yours!” You don’t even have to tell the person who wrote the blog you liked to check yours out, it’s done for you, it’s common curtosy, it’s expected to read some material in return. Given, maybe the big blogs that are actually making an income will ignore the suggestion WordPress makes for you, but when you are starting up a blog you better try and connect with everyone possible. More so the blogs that don’t make a lot of income. That’s how you get to become a blog that makes an income.

More to the point, while you better be reading up on the information on your niche that other people are also writing on, it would be beneficial to start writing posts before really connecting with anyone else. Get your information out there, if you are starting a blog, you obviously have something powerful enough to say to everyone.

Don’t waste valuable time searching and following other blogs, seeing how they write and interacting with them. When you sit down at the computer, get to work on creating content that the writers of the blogs and articles you read, will want to read back and provide feedback. Blogging is a two-way street, you can’t expect to grow if you have nothing to show. You can’t expect to improve if you have nothing to present to the specialists you take a fancy to.

Stay Positive & Write First, Talk Later

Garth E. Beyer

Everything You Need To Know About Success – Through Literary Art (Poetry)

Garth Beyer

My life is the outcome of all the cigarettes never smoked, all the opportunities never passed by, all the people who never said “Hi” back and all the goals I never threw away.

I had to excogitate my life to get to where I am and to get where I want to go.

I had to mitigate the impact of failure, criticism and my own ignorance.

Now it’s time to publicize my life through words to the point that the power is heard.

The attainment of your wishes can only be made by lionizing each moment.              – Alate your membrane – Elevate your views above the clouds, above the stars and above your dreams.

Your life is the outcome of your mistakes made seen, of all your successes declared — Of the infinite possibilities being prehensible, grappled with and shared.

Ignore those who are impaired, who use their criminal knavery to bring you down — Of those whose jaundiced ambiance captures all that they surround.

You. You decide, direct, choose, make, give, determine, create, craft, and ordain every moment of your life. Every memorable second is related mutually to your strife.

If you capitalize the power of experience, personal illustrations and positive influence you manifest a life of compound interest.

If you philosophize the art of planning, the process of preparation and dexterity of failure you make future success prominent.

If you activate the progress meters, the social interaction receptors, the over achieving levers you will discover a metamorphosis of the stairs turning into an elevator.

Only you can work these words, these literary pieces of life, to discover what success truly means. However,what I can tell you is the definition of failure – doing less than you can.

 

Stay Positive & Maybe Success Is Doing More Than You Can

Garth E. Beyer

The “Let-Someone-Else-Do-It” Attitude

Garth Beyer

How often have you muttered under the earshot of others that “If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself”?

Unfortunately, you hear that a lot more than “If you want something done right, ask someone who is a professional at it to do it”. Of course though, you, I, we, are all only human and humans take extreme pride in their ego and are ignorant that they cannot do everything to perfection. As a result, help is never asked for.

Now, it’s not so much a matter that other people can’t do something right, but more of a matter that you can do it better. Or can you?

Today I have asked a new good friend Hulbert Lee who wrote the eBook “How To Focus Better” to write a guest post. Without further ado, – Enter Hulbert –

The Value of Asking People for Help

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from starting an online business is not being afraid to ask others for help. I think when people first start out, they have a tendency of wanting to do everything themselves. Either they have grown up and have adopted that sense of “do-it-yourself” mentality or they’re simply just afraid to ask.

For me, I’ve always kind of adopted an attitude that I can do anything I want just as good as anyone else out there as long as I put in the time and effort to do it. This is a good mentality to have if you’re trying to build on one skill, but it can also have its downfalls if you’re trying to do too many things at once.

For example, when I started an online business specifically to help people focus better, I was told to create a product, create a website, get people to the website, and then market the product for the people to buy.

So I spent a few months researching and writing an e-book. After that was done, I remember spending months trying to experiment with designing my website or trying to write copy for my sales page. I spent a lot of money on software and books to learn all of this. But in the end, it just caused a lot of stress and wasted time.

It came down to the point where I realized that I was a writer — not a designer, not a copywriter.

So when I let these realizations go, I began to look for people who were experienced in these areas.

I remember when I first hired my designer to design the e-book layout (which was still in black-and-white document text back then) I was blown away by her results. Just the design made what could have been a bland text turn into something colorful and exciting to read.

I know not everyone will have the budget to hire a designer, but if you constantly seek help out there on the vast Web, sometimes you’ll get lucky.

Like when I was looking for someone to write my sales page copy, I remember digging through the forum pages, and surprisingly enough, found someone who was offering to do a free sales copy. I figured he was probably just starting out and trying to earn credibility as a copywriter.

I jumped on the opportunity and emailed him, and within only about 50 minutes, he had sent me a fresh, new copy for my sales page — all for free. Ever since then, my conversion rates have gone up for my business.

So my advice here for people, who want to succeed in the online world of business, is to always continue to ask people for help. There’s a good chance that another person, who is more experienced and talented than you, will be more than willing to help you out and offer you valuable feedback that will drive your business in the right direction and to where you want it to go.

By Hulbert Lee

After reading Hulbert’s post, I was reminded of the one great attribute that I love about the online community. You can ALWAYS find someone to help you if you search hard enough. It never hurts to do a little research to find who are professionals on the topic you need assistance on and ask them for their help.

Personally, I have even emailed Seth Godin whom I talked to before to write me a letter of recommendation. This was, of course, before he released his eBook Stop Stealing Dreams and if you have read it, you know why he did not write me one. This action made me realize why you don’t ask for help – you don’t like to take a risk. You risk getting rejected, you risk getting told your idea is unworthy of someone else’s attention (especially a professionals).

You need to know that this is not how the online community works. For example, Hulbert searched for experts that knew how to write and knew about “focusing” to read and write a testimonial for his eBook. Hulbert told me that 20% of those he asked, read and wrote a testimonial. Well, you know how they say 20% of the people have 80% of the money and success. Those people who fall under Hulberts 20% category know the power of, not only giving, but also how important it is for others to ask for help which is a main reason they choose to read and write a testimonial for him. As a result, the 20% of people are no doubt well on their way to success (whatever success means to them). The other 80% missed the opportunity to give, to connect, to learn the lesson and benefits of asking and giving help. What they, and you need to know is that when asking for help, people will not criticize you, they will help you.

All you have to do is take the risk.

 

Stay Positive and Use Your Ingenuity To Seek Assistance

Garth E. Beyer

I now call Hulbert a friend and surely he calls me one as well. It is the simple act of asking for help that will propel you to the direction of the success you want.