value | SpiritSentient Art + Success Coaching

On Ability And Power

Posted by Arthur on Oct 27, 2009 in Appreciation, Confidence, Life Coaching, Personal Growth, Success, Thought-Management | 0 comments

Today I’m going to touch on something very few people talk about and yet most care quite a bit about. They don’t really consciously think about it, but it’s there.

There are people in this world who were born intellectual geniuses and there are people who are natural ‘physical monsters.’ These people can perform amazing feats of creativity, creating books and clothing lines or doing one-arm-chin-ups and punching through concrete or any other various other tasks of such nature.

These people, if they simply did these things on auto-pilot in a mechanical way, while they would become proficient and “better” easily, would be learning the hard way how painful and boring it is to do such things so unconsciously, compared to what they could do if they did push their comfort zones. Put another way, if they grew in their power (technique, speed, implementation of such tasks), and not risk with it in a vulnerable position, they would end up disempowering themselves and holding their growth back. They’d be afraid of losing what they could accomplish already, and they’d try to remain in their current (inevitably lowering) skills in their favourite discipline, without really expanding and growing of who they really are. They would not really be able to say ‘Hey, now I can do a one-finger one-armed chin-up, because I trained hard consciously and reached a new level.’ Put yet another way, these people need to increase their vulnerability always, to increase their enjoyment of life. If they didn’t, they could lose it all. But by doing so, they tremendously increase their ability to succeed in accomplishing their dreams. Basically, they take risks, and ‘God helps them.’

There are others who were born with much less genius, much less physical talent. These people who go through life in a daze and their accomplishments are easily forgotten or even if remembered, cannot really be praised as a true contribution to society for most people. Often discarded as simply useless by the community around them, they still are beautiful in their own way and, if proceeding in a certain way, also are capable of pulling through a dark horse victory.

These people are already always vulnerable (through their lack of natural capacity), and so it would seem as though they must improve their sense of power unto themselves, and build skills to facilitate their growth. These skills could be anything from sports, dancing, social skills, tech skills, job hunting ability, writing skill, so on and so forth. Though it would seem that these people would have to do the reverse, grow in power and technique of various activities, and while that’s a part of it, actually the answer for them is the same. They must simply grow more conscious about being vulnerable and do activities that “put them at risk”, that they realize can benefit themselves, their friends, and life itself. After doing these in various habitats and scenarios, they will learn and imbibe a certain degree of skill and power of whatever fortune gives them. If they tried to do this in the reverse order, that is, to become skilful at certain tasks with a certain set motive or agenda to “be the best” or to accomplish some “personal aim with an ego attached”, they would certainly not live up to their full potential, it would seem unnatural, and most importantly, it shows of their character to life itself that they are not trusting of what is given to them, and their lack of gratefulness would change things. They’d be better served by simply doing new things with joy and complete innocence, despite a lack of natural ability.

Ultimately though, it doesn’t matter, because God helps them too, especially for those ready to listen.

Money Is A Wave: How Well Do You Surf?

Posted by Jason Fonceca on Apr 18, 2009 in Abundance, Appreciation, Art Makes Money, Artists, Awareness, Life Coaching, Personal Growth, Self-Improvement, Success, Value | 2 comments

Light is a wave, sound is a wave, and yes, money is a wave. Waves rise and fall, and the important thing is to be comfortable surfing it.

The great money-masters of the world understand this concept and are comfortable with it.

When we’re children we get this. We get that things come easily into our lives at the right time. Whether it’s from some long-lost, generous, visiting relative, or whether it’s from Mommy & Daddy, or orphanages and governments.

When we’re kids we know very strongly that no matter what is going on, food & shelter are provided; toys show up often. We completely and utterly believe that every day is fine, there are no worries, and somehow, someway things will be provided to us. We can ride the wave and gracefully handle the ups and downs.

If a down time goes to long, they cry about it until things change.

Trained To Panic

As we grow, we somehow learn that having faith and riding the wave is ‘no good’ anymore, suddenly it’s time to panic and force things and scramble for income.

Is it when we realize that we need to make it on our own?

Upon the unexpected death of Henry Ford’s mother, Henry was asked by his dad to run the farm, which was not his passion. Instead, he left home and started his career as an apprentice in an electric company and made his way, becoming an engineer. This was achieved through years of on job training and without any formal education. Despite all this, he went on to become one of the earliest people to attain the status of billionaire.

Is it when we failed and fell, testing ourselves?

Then comes a period of growth where we learn to trust our own abilities. We begin to realize that we *can* make it on our own, despite it being new and never having done it before. We learn we can land a job of some kind, or start a business of some kind, or win a lottery, or steal, or whatever — but the point is, we learn we change the pattern we’ve been following for most of our early years. We learn that a fall or a failure doesn’t really matter in the big picture and only makes us stronger. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He even went bankrupt multiple times before he ended up with a functioning Disneyland. Most people don`t remember that part though.

Is it when we start see the starving-then-full cycle?

Next is a stage where, we learn about life’s ‘ups and downs’ (ebb and flow.) We get lame jobs, OK jobs, and awesome jobs. We start businesses that flop, businesses that do OK, and businesses that shine. There are months with high expenses and low income, and months which are high income low expenses. There are months where we get lots of gifts; new technology, items, toys, tools, and some where we provide these things to others.

Cash Flows Like A River

It can help to look at money as a river, which ebbs and flows. When the river is flowing fast and high, its easy to gather water, or store it, or let the river carry you to interesting new destinations. When the river is low and drying and the tide ebbing and there seems to be little flow, we can share the water we’ve stored with others who may need it, we can build raincatchers, and we can allow the situation to wait for rain or spring floods or move closer to an ocean or a lake.

The key thing is that the river always flows, its natural, even when it seems meager and almost dried up, it will always flow again. There are all kinds of ups-and-downs and we’re either at peace with them, surfing them, or we’re fighting them and getting pulled under by them.

Masters of success know this, most self-employed business owners can see this, people who make their money investing in the stock exchange are often extremely comfortable with this.

As the cashflow changes, success-makers see opportunities, depending on the ebb and flow, and they’re at home with either. Sure, there is the chance to choose to panic and worry about things, but why? Access your inner-child, remember how to be care-free and faithful. Remember how to believe in yourself, and in life.

Money is a big part of what makes the world go ’round. It is one of humanity’s commonly agreed upon symbol for value.

When we spend money, give money, and allow money to ebb out of our lives, we are encouraging and supporting value. We’re voting with our dollars.

Appreciate Cash Ebb-And-Flow

Appreciate and help everyone else involved with whatever we spend it on or give it to.

Whether we buy an item or service, donate it somewhere, or even drop it on the ground, we are benefiting someone else. In the same way, when other people spend on us or things we’re involved in, they are directing the flow back to us.

When money flows into our lives, we love it. We don’t always stop to understand or appreciate the people who made it possible with their funds, time, and energy, but we certainly enjoy the improved experience.

Do you thank paypal everytime you get a transfer? How about the engineers who designed the ATMs? Do you thank the government that prints and circulates the cash that’s in your pocket? There is no reason, they ever, ever, ever had to provide these things, that you use everyday.

It’s all a beautiful cycle, both the spending and receiving helps both the spender and the receiver so much, that realizationopens the door for even more.

Do Yourself A Favour & Love It

LOVE spending and receiving. Anything in life that we LOVE, we eventually excel at it. Love making money. Love spending it. You can look at anything, sports, science, martial arts, dance, sex, talking, meditating, rock-climbing, breathing, massage, whatever — and if a person really truly passionately loves it, then that person excels at it. If a person doesn’t love something, they tend to half-ass it, not really understand it, and certainly not spend much time or energy bringing that experience into their life — they’d much rather do OTHER things they love.

Sustainably rich people love giving and receiving. They really really do. They understand that whatever they invest in or spend on, helps the world. They understand that every dollar they make/earn helps the world.

Take a moment and think about your attitudes towards the money. Do you become panicky, upset, worried, frustrated or ‘negative’ in any way when you ‘have to spend’ or ‘spend too much’ or ‘spend at all?’

Are you grateful to be able to spend on a new experience or helping someone else? When you receive even a tiny amount, how do you feel about that receiving? Do you grumble its only a penny or a dime? Do you feel like its a drop in the bucket and you’ll never get out of this hole you’re in? Or are you happy that you got it and see it as a sign of more to come? Do you happily talk about this one monetary find and eagerly think about other ways you can earn or create it? Are you grateful, and do you value the money, looking forward to again spending it to help yourself and the world?

These questions can help you figure out if deep down, you love money and physical wealth, and why its wonderful to have. If you don’t love it, and you`re not comfortable with it`s wave-like nature and ebb-and-flow, you’ll get the bare minimum.

Know your own value, and offer it. The world loves an individual who lovingly and givingly provides value. The better you are at knowing your own value, and offering your unique value out into the world, the bigger your reward.

Providing value comes FIRST, then the cashflow.

Ride the wave. Love the ebb-and-flow, understand money, give money a great big hug, both the giving and receiving of it.

If you have thoughts on the ebb-and-flow of money, or if you just love money, tell us in the comments section!

Value or Val-You?

Posted by Jason Fonceca on Mar 3, 2009 in Abundance, Conscious Creation, Life Coaching, Life Purpose, Personal Growth | 4 comments

Boo!

Did I scare you?

No?

Well, that’s probably for the best, as I wasn’t trying to, I just wanted a slightly uncommon way to start my post on Value. Its fun writing ‘Value’ with a capital V. Every human being has tremendous value. Huge value. Nearly incomprehensible amounts of value… the thing is, a good portion of the world acts and behaves as if they themselves, as well as others, have very little value.

They’ll put more value on money and greed over the value of other people, scamming them and ripping them off and looking at them as just a sale or a number. Or they’ll place their life-mate’s time and wants and needs consistently above their own, as they repress themselves in a relationship. Or any other number of situations that I think we’d all choose to avoid if we were aware there were alternatives, of which there are many!

"A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." – Oscar Wilde

Price vs. Value

In most western countries, the current prevailing mindset (and if you look carefully, its changing) is that of the capitalist. "Save every dollar, scrounge every penny, cut every corner you can get away with – its the only way to get ahead of this struggle." This mindset produces exactly what it sounds like it would produce, a bunch of people fighting to get their piece of the pie, we’ll call them, the pie-cutters. I personally run in a different circle, I spend my time with people who have a different understanding of value, they are the ones who feel the world is a beautiful, abundant place, with more than enough for everyone and if we simply manage our thoughts differently, we’ll see the evidence of this, So these people are happy to give their all and go the extra-mile for themselves and others. We’ll call them the extra-milers.

Now let’s take a look at a case study together. Let us imagine that you’re looking to buy or invest in something in your life – lets say you’re tired, sore, tight, and your body could use some TLC. So you’d like a massage, for example.

So you head onto craigslist and find what looks like 2 reasonably priced massage therapists. You can choose to do business with a massage therapist from the pie-cutter camp, or from the extra-miler camp. Let’s say they’re twins — exactly equal skill, they’re both intelligent, both charge the same amount — The only difference between the two is one has the mindset of "struggling to get his piece of the pie," and the other has the mindset that "the world is an abundant place and he and everyone else will be taken care of as soon as we start valuing each other."

Now, unbeknownst to you, these two twin massage therapists are both just starting up their business, they both recently invested and have rent and debt hanging over their heads, and they both could really use your business.

Our pie-cutter therapist thinks like this: "I need to spam simple craigslists ads, psychologically if I keep making people see my same ad over and over they’ll eventually crack and come to me. After that, I’ll charge them $70.00 an hour cuz that’s as little as I can afford to cover the costs of my massage equipment and rental space. I’ll also use this cheaper oil I got from a supplier in China, sure its not the greatest but I’ll just keep that a secret from the client." – I can see this therapist may attract a trickle of clients, who likely won’t be ultra-satisfied.

Our extra-miler thinks like this: "I simply love giving massages. I love being the best I can be. I love helping people and I love having people know that, so I will make an amazing craigslist ad. Then, I’ll charge them only $35..00 for their first session, and even though I’ll lose money and its scary cuz I can’t pay rent, I know that what I do is so beneficial and such good value, that people will come back to me as repeat business *and* tell all their friends. I’m glad I studied biology, anatomy and essential oils, so now I can use some hand-crafted oils made and researched specifically to have a healing massage, and I can’t wait to share this awesome info with my clients." – I could see this therapist attracting a ton of loyal, excited, clients who loves him and his work.

After a brief e-mail or chat with each of these candidates, which would you choose? I think its safe to say we’d all choose the extra-miler. If you look at most successful and fulfilled people in life, they’re extra-milers. The way they treat people, friends, clients, suppliers, employees, bosses, whoever. They hold an amazing mindset, even if things seem risky or scary, and it pays off for them a million times over.

Often when I discuss this situation with any of the pie-cutters, I end up confronted by tons of resistance and many excuses as to why changing their mindset is too scary, risky, unaffordable, etc. and often despite knowing that I’m a creative thinking person, just brimming with solutions, they’ll tell me that there *is* no other way and they can’t believe I’ve taken the risks I’ve taken, let alone for them to do it — and so they remain pie-cutters, reaping a pie-cutter’s results. When I discuss this situation with extra-milers, they invariably share their joy in life and express an intense desire for all the pie-cutters to join us in success, and for them to change their mindset and do things a different way.

Value is the essence of things which improve one’s life. Price is simply the nearly arbitrary money/time investment required of us to gain the essence of Value. When you offer something to the world, it doesn’t matter so much what price you charge (OK, it matters a bit ,) but it matters how much value you’re offering. When you are investing in something, it doesn’t really matter how much you’re paying as much as how much value this investrment will bring to you and the people around you.

So that’s a quick look at how value vs. price works in day-to-day to life, but that’s not all. Possibly more worthy of your attention, is the value you place on yourself.

Do you value You?

Have you ever known a musician who’s obvious true calling was so bright and clear to you, but they chose to work in another field where they were miserable? An artist who creates the most beautiful things, but spends most of his time in a retail store, barely making ends meet? Someone with brilliant ideas for a new career but with "no idea how to start?" This situation wherein someone brilliant and talented with large amounts of goodness to offer the world ends up settling for less out of fear, ignorance, brain-washing, abuse, lethargy, misplaced priorities, or whatever — is something most of us have been witness to.

Often people do not acknowledge their own value, nor do they realize that to truly appreciate said value, is to develop it, risk with it, devote time to it, and definitely not to squeeze it in after an unhappy or ho-hum 9-to-5 grind. Again, what occurs because of this consistent lack of perceiving our own value, is a world filled with people with huge wells of talent and true-callings and idea-people and big-thinkers who wander around our planet moving boxes and settling for being locked in cubicles. These are the same big-thinkers and talented artists who can influence large bodies of people. If Beyonce said "Hey, I support the 1% for The Planet movement, it’s one way I’m an independent woman." Then so would a good chunk of the audience at her concerts. That’s the only work she needs to do at this point. However, she did not start out with that kind of power, she developed it. She kept giving and offering and letting go of worry, as she continued her singing. She has developed her value and launched her career and now she can influences massive amounts of people. You probably know musicians who have similar value potential, but are currently taking half-assed steps towards using it.

Do you value yourself?

Its usually not too difficult to look at other people and notice that they might not be living up to their potential, and its often less apparent for us to notice our own potential (possibly because we’re often focused on everyone around us instead,) or if we do notice, sometimes we live in denial for awhile.

"It is easy to pick fault with other people. In fact, often we gain a subtle enjoyment from highlighting the faults of others. If we are truly honest, however, we will see that when we criticize other people we actually have the very same weakness ourselves. Perhaps we may not make this mistake quite as frequently or as badly, but we still share it to some extent." – Tejvan Pettinger, PickTheBrain.com

Sometimes we just hold a very limited perspective. We may have feelings of inferiority eg: ”Other people can sing, live healthy, and make money…why can’t I?” and feelings of inadequacy eg: ”I have no talents…look at so-and-so, she’s just so talented, but I can’t do anything.” and feelings of worthlessness eg: "’Nothing I do really matters, so why try?” These things aren’t true; you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in the world who had little or nothing to offer, whether obvious or hidden. Stephen Hawking, crippled in body and indirectly voiceless from Motor Neurone Disease (or Lou Gherig’s disease?) kept up with the world of quantum physics and finished an amazing literary work. Nick Vujicic (of lifewithoutlimbs.com) leads an inspiring successful happy life, despite being born limbless. Even people who at first glance may seem powerless, have great springs of talent hidden within.

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes the only way out of this mindset of low-worth, is faith. Faith in ourselves and our abilities, faith in our friends and family and support systems, or faith in angels or spirit guides or a higher power. If it helps you to use a different word than ‘faith’ which some people find to have too many religious connotations for them to appreciate, we’ll substitute the word ‘confidence.’ They are basically the same thing, regardless of what dictionaries may say. Confidence is knowing, deep-down, somehow that something is true. Confidence in oneself is having faith in one’s own abilities, confidence in one’s friends, is having faith in those friends to deliver. Confidence that "everything will work out for the best," or that one "has a special purpose here on earth," is faith in a higher power.

If we’re not focused too much on others, and we don’t have a very limited perspective, sometimes we’re just afraid. We don’t want people to think/see/say such-and-such about us, so we don’t do anything, in fear we stagnate.

"What’s holding us back? Ultimately, it’s fear. It’s almost always fear. Fear is the number one reason why people stay in their safety zones. It’s why people don’t start new businesses. It’s why people stop looking for love. But what are we afraid of?" – Susan Baroncini-Moe, Lifehack.org

If we stagnate in fear like an artist who hides all his work in his basement shying from criticism, then until it is out in the world, adorning walls or being viewed as often as possible, we’re hiding our talents and under-valuing ourselves.

Here’s a youtube video by Paul Evans on Value.

The case he is looking at is the case of someone who thinks they have very little skill. They have some though. They can make a simple youtube video or maybe a blog, and in his example, they don’t value this ability or use it. He has an interesting model of how people tend to look at value, and compare themselves to other people they deem as "high-value" people, it also analyzes things society tends to de-value and dismiss as not valuable. When we see the people who are executing their skills and talents as a very very high level, we can often downplay our own abilities, thinking "Hey, my skills are nowhere near as good as that guys," but there are tons of people in the world, who know nothing, and need tons of help, that the high-level guys won’t even bother with. There is nothing bad or wrong in offering to help those people who are behind you in certain skillsets, and there’s nothing wrong with learning from the people who are ahead of you in certain skillsets. Whatever the case, there is value to be demonstrated.

Valuing others

How do we value other people?

"The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings." – Albert Schweitzer

Its important to love and value yourself before you do anyone else. If you feel yourself respectable and worthy of affection, people will flock to you because they will want to be around someone who loves themself and feels joyous about their own life and existence.

Its recommended to genuinely be interested in people. Make eye contact with them when they speak to you, listen to what they tell you. Listen, by focusing and clearing your mind and try to feel their feelings. Avoid keeping an inner monologue or planning what to say next or your next conversational move. Sympathize with them when they share their problems with you. Make it a priority that their words matter to you, and help them believe it.

People enjoy being with people who are fun to be around. It will be impossible for them not to be attracted to you when they see you have a good sense of humor and a positive outlook, and eventually you will attract amazing and helpful people into your life.

Act kindly towards others; an unexpected gift, will empower both you and them.

If you find yourself being upset or miserable make a point of changing how you feel. The most helpful people you can meet may easily shy away from being around miserable people.

If you can take time to work on yourself, you will automatically being valuing others. If you give yourself goals such as being extremely attentive, extra generous, super-positive, etc., then you will express those qualities to others, and naturally and habitually leave them feeling valued and appreciated.

The long and short of it…

Basically, what I’d love to encourage, is for all of you to truly value yourself and others. Value yourself, and in doing so, you will understand and be aware of value, and it will then allow you to truly value others.

And hey, if there’s anyone you feel would benefit from a little public valuing or linkage here, feel free to mention them in the comments

Posts Tagged "value"

Secrets Of The Starving Artists Syndrome Explained