Life Change 90

Maybe we can help with that. Everything you need is in a program created to empower people and Angels facing challenges, just like you may be. The support, the positive encouragement, the education, motivation and inspiration each day, right here with you, every day.

I FOUND IT!
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An Angel Without Wings

A whole city of Angels!
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“If I got rid of my demons, I’d lose my angels.”
― Tennessee Williams, Conversations with Tennessee Williams

An Angel Without Wings.

God is forever creating new Angels.

One day some time ago, he finished another Angel – but was having a bad day and forgot to give her wings.

“Darn it!” he thought. “Well, I won’t put her back. I’ll give her extra serves of love and courage, a radiant smile and she can go to earth and be an Angel down there, where she won’t need wings.” So he put her on earth, as a baby.

Earth was a harsh environment for the Angel baby. Life kept putting obstacles in her way, challenges to solve and the burdens of other people to weigh on her also. There always seemed to be something else to do, someone else to heal, to care for or to help.

“My Angels have a lot of work to do,” he told Saint Peter.

But with the extra love and courage in her heart, the Little Angel’s smile shone like a beacon through all her trials and tribulations. She became an inspiration to those around her.

God said, “I will give her more to do.” He sent more needy people her way.

Life’s ordeals and unscrupulous people took away all she had, her health, her marriage, her money and he thought, “Surely this will try her out!”

Her courage never faltered, still her smile shone and her love inspired those who knew her.

St Peter looked down and wept at what he saw!

“God!!” he cried. “You can’t keep this up! She has already done more by her example than many of your other Angels and raised her children to be like herself. Her example inspires all in the world that see her. Please ease her burden, so that she may freely work for you!”

“Perhaps, Peter, you are right. I will think on it.” God was pensive. He stroked a whiskered chin with his thumb. “I’ll tell you what I will do, Peter. I will give her the love of a wonderful man, surround her with true friends and shower her with peace of mind and satisfaction for what she does.

Maybe in the future her burdens will ease – but right now, My Little Angel Without Wings has much to do.”

WWII Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel in Papua New Guinea, assisting an injured Australian soldier. Angels come disguised in so many ways!
Image from en.wikipedia.org

“For truly we are all angels temporarily hiding as humans.”
― Brian L. Weiss

There are many angels without wings, just like this one. You know who you are, Dear Angel. You know when you are an angel to someone who needs you, someone whose challenges need some extra attention and you can give it to them, even though your own troubles and challenges almost overwhelm you. You know so many people count on you and you just have to be there for them. Take a bow – you are not alone!

An Angel at work!
Image from humanrights.gov.au

But you feel alone, Dear Angel, so much of the time. You feel like the pain you bear will overpower you. You feel like the isolation your situation causes will bury you in loneliness. You feel like no-one else would understand your situation, even if you knew how to explain it to them. And yet you keep on. And you keep praying. Because that’s what an Angel will do.

More power to you.

This world has need of an angel like you. We need more of you, many more of you. If I could create the “Angel without Wings Network”, you’d be in there, with all those other special angels without wings, helping each other and helping heal the world.

There is an Angel Network. However, it doesn’t cater for angels like this one, or perhaps an #Angel like you. You are an Angel in hiding, a secret Angel that only a few people know about and appreciate, unfortunately.

Even Angels have bad days!
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What I do know is that you, our Dear Angel, need help. You need to give yourself the best possible chance of making it through this, and out to the bright spot on the other side. And to do that, you need a loving and supportive environment around you. You need encouragement, morning and evening, to keep going. You need to see your achievements each evening, so you know your day has been worthwhile, valuable to someone and satisfying to you. You need your own goals to aim for and to achieve, and you need to be taught how to rise to all the challenges that life is and will continue to throw at you.

Need a hand getting through life? CLICK HERE FOR ASSISTANCE! Let us empower you to make it, no matter what life throws at you. After all, an Angel without wings still should feel what it’s like to fly!

If you feel that this post has empowered an Angel, or made an Angel feel she could fly again, please share it, reblog it and pass it on to other Angels without Wings. You know who they are. Every angel should feel like they have another Angel to share with, and to fly to at times. This could be your time to fly!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails, Angels!

Ray

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
― Anonymous, Holy Bible: King James Version

Old Habits Die Hard

Intense conditioning and programming of habits under way!
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“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
― Samuel Johnson

Old Habits Die Hard!

Norm was fresh out of the army. For six years, it had been the ‘spit and polish’ routine, and “Yes Sir, No Sir” had been the way of life. Now, all that was finished, Norm was back home for a while. It felt good, having the chance to break away from all the routines and settle into the easier going life on the farm for a change. Well, that was the intention. Old habits die hard!

The first day back, and his father decided to bring in a load of firewood. While Norm and the other boys polished off breakfast, Dad put the chainsaws on the truck, along with a few crow bars and axes.

Breakfast over, the boys trooped out. Suddenly Norm called out, “Hang on a minute,” and darted back into the house. About a minute later, he reappeared, with a silly grin on his face.

“I don’t have to polish my boots for you bunch.” He said. “Let’s go!”

#Old habits die hard!

“Some rules are nothing but old habits that people are afraid to change.”
― Therese Anne Fowler, Souvenir

We all have conditioning drilled into us. Conditioning is habit – we all have habits and have had for many, many years. Our lives run by habit and that’s generally OK. Takes a lot of pressure off remembering what to do, like breathe, walk and so on. Subconscious programs are developed when we learn and develop habits. We may not even realise they are running, while they take control of our lives. Maybe we’d like to change them, but old habits die hard.

A habit to change?
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Not all conditioning or habits are good, and some may need to be changed as we outgrow them. We do outgrow habits and their subconscious programs.

Habits and subconscious programs are like railroad tracks. Hard to get off, once you get onto those rails.

A program in motion
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Programs can fail or go wrong, without us realising until it has happened. That’s when trouble hits and we find the program no longer serves us.

Can someone please explain this to me?
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Getting off tracks and out of habits and programs can be a challenge. Old habits die hard!

A bit of a challenge changing tracks the hard way.
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However, done correctly, changing an unwanted habit or program can be easy!

Changing habits should be this easy!
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You just need to install a new program. Not all old habits die hard, after all!

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
― Jim Ryun

My Darling wife bought a new computer today. A beautiful object, a work of art. However, it’s useless. It has no programs installed. YET. The program is in the box, ready to download. Then, the computer will be ready to do the most amazing things for her. With the new program installed. Doing what SHE wants it to do.

Isn’t it lovely?
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This is also how to change a habit you no longer want, a habit that is running as a subconscious program in your life. Insert a different program into your computer. Change your program!

One new program/habit coming up!
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Yes, it can be done. There is a program specifically designed to enable you to change habits, simply, quickly and without getting yourself off track and into trouble. Creating a controlled environment around you, supportive, encouraging, and one that celebrates your successes and supports you into new habits and conscious programming of your mind and your life. Old habits die hard, but only when you don’t know how to change them properly!

Click here to find out more about changing habits, and learning new ones that can make life so much better for you, in any way you desire. And kick that old, unwanted habit to the kerb!

“A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit.”
― Desiderius Erasmus

If you found this post to be empowering, and supports you into changing old programs and unwanted habits, please share it with your friends and associates. Reblog it so that other people can gain these benefits too. They will be grateful you did.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Warren Buffett chuckled and said to me “I hope it’s not my bad habits”. Good Habits once established are just as hard to break as bad habits, and bad habits are easier to abandon today than tomorrow. So what are you going to do about it?”
― Lucas Remmerswaal, 13 Habits.com the Tale of Tortoise Buffett and Trader Hare

What a great New Habit!
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Empowered by Gratitude

Gratitude?

A new day, a new start
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“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”
― L.M. Montgomery

Did you wake up this morning?

That’s something to have gratitude for. Many didn’t. What does waking up each morning mean?

When you wake up each morning, or whatever time you wake up, it means you have another chance to start life all over again. Now I know that some people are locked into a pattern which is not easy to break free of, and I’m thinking here of people in chronic pain, people who are on minimum wage and who know that finding a better paid job won’t be easy, and so many more people who have life challenges to face.

But you woke up, didn’t you? That’s the first step towards a new life, a life change if you wish, but regardless of how you look at it, your life starts again the moment you wake up each day and that’s something to show #gratitude for. You got another chance to start over.

What can you do with a new day?

Perhaps you can’t change everything in your life all in the next day, this new day you have given to you. But you can change something if you need to, want to, or HAVE to! Start small, with the single thing that will make the most difference if you change it. A habit? A thought? Something you don’t do, but perhaps should? Something, anything, but if your life is not exactly where you want it to be right now, at this time of your life, start making changes, little ones, to gently steer your life in the direction you need it to go. Then show some gratitude, say a little “thank you” that you can do even this much.

How do you know if the change is the right one?

In a way, it doesn’t matter. It’s the stagnation that is the death of a life. Sometimes, any movement is better than none, but once you make a start, get some movement, you can steer from there. It’s very hard to steer your car when it’s parked at the kerb. You need to be moving, any direction at all, before you can steer it. So start moving. And show gratitude that you can actually move a little. A little “Thank you” for the ability to move.

Image from http://innerdelight.com/thriving-in-times-of-change/

Gain some momentum.

Once you are moving, after your feet hit the floor, you started to move, you turned in the right direction, you got a little speed up. Perhaps not much, but a little. This is called momentum and there is power in momentum. The weight of your movement, the mass of you moving along has a force. Use it to shift other bigger things. Point it towards obstacles, tack on another change or two and use your momentum to carry you through. Old train drivers called this “getting up a head of steam” and there you go, you have momentum. You are moving, steering, gaining power with your momentum and making more changes. There’s something more to show #gratitude for, a little “thank you” for the momentum.

A head of steam!
Image from burnham-on-sea.com

This is called changing your life, a step at a time. It’s simple, but not always easy, and much depends on where you are starting from, whether at the top of the slope, or the bottom.

“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Read more at http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/10-quotes-to-change-your-momentum/#GZhkeeqdED5smDXI.99

Sometimes you need a hand.

Look around you. How many people are there in your life? How many of them do you think are feeling the same way each day, facing challenges and wondering how to make it? There are a few, feeling just like you, and some feeling very challenged also, much more than you. My Dad told me something that has stuck with me, when I was around 7 years of age and walking out on a frosty morning to milk the two old milking cows. I complained about the cold frost on my boots and he said “I cried when I had no shoes, til I saw a man who had no feet!” I didn’t realise he was quoting the old Sufi proverb but it didn’t matter. I gladly walked down to the cow-bail, in gratitude for my boots.

There are many people who would like a hand, and many who would like to help you. More than you realise. Sometimes though, you need to take the first step on your own, to demonstrate to others that you are serious about the changes.

One way of making little changes that add up to a powerful momentum in a short period of time is to lock into a program that has these gentle changes built into it, and can help you decide what and when and where the most effective changes could be made. That program also has a gratitude section in it, and without a doubt, showing gratitude for where you are already is perhaps the most powerful tool at your disposal!

To learn more about this powerful program with the inbuilt gratitude program as well as all the other vital tools for changing your life, CLICK HERE NOW!

You’ll be glad you did, as you watch your life change direction under your guidance, and build up a head of steam in a way that you will always want to show gratitude for!

Show some gratitude!

After all, you DID wake up this morning, didn’t you?

If you feel gratitude for the lessons I hope I have presented to your here, please reblog and share this post with your friends, family and associates. Share your journey with them. Everyone deserves an opportunity to look at their new day with fresh eyes and feel gratitude just for having the chance to start again, this new day.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails.

Ray Jamieson

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Melody Beattie

By the way, if you are looking for some inspiration on how to make the most of your new day, please also refer to my other posts below on Empowerment: There might be something of special interest for you here.

Empowered by my Failures

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

It’s as simple as downloading it here, and starting on it straight away. The daily PEP talk tutorials are a great start to the day, and having your goal action steps in front of you first thing in the morning is an inspiration. But nothing quite like the feeling of coming in at night and ticking off your achievements.

Empowered by my Failures

Oprah Winfrey, a failure?
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Empowered by Failures

I have made mistakes. I have had failures. Lots of failures. Sometimes, I did the same thing again and it still failed! A bit like the guy betting on replays of the Melbourne Cup, just in case the favourite racehorse got up this time. Let’s face it, some people take a while to “get it” and I’m probably one of those who need to do it the hard way. But the hard way sometimes really cements the lessons of your #failures for you.

How was I empowered by my failures?

Let’s look at some of my failures. I had a marriage breakdown. Why? Because I was busy being a guy, a provider and a worker, but not very good at being a communicator, husband or father.

What did I learn from my failures?

There are some things that need to be put first in life, and family is one of them. Sure, I needed to provide for my family, but I needed to make sure their happiness was in place before I tried to buy “stuff” for them. What they wanted was my love, my company, my attention, not my “stuff”!

Another of my failures was in not doing enough homework on some things before jumping in. I was impulsive and would make decisions on the spot, because I thought that fast decision-making and “being decisive” was the way to be. It is, but only if you know what you are talking about and making decisions on. For everything else, do the homework!

What did I learn from my failures?

Take time. Just like sand takes time to filter through an hourglass, so does information take time to filter through my mind. Give it the time it needs to process the information and the homework on the question at hand, and only then, make the decision.

Many people look to successful people for how to become successful. The wise people also look at what the #failures have to teach us. The light bulb wasn’t invented at the first experiment. Every failure was documented and used as a stepping stone til finally, success came, after all those failures, those learning experiences.

Thomas Edison – a prolific failure!
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There is so much that I have learnt from failures over the years. What I learnt when sitting back, many years later, was that I had developed a process that while ever I used it, worked for me, and made life good. When I applied my life to a certain set of principles, took notice of what my intuition was telling me and acted from my heart with integrity, life was good.

I distilled this process over time, before I began to teach it. The first programs went to corporations and they paid huge sums of money for it. As I taught it, I also learnt more about it and when it evolved into my first public program, “The Executive Mastermind Program”, it was an amazing program. I delivered it in four weekend workshops over a year, with huge amounts of support in between the workshops. That was because for information to be retained, the mind and body need to continually integrate it and that was how we did it. Accelerated Learning was the technique, the strategy that became famous for teaching people a new language in a few days… I harnessed Accelerated Learning and used some NLP strategies and techniques to anchor it, and the lives of many people changed.

It was limited though and I over stretched myself, trying to do too much for too many. Another of my failures. I pulled back and went a little off course, veering off into financial planning for a time but that was also a mistake.

What did I learn from my failures?

Stay true. Listen to my heart and stay in integrity. Hmmm. Sounds familiar. So I’m back on track now, writing and teaching, and working with my program. It works every time.

You can have it too. It’s a program that has a number of amazing features. When you look at these features, you can see why it would keep me, or you, on track:

A daily personal empowerment program, a page of motivational pep talk on a self development topic of value. Each month for 3 months, the topic comes back in a little more depth to enhance and reinforce the learning, teaching me all about what is important for me and how to be better at being me.
A priority to-do list with check boxes for completion status
A problem solving program and process
A goal setting program, with action steps towards my #1 goal each day
A gratitude journal, to remind me of the wonderful things I already have in my life
A daily affirmation, to lock in what I desire from my life
Learning how to be aware of what I learnt from what happened to me today
Recording a ‘high’ and ‘low’ point of the day, to make me aware of mood shifts and my attitude and behaviour when things in my day change
A cashflow program, for recording my earning and spending and increasing my financial habits awareness
A comment on my major achievement for the day, a little celebration
A journal section with topics to discuss and explore, as well as my own personal journaling on thoughts about my day.

A few minutes morning and evening is all this program takes, but when I developed the first crude version of it back in 1992, it turned my then miserable life around on a sixpence!

What did I learn from my success program, inspired by my failures?

Awareness of my personality. I learnt that there was a lot more going on around me than I thought. Looking at my mood shifts, I realised I was jumping between sub-personalities! When I mastered that, it was a game-changer.

Awareness of others. As my awareness increased, I learnt to listen to and observe others more closely. I was no longer swept along in the tide of humanity; I was an observer, choosing with discernment where I wanted to be.

Awareness of my finances. No more reaching for my wallet to realise I’d already spent that note I thought I had. I became conscious of my spending and many other habits that previously I had left on auto-pilot.

Awareness of my lessons. What good is an experience if it doesn’t teach us something? Each day I’d record what I learnt from my successes and failures and found I was sitting on a wealth of valuable experiences, that I had been glossing over and forgetting.

Awareness of my communications. Failure in communications is ripping the world apart and it was tearing mine apart too. When I became aware of the power of my words, what I said to me internally, and what I said to others, I took back control of my life.

Awareness of my intuition. Perhaps my greatest failures were from not listening to my intuition screaming at me at critical moments. Learning to discern between negative mind chatter and genuine intuitive processing and inspiration has possibly been the most powerful of all for me. Intuition taps into a global network of incredible resources, information and a wealth of ideas and inspiration that a single human mind could not process, but it can access it! The greatest minds have acknowledged it – Einstein and the American Founding Fathers to name a few. Allowing the messages to come to me and recognising their value has been phenomenal – and averted many failures too!

How can you gain empowerment from my failures?

This program is available to you also. The work of putting it together has been done. Now you can download it and plug it into your life. In a few minutes, morning and evening, you can start to change your life too! I found that over a 90 day period, I experienced life changing results from the habits I broke or changed and the new habits I formed and integrated into my life. Over those 90 days, my awareness exploded; I found myself observing events, nuances and inferences from situations that had previously slipped by me. It was like looking at my life as a black and white pencil sketch, then suddenly making it a full colour photo, with the richness of the new observations filling in the colours.

Open up to a whole new world!
Image from wonderwoman.intoday.in

Is 90 days of this life change program all that is necessary?

If some is good, maybe more is better. Why does a butcher sharpen his knives continually? Because he needs to have them sharp all the time. Just as our minds and our intuition need to be continually honed to work best, I find that by continuing with my life change program each day, I am both continually refreshing myself with these habits, changing any that do not serve me, and keeping focussed on my important goals.

How can you have this program in your life?

Download it here now and make a start. Learn from my failures. Don’t let this be one of yours. Change your life from today.

If you have gained a benefit from learning about my failures and how I turned them to my benefit, please reblog and share this post with your friends, family and associates. Share your journey with them. Everyone deserves an opportunity to turn their failures and mistakes into golden opportunities and that’s what this is! Pay it forward!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails.

Ray Jamieson

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment:

Integrity, Spirituality and Empowerment

Make money while you sleep. Set up your income streams as businesses at which your presence is not required, fully automated, and the money will flow to you, wherever you are. Click this link for more details and alternatives!

Financial Empowerment

The financial jigsaw puzzle
Image from intentionalwealthinstitute.org

Update: Feedback is that this post on #Financial Empowerment is almost brutal. Sorry, but it has to be – people in financial crisis are often also in denial. I know – I was one of them! This blog is from my hard-earned and learned lessons in financial empowerment! I needed some ‘hard talking to’ in my time of crisis, and I don’t want you to go through what I experienced, because of my denial!

However, the post is not all bad news! If you recognise your symptoms below, you’ll be amazed at the reasons for why we do and feel what we do, and delighted with the range of options and solutions. The links take you to even more detail on the solutions available to everyone who needs financial empowerment.

Financial Empowerment

There is an elephant in the room. A great big ugly elephant. We talk about empowerment and self development and personal growth but when someone mentions ‘money’ or being wealthy, too often, thoughts or whispers of greed, selfishness, get rich quick, or some other such demeaning slur appear.

There is even that famous Bible quote:

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (King James Bible).

However, any quote taken out of context can take on a whole new meaning, such as this one does!

So many people have hidden behind this and other poverty based quotes to make excuses for their lack of abundance, without even realising it. They believe these quotes and old sayings (“life wasn’t meant to be easy” is another!) are actually facts. THEY ARE NOT!

“Take responsibility for your finances or get used to taking orders for the rest of your life. You’re either a master of money or a slave to it. Your choice.” – Robert Kiyosaki

It’s time to say IT IS OK to have money and wealth. It’s NOT OK to be poor and just accept it!

It’s NOT OK to have to worry where the next dollar or the next rent or mortgage payment is coming from. It’s NOT OK to have your child’s next meal in doubt because you don’t have the money to put a meal in front of them.

Down on his luck, by Frederick McCubbin
Image from www.artroom.com.au

Why would you NOT have all the money and financial empowerment you need, or want?

There could be some absolutely valid reasons. Bad luck. Bad management of a situation. Bad start in life. Got robbed. Got divorced. Got taxed. All valid and perfectly good reasons to not have any money. If you are OK with reasons for not having money that is, rather than the money.

If this is you now, are you planning on staying this way?

If you are unhappy about your financial situation, read on – there is much to learn and much to look forward to!

Is it OK to be broke?

Most teenagers and students visit “Broke” during their high school or university years, just after leaving home. Possibly the best time to visit, when you are young and life has so much promise and you are so enthusiastic about it. You also don’t have family responsibilities then. Enjoy the experience of living on the financial edge, learn the financial empowerment lessons and then get the hell out of there! Life is better with a full wallet!

How does a lack of financial empowerment affect men and women differently?

In ancient times, men were the hunters, women were the nurturers. This imprinted in the DNA of the human race and reflects in their emotional states today, thousands of generations later. A man who could not hunt and provide for his family was shamed. Today, men feel humiliated to be without work and income. A woman in ancient times who could not nurture her family was considered of low worth and status. She had to take scraps or be married off to a low status male. Today, very little has changed! Jean M Auel’s excellent and very well researched books, starting with “Clan of the Cave Bear” demonstrate this perfectly!

Let’s look at what it means to be lacking in financial empowerment, for both men and women.

Financial Empowerment for women

A woman without money in the 21^st century in the western world is a woman who has to educate herself and develop a career to support herself, or to be supported by someone else. She must develop an income stream to pay for the necessities of life. If she cannot do this, she has to choose between doing without the necessities of life, or being at the mercy of someone who has them.

Perhaps she will find a husband, someone who will be delighted to take her just as she is, and who promises to support her forever. Lots of women have thought this; many have made wonderful lives being supportive wives for their loving husbands.

Since my divorce….!
Image from www.sincemydivorce.com

But many have found that after a time, their marriage and support program suddenly ended. Perhaps through tragedy, or for other reasons, sometimes divorce. Now, they are older, perhaps wiser, but many are still without an income and a way to pay to live. That doesn’t mean that a divorced woman cannot cope – just that sometimes, the divorce is financially devastating, and they are left with little money and a family to raise, and often on a solo parent benefit or part-time wages.

Financial empowerment for women is vital. Not just for the feeling of satisfaction, but for the independence it brings. Ladies, if you are financially independent, you can choose where and who you want to spend your life with, for reasons other than necessity and somewhere to live. An important goal.

Financial empowerment for men

Guys, there is probably nothing more disempowering than looking at your family, and knowing you cannot provide for them. Not being able to pay the mortgage or the rent, rationing the children’s food, losing the car to the finance company, all for the want of a better cashflow.

Super Dad!
Image from thewonderfulworldofnothing.blogspot.com

The other side of the coin is great! You feel invincible and powerful when you have financial empowerment. When you know that your financials are OK and that the house and car are paid for, and the family is secure, you feel king of the castle. So you should. Supporting and empowering your family is perhaps the greatest responsibility that most people could ever have.

Financial crisis happens, far too often. It happens to good people, to great people, and to most of the people who don’t understand money and financial empowerment. But there’s also a way through it.

The key to financial empowerment is education.

I don’t mean reading, writing and arithmetic, although they are important. Financial literacy education, understanding the financial empowerment principles that make the money world go round. They aren’t too hard to learn, though they can be harder to put into practice.

“No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.” – Brian Tracy

The world has changed since I was a boy. Fifty years have made a huge difference. A house now costs half a million dollars here, but fifty years ago, $2500 would have got you one. A car was $500, now it is $40,000. But wages were much less! Fifty years ago, it was 365 shillings per week, around $36. The princely sum of $1,800 per year. Now, in Australia, the average annual wage is $75,000. Prices have increased but so has our income.

What HAS changed is the opportunity level!

In this age of technology and information, a person no longer needs a factory or huge amounts of capital to start a profitable business. Many people work their own business from anywhere in the world they want, as long as they can connect a computer, laptop or even tablet to the internet! As long as they have a skill they can apply, a second or even a primary income is available for anyone, if you become educated in how to market something of value to the world!

There are businesses set up solely to market skills, such as Elance – working as contractors in a virtual world, with real people at either end. Computer technicians often repair your computer problems from their own office, working on your computer remotely. People with a little money can invest online and make a living as traders. You can set up a business, consulting, buying, selling, trading, creating, almost anything you want, as soon as you launch your own website and get your story online. There are even people making a good income writing blogs, just telling stories online. There are numerous ways to either supplement an income, or replace it, and there is no discrimination in the virtual world.

What is Residual Income?

Think about your wage. If you don’t go to work, you don’t get paid. No residual income. Think about the rent on a house. The owner could be in Spain, New York or Sydney. The rent still goes into their bank account. That is residual income.

Examples of residual income are:

Financial investments, shares, term deposits etc. You need a lot of money initially and the Return On Investment (ROI) is from 1% to 5% usually. $1,000,000 at 5% is $50,000 pa.
Investment property. In Australia, an investment property starts at around $350,000 and higher, and ROI is either negative (profits from tax benefits) or up to around 5% clear.
Leasing out equipment, rental cars, machinery etc. Lots of money initially but a higher ROI, because of a shorter working life of the equipment.
A second job? Doesn’t qualify, as there is no residual income. However, this is where most people look when they need more money.
A business with employees. If you can set it up so that it makes a profit while you are not there, yes, ongoing residual income. However, bricks and mortar businesses are struggling the world over. Many do not make a profit at all.

Can you make money online?

There is an alternative, made possible by the technological revolution and the internet. It is possible to start a small business online and set it up to operate globally, fully automated and delivering profits into your bank account, wherever you are. Many are very successful; the operators have replaced their regular income and quit jobs, to live on the ever-growing profits of their fully automated online businesses! Click this link for more details and alternatives!

Examples of online income streams:

Contracting your skills, such as through ELANCE, or being a virtual assistant
E-Bay trading, buying and selling items
Shares and options trading, taking a parcel of money and actively trading with it – be careful of the risks! Only for skilled traders!
Consulting and providing advice, for a fee
Website sales of an item, product or service, sometimes digital products or information
Using a website in conjunction with a bricks and mortar business for mail-order sales
Writing and publishing online
Networking of a business opportunity online, building up a global downline network

NOTE: 1-4 are usually not residual income streams although they are internet businesses.

Internet Business Opportunities!
Image from fortune500designs.com

These opportunities are there for everyone. If you have a skill or a product range, you can sell it online, anywhere in the world. If you see a networked business opportunity, you can have a global business almost overnight, with residual income coming in from all over the world. And you don’t have to leave your day job!

If you are also a member of Life Change 90, you can enjoy Personal Empowerment, as well as Financial Empowerment!

Think about this:

Are you earning what you are worth right now?

Are you earning what your family needs right now?

Are you earning enough to fund the dreams of your future, right now?

If not, what are you going to do about it, and when?

There ARE answers, and you can find them in the links here. I look forward to seeing you at the top, earning lots more than you are now!

If you feel this article has financially empowered you and you feel it could benefit the financial empowerment of other people, please reblog it, share it with your friends and associates. It might be the day you changed someone’s financial fortunes and future for the better, not just your own!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Take action every day. It doesn’t have to be dramatic action, but every day, stick with it. Spend time on things that make you proud, that stretch and strengthen you.” – Phillip Humbert

Please also refer to my previous posts on Empowerment:

Empowerment is not hard. It’s simple, it’s strategic and it’s constant. Constant implementing of daily success habits, morning and evening, practicing throughout the day and celebrating your successes at night. It’s challenging yourself to be the best you can, and recording your efforts to be your best. It’s dropping unproductive habits and replacing them with success habits that step you closer to your own goals every day. It’s putting yourself in a state of mind that is empowered by the environment you create around you. It’s choosing the people you associate with, the information and influences that go into your mind and surround you in your life. One tiny step at a time, all the time. It’s simple, and it’s constant. Click here to learn more about becoming Empowered and learning to use your EQ, as well as your IQ!

What would an empowered man do?

Empowered Man
Image from theredlist.fr

“The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try it and the faith to believe it is possible.”
― Rich DeVos

What would an empowered man do?

It’s easy to preach. It’s easy to lecture. It’s harder to live what you preach and lecture about. It’s especially hard when Spirit or fate or the Gods on high decide to confront you with a problem straight out of the box you were preaching from!

The question is, when something like this happens, what would an empowered man do?

Now, an empowered man here refers to empowered women, children, teens, civic leaders, politicians, and anyone else you can think of. It’s all of us, and I’m lumping us together under the term ‘man’.

The guy (or girl) comes home, tired and well and truly over the day, it’s been a tough one. Their partner is frustrated as their day was tough too, the kids are noisy, but they just want to sit with a beer or wine and relax, let the day go and when they feel like it, come join the family. But the kids want to play, their partner wants a hand in the kitchen, stuff is happening all around and this is not a time when they can opt out for a while.

Home at last!
Image from www.huffingtonpost.com

What would an empowered man do?

The question really should come back to “what is important in this life?” and start from there. Attend to the first priorities and work outwards from there, once they have been attended to.

First priority? There’s their partner standing there, tired and very frustrated with their day also. This person committed to spend their life with them, and share the joys and hassles of their family forever. WOW! Number one priority?

#What would an empowered man do? He would kiss this lady, tell her he loved her and block the world out for a while. There’s a book called “The ten second kiss” that I have referred to in my seminars and it suggests that night and morning, and leaving for work and coming home from work is a powerful time for it, that you should kiss your spouse or partner for at least ten seconds. At least twice a day, at those important times.

Why? Because when you kiss someone for ten seconds with your full intention and attention on your kissing, it speaks volumes to them about your love for them, and it does them a world of good too. Things like easing tension, frustration and giving the feeling to them that they are loved and supported in every way. Sort of an antidote to a tiring and frustrating day.

What about the dinner on the stove? What about the kids? What about all the other distractions?

Take the pot off the heat – it’s only for 10 seconds! Get the kids to time you – this is a powerful way for them to see and experience what love between their parents is and should be. There is not much that cannot be put off for just ten seconds!

A great daily ritual
Image from karapearson.com

OK, that’s Priority 1 done. Priority 2 should be a hug for the kids. Big hug, acknowledgement for a moment, so they feel the love too, and it’s amazing how often that is enough for them for a time. Time to enable you to handle the other issues that are demanding attention. Perhaps you can be with the kids in a family way. Grab a coffee or tea, sit with your spouse and children on the couch for a few minutes, have a family hug, right after your ten second kiss. Take a few more minutes with all of you together, sharing your days. Ask your spouse about their day, their ups and downs. The same with the children, asking questions gets them present and takes their mind off concerns that drag energies down. That also allows you to catch up on the urgent news and to plan the next few minutes of dealing with the other issues, such as the dinner that’s cooking, the chores to be done, homework and so on.

What would an empowered man do? He’d first attend to his family and be nurtured by them, while he empowers them with his love and attention. He’d make this a daily ritual.

Another scenario. The empowered man (or woman) is at work and the boss yells at them, bawling them out over something, whether it’s valid or not. The boss is a chump, loud mouthed and obnoxious. The first reaction is to make a batch of ‘nose jam’ and spread it all over his face.

Not again!
Image from www.mccormicksys.com

What would an empowered man do?

First, is it OK to get angry? Yes, and it’s natural to get angry at times. The human body and most other species become angry if provoked. It’s what happens next that matters.

We established a few blogs back that you cannot win an argument. We learnt in another blog about how to empower people when they are angry or fearful, so that you can work with them rationally and come to a good resolution.

Empowerment Emotional Tone Scale

This image is the Empowerment Tone Scale.

(Click on this image to enlarge it!)

The angry person is down under the empowerment line. The fearful or grieving person is lower still, near the bottom. To relate with these people, you need to boost them and their emotional state up to the empowerment level at “interest”, near the top, even if only for a few seconds! You do that with targeted questions, relevant to the topic, but ones they need to process a little. That processing is the key to empowerment. This is because for the mind to process a question, it needs to be in a constructive state, not destructive. Asking a question raises the person’s emotional state. It empowers the person you are asking the question of.

Back to our angry boss. What would an empowered man do?

They would engage the boss with simple, relevant questions to establish the parameters of the situation. They would go on to ask about the specifics. Then they would ask the most powerful question framework “WHAT can WE do about THIS PROBLEM?” This establishes the conflict as an issue separate to either of them, but a problem they can solve as a team. A totally different scenario to when the boss walked in.

That’s better! All sorted now!
Image from www.act-now.ca

Does it work every time? Of course not. But it’s what an empowered person would do first, rather than inflame the issue with retaliation.

Of course, launching into strategies such as these without a reference point in place is going to be a challenge. For some men, if they arrived home and without warning, took their wife and kissed her solidly for more than a few seconds, it would either frighten them or make them very suspicious. After reading this blog, discuss it with your partner and adopt this practice of the ten second kiss morning and evening. Make the family hug a ritual. You’ll probably find it changes other areas of your life too.

With your boss, don’t wait until he’s furious before you try to empower him. Use simple but relevant questions all the time to build his level of empowerment and you’ll find he is much less likely to explode if and when something does go wrong. And at that time, he’ll respond better when you ask more questions, because you have conditioned the situation already. It won’t be anything new!

What would an empowered man do, to become more empowered in the first place?

How do you get to BE this way, without needing to re-read this blog when life serves you a rotten tomato?

After a while, it becomes a habit and is the state of mind you unconsciously life in.

During the learning process, we pass through four stages of competency. They are:

Unconsciously incompetent – we don’t even know we are messing things up!
Consciously incompetent – we know how bad we are at this new thing.
Consciously competent – we know what to do but still need to focus to get it right.
Unconsciously competent – it’s become a good, solid habit; no need to even think about it anymore; we do it unconsciously and get it right every time!

After a while, these new success habits that we practice daily, morning and evening, become a part of our subconscious program and we do them without thinking. We LIVE them.

Words of a wise and empowered man
Image from wolflaguerra.wordpress.com

What would an empowered man do? Subscribe to this program and share it amongst his family, friends and workmates, to empower them too…

If you feel this article has empowered and benefited you and you feel it could benefit the personal empowerment of other folks you know, please reblog it, share it with your friends and associates. It might be the day you changed someone’s life for the better!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Freedom begins the moment you realize someone else has been writing your story and it’s time you took the pen from his hand and started writing it yourself.”
― Bill Moyers

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment:

That is personal empowerment. A program with all of this exists now for you to slip into your daily routine; you can get it here. A few minutes morning and evening and it is done.

Personal Empowerment – starting young!
Image from www.huffingtonpost.com

Personal Empowerment.

You are responsible for your life. So why expect something to happen for motivation. Self motivation is biggest drive for self empowerment. Anil Sinha

I recently sat with a man who had asked me to write his biography, his journey from weighing 350 pounds (160 kilograms) back to 200 pounds (90 kg). After he told me his story, I had a question for him. First, here is his story, briefly.

He had told me that as he grew fatter, just from being a glutton and careless, he grew too big to do his ceiling insulation batt business – he couldn’t fit through the manholes into the ceiling cavity, so he sold that business and bought a security patrol business. Then he couldn’t get in and out of the patrol cars because of his rapidly expanding girth, so he sold that business too. Eventually he began selling real estate in a city office because all he had to do was stand (or sit) near the front door where people would walk by, and he could talk to them.

Something wrong with this picture
Image from nypost.com

However, the life changing chain of events for him began with the bicycle shop next door. Sometimes he’d stand at his front door and chat to the owner of the bicycle shop, a former triathlete champion, and one day he asked him if he could try riding a bike, as he thought he might like to lose some weight. Just making conversation. The reply was that he didn’t stock a bike that would hold his weight!

Then he needed to run to the back of his shop again to the toilet, for the fifth time that hour, and the bicycle shop owner told him he needed to get ‘that’ checked out. He already knew what his problem was. The doctor told him after a few short minutes “You have chronic diabetes caused by your eating habits. If you don’t lose 100 pounds this year, you won’t see next year!” It scared him; he said those words felt like machine gun fire into his chest!

My question to him was: “If that doctor had not threatened you with your own death, at what point would you have decided you were overweight and needed to do something about it?”

His answer? “I don’t know. I never considered it! I don’t know what it would have taken to have that amount of personal empowerment, to recognise my problem and deal with it!”

Personal empowerment is not a big deal.

A whale of a time!
Image from selfimprovementdevelopment.com

My definition for #personal empowerment is the willingness to honestly see yourself as you are, and to commit to making any changes you feel are necessary for your wellbeing, on any level, physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.

That just means that if you know you are not fit, you decide to change that and you do what you need to do, to become more fit. If you have bad breath, you brush your teeth. If someone tells you that your breath is bad, you don’t abuse them for being rude to you; you thank them for being honest with you and then you brush your teeth.

Being less than you can be, less than your human potential is a crime against yourself. That doesn’t mean that you need to be training to be fit enough to run the next marathon. It doesn’t mean you need to immediately begin to diet, or take any other radical steps. It has nothing to do with vanity, and everything to do with your personal pride. Look honestly at yourself. Ask yourself if you are the person you always wanted to be. If you can see how you can become closer to that ideal, then you need the strength to commit to making the changes that will get you there.

OK, I hear some howls of protest! Personal empowerment? I’m suffering from a chronic illness, I can’t do that! I was in a car accident and my injuries won’t allow that! I am overweight because I have a medical condition and the drugs affect me!

Relax. The question is; are you being all you can be? If you are ill, then you are ill and that will place limitations on you physically. But how is your heart? How is your spirit? How is your mind?

Personal empowerment will take you from where you are in your life, to where you could be. It’s not about being fitter, faster, smarter or better than anyone else, just being the best YOU that you could be. Sometimes, personal empowerment is just being the best parent you can be, so that you can be an empowered parent for your children. What this world needs probably most of all, is empowered people, who can be empowered parents, so that the next generation who are our children now can take over this world and continue to make it better and fix the mistakes we have made in getting it to them.

Personal empowerment is worth it.

But how do you get personal empowerment?

It’s the little things that count!
Image from mylifeismymessage.org

It’s easy. Baby steps each day. It’s not a massive shift, it’s just a few little success habits to get into each day, and then continue to do them every day! Not hard at all. You already have a number of habits right now, perhaps some that don’t serve you that you could replace, others that you definitely want to maintain. Like brushing your teeth. But add some affirmations and goalsetting to that. Perhaps doing a few minutes reading of something positive each morning and evening – just a few minutes. Perhaps setting priorities for your day, specific things that will actually advance you a little closer to your goals. Perhaps at the end of the day, doing a review and seeing what you achieved, what you learned, what you felt, and checking off what you actually did. If you started a new habit, check off that you did it, or didn’t – make yourself accountable.

Get into success habits. Start feeling a sense of achievement for the little things, so that when the big things come up and real personal empowerment is needed to face those challenges, you have already been practising, you have the success habits in place, all you are doing is changing the goal……! See? Simple.

The bonus is that it teaches you lots of other cool strategies as well, such as communication skills, financial success tips, stress management and health tips, mental strategies, conflict resolution, goal setting and a whole heap more over the 90 days of the program. That’s the few minutes of positive and empowered reading material, a couple of hundred words a day to get you on track with life changing strategies in every area of your life. Personal empowerment was never so easy! Start your personal empowerment program now! Click here to begin!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

Be ambitious towards your own personal enhancement. Steve Mariboli

Please also refer to other posts on Empowerment:

Empowerment for our children is directly proportional to the amount of personal empowerment we, as adult parents have. When WE are empowered, we can empower others, especially our children. Personal development and empowerment work for us is how we can best empower our children, and lead by example on their march into their teens and adulthood. Click HERE to become a more Empowered Parent now!

Empowerment for Children

Happy, learning children
Image from www.cumc.com

Empowerment for Children

In Empowerment for Teens, we saw that the way children are raised has a huge effect on their behaviour as teens and then young adults. This is found in the most basic of human instincts, the instinct of survival, one of the few a baby is born with, and is very relevant in #Empowerment for Children

To survive, a human being is programmed to do whatever it must. As a baby has little conscious thought capability at birth, everything is trial, error and instinct. Babies rely on mothers for feeding, nurturing, protection and survival. Therefore keeping mother close is a survival instinct. To do this, some babies cry, some laugh, some are cute and coy, some are funny little clowns. All are survival strategies initially; the range of survival strategies expands as the baby grows.

A toddler cry baby doesn’t get much sympathy. However, the baby can learn that a certain laugh, or a certain funny behaviour can get mother’s attention, so that becomes a strategy. This might be the start of the ‘clown’ survival strategy. Robin Williams claims this was his way of surviving school, where the bigger boys bullied him until he told jokes! Now, it is his career!

With most young animals in a nest, if there is competition for food, the bully always wins. The same with human babies – the instinct is to get in first and get the food to survive. A bigger or more boisterous baby may become a bully as a survival strategy amongst smaller siblings. A smaller one may realise that direct action against a bully would not work, but being sneaky and agile might – monkey like antics might become the survival strategy, or outright stealth, guile and theft. Just as a survival strategy.

Feeding time – who’s going to get it?
Image from commons.wikimedia.org

However, we see these same strategies employed in adults! This is because these survival strategies become embedded as “sub-personalities” in the mind and psyche of the child and remain embedded as the child grows up. At one time they were all relevant as survival strategies; now, as adults many are redundant, but they remain.

Can we be sure of that? Are sub-personalities real?

Think of a young mother in an ordinary day and how many sub-personalities she operates with, just to make it through the day, from leaving bed in the morning, to bedtime at night.

Waking, she becomes a mother first, looking after the immediate needs of her children, feeding, clothing and getting them ready for school. Then she becomes a taxi-driver to deliver them to school. Then it’s onto the freeway in the car to drive to work, she’s a racing driver. At work she becomes a dutiful employee, slightly subservient to her supervisor, but definitely superior to that jerk from the mail sorting room who tried to hit on her last week! Hmmph! Then she suddenly becomes mother again at lunch time with a call from the school that one of the children has fallen and scraped a knee, but it’s OK, the school nurse has bandaged it and it will be fine. A text message from her husband, saying he’s thinking about her and how wonderful it was to cuddle up naked under the sheets last night. She started reading the messages as a loving wife, but by the end of it, a nymph had emerged. She looks up from the message and sees the other office workers looking at her and she becomes a blushing teenager! Back to work and she becomes the dutiful employee again. Time to go home and she enters rush hour traffic and she becomes the road rage Mama for half an hour. Home at last, she becomes mother again. Husband arrives home and she becomes wife for a moment as he kisses her, and then mother again as she prepares dinner and scolds the children for the noise they are making. After dinner she becomes a school teacher while helping with homework. Bedtime for the kids, she becomes a wife again and sits quietly with husband discussing the day. Bedtime for her, she showers and slips into bed and the text message nymph of earlier in the day appears and for the next hour, she is none of the previous sub-personalities from throughout the day!

Herman’s Head Sub-Personalities
Image from www.sitcomsonline.com

Whew! All those different sub-personalities and all appropriate at different times of the day, with different people, and different situations. Definitely not appropriate to mix them up and when that does happen, disaster is not far away!

How are sub-personalities relevant to empowerment for children?

The baby we first looked at is developing sub-personalities as it grows older, in order to survive. The empowered child, the well balanced and happy child will confidently move between sub-personalities almost unconsciously, provided we create and foster a supportive environment around them, making it safe for them to grow, explore and experience the world.

How do we make empowerment for children possible?

As parents, it is our responsibility to create the most supportive environment for our children to grow up in. The best way to do that is for us to be fully empowered personally first – being the best parents and teachers we can be, for them to model as they grow. Empowerment for Children comes after their parents learn empowerment for women and empowerment for men!

Children do not do as they are taught. Children do as they are shown by example and that is why they model older children, rather than anonymous characters from text books! As parents, we need to demonstrate what we want children to learn, and provide the environment where this learning is possible!

Enlightened educationalists will tell us that children learn best in a happy environment where they can experience what they are learning about. Experiential learning has become a buzz word but really, children have been doing it for thousands of generations, learning through their childhood games. We need to ensure those childhood games are possible, safe and that we can participate in them to the extent we need to, so that we can give guidance as and when the children need it.

Learning by playing
Image from lindaoconnell.blogspot.com

The best way for empowerment for children to be experienced is by parents reading to children. If you have ever seen the rapt look on a child’s face as they explore a picture book with Mummy or Daddy, and the innocent questions that come from it, you will understand. As the child grows, reading more mature story books opens the child’s mind to the wider world. I remember my Dad reading “Treasure Island” to me, and another of our favourites, “Two years on Bardunyah Station”, an Australian outback cattle station where everything was larger than life. Stories such as these allowed us to create magical images of what lay beyond and enthused us with the desire to get out and explore the world, to discover our own Treasure Islands and feel the vastness of the wide outdoors. We were fortunate that we had empowered parents who understood this.

Reading to your child is empowering for them
edu101.hubpages.com

When the children do get outdoors, be there with them! Children’s school sports days are a great place for them to show off to Mum and Dad, if they are sporting by nature. Music recitals or dance classes are other great ways to participate in your children’s activities if they have come to love the arts. Whether or not they are the best doesn’t matter, as long as you demonstrate your involvement, and show encouragement for their efforts!

School sports day
www.chengelo.sch.zm

Is it OK for a child to fail?

Empowerment for Children can only happen when the child learns to fall over and stand up to try again! So many are nursed through childhood that when they reach teens and Mum and Dad can’t keep an eye on them every waking moment, that the first obstacle they come across flummoxes them! They need to learn from setbacks; learn to power on despite them and because of them, learning from the mistakes and picking up the lessons! Only in this way do they become ‘battle hardened’ for the sometimes hostile environments they will face as teens and young adults.

Ooops! Here comes a lesson!
Image from liketreesplanted.com

However, of critical importance is where Mummy and Daddy are when they fall, and how THEY react to their child’s failures! Empowerment for children happens when they learn from parents that it’s not the failure that matters, it’s getting the lesson and starting over that is important! If parents are critical of poor school results, poor sporting results or music recitals, then the child learns that it’s a hard world and their parents are just another part of it. If instead Parents are there to encourage and teach success habits, they learn that mistakes and failings are only stepping stones to success! They learn what we demonstrate!

This is important in another way too, because as parents we fail sometimes too, and our children know it! They recognise in us the mistakes we make, and if we judge them harshly for their mistakes, that is what they have learned to do with us. They become the most critical and unforgiving teenagers unless they learn the truth about mistakes – they are just part of the lifelong education system we are all enrolled in!

If you feel this post has contributed to empowerment for children, please share and reblog amongst your friends and associates. So many parents are crying out for empowerment for children, but don’t realise that it is within reach. Your sharing may change the life of another – everyone deserves personal empowerment and this could be the day you make a difference!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

Please also refer to my other posts on Empowerment:

As you work on your daily self development program, you will see that you are continually moving your emotional and mental state up to empowerment, from where you can change your world and the world and lives of those around you.

Empowerment for Men

Strength and gentleness
Image from epicanthic.blogspot.com

As we look ahead into the next century, our leaders will be those who empower others. — Bill Gates

Empowerment for Men

There is a subtle distinction between commanding respect and loyalty, and demanding it. The actions and words may be exactly the same; the distinction lies in the heart of the one desiring it.

King Richard the Lionheart
Image from www.themiddleages.net

Throughout history, great leaders have been loved and their legacy lives on down the ages, with fond memories of them and their deeds. They commanded the respect and loyalty of troops, nations, families and congregations.

Throughout history also, dictators have commanded great armies and nations but are reviled and their memories and legacies are of hate and revulsion. Idi Amin, Hitler and many more whose names you will know. These dictators are not limited to presidents, they occur in families also and the hate and revulsion felt for them is the same except that at this level, it is very, very personal.

So what is the distinction?

Empowerment for men is about the place us guys come from when we face the world.

If we feel the need to bully to get what we want, what we are really saying is “I’m not feeling confident or secure so I need to take what I want from people less powerful or able to defend themselves than me”. This feeling of insecurity is the root cause of most of the bullying and dictatorial behaviour on the planet.

What is the option?

The Butcher of Africa – Idi AMin
Image from www.barnesandnoble.com

True #empowerment for men comes from a place of humility and service orientation, where we ask the world “How can I be of service? How can I make this a better place? What can I offer?” Oddly enough, people rarely take advantage of a man who is strong and humble enough to ask these questions. Instead, his open-mindedness and leadership is recognised. People flock to him for his leadership, his strength and guidance. Whether in a family, a congregation or a nation’s armies or parliament, leadership and strength combined with genuine humility is recognised, loved and admired.

When these two men pass, the dictator is reviled and the leader revered. Empowerment for men is the distinction. Guys, remember this – your legacy is already under construction. People are already making judgements on how you will be remembered. Think about it; if you don’t like the legacy they believe you will leave, it’s time to start over.

And yes, it can be done. Empowerment for men is not an event. Empowerment for men is a way of life, if it is to mean anything at all.

Empowerment for men is not an accident. It is a state of being that is chosen as a way of life. Sometimes the choices are unconscious, based purely on the conscience instilled in us by our upbringing – whether good or bad.

Many great leaders had miserable, poverty stricken and abusive childhoods, yet they rose to prominence despite, or was it because of their poor start? When one is so low that there is nothing left to lose, many have thrown down the gauntlet and aimed for the top – knowing any progress at all is a step off the bottom rung of the ladder. Look at the likes of Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Philippines, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the recently deceased Nelson Mandela of South Africa. These men grew up through an era of incredible racial hatred and vilification in nations divided by race – between different warring tribes, by colour, between blacks, whites and other coloureds and cultures, and by wealth and poverty levels. It is a melting pot from which you could not imagine any winners but these men shone through and created legacies that affected not only their own families and country, but the global communities as well!

The Kennedy Brothers
Image from www.pbs.org

Some great leaders were born into the roles, such as the Kennedy brothers. Wealth and power were their birthright. However, it was the birthright of other men also who abused it and became monsters. The Kennedy brothers created a legacy that has become mythical; they virtually created a royalty class in the republic of the USA.

How can the average guy, like you and me, gain empowerment for men?

It’s not hard, but it requires conscious effort if it is not already in evidence. It requires us to be aware of these distinctions and consciously choose humility and service, it requires putting our leadership out there on offer, and it requires action to follow through.

Not all of this is going to come naturally, especially the part about it being a ‘state of mind’. We need to stand guard at the gateways to our minds, to ensure that what we feed our minds is healthy. We need to remind ourselves constantly, daily, that we are not here to harvest, but to plant the seeds that will become the harvest. We do this by creating within ourselves the desire to become more, and better at being ourselves.

Catch, Dad!
m.inmagine.com

For a father, be a better, more considerate parent, who takes time to parent his children. This can be as simple as reading bedtime stories to your babies and toddlers, changing their diapers when they need it, cuddling them and kissing them goodnight. As they grow, it means teaching them to play ball in the park – not because you want them to be a champion ball player, but because it’s fun for them and it teaches them to run and enjoy life and grow fit and healthy. It gives them hand/eye coordination and a sense of achievement when they catch the ball. When they get to school, attend the school plays, the sporting events, the parent and teacher meetings, show an interest so that when they enter their challenging teen years, you are already an important part of their life to them, and you don’t have to fight to get your message heard. You already have their trust and love and now when they need you, they will trust you enough to come to you for guidance and help – not just cash!

For a husband, be thoughtful and considerate. Study what it takes to be a better partner, lover, friend and

Date night!
Image from blamebilly.com

confidante. Earn the trust of your wife, encourage her to feel a sense of achievement in her life and be proud of her, the amazing woman who was incredible enough at some time in your life, to win your heart and accept you with all your faults. Share the workload with her. That doesn’t mean offering to wash the dishes and breaking them all and creating more work! No, contribute what you do best, whatever that is, to take the load from her. That will definitely mean diapers, taxi driving kids to sports events and sharing the discipline roles. And be a great lover – one who takes her on date nights, surprises her with flowers and gifts, and sometimes leaves a lovely card around for her to find and show her you really do think lovely thoughts of her all through the day.

As a community member, stand up and be counted when it counts. Wallflowers get nothing and give nothing, community leaders are in the middle and up the front, looking first to the betterment of conditions for their family, through making their community better.

Elected leaders take an oath of office, but less live it than take it. However, genuine leaders are already living way beyond any oath that could be taken. The oath that is sworn is the minimum expectation of the elected official – the true leader is always going the extra mile!

How will you know if you have gained this elusive ‘empowerment for men’?

You will look around you and see the evidence. Success leaves clues, but so does failures. Look at the faces and in the hearts of the people around you and you will know if empowerment for men has been your way. Your people will admire, respect, love and follow you to hell and back. It is either empowerment for men and everyone around you, or you became a dictator and have a group of “yes men” or servants – you can’t have it both ways. The evidence will be there. If you can’t find the evidence, just check to see if you are a wallflower, still waiting to make your contribution to the world.

On a personal level, how can you gain empowerment for men?

Empowerment for men and in fact, anyone, is best done through a structured program that puts you on a course that teaches you the self-discipline and self development necessary to change your life. No, it’s not hard – just constant, and being human, we can forget. We can slip up and before you know it, a month has gone by and you realise you haven’t set or checked off a goal, made an affirmation, or acknowledged a lesson from a day passing. A simple program, a few minutes morning and evening is all it takes to reshape your thinking and feelings to empower you to make new, better and conscious decisions about your life and the people you care about. That program could be Life Change 90.

I wrote about this recently in a post called EMPOWERMENT and it’s worth a revisit, to review the EMPOWERMENT TONE SCALE.

Worth considering. Empowerment for men, and any guy who wants to become one! Start your journey to becoming a more Empowered Man here, NOW!

If you feel this blog has provided empowerment for men, women and their families, please reblog it and share it with other men and families around you. The world needs empowerment for men to lead it out of the morass of apathy, violence and destruction we seem to be plagued with. Only empowered people will have the strength of leadership necessary to take us forward. Perhaps you will be the one who puts this in front of such a person and makes the difference.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“The power to change your life lies in the simplest of steps.”
― Steve Maraboli

Please also refer to my related links on Empowerment:

Empowered by Love