Mercedes In The Driveway
by Robert Provencher
“We can have more than we’ve got because we can become more than we are.”
~Jim Rohn~
~Jim Rohn~
I was looking out my bedroom window the other day, after showering, getting ready, as I often do, gazing out over the rolling hills and trees, next to the golf course where I live and work out of my home studio. It’s a decent view.
Down below is the driveway and it extends to the side of our house. This is where our clients park. There was a client’s car, my wife no doubt had a sales appointment. It was a Mercedes.
I smiled a bit. Thought about how so many of our clients have nice cars. Nice homes too, good professions and, well, loads of dough for the most part to spend on family portraits.
Some people have a problem with that, as if money were an evil force. I used to have a problem with it at one time, but that was more to do with my own lack of self-confidence and self-image.
In order to chase good money, one needs to at least consciously feel confident and at some level an equal. I made that transition in my life and, besides the fact that it was one of the most liberating experiences, it was something I wished I would have done sooner. Way sooner.
Wealth, prosperity and success are truly inside jobs. One must know it, live it, feel it inside and find inner strength.
If you have any form of anger, resentment, insecurities about money, you will be walking around with 50 pound weights around your ankles. Sluggish and slow.
How does one shake those excess weights that old us back financially?
One word: guts. It takes balls.
I was asked to join Rotary many years ago. I was definitely the proverbial fish out of water in that club, but joining could not have come at a better time in my life. It played a pivotal role, as a catalyst, to propel my sense of confidence and financial purpose in me.
You see, I was rubbing elbows with some big wigs. At one point, I would have been intimidated being there. Not so now.
Now, it clicked.
I was firm, confident. I had confidence enough to approach these people and pitch them my product. And to mingle with them. Not feeling high and mighty. That’s false. Just a solid, calm sense of confidence. No one was better than me. No one deserved more than I. No one was elevated in my eyes, unless they proved to me otherwise.
I was not, as I might have been at some prior point in my life, baffled, scared and unsure. It clicked.
Likely through a series of self imposed forces in my life, the perfect storm, the ideal awareness, all brought together by my own experiences and learnings ( studying guys like Dan Kennedy, Tony Robbins, Paul Hawken, Michael Gerber… etc etc etc…)
Growing from a level that you are not happy with, that you are struggling with, takes guts and imagination. You must know where you want to go, even if on the outside circumstances say it isn’t so. Don’t get focused on why something isn’t working. Go towards where you want to go. Never, ever, ever, never using excuses or rational. I can’t stress that enough.
It’s scary to shake the dead weight that keeps us down. That’ the CHALLENGE! Take it. Otherwise, you’re staying down and forever doomed in financial mediocrity.
Any excuse. ANY!!! Is nothing more than an excuse. Your area. Your economy. Anything outside yourself, is nothing more than PASSING THE BUCK.
Denis Reggie said that he couldn’t even afford himself.
Think about that. He’s saying, if he needed a photographer, he, himself, couldn’t afford what he was asking.
Do you think when he first created these prices that he was confident and firm? I bet he wasn’t. He took the challenge, mustered up some balls, and did it. There’s a lesson in that, we could all learn…and grow.
Don’t stay stuck. Move your consciousness UP. Through your thoughts, willingness to NOT use excuses, and your actions! And your goals and imagination.
The sad truth is, many, maybe most folks are stuck and stay stuck. It’s a personal choice, but they find something to blame.
Stuck in jobs they hate, but feel powerless, forever making excuses and blaming others, but never themselves. The truth is, most people are awkward and uncomfortable with money, and they actually fear it.
They get just enough and stay at that level most of their lives. Some, or many, convert this situation into a self-righteous mission. Whatever makes them feel good.
When you grow, and welcome prosperity into your being, you actually become a better person.
You become more of who you are meant to become.
It’s never just about the money. Money isn’t everything. If you think that, then you are thinking small.
If you pursue money out of desperation, it will run away from you.
If you create money just for the money, you will not be successful. But you must be guilt free and open to it in order to succeed both financially and as an individual.
Get rid of the crap and get focused on what you want. I owe, I owe…what a crappy reason to go to work.
Here’s some of my favorite points and thoughts inspired by the teachings of Wallace D Wattles, the author of The Science of Getting Rich. A great book, and it’s free..
*Rich isn’t being content with little
*Is being the best you can be
*Is it our environment? No, it’s doing things a certain way
*Balance: body, soul, intellect and loving others
*Extreme altruism is not better than extreme greed
*Keep your mind off poverty- forget the past
yours in photography,
Robert Provencher
Robert Provencher
