(In a nutshell) The only person you can rely on is yourself. Turn your frustration and blame into action!
Taking the path of “gridlock” as least resistance!? What’s happening today in Washington gives a person even more reason to be that much less reliant on the government; or a job.
What is there left to do?
Go ahead and vent; get it off your chest! Then, let’s not waste any more energy being frustrated about things that are out of our control. Folks we have to shift into a proactive state, a proactive way of being. The problems that we face at a national and global level, those are things we can’t control, along with a lot of other things, but, what we can control is what happens between our ears over the next eight hours of this day. We can choose what we put our energy, time and focus into.
More than anything today’s wake up call reinforced this message in my mind: “At the end of the day if it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.”
If there is something that needs to get done, I need to make sure that “I” take responsibility and own it; even if it’s not my responsibility or my fault.
Let’s use this as our impetus to “get things done” and close out this year strong. Let’s not wait on the government social programs to take care of us, our kids, or our grandkids, when we are 50, 60 years old.
I’m not going to “wait and see” what my business does over this next quarter. Instead, I’m going to drive the *eff out of it!
Instead of waiting for an opportunity to come to me I’m going to go out and take action, creating my own opportunities. I develop that kind of attitude when I get upset, or riled up about something that really gets under my skin.
You see, it’s so much easier to blame then it is to use something that is as much of an injustice as this (like not getting a paycheque because the politicians can’t come to an agreement about funding the government), to drive you forward and make positive strides at changing your reality.
If you’re in a situation where you’re feeling pissed off, once you’re done crying in your soup, by the end of the day today or tomorrow you need to get a game plan together for your family and loved ones over the next quarter.
If you do count on the government’s help you’re unfortunately going to put yourself in a place where you pay the price of disappointment and frustration because at the end of the day the only person that you can trust in this matter, is yourself.
I thought, “This is my exit strategy.” Then my legs got kicked out from under me. I felt completely helpless.
This all takes me back to the early 2000s when I was learning how to trade commodities. I used to dream of becoming a professional commodities trader and honestly thought it was going to be my escape ladder. I soon realized however that earning my existence as a trader, manipulating numbers, wasn’t very fulfilling as I wasn’t truly giving value to anyone. The lesson that drove that home to me was when the big Worldcom and Enron fiasco happened. In a matter of a couple days, after getting stopped out of a few trades, this reversed my position and wiped out my account that I had been building for the last couple of years.
Today I realize I’m actually lucky that happened to me because it ultimately changed the trajectory of my path. Referring back to my recent podcast and blog post… A branch got pruned off of my tree, and yeah it hurt, but I stopped relying on that branch as future growth of my tree. I turned my frustration into finding a different business model where I could control the vast majority of variables; that is the beautiful thing about online marketing and being a digital entrepreneur.
You can’t create an alternate path for yourself while you’re also blaming somebody else for your circumstances.
I can only imagine how those of you who work for the government feel today. You feel like your legs where taken out from underneath you because something happened outside of your control. In such a scenario we all have the same reactions, feelings of extreme frustration and blame. I’d love to send you a word of encouragement: You don’t want to stay in that place very long; your family can’t afford you staying in that place.
Blame is such a cancerous state of mind as it embeds and entrenches you in your position that “you’re right” and “the other person is wrong”. Unfortunately when you are in a state of blame you can’t create.
It’s up to YOU to survive.
It’s a pretty risky business if you are going to trust your livelihood to another person, a company, let alone the government for goodness sakes!
So let this be a wake up call. Take this anger and frustration that you’re feeling and channel it into drive, determination and into a reason why you deserve to acquire the skills needed to write your own paycheque.
Don’t get caught with your pants down just because somebody didn’t do their job!
It is a few months away from a new year. There is no reason, to sit back and blame others for your current circumstances. If you don’t like where you are right now, and you didn’t like were you were a year ago, and the year before and a year before that, then it’s time to make some changes.
Start with the changes by looking first at, “Who do I rely on?” Now, instead of blaming them and being frustrated channel that into some creative energy; garner some drive and motivation so you can go out there and never have that happen again.
Blame is the ultimate cop-out.
So today, if in some way you have been affected directly by what’s happening in Washington and if in some way you are feeling defeated, take whatever time you need to release it but for our own sakes let’s make the decision to become self reliant. That is the only lesson you can take away from this. There’s no point in being pissed off at the government or other people. After a certain point, going into a place of blame (it’s actually the mind’s way of refusing to take responsibility for a circumstance,) all that will do is entrench you in your position and disempower you from ever changing those circumstances.
Rally together everyone. Be the leader in your life and you won’t have to worry about whether the government is going to shut down or show up for work.
I’m filled with anticipation and adrenaline. It’s the last quarter, let’s make the most of it, let’s close out this year strong.
All my best,
Jay Kubassek
