Success

The Corona Effect

/ Pascal Orelus / 1 Comment

Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful. – Warren Buffet

The world is experiencing a lot of fear right now due to the Corona Virus. People have emptied the shelves at supermarkets because they want to stack up on food and supplies. We’re experiencing a lot of social distancing currently due to this pandemic. Countries are closing their borders, business are asking employees to work from home. Business meetings and social events are being cancelled, the stock market is down, schools are closed, universities are now conducting classes solely online, etc…

There’s a lot of fear and anxiety going on and a lot of people have been greedy when it comes to buying food and supplies in case the country completely shuts down. But what else can we be greedy in so once this is all over with that we’re in a better condition going forward? What can we take advantage of during this time? No matter what’s going on in life, there’s always a positive. What’s the positive in all of this?

Through every economic crash, those who fear gets poorer and some use that time period to create more wealth. Instead of living in fear everyday, ask yourself how you can use this time period where everyone is living in fear to create a better life for yourself going forward.

For instance, if you have a job that doesn’t allow you to work from home and it forces you to go see people everyday while this virus is so easily transmissible, think of a way to earn a living from home, invest in a skill set that doesn’t require you to be physically there all the time to make a living. If you have money saved, invest in the stock market and buy everything for cheap. If you have a business, think of a way to increase profits during this time and take your business to the next level. If you’re just at home doing nothing, invest in yourself and come out of this a better equipped individual who can thrive through any crisis and be ready for the next one.

Be greedy in a way that will make you better once this is all set and done. Use fear to make you stretch yourself never to bend and fold.

Law of Money

/ Pascal Orelus

The amount of money you make has a direct correlation with how much benefit you bring to the world. You are paid in proportion to the difficulty of the problems you solve. If you solve a big problem, you get a big paycheck. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook which is used by more than a billion people, therefore he’s a billionaire. Billions of people use Microsoft software for their computer, therefore Bill Gates is a Billionaire.

You might be proud of your work and a hard working individual but are you solving problems that millions of people could benefit from? If not, seek to serve more people.

1 Corinthians 9:19 says, For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

If you want to make more money, you have to serve more people and increase your value to the marketplace. You increase your value by the person you become. Your level of income rarely exceeds your personal development. To have more, you have to become more. Start working on yourself and make personal changes. Develop unique skills that the world could benefit from. Identify your super power and build on it. Get better every day. As you get better, you will think better thoughts, have better ideas, and make better decisions.

3 Months Ahead

/ Pascal Orelus

One should not just flow through life without goals. If you’re in existence, it is your duty to seek achievements. You do so by setting goals.

One advantage that I’ve had in life is that I always start my “New Year Resolutions” on October 1st. While most people wait for January 1st, I started 3 whole months before them. By doing so, I’m already ahead of the competition and can kick into a second gear while everyone else is just getting started. My personal fiscal year ends on September 30th and my new year starts on October 1st.

Another reason why I set my personal fiscal year to start on October 1st is because it’s my mother’s birthday. I celebrate her by being all that I can be and I know that’s what she wants for me everyday. It’s amazing having a mother like her who simply wants all the best for her son and made sacrifices to make sure I had opportunities to succeed in whatever I wanted growing up.

Sometimes, we are willing to do for others what we’re not willing do to for ourselves. Sometimes, you might be okay with letting yourself down but when there’s someone else that you don’t want to let down, you can always find that inner strength to persist and overcome. Identify who that person is in your life. Find your reason why and the actions you have to take to get to your desired results won’t matter.

Labor Day Wisdom

/ Pascal Orelus

“Any fool can increase their labor hours for more money. The smart people find ways to decrease labor hours and make even more money.”

Most people have the mindset that, one has to work more to make more money. While very few people have the wisdom to work to establish a strong foundation then invest what they’ve earned to receive a return.

Buying brand-new cars or luxurious items don’t mean you’re doing well financially. If you have to make monthly payments, it means you’re in debt. If you have to finance your vacation, maybe it’s not the right time for you to go on a vacation. Be mindful of where you spend your money. Once you are drowning in debt, it’s hard to climb out of that hole to start having surpluses.

“You cannot solve problems at the same level of thinking that creates them.” – Albert Einstein.

Invest in your mind to get better so you can start making better decisions. You can start by investing in books, listening to audios or watching videos that will get you thinking positively.

As you begin each day, think about some changes that you’d like to make to get better. Don’t wait for the New Year to make a resolution. You can start TODAY. Take control of your life and aim toward the results you want. Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis.

Foundation For Success

/ Pascal Orelus

The reason most people don’t become successful is because they neglect to do the simple things. Procrastination is a hell of a drug just like cocaine. Check yourself into rehab and get it out of your system.

Clarify what you want to accomplish and make a list of the things that you need to do to accomplish it. Focus on the steps you have written down and do them repeatedly until you get the result that you want. Sometimes you may have to adjust the steps to get there but never the goal unless you’re expanding.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. But don’t use that as an excuse to quit after a few failed attempts. Make a new route to get to your destination if needed. Used the failed attempts as experience to build a better plan for your goals. Be wise enough to know when you need to stick to it and wait for a breakthrough or when to move on into a different strategy.

Success wouldn’t be rewarding or fulfilling if it was attained easily or instantly. There are a few things you must do and go through. You have to discipline yourself to do them REPEATEDLY. For instance, when you decide to start going to the gym, you don’t instantly get in shape. You have to go and workout repeatedly in order to improve to lose weight or gain muscle. It’s not achieved on the first set or the first day. Only the ones who are disciplined to follow through on a regular basis are successful. The process is the same for anything else in life that you’re trying to be successful at.

To conclude, Identify the things you need to do to be successful and don’t neglect to do them. Discipline yourself to follow through and don’t allow procrastination to take over. Success only comes when you follow through.

Superior Sense

/ Pascal Orelus

We have always been taught that having common sense is a good thing. Common sense is defined as having good sense or good judgement in practical things. Being common is average and ordinary. Common sense is good if all you want in life is to be average by living an average lifestyle, have an average job, drive an average car, have an average house, eat at average restaurants and travel to average places.

If you want to be great or want great things in your life, you have to tap into your superior sense and be impractical. Nothing great will be accomplished by being average. Common sense is essential as the basic fundamentals in life just like basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills but you will need more than common sense to make a massive impact in the world.

Being superior is to be higher in rank, status or quality. Majority of people use common sense. They work a common job, and get an average paycheck. Common sense will get you common results. If you learn how the elites of the world think and act then you will get elite and superior results.

Some people get ridiculed when they don’t have common sense. They get laughed at and the average person will say, you make no sense, or you have no common sense. Sometimes having no common sense is being insanely smart. Imagine all the great inventions we have today, do you think the inventors used simply common sense to come up with their ideas? I’m sure common sense played a role because a person must have normal operating sense before they can even attempt to do anything great. However, they had to tap into their superior sense and be impractical while the average, common-sense minded, and glass half empty people were telling them no they can’t do that.

In whatever you do, remember, average and common are good but superior is better. Never settle for good enough when great is available. You wouldn’t want your kids to settle for good enough so why should you? Lead by example by operating on superior sense and force your offspring to elevate their game!

Logically Emotional

/ Pascal Orelus

Sometimes in life you are face with difficult circumstances and you have to make a decision that can be life altering. It’s important to be able to identify between your logical decision and your emotional decision.

When you make decisions based on logic, it’s based on information and data. When you make an emotional decision, it’s based on your heart and how you feel. Most people who are shrewd operators make decisions based on information instead of emotions. Before you make a decision, make sure you have clearly identified the risks and rewards of such decision. You have to be able to control your emotions and not react solely on them. Add a dose of logic to your decisions. In the short term, emotions will beat logic when making a decision. However, in the long term, logic will prevail. For instance, you can get excited about something and decided to get involve in it without being logical about whether or not it would be the right fit for you. Once the excitement is gone, logic will kick in and that would determine whether you stay or not.

When you make a decision based on information, it’s important to attach a level of emotions to it to help you follow through on your decision. When things get tough, your reason WHY will keep you from quitting. That’s where emotions play a major role. We are now in the Information Age and those who succeed are those with the right information and the right balance of emotions attached to their decisions. Strive to be logically emotional.

Be Someone

/ Pascal Orelus

The picture above is a popular landmark in Houston, TX. It resonates with me because ever since I was a child, I’ve always strived to be someone. My parents instilled in me at a very young age to become a person of value and not settle for average. I think everyone should strive for that and it’s unethical if they don’t put in the effort to make their lives better by making themselves better.

How can we be a good example to our kids and people who look up to us if we’re not striving to be a person of value?

We have to be humble and not walk around like we’re better than everybody but don’t use humility as an excuse to be mediocre. By making yourself valuable, you gain confidence in yourself. Someone might be better than you at something but you’re better in at least one other thing than that person. There’s no need to be jealous of others just because they are blessed differently than you are. We’re all equipped with different gifts and areas of strengths.

Make yourself valuable by feeding your mind. Your mind is your #1 asset, you should always invest in your mind. As you change your way of thinking, so will your life. God did not create anyone to be a nobody. Some people let life happened to them and never get back up after falling down. Don’t let that be you.

Investing in your mind doesn’t always mean going to college. College is very expensive and you don’t always get a return on your investment. Depends on your career choice or calling, college may or may not be the right option. Through personal development, you will find your identity and discover your passion. By investing in your personal development, it may help you find work that will help you fulfill your destiny instead of living to work for a biweekly paycheck.

We were born to do something great and be great. Never surrender to the obstacles in life. Let’s be audacious enough to jump every hurdle and become what we were destined to be. Be someone and give all the glory to God.

Independence Day

/ Pascal Orelus

“I freed a thousand slaves; I could have freed a thousand more, if only they knew they were slaves.” – Harriet Tubman.

July 4th is a national holiday commemorating the declaration of independence of the U.S. from the British Empire. A lot of Americans are celebrating today by having get-togethers, barbecues, going to beach, shooting fireworks, etc… However, the U.S. and a lot of Americans are still not truly independent. In the Bible, Proverbs 22:7 says, the borrower is the slave of the lender. How can you be independent when you’re $22 trillion in debt?

Sure we have some freedom but we don’t have it in all aspects of our lives. If you work at a job you hate but have to keep on going back to it, you’re not free. If you’re buried in debt and living paycheck to paycheck you’re not free. You have some freedom but real independence is when you have complete autonomy over your life and living out your purpose.

Power of Thoughts

/ Pascal Orelus

Our thoughts have power and are influenced by our environment. Be mindful of the company you keep, the things around you and what you ponder on. Our thoughts dictate our actions. When we fill our minds with bad thoughts, we are inviting bad things in our lives. As the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. We can make a conscious effort to be positive and attract great things in our lives as long as we accompany it with actions toward our goals.

Let’s take a look at the Adam and Eve story for example. Satan approached Eve and got inside her thoughts and convinced her to try the forbidden fruit. Satan didn’t just shove it in her mouth and force her to eat it. The work was done through her thoughts. Satan manipulated her into wondering what it would be like to try the fruit and then she did the same to Adam. That’s why it’s important to be mindful of the company you keep. The wrong crowd and environment can influence us to do bad things. We can control our thoughts by choosing wisely who our friends are, the neighborhood we live in, our workplace, and what information we let inside our head.

If you watch the news every morning, you’re more likely to be in a depressed state of mind. The average person will tell you to watch the news to stay informed but in reality, you’re exposing your mind to depression. The news is designed to tell you bad news and make you depressed. That’s how they get their ratings. The news reporters will do anything to emphasize how bad things are to keep you watching. It is not a coincidence that local news airs in the morning before most people go to work and in the evening when most people get back from work. Why would you want to start your day with bad news and then end your day with bad news? People who make a habit of watching the news on a daily basis are putting themselves in a depressed state.

Your friends, your neighborhood, your workplace, the movies you watch and the music you listen to are all considered part of your personal media consumption. Time spent consuming media that does not add value to your life is not time well spent. Instead of letting non-productive content in your mind, read a book, take a course, or do a research on a topic you’re interested in. Limit your entertainment consumption and make it a habit to be involved in activities that would foster growth in your mind. That will lead to better thoughts, actions, habits, results, and future.