FW: TipsForSuccess: "How to Improve Your Lifestyle Despite the Recession"

 

How to Improve Your Lifestyle Despite the Recession How do you want to improve your lifestyle? Your standard of living? Do you want a new car, a more comfortable house, better clothes? What is the ideal lifestyle for you? If everything went well this year, how would you be living? Take a minute to write a description of the lifestyle you want. Next, take this quiz. Quiz Check the items below that determine your standard of living: ❒ The economy ❐ Your employer ❒ Thinking good thoughts ❐ Your parents ❐ Luck, fate, destiny ❐ Big business ❐ Chanting, hoping, meditating ❐ The government ❒ Rich people ❐ Your productivity If you selected the last factor, you can do something to improve your lifestyle. "Products are the basis of a standard of living. They don't appear from midair. They come from work truly done." -- L. Ron Hubbard That's right. Your products determine your lifestyle. When you produce enough valuable products, you earn the standard of living you want. So What Is Your Product? What do you produce? What is the end result of your hard work? What do you get paid for? If you build houses, your product is a "house." If you publish books, your product is a "book." If you cook food, your product is "a meal." If you produce a service, such as a hotel clerk, your product is "a happy hotel guest." If you are a physician, your product is "a healthy patient." If you sing operas, your product is "an emotionally moved audience." A manager's product is "a highly-productive staff." A painter's product is a "painted house." A airplane pilot's product is "an airplane moved from one location to another." As L. Ron Hubbard writes, the work must be truly done. For example, you will not increase your lifestyle if you take the credit for someone else's work, if you live on government checks or if you are a criminal. You need to work and produce something of value. Three Factors "Factually one normally has to work fast and expertly and in high volume to bring about any acceptable standard of living for himself and his group." -- L. Ron Hubbard These three production factors determine your standard of living: 1. Speed: how quickly can you produce your product? 2. Expertise: do you know what you are doing? 3. Volume: how many products can you produce? Working fast is important. For example, an auto mechanic who can replace an engine in six hours enjoys a better standard of living than a mechanic who needs 20 hours to do the same job. A store clerk who rings up $1000 of groceries per hour will eventually earn a better standard of living than a clerk who talks all day, moves slowly and only rings up $500 of groceries per hour. Your expertise determines the quality of your product. If a computer programmer writes programs that make computers crash, he will not enjoy a better standard of living. A horse trainer who produces a calm, friendly obedient horse earns an improved lifestyle because of her expertise. Becoming an expert allows you to produce a higher quality product than others. For example, instead of producing "a house," an expert builder produces "a beautiful, efficient house under budget." Instead of "a meal," an expert chef produces a "exceptionally delicious, healthy meal." Instead of "a moved airplane," an expert pilot produces "an airplane that safely departs on time, safely arrives on time with maximal comfort for the passengers." And of course, the more products you produce, the better your standard of living. For example, if you are a school teacher, you might decide your product is "an educated student." So to produce more products, you might write books, produce documentaries or create e-learning websites. Instead of producing 30 educated students each week, you produce thousands of educated students. You will improve your lifestyle if you become an expert in your field, work as fast as you can and produce as many products as possible. Five Tips for Improving Your Standard of Living Because you control your standard of living, you can improve it with these steps. 1. Identify your product. What is the final result of your work? What will people pay you for? 2. Find three ways to increase your production speed. Use your ideas until your speed has increased. 3. Find three ways to increase your expertise. Use these ideas to increase the quality or value of your product. 4. Find three ways to increase the amount of production you get done per week. Use these ideas until your production volume increases. 5. Continue to increase the speed, quality and volume of your production until you have more than enough money to raise your standard of living. Once you have earned the money for your new lifestyle, go for it! Buy that new car. Move to that new house. Eat at those nicer restaurants. You earned it. You deserve it. Enjoy it! Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you. Copyright © 2009 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. To subscribe, buy books, contact us or learn more about TipsForSuccess.org, click here. For permission to copy, print or post this article, go to www.tipsforsuccess.org/reprint_info.htm or click here.

 

TipsForSuccess: "How to Make a Fresh Start"

 

How to Make a Fresh Start Nothing can ruin your success faster than personal conflicts. Upsets between business partners or battles between bosses and staff ruin productivity, reduce income and build up stress. Most people have good intentions most of the time. They want to get along, do their work and succeed. Yet personal upsets can make good people into monsters. How Do You Deal with Personal Conflicts? Imagine you get promoted to a management position at work. You now have five employees who answer to you. Four of them are supportive and friendly. Yet the fifth person, Dick, is a problem. Dick is not cheerful with you. He smiles around his coworkers, but frowns and gets serious when you show up. He never looks you in the eye. One day, a customer complains about Dick. After you make the customer happy, you call Dick into your office. You say, "So what happened with that customer?" Dick says, "He's just a jerk. Take his side if you want. I don't care. I'm going back to work, OK?" So what do you do? Let Dick leave your office and pretend there is no problem? Get angry at him and chew him out? Plead with him to be nice to you? Demand he tell you what is wrong? A Better Approach The real problem may be that you have not formed a working relationship with Dick. You need to apply the Non-Existence Formula so your relationship can become a good, solid existence. "The Non-Existence Formula is: "1. Find a comm [communication] line. "2. Make yourself known. "3. Discover what is needed or wanted. "4. Do, produce and/or present it." -- L. Ron Hubbard Since you already have the communication line as Dick is sitting in front of you, you can now do steps 2 and 3. You say, "Dick, before we deal with this customer, I'd like to get our relationship off to a good start. As you know, I'm now in charge here and you are working for me. What do you need or want from me as your boss?" Dick looks startled. "What do you mean?" "I want to know the best way to work with you. What do you need or want from me?" Dick shrugs and says, "Okay. I like to know what is going on. For example, nobody told me you were taking over." You say, "Oh really! That's not good. I'm sorry no one told you. As your new boss, I'll be happy to tell you what's going on. I have no secrets. What else do you need and want from me?" Dick relaxes and says, "I like to handle customers myself. If a customer complains, I'd like a shot at handling him before you step in. No one lets me do this." You say, "No problem. From now on, when a customer complains, I'll give you one chance to fix the problem yourself." Dick starts to look interested. "I want to go to lunch at 12:30 instead of noon. I want a little more air conditioning. And I want someone to listen to my new ideas of how we can make more sales." All of this is fine with you. You say, "Now let me tell you what I need and want from you. I need a daily update on what you are doing. I want you to see me if you aren't sure what to do. I want you to beat your own sales records. I also want you to be friendly to me. Can you do these things?" Dick's eyes sparkle as he says, "No problem!" He smiles, sticks out his hand and you shake on it. You and Dick then discuss the customer complaint. Dick says he'll call him and make sure everything is okay. Dick gets back to work and tells a coworker, "No one from management has ever asked me what I wanted. We might have a good boss here!" Ten Great Uses of the Non-Existence Formula 1. You start a new job of any kind. You meet with everyone you will be working with individually. You tell each of them about your new position and ask what they need or want from you. As you deliver these needs and wants, you quickly take control of your job. 2. You are in a conflict with your boss. You realize neither of you are doing what the other needs or wants. You arrange a meeting (comm line) and do the next two steps. "Joe, as your newest employee, I want to do a perfect job. Can we go over specifically what you need and want from me?" With a coworker you say, "Jill, we're stuck with each other. I think we should work things out so we get along. What do you need and want from me as your coworker?" "Can I tell you want I need and want from you?" 3. You want to be hired for the perfect job. During the job interview you ask. "If you hire me, what will you need or want from me?" Since no one else has asked, the boss is a little startled by the question, but really enjoys answering it. You explain how you can deliver these needs and wants . . . and more. You get the job on the spot. 4. You want to rent a building space or apartment, but there are several other applicants who also want the space. So when turning in your application, you ask the landlord, "If you select me as your tenant, what will you need and want from me as my landlord?" The landlord thinks it over and tells you her needs and wants. No one has ever asked her and she's delighted someone cares. You assure her you can deliver. You are selected above all other applicants. 5. You want your boss to sell you a partnership in his company. You say, "I think you have a great operation here. If you were going to sell a partnership, what might you need and want from a partner?" The boss starts to think about it and mentions a few things. You start to do things he would need from a partner. After a while, he makes you an offer to become a partner. 6. You're dating someone and want to take your relationship to the next level. You find out what this person needs or wants from a mate. You decide if you can do those things or not. If you can, you start to deliver. He or she feels a strong attraction to you and wants to take the relationship to the next level. You also make it clear to this person what you need and want from the relationship. You observe if he or she can do those things for you. If not, you break it off. If he or she can deliver, you go for it! 7. Your marriage is not going well. You ask your spouse, "I want us to have a really good relationship. I think we need a fresh start. Do you agree?" If your spouse agrees, you ask each other, "What do you need or want from me as your spouse?" 8. Your child is starting in a new school. You visit the school and ask the teacher, "What do you need or want from me?" "What do you need and want from my child?" Your child starts off on the right foot. 9. You are constantly looking for the needs or wants of your customers. For example, a superior cab driver not only finds out the passenger's destination, he asks, "Are you comfortable? Would you like to see today's newspaper? Can I tell you anything about our city?" An electronics store does the same thing by surveying its customers every month to find out what they want to buy. An orthodontist asks each new patient for his or her needs and wants before starting the first exam. A computer programmer asks users what they need or want from their computers. Any successful business constantly finds out what its clients or customers need or want. And delivers them. 10. You want to form a great relationship with the new leaders of your group. You say, "Hi. I'll be working under you as the ______ and want to know what you need and want from me." You find you get the best treatment from the new leader. Do you know anyone with whom you should apply these four steps, to establish or improve your work or personal relationship? Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you. Copyright © 2009 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. To subscribe, buy books, contact us or learn more about TipsForSuccess.org, click here.

 

TipsForSuccess: "How to Spend Money"

How to Spend Money to Make Money Spending money is a skill. You can spend with intelligence or stupidity. You can use money to increase your financial worth or waste it and build more debt. Businesses that spend money intelligently make more profit. Their employees earn higher salaries and their customers get better service. Businesses that spend money foolishly cannot afford top employees who produce high-quality services or products. Your personal spending habits can make you rich or poor. For example, a married couple accumulates over $2 million during their working years with intelligent spending. Another married couple, with a similar income, have no savings when they reach their 60s because they never knew the princple that is covered in this article. The way to spend money to make money is by using the "Bean Theory." "Finance is best understood as a COMMODITY* in terms of beans." "So many beans issued to an activity and so many more beans back." -- L. Ron Hubbard (*Commodity: An item that is bought, sold or traded.) In other words, you look at your cash as a bunch of beans. You trade those beans in a way that gives you more beans than you started with. Bean Theory Examples You buy a $2500 stereo system with a credit card. The stereo system makes you no money and loses value over time. You pay $2000 in interest over five years before you pay off the credit card debt. For 4500 beans paid out, you get no beans back and have an asset worth 1200 beans or less. Bad spending. You buy a small old house. You pay $25,000 as a down payment and a home loan for $75,000. You invest $25,000 in upgrades and repairs. Over three years, you pay $13,000 in interest. You then sell the house for $160,000. For 25,000 beans for the down payment, 25,000 in repairs and 13,000 beans in loan interest, you get 22,000 beans after the loan is paid off. You also lived in the house for three years which saved you 12,000 beans in rent per year. Total profit of 58,000 beans. Good spending. If you own a business, some employees' pay may be good Bean Theory application. They do more than expected and add to the success of the business. Good spending. Other employees do less than the others and try to suck everyone down to their unhappy existence. They are not a good investment of beans. Bad spending. Each part of your business can be classified as good or bad spending. For example, an auto repair shop has several departments. Its auto paint department returns five beans for every bean paid into it. But its muffler department only returns one bean for each two beans it receives. If the owners are smart, they invest more beans into the paint department which increases their beans. The muffler department must either become profitable or be shut down ASAP. Good business spending includes training, computers, office furniture, signs, efficient work spaces and so on. Spending beans to find the best employees, train employees or pay your highest producers top wages is also good spending. Bad business spending may include original oil paintings for your office, wild unproven marekting ideas, exotic "business" trips for you and your family, unearned bonuses to buddies, golf club memberships and so on. Money spent to improve your knowledge, make you more competent or improve your skills, usually pays off from 100 to 1000 beans earned back for each bean spent. Investing in you pays off during your entire lifetime. Brilliant spending. Application Go through your spending records, such as your checkbook, and decide which expenses are good spending and which are bad spending. For example, you might decide you are wasting too many beans on expensive restaurants meals or luxury cars; no beans come back. Or you might find your golfing hobby actually pays back many beans with the new clients you meet. You might find the money you spend on computer classes have already returned ten times more beans than you spent, while your yoga classes have returned zero beans back. Junk food is a waste of beans. A health club membership might give back beans if it makes you more productive, but jogging down the street costs no beans at all. Money spent on how-to books often returns a lot more beans, while expensive seminars may be money down the drain. Money for electricity, water and gas is vital as no beans are possible without them. Yet, as many people found out this past year, money for a new fancy home that consumes two-thirds of your pay in loan interest, will probably not return more beans than you pay out. If you think and carefully spend your beans wisely, you stop wasting beans on things that have no return. You spend your beans in ways that give you more beans back . . . and then you invest extra beans in these same ways again. By doing this, you constantly improve your financial condition. Recommendations Before spending your beans, ask yourself, "If I pay for this, will it give me more beans than I'm spending?" If the answer is "yes," go for it! If you do not know the answer, wait and research the matter until you know. If the answer is "no" or "probably not," don't waste your beans! Keep this up for months and years and you'll find yourself sitting on a big pile of beans! Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you. Copyright © 2009 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. To subscribe, buy books, contact us or learn more about TipsForSuccess.org, click here.

 

TipsForSuccess: "Improve Your Health and Happiness"

Improve Your Health and Happiness You may have heard that to succeed, you need to adjust yourself to the world around you. Examples: "You'd better get used to it as that's the way it is." "To be happy, you must compromise." "Don't make waves!" Yet, to succeed, you must take a different approach. "Man succeeds because he adjusts his environment to him, not by adjusting himself to the environment." -- L. Ron Hubbard You decide what you want and how you want it. You take an active role. You change the world around you. Think of the most successful people you know. Do they mold themselves to fit in? Or do they change the world around them? As well as determining your success, your ability to adjust your environment also determines your health and happiness. "So long as an individual maintains his own belief in his ability to handle the physical universe and organisms about him and to control them if necessary or to work in harmony with them, and to make himself competent over and among the physical universe of his environment, he remains healthy, stable and balanced and cheerful."-- L. Ron Hubbard Jack and Jill Jack tries to get along and not cause trouble. His neighbor plays loud rock-and-roll music all night long, so Jack buys ear plugs. Jack hates leaving his apartment as the building lobby is full of boxes and junk; he just steps around the mess. His co-worker makes Jack pick him up for work each day with no compensation, ". . . since you drive near my house anyway." Each year, he develops some kind of illness or needs an operation. After 25 years at the same company, Jack is only making $22 per hour, but he does not mind as his company gives him good health insurance. At the age of 51, Jack gets cancer and dies. Jill moves into Jack's vacant apartment and can't sleep because of the loud music. She calls the neighbor and works out an agreement so the neighbor plays music all day while she works, but won't at night. Jill convinces this neighbor and a few of the other tenants to spend a few hours cleaning up the lobby and the entry; they even wash the sidewalk and plant some flowers. Although Jill has earned several management promotions and pay increases at her company, she decides to start her own business and makes it successful. She soon buys the apartment building and takes over the top floor for herself. Jill is never ill and at the age of 78, still spends a few hours each week working at her company. Obviously, Jack adjusts himself to the environment while Jill adjusts the environment to herself. Are you more like Jack or Jill? Recommendations 1. Decide to take over your world and adjust your world to your needs and wants. 2. Make a list of everything around you that you would like to change. Examples Clean the house Change my car oil Tear out all the weeds in my garden Exercise daily and lose 10 pounds Reorganize my desk Make people stop dropping in to chat while I'm working Call the city to fix the broken street light 3. Select the easiest items on your list and go change them. Then change the next easiest items and so on. 4. Constantly change and improve the world around you. Never settle back, give up or "accept reality." Make steady progress while maintaining your control of the parts you have already conquered. If you continue to increase your control of the elements in your environment, you become healthier, happier and more successful. Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you. Copyright © 2009 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. To subscribe, buy books, contact us or learn more about TipsForSuccess.org, click here. For permission to copy, print or post this article, go to www.tipsforsuccess.org/reprint_info.htm or click here. Take better control of your life with the TipsForSuccess coaching website at www.tipsforsuccesscoaching.org. or click here.