http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/garage-sale-warrior/2009/11/flipping-for-fun-and-profit.html

Garage Sale Warrior is my mom’s Chicago Tribune-affiliated blog about the Chicago community of second-hand and vintage buyers and sellers.  You can direct comments to her at didurkes@yahoo.com, or post them on this blog.

As far as I know, these beliefs only leads to trouble. I know, because I’ve subscribed to both of them at various points in my life, with no positive results. My thoughts often took the “If I could only…” form: If I could just get a good grade on my SATs… if I could just find three hours to organize all my papers… if I could just fix the graphic design on my website… etc.

The health industry is making a killing because of this tendency — “If I could just buy this home gym equipment, I would be thin and healthy.” I don’t blame Bowflex or anyone else for profiting from it. This tendency comes from within us; it is not created by advertising.

The “one thing” mindset is a completely false belief that we create based on our desires, not reality. It would be so easy if it were true! If I could just find the one workout video that really gets results, I would be fit forever!

But what really works like that? In my experience, nothing.

Success Is A Complicated Combination Lock

A better metaphor for success is a complicated combination lock, the kind where you have to put in a parallel row of numbers. Once we get the right combination, though, we’re often faced with another lock to get to the next level. You have to expect that, to survive in goal achievement. If you’re completely convinced that you’ve got the key to success, and it doesn’t work, it creates a void of helplessness from which you have to recover. “Well, what do I do now?”

Success, whatever your definition of it may be, is a combination of things all done basically right, continuously.  For example, success in health is a continuous combination of:
- healthy eating
- healthy sleep
- exercise
- mobility
- positive mental attitude.

Without all of those things, total health is incomplete. And, even worse, the combination is different for everyone.

Success in writing is so much more than just language ability or “talent.”  You see plenty of “talented” writers never even finishing a single story!  Success in productive writing is a continuous combination of storytelling, self-honesty, being aware of the world, discipline, focus, and much humility.  And those are just some of the things that one has to do right in order to be a writer.

Success in business is also a combination of factors, and depending on who you are, they may be different for you than for other people.  You cannot expect to take one class and have all the knowledge you need.  It’s more realistic to expect to take class after class or read book after book, forever, as your success maintenance program.

In business, there is no one key to wealth. There is so much emphasis on breakthrough thinking, but that is because a breakthrough is dramatic, easy to understand, and makes everyone wish / hope that a breakthrough will “happen” to them.

Breakthroughs are nothing more than the last number in your lock.

I think of achievement as the output of a machine.  This machine has many parts that all have to be in good working order to produce results.  It may be that there is one major thing holding you back, but all too often, that one thing just covers up another thing that you have to see to.  Is it frustrating?  Yes!  Especially when you buy a book or take a class promising you a “fast, easy way” to build a business and start getting money TODAY.

That is why I’m never going to tell you that there is a fast, easy way to build a good business — any more than there is a fast, easy way to learn to play the violin (I do play fairly well, by the way, so I know what I’m talking about here.)  I will never promise that there is ONE key to success in business.  In my experience, there are several keys, and they are all equally important.  Only when you have all the numbers will the combination be right, and the lock unlock.

Do something worth doing.

This is why it is so important that you are doing something worthy of your time and energy.  If you aren’t, you will look back five years from now and it will feel like wasted time, no matter how much money you get (success is not only measured in dollars!)  How do you know if you’re doing something worthy?  Only you can know that — see the section on The Drive in “What It Takes” and “A Day Without Action,” two of the chapters in my free business course.

You see, I brought this cold on myself.  No, really.  I know my “machine” very well, and I know that I opened the door to sickness by staying up too late, too many nights in a row.  It happens every time.  I know this compromises the immune system — everyone’s, but mine especially, and I somehow thought I was the exception.  So, when my two-year-old’s nose started running, I didn’t think, “Oh boy, I better do everything right so I don’t get sick.”  Nope.  I didn’t think at all.

Therefore, I have absolutely no cause to whine, even in the theater of my mind.  Instead, I am using this opportunity to practice discipline and responsibility.  All day long, I was teeth-grittingly perfect.  I ate every 3 hours even though I had no appetite.  I even took a nap when I was tired.  I drank water.  I exercised heavily in the morning (it’s just a cold, not a reason to throw me off my schedule.)

Even though none of this was pleasant — what is, when you have a cold — I was able to feel good about myself.  I was able to gain back the responsibility points I lost by staying up all night.  But even better, I turned my cold into a real opportunity to teach my readers about opportunism!  (This quality is featured in “What It Takes,” the first paper in my free business course.)

Opportunism is turning adversity into real opportunity, not just thinking positively through a bad spot, finding hacks around a problem, or acting cheerful.  No, it’s the ability to really and truly turning it into an unique advantage for you, and use it as a springboard for success.

In martial arts, Shr Fu often talked about this.  When I heard my teacher — who has real-life combat experience — speak about fighting, it was clear he never stopped strategizing, even when he was getting a blow to the stomach.  He taught us to use our sparring partners’ energy to give our strikes more power.

This quality comes from physical training, but it’s an example of “the body trains the mind.”  Opportunism comes from being mentally ready and open to opportunity.  You have to constantly ask yourself, “How can I use this to my advantage?  How can I make the situation even better because of this opportunity?”

If I had been in the mindset to act cheerful and weather the storm, I would be focusing on distracting myself from my cold.  If I slipped into self-pity (yep, I am quite a baby about being sick), I would just be making myself miserable.  But because of my opportunism, I actually was grateful for the chance to practice my responsibility, repair my self-image as a healthy and disciplined person, and have ready inspiration for this blog!

Now, I’m off to bed at a reasonable hour so that I can feel as good as possible tomorrow…