Successful Life Mindset

Podcast Note: Podcast name has changed to The Successful Life Mindset. Your Life Says More Than Your Words! Life is meant to be lived.  It should be enjoyed. Cliff had a dream while working at a very financially successful job at a family owned insurance business.  He dreamed of living out his passion by podcasting full time.  But, how does one, with family responsibilities, leave a very secure position to venture out and do something so radical? Tracy had a similar experience about the film business. While he was sitting on the set of, Find Me the first movie he directed, he knew this is what he wanted to do full time. Three Keys To Making Your Dreams Happen Tracy shared his three keys to getting there, to making your dreams happen: Choose something that drives you, identify it and believe it’s possible Write it down, on paper, and put it somewhere where you will see it multiple times a day to engage your brain and subconscious to think about it. Tell people about it, and speak it to yourself (aloud or silently as often as possible) to keep it on your mind. A New Perspective Cliff said he was asked his goal for the next year and he named a large sum of money he wanted to make each month.  It seemed almost impossibly large.  He started thinking about how many hours he would have to work with clients each month to make that happen and it seemed even more impossible.  When he looked at it differently, the idea of a webinar with many clients at one time came to him. Each client would pay the fee for his services and it actually produced more than his goal! When we believe it and start thinking about it, we can make it happen, given the abilities and talents God has gifted to each of us.  It just takes change, or retraining of the mind to look at things from a different perspective to make it happen. Cliff talked about a Dave Ramsey seminar he heard that mentioned getting to financial security.  It all starts with an emergency fund of one-thousand dollars.  People say they can't save that amount, but if they had a sick child that required a five-thousand dollar surgery to live a normal life or die, they would find the money – somehow.  Do whatever it takes, but build your emergency fund. Tracy talked about how our lives are a culmination of our beliefs.  What we are already doing in life, our lives up to today, are based on the choices we’ve made.  We live in a buy it now society.  We should buy based on need, not want.  If you don’t have the money for a want, don’t buy it until you can buy it for cash.  Work for it, save for it, and then buy it.  Many people today are drowning in a sea of unnecessary debt. The Elephant and The Stick Elephants live as they believe.  When they were young, they were tethered by a rope or chain to a post in the ground.  They would try to get loose, but were not yet strong enough.  Once they learned the tether could not be escaped it stayed with them.  When they are full grown and could easily pull up whatever they are tethered by, they no longer try because their mind tells them they can’t escape.  Some people live the same way.  We need to retrain our brains to think it is possible.  Then we can set out to discover how to make it happen. Some may think of this as “new age” thinking, but it is not.  Changing our minds and making things happen is is a gift given to us by God.  Negative thoughts produce negative results.  Positive thoughts produce positive results.  We need to feed our subconscious positive thoughts, always. Tracy worked with a young woman that thought she wasn’t pretty, but when he told her he thought she was beautiful and she should write that down, put it on her mirror and say “Tracy thinks I’m beautiful” every day, he saw her transformed in about a month by simply changing what she believed about herself. Cliff said there are listeners that say, sure it worked for Cliff and Tracy, but I have no dreams.

Podcast Note: Podcast name has changed to The Successful Life Mindset See “The Lamp” for free! Three movies for today’s podcast discussion: Adjustment Bureau The movie has several good life principles.  Two of them are: Can you choose your own destiny or do angels/agents jump through hoops to keep you on track? And what you want most will not just happen, what are you willing to do to make it happen? Cliff told of his pastor using odd “tweets” (from twitter) as examples of how silly people can be.  When he used the tweet “If I can dream it, I can be it” and said he didn’t believe it, both Cliff and his wife looked at each other with disbelief.  He was right to a point, we can’t just sit and wait for things to happen in our lives, we must make them happen, but with the help of God and the abilities and dreams and visions He’s given each of us, we can make it happen if we believe and do something to achieve those dreams. Tracy quoted two quotes from Napoleon Hill that apply well to this truth: “Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” “Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.” Tracy talked about how the subconscious is at work 24/7.  He said one way he gets ideas is to think about how something he’s working on might work, be it a script or some problem he is dealing with, before he goes to sleep.  The brain, the subconscious, continues to work on the issue and when he wakes he often has ideas that may lead to the answer. Both Tracy and Cliff recommend the movie “Adjustment Bureau”. Arthur (the remake) An entertaining movie, but it also provides truth in living.  A super crazy rich man is totally irresponsible.  He goes through life without any positive influences.  Finally, his mother decides enough is enough and chooses a girl for Arthur to marry because the girl will straighten up his life.  Arthur puts his foot down and refuses to marry the girl because he realizes he is in love with someone else.  He decides he is willing to give up all the money to be with her.  He finally gets his life priorities right! There is a danger in life when no one will say NO to you because you are so rich or so famous.  You shouldn’t surround yourself with people that want to say yes to garner your continued favor, but with people that will tell you the truth. Another pastor, from Nashville, said he knew many very famous people.  People most people would say, “I’d give anything to have what they have”, but strangely enough, they say to him that they would give anything to have what he has.  If you focus on what you have instead of who you are, you are not happy. Cliff also told about a new podcaster that approached him for consulting because things weren’t going well.  He was threatened with a lawsuit, he had ugly emails, the works.  Cliff asked him about his family, and the man responded he didn’t have time to work on family issues right now, that he needed to get the podcast going and then things would fall into place.  Cliff eventually helped the man realize that when his family life was going well, the podcast would also start going well.  When the man focused on his health and family instead of the money, the priorities were fixed and the podcast went on to be successful. Tracy talked about the left-brain/right-brain exercises.  Stepping first on the right foot, then the left foot exercises both sides of the brain.  His blood pressure was a little elevated and his doctor recommended that he start jogging.  It wasn't easy at first, but he stuck with it and his blood pressure numbers improved dramatically.  We need to keep our bodies in shape and our brain in shape.  Getting our priorities in the proper order will help with both. The Lamp Tracy’s latest movie, "The Lamp" is a family-friendly film.  It will be released for on-demand viewing on September 20, 2011.

Podcast Note: The podcast name has changed from "Life, Love, and the Movies" to The Successful Life Mindset. Can A Man Change His Stars? In the movie “A Knight’s Tale” with Heath Ledger, a young boy living in days of old watched as knights jousted and was intrigued.  He asked his father if he could become a knight.  The father told him he could be anything he wanted.  A man in the stocks overheard the father and son talking.  He laughed and said the boy, a commoner, might as well try to change the stars.  The boy listened to his father, did become a knight, and did very well, but once it was known he was not a peer of the land, a simple commoner, he let the opinion of others influence his actions and his dreams all fell apart. So, is it possible for a regular person to do whatever they want?  Absolutely!  You must plan the life you want and make it happen.  Plan it, visualize what that new life looks like, write it down and post it somewhere you will see it every day and soon it will begin to train your mind to look for opportunities to make that dream happen.  Tracy’s partner, Jim Stovall, has told him on several occasions, “Most people spend more time planning a three day vacation than they do their life.” Cliff's Dream Cliff worked in his family-owned insurance business for eleven years.  It was a comfortable, cozy place because being owned by his mother and father it gave him a level of job security not often found.  Cliff did not take advantage of that security, he worked hard – was driven to perform well, but it was not the life he longed for.  Eventually he stepped out in faith and changed his stars.  Once he made the decision to move from insurance to full-time podcasting, things were going okay, but he got a very negative, discouraging email from a listener.  It brought back some of the fears Cliff had to face when he left that security.  He could have simply given up and gone back to the insurance business, but the only failures are the ones you allow to stop your dream.  You may have to back up and do things differently than you first planned to make it work, but if you persevere, you will not fail.  Don’t let the opinions of others stop you from changing your stars. People need to find a place where they can have it all – family, dream job, peace and happiness.  You must believe you can.  Share your dreams with someone that can give you facts, not opinions. You must be passionate about what you do to succeed.  Find something you love so much you’d do it for free and then find a way to make money doing it.  Retrain your brain to look for ways to be successful.  Choose your goal; write it down, say it to yourself and eventually it will train your mind to look for the opportunities. Does your environment matter? The best answer is it depends.  It is more difficult to become successful in an environment not conducive to success. One of the reasons is that you tend to gravitate toward the lifestyle of your friends.  Jim Rohn said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”  So choose as your friends positive, like-minded people.  You will help each other succeed.  In the movie “Pursuit of Happiness”, the Will Smith character was, at one time, homeless; however, he never gave up his dream and eventually he lived that dream.  So, does environment matter?  If you can change your environment to something more in line with your dream life, change it.  If you surround yourself with friends that are constantly negative, change your friends.  Most important is that despite your environment and friends, never give up. Tracy’s pastor from Minnesota told him “Your future is determined by the friends you choose and the books you read.”  That’s good advice for everyone.  Tracy gave an example of choosing friends wisely when he and Jim Stovall had a decision to make when Jim wanted to offer products at no charge and Tracy wanted monetary reward.

Podcast Note: The podcast name has changed from "Life, Love, and the Movies" to "The Successful Life Mindset". About Cliff and Tracy: Cliff Ravenscraft is a podcast producer, consultant and coach that left a position in the insurance business to live his dream of a full-time career in the world of podcasts.  Cliff, like Tracy, hopes to use his podcasts to inspire people. Cliff started with a goal to become debt free (based on a Dave Ramsey philosophy) and was eventually able to leave his “wages” job to fulfill his dream job.  Taking a step of faith, Cliff left his job and he and his wife made sacrifices and adapted their lives to make the podcasting income work as the business grew. Tracy Trost, founder of Trost Moving Pictures is an independent filmmaker, writer, producer and director.  Tracy used his entrepreneurial spirit to follow his dream and seize opportunities to live his dream of making movies that entertain and inspire others. Tracy has made three films to-date:  “Find Me”, “A Christmas Snow” and “The Lamp”.  All three films have been successful.  Tracy’s “luck” with his career is actually the result of hard work, commitment and sacrifices made by him and his family.  Tracy chooses to surround himself with other, like-minded, successful people.  He worked with Jim Stovall (“The Ultimate Gift”) on both “A Christmas Snow” and “The Lamp”.  The opening/closing music for this podcast is “Heartbeat” written by Kelly Morrison and is featured in Tracy’s movie “The Lamp”. Quote of the Day: “Opportunity will not interest itself in someone who is not interested in it.”  Napoleon Hill Luck Versus Seizing Opportunity Examples: A story about Steven Spielberg comes from the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.  Steven Spielberg loved the movies.  It was said he left a studio tour, completed the tour on his own, made friends with the guard on the way out, used that friendship day after day to continue visiting the studio, eventually took over an empty office, got himself invited to meetings and made things happen.  In short, Mr. Spielberg took every opportunity that presented itself. One of the drivers on “Ice Road Truckers” was consistently the most or one of the most successful each season.  He is driven, he goes for it, and he makes things happen.  Another driver, a rookie, waited for things to happen – they never did.  He never took charge of his own destiny. Tracy wrote an article “Does God Care about the Individual Man?” He and his sons were on their way to Canada on a fishing trip.  Along the way, Tracy noticed smoke from one of the wheels on his boat trailer.  He started to pull over, but noticed a repair shop just up the road and pulled in.  It was closed; however, the owner was there for an appointment and agreed to look at the wheel with Tracy.  The man said it couldn’t be fixed.  Tracy offered to help fix it, if indeed it was repairable.  The man said okay and together they actually got it fixed and Tracy and the boys were back on the road.  All of this proves that God does care.  The repair shop being just up the road, the owner being there after hours and the two men fixing the wheel were not just luck – it was God’s providence. One of Tracy’s favorite Scriptures is Romans 12:2  “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Renewing your mind means to look at things differently.  You must look for the positive.  Change your thinking; change your life. Things to Remember: You must live life on purpose. You must do what you have to do to get things done. You must be willing to step out because there is no magic. Success takes planning and organization. Seize the opportunities life presents you. Change your mindset to achieve success. Contact Information: