With everyone talking about taking it to the next level, how about some help?

What does it mean to get to the next level?

What do I do to get there?

Horizontal Level

We typically grow along a horizontal level. By that I mean most of our growth takes place along the same dimension. For instance, we may graduate from owning a small house to owning a larger home. We may learn how to drive a small car then grow into driving an SUV or  a semi. Or… maybe we grow our sales figures from $100,000 to $1,000,000. These examples all represent growth along a horizontal level. To grow along a horizontal level you need to apply hard work and possibly a change in your skill set.

Dimensional Level

Here’s where it really gets interesting. A dimensional shift occurs when a new mindset is needed in order to grow. You shift when you break the existing rules in your life. Examples might include going from being a tenant to being a homeowner; going from homeowner to landlord; employee to manager; manager to business owner; no children to first child; follower to leader. In each of these cases to successfully make the shift you must change your mindset. To get to a new level dimensionally can not be accomplished by hard work or new skills alone.

In part two of this series, I want to talk about how to identify the type of shift you need to make. Stay tuned!

What’s your experience with horizontal or dimensional shifts? Let’s talk.

Contest Results

In appreciate for all the people who helped me with my site tweaking, I just made a $25 loan to an entrepreneur named Firangiz Salimova in Azerbaijan. Together we have now made loans to six entrepreneurs in six different countries. Give yourselves a hand!!!

I also promised to give out two kiva.org gift certificates to the most helpful reviewers.

the ENVELOPE please… and the winners are:

“Jonathan at smartwealthyrich.com and Liz at successful-blog.com”

Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on the site.

Even though the contest is now over, I would still appreciate any thoughts you might have about the site design and layout. I’m listening!

Today is help someone help someone else day!

Last week we ran a successful experiment to do something for someone else. I learned something really important about generosity. Some people want to be generous but they don’t have the resources. I’ve been thinking about it all week and I have an idea.

Here’s my plan:

I’m going to give away two (that’s right two) $25 gift certificates for kiva.org. You can use the gift certificate to help out whatever entrepreneur you want. And when they have paid the loan back, you can lend it out again or keep it for yourself. (bet you won’t be able to keep it)

As an added incentive I’m also going to set aside $5 for each person who participates in this project. Whenever there is $25 earned, I’ll lend it to an entrepreneur at Kiva.org.

Okay now the rules:

Help me improve my site

Now you already know that I’m not big on site reviews. I completely agree with Bri on that one. However I do want your feedback so I’m asking you to leave a comment with a constructive review. Anything you can do to help promote this project would be awesome. If you have a blog and you want to write a review on your site and link back to me, that would be great too. I always appreciate the linkbacks as we all do in the blogosphere. I guess we just like people talking about us.

Let me know what’s good about the layout? What’s bad about the layout? What about the content, accessibility etc? Do you like the colours and graphics or not? What do you suggest I change?

The experiment is going to run for two weeks until the 26th of April. So late that night I’m going to choose two reviews that are the most helpful and I will award the gift certificates. And of course I’ll contribute to Kiva every time there are five new eligible comments.

Looking forward to your help! Join in.

You’re standing at the door trying to get in but you can’t seem to find the right key. Several keys look similar but none of them fit. Finally you turn to the person standing behind you and offer them an opportunity to try. Within moments they have found the right key on your key chain and together you both step over the threshold into a previously un-explored room.

Generosity is the key that opens the doorway into your previously unseen future. Many of us search day after day for a way to open the doors in front of us only to discover that we can never find the key without sharing it with others. Ultimately the majority of our future ends up being unlocked through our generous spirit.

We are limited by our generosity not our resources

1. Generosity makes you a bigger person. Givers are big people. They see a world that is larger than they are. Small people are takers. They take offence, they take advantage, they see things that don’t exist. (and not in a good way)
2. Generosity opens doors. Generous people end up hanging out with generous people. They don’t have to seek them out, they are drawn to each other. Their combined creativity results in the unimaginable. They open doors for each other because they want generosity to increase.
3. Generosity unlocks earning potential. Something invisible happens when you become generous. The atmosphere around you changes. Your generosity attracts opportunities. Your spirit becomes magnetic.
4. Generosity creates previously unseen opportunities. Generosity will take you to places that you may have never imagined. Generosity opens your eyes to ideas and realities you didn’t think were possible. You will see life differently.
5. Generosity leaves you feeling fulfilled. There are few things more fulfilling than being able to make a difference by giving of your time, energy and resources.
6. Generosity encourages creativity. When you are committed to being generous, you will find a way. Necessity is the mother of invention and generosity is the parent of creativity.

How has generosity affected your life? Join the conversation.

As I promised on thursday, here are the results of our do something for someone else day experiment. We helped five different entrepreneurs in five developing countries. I am so psyched about the results.

Since giving is a vital component of personal growth, I’m working on another idea for an upcoming “do something for someone else day”. So stay tuned.

“If we all do a little, a lot can be done.”

Go ahead and click on the picture below and find out more about the entrepreneurs we have been able to help this week.

Huge thanks goes out to everyone who participated.

Shout out to Reinke, Thea, Liz, Johnathan, and Calvin for their support.

We’re on our way to see the Color Purple on Broadway.

As you walk around the Broadway area or into Times Square, you are bombarded by sensory overload. I keep thinking that I would hate to be driving down the street with all of the electronic billboards and such. It’s really hard to keep focussed.

Not a lot different than life…

You’re primary task in life is to keep focussed. Focussed on your purpose. Focussed on your destiny and focussed on who you want to be.

Because you become what you think about, it is extremely important to keep your thoughts on what you want to be not what you are trying to eliminate. This principle is the reason why so many people never succeed when dieting. They focus on losing weight instead of what they want to gain. The focus of a diet ought to be on being healthy, energetic, strong and fit. That focus will produce what you want. Instead a focus on losing weight seems to attract weight. You get what you think about.

If you are trying to make a change in your financial picture don’t focus on your debt. Focus on your income. Focussing on your debt will only attract more debt. Instead focus on money coming in. Focus on benefits, stock increases, investments and money streams and that will be what is attracted to you. DON’T FOCUS ON DEBT!!

What got your attention as you scanned this article? Debt! It attracted you and your attention. That’s exactly how it works in life. You attract what you give your attention to.

Don’t make a goal of eliminating debt. Make a goal of increasing income. Then you will attract the income to eliminate debt.

Think big. Dream big. There are enough small people in the world. Here’s a photo I took from the top of the Empire State Building tonight. Let your thoughts and focus be as big as this…

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.