Category: Value

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Farming Without the Farm

Are you a Farmer? If so, you know how to farm with a farm. What you may not know is that all people, farmers and non farmers, need to know how to farm without the farm.

If you will look up the definition of farming, you will find a definition that says farming is the agricultural activity of producing an agriculture product. By definition, it would appear that you would not be able to farm without a farm.

I grew up on a farm but transitioned to a businessman lifestyle. In my study of business practices and principals, farming is always flowing through my mind. That is where farming without the farm exists. It exists in the mind. Just as experienced farmers work and act, so must we all think. If a person can learn to think like the farm works, you can farm without the farm.

Two simple and familiar farming practices are planting and harvesting. You may have heard this called sowing and reaping. These two things are the most important practices in farming. Both are needed to produce a crop. I work with a client who is a farmer. He said that if he could always be planting, he could be sure he would have something to harvest. If you are farming without the farm using your mind, make sure to understand the idea of planting and harvesting in your mind.

Planting:

Whatever goes into the mind is a seed. A seed will always take root. It may not be favorable for growing but it is there. It cannot go away. Whatever seeds received water and nutrients grow. It does not matter if the seed is a fruit or a poisonous plant, the seed will grow if it receives what it needs. If the ground(your mind) is open, it will receive anything that comes in and the seed(thought) will be begin to work towards its purpose(harvest).

Harvesting:

What comes out of the mind is the harvest. The thoughts that started as seed are now expressed in thoughts, choices, actions, etc. It is important to understand that one seed can produce a crop of 100 times the amount of seed that was planted. Farming is a very powerful process. The harvest, is always happening in the mind. For some, it is strategic. For others, it can be almost a default kind of process. I think everyone would agree the most beautiful farm does not happen by default. The most valuable farming operation exists because of strategic farming principals in action.

Farming In your Mind:

I believe we can all begin elevating value by using farming principals in the way that we think. If your farm(your mind) was examined, would the crops be abundant? Or, would the farm(your mind) be grown up in weeds. The farm(your mind) is always at work. You are always farming, with or without, the farm.

Carlin,

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A Taste for Potential

“It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us”

Isaac D’Israeli – 1834

This quote is an example of elevating value. If you had a chance to become better, you should. In the America that I live in, I find there are so many ways a person can improve. The old saying, you learn something every day really is true. If you make it intentional, you can say that you become more valuable every day

What is interesting is that Isaac D’Israeli spent his life in a constant work of increasing his value and sharing it with others. You can read about him here. I would say that he was close to reaching his potential. A human reaching their potential is one of the hardest things to achieve. All though it is hard to achieve personally, nature does it all the time. Animals and Plants grow to their potential. They do not have a choice.

Animals –

Animals grow and live as big as they can. A fish will grow to the size of the pond or tank and the food available.

Plants –

Plants live and grow as big as they can wherever they are. One plant will grow bigger than another because it has better soil, more water, or more sun. Another plant will not grow as big because it did not have the, soil, water, or sun it needed. The plant does not have a choice and it only grows to the opportunity it has.

Humans –

Humans will live and grow as big as they are capable and decide. Humans have a choice. Humans are limited in their current environment but have the ability to move. They have the ability to change. No one actually knows what a single persons potential is. By observation, it does seem that some people do not reach their potential

I believe the excellent lies before us all. Each and every day is a big day. A day not lived with intentionality could mean a reduction of future opportunity. Don’t develop a taste for mediocrity. Develop yourself and give value to others.

Start Today.

Elevatingvalue website gives away books through the value book giveaway.  This month, I am giving two copies of the classic book by Dale Carnegie – How to win Friends and Influence People.  In my opinion, this is one of the greatest books to help a person improve. With no money, no resources, no genius idea, a person can begin improving just by reading and applying the principals of a book.

You can check out the current giveaways here

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Attack of the Robots!

by Carlin Day

Robots and artificial intelligence are a part of today and I believe part of our future. If you could have a robot, what kind of a robot would you want? What would you want it to do? I have asked this question and got some interesting answers.

Things people want robots to do:

Their job
Clean
Self Destruct (someone who apparently hates robots)
Drive a car
cook food
mow the grass
from Twitter (violence) no one to my face has said violence!

Regardless of their different answers, everyone agrees on the way the robots would make decisions. People want their robot to make decisions based on what they have told it to do or, if it is a very advanced robot capable of making its own decisions, they want the robot to make the decision they would make.

Elevating Value
Compare yourself to a robot. If you were a robot, designed by a creator, what would you do? You would do what you were created to do. When you make a decision, how would the designer of the robot want you to think? The designer would want you to make decisions based on the same thinking as the designer.

The Point
People are not robots. We are not given a task and forced to do it. We have the choice and the opportunity to make our own decisions.

Today, I encourage you to ask the designer for a calling, a purpose, a worthy ideal. Day by day, try to think like the designer and do things the way the designer would want them to be done.


Here are some resources: https://elevatingvalue.com/login/bible-verses-about-the-mind/

Carlin,

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Is it too cold? Use Cybernetics

by Carlin Day:

Is it too cold in your house? who is in control of the thermostat? If it is you, change the thermostat. The simple thing about a thermostat is that it will keep your house at the temperature it is set at. It will guide or govern the temperature using a principle called Cybernetics

Definition of Cybernetics:

: the science of communication and control theory that is concerned especially with the comparative study of automatic control systems (such as the nervous system and brain and mechanical-electrical communication systems)

Cybernetics comes from a Greek word meaning – to steer- The word comes from a famous mathematician Norbert Weiner. Norbert Weiner used the term while working with automated missile guidance during World War II. He was working with how missile systems worked together with a network of information. A missile with guidance needs to react with factors from the outside to make changes on the inside.

How Cybernetics is Used

One of the simple uses of Cybernetics is a thermostat. One thermostat that most of us use is a heating and air thermostat. Changing the thermostat allows it to react with the current temperature and keep it at the desired temperature all on auto pilot. No matter whate changes happen at the house, the thermostat will react to its current conditions

Kid leaves front door open – dog gets out, lets outside air in

Fridge door left open – minimal affect on home temperature(adults seem to get angry – kids not so much)

112 degrees – Air conditioner runs a lot!

Elevating Value

Now that Cybernetics is the answer to changing the temperature, how do you use it to elevate value? The way cybernetics will elevate your value is buy using it in your own mind. If you can practice discipline of thinking, you can set your own temperature. The mind is your control center. It is currently working off all the temperatures that have been set from the beginning of your life until today.

Examples of current Cybernetic controls:

Your weight – if you identify as fat, you are not becoming thin and in shape

Your Finances – People who do not see themselves as a millionaire rarely become multimillionaires or billionaires

Attitude – The choice to be positive or negative.

A Better Self Image

Examples of your weight, finance/career, attitude are just the beginning. This is actually a total representation of your spiritual and physical self image. Your self image is the thermostat that controls your current “temperature”. Jim Rohn has a great quote about change. He said. “When you change, everything will change”. This idea is key to elevating value. If you will set your controls and live by them, you will be using Cybernetics instead of letting your current Cybernetics control you. If your told cold, change the thermostat.

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Definition of Cybernetics

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cybernetics

Great Piece on Cybernetics

https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/cybernetics/

Great Video on Cybernetics

Search Youtube video on Cybernetics and Self image by Bob Proctor

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A Recipe for Value

by Carlin Day

This time of year, there are lots of recipes being used. All kinds of holiday foods are being cooked, exchanged, and enjoyed. The foods all have something interesting in common. Is it that they are delicious? Is it that holiday foods are unhealthy? Is it that they have a mysterious way of vanishing in the night when everyone is sleeping?(this is at least what happens at my house) While all these things are true, the commonality that I want to focus on, is the fact that they were all made with a recipe.

A recipe is the starting point. If you have a recipe, you have the plan of how to make your desired dish. The next step is acquiring all the necessary ingredients and putting them together according to the recipe. If the process is followed, you will end up with your desired result.

You may point out that a lot of great food is made without a recipe. This is true, but it is because the cook has mastered the dish and now knows the recipe by heart. Once the recipe has been mastered, the only reason you would need it again is to go back for direction if you forget something, or if you need to give the recipe to someone else because they asked for help. “This is delicious, can I have the recipe?”

The Value Recipe would look the same. If you are going to work on elevating value in 2019, you will need a way to get and give more value than you did in 2018, you will need a recipe. This would be something you write down and follow so that in 52 weeks, you will have a completed recipe. After a whole year, you will only need to reference your recipe if you need direction or forgot something. You also will need it when someone sees the improvement you have made and asks “What is different about you?” You will then need to share your recipe.

Takeaway:

In 2019 Make sure you are using a recipe to accomplish something. I use a 52 week calendar and focus on doing one or two things per week that will make 2019 better than 2018. One important thing is to finish the calendar before you complete it. You can get the calendar I use by clicking below

Elevating Value 52 week CalendarDownload

Thanks for visiting,

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Win a Free Cruise!

Win a free Cruise!

by Carlin Day

Have you ever got the call about a free cruise? You’ve won a free cruise! What a great day! I have never met someone who actually won a free cruise, but yet the calls go out everyday announcing to people that they have been selected to win.

You have not won a free cruise. Although it is sad, I do have something better to offer than a free cruise. How about a better life? Did you know we can all make our lives better. The way we can do this is by improving ourselves and the lives of others. It can be done by elevating value.

Something that has changed my life over the last couple of years is the thinking of how you change the course of a big ship. A cruise ship would be a good example of a big ship. If you are going to change course, it must be done slowly. A turn will take time and eventually you will have changed course.

If you think of your life as a giant ship, the ship is made up of all the habits you have formed over all the years of your life. If you are to make changes, they will be slow. If you make changes slowly and with a planned course of action, you actually can make changes.  The key is starting to turn and making sure you have the discipline to start the small changes. Following small changes will eventually turn into big changes.  Here is a quote about making changes.

“The secret to Momentum in life can be found in the word Momentum….you create it Moment by Moment…”
-– Doug Firebaugh

If you want to change anything about your life, you can do it. Make a plan for where you would like to be in 5 years. Slowly, start making the changes that will get you where you want to be. At first, the changes will not be noticeable. After a period of self discipline success, the changes start to accumulate, and eventually expand exponentially.  If you were going to change your life, here are some obvious but powerful areas to start.

  • Health – better eating, better activity
  • Spiritual – increase prayer, increase reading, increase activity
  • Money – improve money habits, improve financial literacy, talk to professionals
  • Time – Improve time management. Do you know how much time you have in a day?  Answer

This list does not require money. It requires self discipline.  As the quote says, “moment by moment”, the changes can be made. No one wins a free cruise, but if you understand how to change, you can get your life on the course you desire.

Questions:

Has anyone won a free cruise?

If you had to give a speech or performance two weeks from now, what area of your life would work on the most?

Is there a better way to make a plan than on paper or journal?

Carlin can be contacted at carlin@elevatingvalue.com

 

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Three Reasons to Journal Daily

photo by Taylor Loewen

Three Reasons to Journal Daily
written by: Ben Haenning

Sender's profile photo

It’s Saturday morning, I’m up early, and the first thing I do when I sit down with my coffee is pull out my journal. I begin to write. Creating change is difficult, and building a routine to journal daily is tough and takes energy, but it’s worth every minute invested.

Background on my journaling habits

I wasn’t always someone who journaled. I think traditionally, it was because the fact that I never was taught the benefits, and the people around me didn’t do it either. It wasn’t until I started to research successful people and found out that they journal daily. I think I always had a negative viewpoint of journaling – it was corny, it was a waste of time, etc. The reality was that when I dedicated time to learning about journaling and its benefits, it was a no brainer to make a change.

My journaling habits today

When I started to journal a little over a year ago, I noticed a shift in my success. The more research I did, the more I realized “journaling” takes on many different forms. There are many things you can do that are considered journaling:

 

  • Writing your goals down daily
  • Planning out your day
  • Reflecting on lessons learned
  • Reflecting on wins
  • Writing about the best things that happened to you that day
  • Describing what you’re grateful for
  • Or… simply writing

The morning

My process every morning and every night is a combination of some of the above. In the morning I map out my entire day, hour-by-hour. I write my goals day everyday because I believe it’s important that your goals are always at the top of your mind. Then, I write down three things I need to do every day to make the day successful. Lastly, I reflect on what I’m grateful for.

 

It’s my firm belief that if I start the day off with the above habit, the day will be a success. My day is planned, I started it off on a positive note, and my goals are at the top of my mind. Here is my actual morning routine.

The evening

At night, the journal comes out again. I reflect on the day as a whole. Did I accomplish what I needed to? Did I have any lessons that I learned from the day? I write those down, every day. What were my wins for the day? And, lastly, I again reflect on what I’m grateful for.

 

I believe that if I finish my day out this way, I go to sleep with a good “close” on the day. I reflect on things that make me happy, and I put time and effort into what made the day good and bad.

 

Journaling takes time, but it has taken me to a level that I wasn’t at before. It takes dedication, but once you build the habit, it’s easy. It’s important to my planning mechanisms, and there are three specific reasons why I personally do it every day.

Three reasons to journal daily

After studying successful people – people in positions of power, leadership, authority, and success – I noticed that there were three reasons (sure, there are more, but these are the most important to me) on why they journal daily.

1. Goals stay top of mind

This is the most important. Grant Cardone suggests that everyone should write their goals down every morning. He even created a 10X daily planner that gives you the opportunity to do so. Why? If you start your day with writing your goals down, every decision you make will be tied to those goals. Every decision will drive towards the success of those goals.

 

If you start your day writing your goals down, you can plan your day around tactics and actions to achieve those goals. This was a game changer for me. When I started to understand my goals, get clarity around my goals, and plan my days around my goals, I started to see more success and goal achievement.

2. It starts the day on a positive note and gets your mind right

This is important – you need to start your day out positive. I have found that the more I journal in the morning, the more I accomplish what I need to, and the more I reflect on my life as a whole.

 

I stated earlier that I write down what I’m grateful for every morning. The folks at Best Self  have this down to a science. In their journal, they have built it in to every days schedule. I suggest you check it out.

 

Reflecting on what makes me grateful, and starting the day off positive helps me get my mind right and straight in the morning.

3. Reflection and accountability

Lastly, and I may argue, most important, reflection and accountability. Let me explain.

 

Every night, I give myself the opportunity to reflect on the day. What went wrong? What did I learn? More importantly, what went right? Reflection time is critically important. If you don’t spend time on yourself and reflecting on what you did, you never learn from your actions. Dedicate time to reflect.

 

Secondly, it holds myself accountable. Every morning I write down three things to make the day a win. Did I complete those? And why did I, or why did I not? This certainly ties in to reflecting, but holding myself accountable places importance on my actions and my plans. Not only do I hold myself accountable daily, but I also hold myself accountable weekly and quarterly. These checkpoints allow me to adjust if needed, and continue to progress to my overall goals.

You get out what you put in

Whether you journal now, or if you’re looking to build it into your journaling habits, my advice is to just start. Doing some journal is better than none. And doing more is better than some. I firmly believe that a lot of my success is tied to the fact that I have clear goals, tactics to achieve those goals, and journal every day to create the map for the goals. You will get out of journaling what you put in to it.

 

Cheers – be great.

Ben Haenning is a coach on goal planning, setting, and achievement. Follow the concept of The Opportunity Cost of Time he ties in how your decision making and goal clarity have an impact on overall goal achievement. Ben offers individual, group, and corporate coaching on goals, planning, living a healthy lifestyle, vision mapping, and more. Find out more at https://benhaenning.com/

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Start Connecting

by Carlin Day

Are you where you want to be today?

Are you where you want to be today? Meaning, are you doing what you want to do? Maybe you want a different job or a different career. Maybe you would rather be doing other hobbies or helping people through something other than you what you are doing today. Whatever it is that is making you dissatisfied, you may not be where you want to be. 

You probably can’t be where you want today!
The way to get where you want to be is a mental attitude or maybe you could call it a mental skill.  The skill is learning that you may not or cannot get to where you want to be today. This is most likely the case. An easy example is loosing weight. There is no such thing as a weight loss program that is a one day plan. The weight did not accumulate in one day, and the weight will not leave in one day.The way that you can get in the right mindset is understanding what it is you want, and what it will take to get it. If you have this mindset, even if you don’t have it today, you have achieved it in the future. Going back to weight example, If you develop a plan of how to lose the weight and follow the plan, you will eventually achieve it in the future. One day at a time, each day, making progress. Every day getting one step closer to where you want to be.
How to get where you want to be
The simplest way to get where you want to be is connecting with people. People have the answer. They have done it. They know about it. Whatever it is, there is someone who knows more than you. If you will search, you can find the people you want to contact. You can also connect with people in more ways than ever before. One of the most useful ways to connect is through the phone. If you connect with someone  who is doing what you are trying to do or someone who has done what you are attempting, you have made progress towards being where you want to be. Connect with someone today and understand that you are moving closer to where you want to be.
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How do you build?

How do you build?
by Carlin Day

There are all kinds of things to build. You can build a business. You can build a house. You can build a fortune. You can even build muscle.  A person will use all kinds of different tools and an assortment of different materials, yet the process of what is happening is the same. Something is being built. Two questions come to mind when I think about something being built. Do you know what materials you are using? Do you know how to build?

What materials are you using?

Believe it or not, a person is always building something. They are using one day after another and stacking all the days up. The finished process is the life that has been built. During those days, they are also building other things (actual individual projects).  Everything that you think, listen to, and talk about, is building you! These are the materials that you are using.

How to build?

My kids can build incredible things out of legos and blocks. What’s funny is that sometimes they decide what it is after it has been built. This would never happen when a builder builds a house. The builder looks at the completed house and says “Well, not really what I was going for.” No, the builder has exact plans. There will be small changes, but the finished project will be very close to the original plan. When a person builds a sand castle, there is usually not a plan. One bucket of sand goes here. One bucket of sand goes there. In the end, you may add a flag or a lookout tower. A person then steps back and says, “It looks pretty good”. I always say “I sure am awesome. Kids, this is how you build a sand castle” Even though I can build a great sandcastle, very rarely is it incredible.  I also never use plans. When there is a big sandcastle contest, the winner most definitely had a plan. Going back to the question on how to build – the answer is that if you want it to matter, and if you want it to be of value, you use a plan. If it is something that does not matter, you probably do not need a plan.  You can just have fun and understand it is just a sandcastle or a block tower. The ocean tide or some playful kids will destroy it.

Take Away

If you are always building, you are always using some kind of planning. Valuable things require planning and things that are of little value require no planning. Start planning and start doing things that matter. Do you want to be a better friend? Start planning ways to do it. Do you want to start a business? Start a real business plan. Here is a question to leave you with.

What is something small you can build, that will create enormous value?