Ask the Right Questions to Live Your Dreams

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so. I know that I am!

In the New Testament Jesus advised, "Ask and ye shall receive."

That's still good advice today.

But many people don't know what to task for.

Like a kid in a candy store, they often want too much of what isn't good for them.

But if you will ask the right questions, you'll discover things and experiences that are good for you . . . and how to obtain them.

In Dr. Stephen Covey's book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, he advises, "Begin with the end in mind." More people need to heed that advice.

I observed an example of not asking for the right things yesterday that I want to share with you. An erstwhile author has been working on a draft of a new book for months. The author kept being distracted from working on the book. In a conversation yesterday, I learned that the author was reluctant to finish the book because book marketing seems like an unpleasant chore. My impression was that this author was sabotaging the writing effort in part due to ambivalence about doing the book marketing.

The author commented yesterday that it would be nice to be able to hire others to do the grunt work of book marketing. Actually, there are hundreds of people who provide such services. The book author sounded relieved to learn that help was available at a price.

But hidden behind that relief seemed to be a more fundamental concern. The author described the quality of the first draft being written in derogatory terms. Many authors doubt their writing ability. What they don't realize is that you can also get all the writing help you can possibly use for a book. I fear that this author will continue to sabotage the writing efforts until this information is also known.

The basic problem is that the author doesn't know enough about being an author to know where the author has false beliefs. Clearly, one of those false beliefs is that authors have to do everything for themselves, even things they have no idea how to do.

The irony of this situation is that this author has recently taken courses with two of the most successful authors of all time. It would have been easy to have asked either author any question related to writing and gotten an expert answer.

Here are some questions for you to answer:

1. What are you hoping to accomplish in areas where you are spending time and effort?

In the case of the writer, I suspect that the answer is to obtain more profitable clients. If true, that would be ironic because writing a book is one of the harder and less reliable ways to gain profitable clients.

2. Why do you think that your current approach is the best way to go?

Often, our decision to do something is based on poorly researched and considered information. In the case of the writer, it may be that experts in that subject matter with better client lists may all be book authors. From that connection, some might conclude that being a book author was critical to that success. Actually, in many cases the opposite is likely to be true. The expert became a book author after having had a successful career in the field and wrote about her or his successes. The publisher was interested in the book because of the author's connections in the industry. When that happens, it's a case of "success breeds more success" . . . not a necessity for being an expert.

3. Who is the most knowledgeable person in the world about accomplishing what you want to accomplish?

You may not know initially. Ask around. Do Internet searches. Read articles and books. Try to at least find five people who could be the most knowledgeable.

4. How can you get the most knowledgeable person in the world to evaluate your objectives and the methods you are using to gain those objectives?

There are many possible methods. The expert may be willing to do telephone consultations for a fee. The expert may make public appearances and be willing to answer questions. The expert may be willing to answer e-mail inquiries. You may be in a position to do a valuable favor for the expert.

Ask these questions, and you will receive a better life!

Could a billionaire do better? Definitely.

Billionaires are more likely to check out a direction before they take it. They are also more able to draw on connections and financial resources to get the access and information they need.

But if you start to think like a billionaire by asking the four questions above, acting on the answers and employing your five dollar a day budget, you should be able to vastly improve your effectiveness . . . while feeling a lot more confident about what you are doing.

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N.B. As you can tell, I'm experimenting with color. Let me know what you like and what I should change about my use of color.

Please let me know what else you would like to learn, and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

Here are some upcoming subjects:

Tomorrow, we will explore ways to make wonderful, last minute holiday gifts inexpensively that will arrive before December 25. This is the procrastinator's special.

On Thursday, let's look at mansions you can visit for Christmas activities in France and Newport, Rhode Island.

Friday, we'll look at the joys of Christmas caroling.

On Saturday, let's explore how to prepare for the football playoffs for your best experiences ever.

Sunday, I'll examine how to create spiritual new year's resolutions.

At that point, I will be taking a few days off from posting. I will publish a new schedule as soon as I have decided how much time I will have to post in 2006. In the meantime, I encourage you to read old posts that you may not yet have seen.

If you are new to this blog, be sure to check out the updated table of contents entry that I posted on December 14. The table of contents will help you find earlier entries that may be of interest. I'll update this table of contents every week or so for your convenience.

August 31 was the most frequently read blog entry to date. Be sure to check it out!

Thanks so much for your support of this blog. I'm delighted that so many tens of thousands of people have made this blog part of their regular reading habit!

If you like this blog, please let others know who might also enjoy it. E-mailing your favorite post to them is a great idea.

Check out the latest index at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005/12/latest-table-of-contents-to-this-blogs.html to pick out your choice.

Thank you to my many friends, students, clients and blog readers who are spreading the good word about this blog.

If you are visiting today because someone invited you, I'm delighted to meet you! Let's stay in touch.

Remember to also visit

Live Spiritually Better than a Billionaire at http://livespirituallybetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Be More Successful than a Billionaire at http://bemoresuccessfulthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Create Your Own 2,000 Percent Solutions at
http://2000percentsolutions.blogspot.com/,

Create a Billion Dollar Business at http://billiondollarbusiness.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Mansions Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoymansionsbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Football Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoyfootballbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/ and

Be a World Hero Better than a Billionaire at http://beaworldherobetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/.

I offer individual on-line tutorials and in-person seminars on living better than a billionaire on five dollars extra a day, creating 2,000 percent solutions (20 times the results with the same effort), developing more profitable business models and designing strategies that work regardless of the business environment. For information, contact me at ultimatecompetitiveadvantage@yahoo.com.

I am available to you as a speaker on these subjects. You can find my background at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005_08_30_livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars_archive.html/.

May God bless you. Merry Christmas!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell