Author Archives: Guus

Reality or addiction?

In my quest for inspiration and success I signed up to quite some sites, meaning I get quite some e-mails with ‘inspirational stuff’. I keep wondering though what is the real story behind it, like are the people behind those sites really into helping people or is it (in the end) all about sales?

Like today I got a very long e-mail from Ed Lester from The Abundance Index pointing to an even longer web page. And the style of the e-mail as well as the webpage is very familiar. As it is written in the style of something that I want. And it is written very well, as I kept on reading, even though I started thinking if it was worth my time reading it all. As it felt like it would lead me to one thing: buying something, which it did. Or clicking on the link if we talk about the e-mail.

And with these type of self help sites, organizations, people, I always see someone very successful or rich or whatever. And they always want to help me. And it seems they always want money for that. And it seems all the people who signed up for their stuff, paid for it, became richer or more successful or whatever.

And I am starting to doubt if it is all true, if you can become successful or rich by buying the stuff on offer.

So maybe worth some more investigation.

 

Find and give inspiration

I am still thinking how to add more value to this site by writing more inspirational posts. And that often makes me hesitant to start writing, like today, when I went to the other computer to write my daily post on this site.

And I was thinking where I mostly get my inspiration from. And yes, that is indeed from the e-mails I get from various sites I signed up for. Or at least some of them.

And yes, I am also considering to send e-mails like many blogs and inspirational sites do. But until now I decided not to, as I think my posts and pages and changes to pages are not yet good enough to share. And yes, also because I don’t want Inspiration for Success to be a blog, And I don’t want to write my posts like a blogger.

So that brings me of course to the question what I do want. And it always brings me back to the fact that I believe I had no one inspiring me, supporting me when I was a child. And later. And that I want this site to inspire you, support you, on your way to success in life. But not through myself. Or not through myself only. And while writing this I realize that I think I’m not inspiring. Or not inspiring enough. So I want other people to do the inspiration. But also while writing I realize there is no one else, at least not now. And I do have some things I am proud of, so I do have some reason to inspire you or talk about success.

As e.g. today I wrote in my Dutch blog that I made the WordPress plugin with which I am sending the daily inspirational quote myself. And I forgot about that, which is kind of weird, as it’s just working, I’m just using it every day. And as far as I know other people are also using it. But making it and having it approved by the WordPress team was not easy. As far as I remember it took me months as somehow I got stuck or didn’t have the time for it or something. So there was quite some persistence involved to finish it. And I did finish it, really finished it, as I’m using it every day (except Sunday) and it’s just working and I would not know anything that I would like to change, improve. And I know at least one person is using it as I got a request to add import functionality for e-mails. Or actually I think there were at least two persons involved in that request. So also other people are using it and apparently it is working fine for them also otherwise I guess I would get complaints.

And that plugin was not the only thing I was successful with related to Inspiration for Success. As I guess my biggest success is to write here and in my Dutch blog every day, yes, again, except Sunday. And mentioning the last every time of course doesn’t really make sense. Somehow I add that because otherwise I believe I wouldn’t be honest. As if that would make my achievement of doing several things every day less successful.

So this is often I guess how we pull ourselves down. As somehow we believe ‘the world’ considers writing every day not valid if we give ourselves a well needed break on Sunday. And I still don’t get where those ideas come from and I am quite sure I am not the only one pulling myself down like “I’m not good enough”. And of course that is complete nonsense as believe me, doing those things like writing every day is quite something. So I should be proud of myself instead of pulling myself down.

So what about you? When and how and where are you pulling yourself down when you should just be proud of yourself (I often avoid the word ‘should’ as no one ‘should’ do anything, but I think it’s appropriate here).

And yes, if you think you ‘should’ do more, be more disciplined, remember that I started much simpler than writing blog items every day. I started by just making the bed every day. And I made sure I didn’t miss one day, which I didn’t. But even if you do, just know you can start again every day. And do better if you want, if it feels good, if it makes you feel good.

Advertising

3D WordcraftWell, I was a bit confused yesterday. As John Pitkin from 3dWordCraft e-mailed me about advertising on this site (or in the e-mail) related to the daily inspirational quote. As he is selling 3D objects with words. And of course that would be perfect for quotes. So someone liking one of the quotes I send, might want to have a physical object with that quote.

So this is a great idea and I believe would certainly benefit people, but, the business model I chose is about ‘give and receive’ and not about ‘selling’, getting money directly for services or products, in this case advertising.

And wow, I just checked his site and I am laughing, as it appears to be a one page very simple site and it is built with Drupal. That’s like renting a super crane to move a small bench or something. But that’s not what this post is about, although it is a bit as of course I also would like to share my knowledge about websites and sell my services related to that.

Anyhow, the last is of course applicable as this is about selling through the internet and this page is certainly intended for promoting 3dWordCraft by e.g. putting some links to his site and to the shop.

The main issue is here that I am confronted with an idea that is very good, where I often see ‘selling’ and ‘advertising’ as bad. And the problem I am encountering a bit is that if I ‘give’ without ‘receiving’ (money) means I am the one in charge of what is going to happen, what is being displayed or posted or sent or whatever. Where it is also logical that a person advertising, selling his or her services, would want to have (full?) control over how the advertising is going to happen.

So somehow my chosen business model is about control as it implies I want full control over how this site looks like and what the functionality is. Which has a good side, but apparently also a (possible?) bad side.

So very well worth rethinking the business model I have in mind and how that would or could or should work in the real world. As John Pitkin really threw me off balance with his request. Which is a good thing. Thank you, John.

Gratitude diary

Yes, I am keeping a gratitude diary. Or at least every day I add a few lines to a page in my Dutch blog. But mostly I don’t feel happy, or grateful. So I kind of force myself to write some items in that page. And yes, somehow spending some time every day on that page makes me focus on something like being grateful or happy about at least some things during the day. But it’s not a real gratitude diary as mostly I don’t feel it, mostly I don’t feel grateful.

And it was someone who wrote me an e-mail letter a few weeks who pointed this out to me as she asked something like whether I really felt grateful about the things I write in that page. And I realize mostly I don’t. And that made me think. And of course it stuck in my thoughts for various reasons.

And the last few days things get more clear. As somehow my codependent behavior may be the cause that I feel so unhappy, that I can’t really be grateful, can’t really make a real gratitude diary. As I realize more and more that I am more concerned with the feelings and behavior of others than of that of myself, that I often don’t even know what I feel. And yes, of course I know I feel tense. But that seems about the only things I feel, tense or unhappy. Or both.

The strange thing I am reading though about codependency is that being codependent means that you have difficulty being alone. Which I don’t have. And I consider myself pretty autonomous with my own ideas and such. But I do have problems maintaining healthy relationships as it seems, mostly after a while, people are abandoning or avoiding me.

Anyhow, it seems at least I am slowly getting some sense of what’s going on. And that’s a start for being grateful, happy and satisfying personal relationships.

Empty

I feel completely empty. Meaning something like I have no clue what to write here today, meaning something I have inspiration, zero. And that is strange, as mostly when I start to write here I just start and a subject to start with comes quite easy, even though often the subject changes when I am writing.

But right now nothing, nada, zero. So I could write about the meeting I had this afternoon with someone who seems as determined, as dedicated as I think I am. And time will tell if I’m right, but he seems to have the right attitude, a feeling I had when I met him the first time and he shared his idea with me.

And strange, as we only met twice now, but it might just be we complement each other and could pull this off.

Time will tell, but I’m very hopeful, maybe for the first time in my life.