Tag Archives: Positive thinking

Control your thoughts

I am still thinking a lot about the statement of Napoleon Hill and many others that you can control your thoughts. And in a way that’s true, but what I recently notice is that it’s not always that easy to focus your thoughts on something else if there is something in the way. As my thoughts keep coming back to the malware/spyware script that is still inserted by my Internet Service Provider that I can’t do so much about. And I’m confronted with it every time I open a site, especially if I test sites on the internet. And I don’t have much option at the moment as one internet service provider, who has served us here since 2006 can’t deliver anymore a decent internet connection. And the other has worse service and is inserting those scripts in websites that most people would call hacking. And their infrastructure is not as good as the infrastructure of the other, so I”m also constantly confronted with pages that don’t open or open slow or don’t show up properly, partly probably because they mess with the content of web pages.

So yes, I decided not to do anything about that today, but I didn’t fully manage to do that, as, what I just explained, even right now I feel confronted with it as this very page I am writing right now probably has that script inserted. And I was confronted with it the moment I opened the site, this site, to login as the design is affected by the script.

And the problem is that as far as I know I only have two options here for internet access. And yes, I’m trying to see the advantage and yes, I am trying to do some positive things around this whole issue. And looking at the richness I am still searching, the money, I am even thinking big, like starting a new Internet Service Providing company here, connecting to some foreign company or something. So yes, Think and Grow Rich and many other ideas and books have made me start think big.

But in the mean time it’s just annoying, even though I am very happy I have access to internet again from home, regardless of the inserted scripts and stuff.

But controlling my thoughts and focusing on something else, not always easy, especially as I wanted to write an inspiring post today, but I’m not fully sure if I managed.

But maybe I did if you are someone involved in the internet industry and looking for a new challenge, a location to build a new internet infrastructure. Or if you also think big, dream big and want to do something big together with me.

So please let me know, as I think we can do better, humanity can do better, The Philippines can do better and certainly Globe and Smart can do better.

About change

My partner always wanted me to change. And I never understood. And maybe he meant something else than what I understand now. And maybe I am not realistic. But I think I did change, and I did change in a positive way. As before with expensive things I often thought (and said): we can’t afford it. But right now I am much more careful and today’s test drive with a Subaru or maybe even buying one is more of a step on the road to my dream car, a black Mitsubishi Pajero, highest diesel type with manual transmission than something ‘I can’t afford’ or something ‘impossible. So even if I don’t have any clue where to get the money, not ‘even’ for a Subaru or any car at all, I did enjoy our visit to the local Subaru dealer and today’s testdrive with a Subaru XV.

Dreaming about cars

 And I enjoyed these visits especially as I realized that Subaru still builds cars in a non-conventional way, with a boxer engine and four wheel drive and only available with gasoline engines. And especially while watching the engine bay a few days ago I had the feeling these cars are really built with love, unlike many other cars available in The Philippines who mostly look like efficient work horses. And driving it today made me realize that the car industry had really matured since I was a teenager as this car I was driving today was smooth and simple and still fun. And it was all even for free. And yes, it made me kind of realize again that I am supposed to drive cars, enjoy cars while driving, as I kind of play with them, they do what I want to do.

And yes, you may think I’m crazy, but indeed, looking at things in a positive way, just enjoying what’s there without really thinking about ‘buying’ or ‘owning’ or ‘money’, made me feel very happy. And i’m sure the people around me felt that.

Challenges on the way

Mitsubishi PajeroThe last few days, weeks I have been thinking a lot about my goals again as I felt I was not really focused on them. And today or yesterday I realized I have been much more focused on the things that stand between me and my goals than on the goals itself. Like e.g. I have been focused on my internet problems, which was kind of logical while I had no or virtually no internet access at home, at my office. But that problem has basically been solved, even though there are still problems with the current connection. And they are serious problems, but right now it is not really that urgent to solve it and it won’t be easy to solve anyhow as it involves the infrastructure of Globe over which I have no direct control.
So I’m starting to realize that I seem to focus much more on the challenges, the problems on the way and try to solve them, than on reaching my goals. And being the emotional person I am these things take a lot of energy and often kind of paralyze me, as when I feel very stressed, like yesterday, this morning and even until now, I kind of stop doing things, or at least it takes me a lot of time to get going again. Which brings me in some kind of downward spiral, as being an evening type of person I often keep going at night, meaning I don’t get enough rest and while going to bed my mind is still full of all the problems, the challenges, instead of having a relaxed evening and going to bed calm.

But as all adversity and negative experience have their advantage according to Napoleon Hill, one of my great inspirors, this afternoon I came up with an idea. And the idea is basically not really my own only as it builds upon a lot of ideas of other people. So this idea is based on the idea of ‘creation box’ from Abraham Hicks. And on the idea of Vision Board, something I don’t know who invented it.

Dream vision

So while watching at the images of my goals and dreams that hang outside of our bedroom, together with the sample of how easy it is to reach a goal, I came up to give my challenges, my problems on the way to my goal, a place, make them visible in a way to be able to handle them better. So I came up with the idea of a challenge box, similar to the idea of the creation box. And as I often try to make things visible I realized it should be located between (the representation of) my goals and me. And often ‘me, now’ is on the bed in the bedroom when thinking of my goals, and (the representation of) my goals and dreams are printed papers hanging from the railing of our bedroom balcony. So I just looked for a box, a shoe box or something, put it in between and took some clean papers to write down my challenges and put them in the box. So they have a (visible) place now.

Dream vision

And I realized that I just choose to focus on the problems, on the challenges. I could e.g. just go around them. So I make choices to go for the problems and not let them be and find other ways or something.

Dream vision with challenges

Dreams, dream box and challenges

And looking at the whole thing visualized gave me a lot of perspective, as the challenges are not that big and can be easily even avoided by just walking around them.

And I know there is a lot more to this and it’s not as easy as just printing images of dreams and putting challenges in a (small) box. But visualizing things, and yes, taking action by just searching for a shoe box and writing your challenges down I can certainly recommend. Why not start now? It took me only like fifteen minutes and it gave me a lot of perspective and peace, so I guess it could do the same for you.

And I also saw in the photo’s the view in the background, all those things I already have, all those things that I can enjoy. And they appear much, much bigger than my dreams on the papers and in the dream box. And much bigger than my challenges.

Fear and courage

The last weeks have been tiring because of my internet problems at home, in my office. And especially the message from my main internet Service Provider, Smart, hit me hard. I understood that I would either need to bear with my bad connection or look for another service provider.

And my fear is that i will never have internet access again from my home, from my office again. But of course that’s not true.

And this whole thing of a company that has served me so well for many years suddenly telling me they don’t want me anymore hit me hard as a person. And yes, I know it’s business and solving the technical problem might be expensive as it seems that the current technical solution is at it’s limit due to changes in the environment or something. But especially with internet access you don’t have so many options, especially in some locations like mine, where as far as i know Smart is basically the only, or at least the best option.

And it also hit me hard as for me it has been always very hard to find customers. So I am sometimes stunned when companies are not accepting me, not accepting all customers or just refuse to serve them, even if they could.

And i am still wondering if it’s just me and my situation and my choice to live here are causing these kind of problems. But even then, even if I were the only one, then why not just find a solution and get me back online again? I know I am ‘just’ one of the many, many customers from Smart and they could easily do without me. But the risk is they may lose me forever as a customer and e.g. writing here could do some damage to their brand, their name.

And the more I look around me I see businesses not serving their customers as well as they could, or as i think they should. And it keeps me thinking why those businesses are successful and why mine is not, especially lately, where I decided to put more focus on customer satisfaction, on really doing my best to serve my customers the best I can. But somehow the Universe doesn’t seem to make that easier, as lately, without decent internet access at home, I often had to go to the city, to an internet cafe to do or finish my work.

And it makes me think of what Napoleon Hill states “I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon trugh and justice; therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects.”. So this must apply to Smart and the people within and the leaders of Smart. But as of the moment I’m not sure, as them leaving me behind and not solving the problems with my connection certainly doesn’t benefit me. And not solving it also doesn’t benefit them.

And next to this I have been thinking what this adversity, this heartache carries for me in equivalent or greater benefit. As a famous quote of Napoleon Hill is also “Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the Seed of an equivalent or a greater Benefit”. But right now I just don’t see it, even though I am starting to see that this whole exercise that started with receiving and reading Think and Grow Rich makes me look more for the opportunities and somehow makes my mindset more positive.

And I am sorry as this post is a bit chaotic. But I’m just human, just like you and me, and just very tired of this additional setback, where just as I had found some new customers, just started some new projects, I lost my normal internet access that caused me an awful lot of hassle and cost me an awful lot of time.

And I am still amazed with all those people who didn’t read Think and Grow Rich, who didn’t think about their definite purpose or goals in life, who didn’t make it specific, where I did. And they seem so much happier or more easy going than me. It seems that I’m just struggling, still struggling, like I have done most of my life. The road towards success seems so endless, so tiring, so exhausting.

But yes, I also often forget how far I have gotten. When writing my desire document the most important thing I wrote in there was impossible. And now it’s just there and only one and a half year passed. And indeed, I didn’t even really do much effort for it.

And yes, the idea of having your life, the rest of your life, to reach your goal, your definite purpose, is very comforting. The idea of just not giving up until you get there, no matter what. That’s a very powerful idea and often keeps me going.

What about you? Did you write down your goal or goals and set specific dates for them? And do you read your desire document aloud every day? Did you even think about your definite purpose in life? If not, you may want to do that, as when reading my desire document now, it has come alive and gives me structure and shows me how i can look at things like those internet troubles i have right now.

So yes, you may consider that, even though I’m not the most successful person ever yet. But somehow, no matter my complaints, I am stronger now and am still gaining strength, by just doing those things, taking time to think about those things.

So better start now.

And yes, I found the courage to get moving again today and fortunately internet seems to work good enough in the afternoon right now.

Why not make customers happy

I was on my way to an internet cafe, pondering what I just heard in a phone call from Smart. And the thing that finally stuck with me was, why don’t Smart and Globe and all those other big companies just make you, me, humans, their customers happy, even if it would take some extra effort in specific cases like mine. And I think that’s even what Napoleon Hill basically states: if you just serve your customers, other people, you will be successful. And from my point of view, in my case, the solution of the issues that annoy me so much my Smart internet connection is very simple:

  1. Put someone in charge to solve the problem. And put him or her in charge until the problem is solved and I have my unlimited internet access at certain speed back OR until I’m satisfied with whatever solution is offered or found.
  2. Solve the technical problem, just install some other technology or figure out what’s causing the deterioration of the signal. My location is a bit remote and it seems that for whatever reason the device that is installed does not fit its purpose anymore.
  3. Get rid of the Fair Usage Policy the way it is phrased and stated. Just make it a real Fair Usage Policy like users sharing available bandwidth. Nobody will have any problem with that as long as Smart keeps their network capacity.

And while I was on my way to the city I was pondering what Mr. Napoleon L. Nazareno, the CEO of Smart Communications, Inc., who I wrote this letter to, would think or would want to happen if he knew the whole story. Would he really want me to apply for disconnection as his support staff suggested to me this morning? I doubt, unless he and the whole industry in 2014 are only about greed and not about serving customers, not about serving humans.

So I am still thinking of what to do next, as I don’t want to lose my Smart internet and I guess in the end Smart would not want to lose me as a customer.

And no, I don’t know what it is to be the CEO of a big company like Smart or Globe. And I’m quite sure he has many challenges and is certainly not interested, and should not be, in a specific technical problem with a specific simple standard connection for just one customer only paying PHP 999.00 a month. But yes, somehow he is responsible and somehow he should find ways to solve this problem, presuming I’m not the only one in this kind of situation. But again, if I were the only one, the problem would be easily solved: just install something that makes my internet connection work again and you’ll never ever hear any complaint from me again. On the contrary.

And that’s part of what annoys me very much, as I have always been very happy with the SmartBro solution. So I have always recommended Smart to my friends and other people who needed internet or had complaints about their current internet provider. And now Smart let’s me down, one of their biggest fans, always telling people the Smart network is or was better than the Globe network, at least related to internet.

And yes, I am very annoyed and tired as it’s not easy to serve my customers without proper internet, running an internet business partly from an internet cafe. But I’m trying to see the opportunity or opportunities who are certainly there, as e.g. this whole thing brought me into contact with the CEO’s of Smart and Globe and it’s also a very good example of my concerns related to big companies and humanity, treating humans as humans and not as customers of service representatives.

So looking forward to your help of making those large organizations human again. And I mean things like serving customers as human beings and not as profit centers or complaints to handle. And giving employees more freedom and authority to solve problems and talk to customers as human to human and not just passing on company policies and procedures.

Looking forward to your help and support!