Joke: How many social workers does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the light bulb has to want to change.

There is more than a kernel of truth in that story, and I’m not talking about the social worker needing to be only one. For change to happen, there has to be a desire to change or more precisely a decision to change followed by a change action or behavior.

Thinking Ain’t Doing

This came home to me earlier this year when I decided to cut back on my weight. This was not the first time I had thought about losing weight. Like many people I had thought about dieting, even gone so far as to read some diet books, signed up for a gym membership, gone to a personal training. I hadn’t done the Atkins diet or the Lemon water diet but I had considered detox.

You may noticed that the operative words in the paragraph above are thought, considered, I could have also used the words tried.

Changes in Results Need Changes in Action

What was missing was the decision to change my behavior. What I needed was a momentous event to push me over the edge. It wasn’t a heart attack – I was fortunate. It was just the prodding (actual physical prodding) I got from friends one evening on 2009. I don’t know if something snapped (I didn’t hear anything) but after that night I decided to change.

Whats more, once I decided to change, I started to look for support systems to help me make that change. And finally I changed how I behaved – I ate smaller portions, I exercised regularly (almost fanatically if you ask my friends).

Perhaps I went too far, my cousin thought I was starving myself – you can see from the chart below how my weight fell.

Measure the Results, Track the Change

And that was another things I actually started to monitor my diet and keep track of my weight. I found measuring my results gave me energy to pursue my goals further.

82kg to 68.1kg in under three months

To get the change in my weight I decided to change and then I changed my behavior. You might remember that old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For me to get different results (lower weight) I had to change my actions.

This experience with my weight carries into other parts of my life – to change my other results – my income, my attitudes – I have to change my actions, I have to decide I want to change. In the blink of an eye you can become a different person.

Like another old saying: Insanity is when you do the same thing and expect different results.

End the insanity. Decide. Change. Enjoy.

Hi or as the inimitable Fred Dagg would say – “eh yeah, gidday”. My name is Neil Lee and I started Wasabihound.com in light of my experiences with internet marketing.

What Am I Doing Here?

The purpose of this blog is to share my thoughts and lessons I have learnt starting an internet business and using the internet for marketing.

My intention is to get past the hype that I have seen commonly associated with internet marketing, and really see how the internet and being online can be used as another medium that businesses and people can use to expand their sales, grow their area of influence and base of customers.

My goal is examine how marketing on the internet is done and how this worldwide, 24 hour channel of communication and transaction works and can be used.

How visiting Wasabihound.com can benefit you?

Setting You Up for Success

It’s hard to move forward when you are always looking backwards.

I will be sharing my ideas and lessons about building a mindset for success. In my experience getting your head and heart aligned (and pointing in the same direction) will massively improve your chances achieving the goals that will make you happy.

I went to school, high school and university, studied, but no part of my formal education really taught me about how I work. Any lessons were indirect and usually discovered looking over my shoulders and into the past – and while this is important, after a while you get a sore neck.

See Me Do, See Me Trip and See Me Soar

I will take you through my journey of building and testing internet marketing websites. This includes keyword research, site building, testing and using paid and free traffic generation strategies.

You will see my mistakes, so you can avoid them and you will see what works (so you can take it and improve it). This will save you time, money and heartache).

By the way, if you are starting an internet business from scratch – believe it when they say start with something you enjoy. The first site I built was aimed at following the money and not my heart and it’s tough maintaining the rage on it – it’s about Yeast Infection, a great business from a traffic perspective. That said I don’t regret the lessons I learned on the way. You’ll hear more about this soon.

Putting the Marketing Back into Internet Marketing

I will look at how marketing online is the same and is different from traditional marketing. My aim is to demystify and cut through the hype that surrounds the concept of internet marketing.

This knowledge could save you time and money, as well as help you make more informed decisions about how to use the internet to create sales and profits for your business.

Buckle Up

I hope you can come along for the ride. I can promise you it will be a roller-coaster but I sincerely hope you will get some value on the way.

It will get bumpy, nerve-wracking but it’ll be fun.

So let’s buckle up and get going.

Oh yes, I welcome your thoughts and contributions so feel free to scream, laugh and shout as we hit the hills and the valleys.

What’s Next:

I’m going to answer (well, start answering) the question: Who the heck is this guy?

I found this earlier this year and while it is a long video (over 16 mins – there’s your warning!) I thoroughly recommend it.

It’s a little quirky and the black and white gives it a great Sundance quality. I really like the underlying message – hope you do t00. Give it a few minutes anyway.  Interested to hear what you think – just send me add a comment at the end of this post.

“Bones” fans will recognise T J Thyne (in a very different role). I really enjoy seeing an actor go in a different direction. (Like John Lithgow in Third Rock, or Robert De Niro in the Analyse This series – okay maybe I just like comedy)

Yeah, I know that’s way it is called acting – but I still like it. (Maybe that’s why Extras was a hit).

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have recently been reading some inflammatory posts on Facebook about a company I work with. Some of the posts have a kernel of truth and to the extent they do, I have no concerns, fair and constructive criticism is to be encouraged and listened to.

What (briefly) riled me was some comments from someone who had decided to hide under a pseudonym. For a moment I was disappointed and annoyed with that person’s childish, self-serving and immature behavior, but then I realized they were drawing me into their game – and I would have to play by their rules.  I decided to stop, seethe (for a moment, because it does no good to fail to acknowledge feelings), then let it go.

Don’t Play Their Game, Play Yours

Some of you may think this is the wrong course of action, but I am reminded of the saying:

When you fight with a pig, you both get dirty – but the pig likes it

My best course of action was steer clear of the sty and direct my energy to more constructive pursuits aimed at achieving my goals.

The lesson for me was that to the extent a person holds your mind, they have control over you. They have this control only because YOU let them – at which point, they have control over you.

Sometimes the greatest act of courage, is the ability to stay true to yourself.

Steps to Get Back in Control

How do you regain control?

• Review and refresh yourself by looking at your objectives
• Acknowledge that this person’s or these people’s opinions exist (denial gives licence to fear and anger) and decide how you will respond. Try to distinguish emotional from logical reactions.
• Refer to your goals and objectives, if responded means distraction then: Ask yourself is it worth. Ask yourself five times. By the fifth time you should have the final answer.
• Ask yourself why they are doing it. Remember some people will antagonize you so that you will be distracted. If you respond as they expect, they have control of the situation.
• Try to leave your ego at the door.
• Redirect the energy: exercise (go for a walk, run – just get the emotion out of your system), use it to progress your goals

Many opinions and criticisms are constructive and should be listened to and taken on board. We need to accept we don’t get it right every time, and we are not perfect.

Just beware that sometimes people will bait you and the best response is no response at all.

If in the end, it is revenge or retaliation your want – remember the best revenge is to succeed at your endeavors.

PS no pigs were harmed, and hopefully none offended in the preparation of this article.

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• Horoscopes for Thursday, October 29 (thestar.com)

Hi and welcome to Wasabihound.com

In my first post I want to talk about “Yes”.

Have you seen Karl Moore’s You Tube presentation on Saying Yes More.

I came across it while reading up on the 30 Day Challenge and his comments resonated with me – in particular his reference to Jim Carrey’s movie: Yes Man. I have seen the movie too, and I quite liked it. I admit it was 1 am on  a red eye flight from Perth to Sydney so maybe my critical faculties were taking a bit of a break but now, in a slightly more rational state I still look back on it and its message fondly.

I wonder how much of our lives would be different if we said Yes more – or more precisely if we allowed ourselves to be more open to experiences and to the possibilities.

It all comes down to a decision

I use the word “allow” deliberately because in my experience – based on nearly 40 years of watching myself, I realise that the biggest barrier to success is not physical or financial is the barrier we create in our head.

If we decide not to do something or that something is ‘impossible’, the lack or abundance of resources becomes almost irrelevant. Once we say “no” a door has closed in our head.

Saying Yes Opens Us to a World of Possibilities

The good news is that we can just as easily open doors in our head too. If we decide that something can be done, then how often do the resources and opportunities arise to make that possible?

By saying yes, we subconsciously tune and start to see or recognise the things we need to achieve what we want. Sometimes these things are obvious, sometimes they require a change in perception and what seems an obstacle is in fact a chance to move forward. (It is not by accident that the  Chinese word for chaos is a made up of the characters for danger and opportunity.)

Start Now

My personal challenge and my challenge to others is to say Yes.

Say Yes to the possibility I can do what others are doing.

Say Yes to an opportunity even if I don’t have the skills or resource right now. If my resolve is strong enough and my desire great enough than I will find a way, a pathway. It may not be the best one, but it will be one.

Decide to look at problem differently and ask what it creates, as opposed to what it prevents.

Practice optimism.

Like You never know where it may lead.