Quitting work in 1984

While I was at the copy machine, I was thinking of the impending confrontation of leaving work. Would people miss me, I wondered? You would think so at first. I'm well-liked in the office for being very non serious, playing jokes on people, have a lackadaisical approach to work in general, and for frequent discussions with people mixed in with occasional flirtations to make the day go by. Older women are not excluded. Plus I've been here for over a year and a half. For these reasons you would expect people to miss me, but I have to take the opposing viewpoint for a moment.

Also while at the copier, I thought of Janet. She was an eccentric older woman, probably around 50 or so, with butch-short bright purple hair and a rock hard body from constant working out. Smoking took a toll on her face and voice though. Very nice and personable, everyone liked her. She worked here for 27 years and got fired a few months ago. Once she was gone, it's almost as if she was never here. Someone came in and replaced her, life moved on.

Keith was my fantasy football buddy, and he quit about a month ago. The only time I ever hear his name now is when someone talks about a task he used to ("I'm doing the bank rec that Keith used to do.") No one speaks of his personality, their memories with him, etc. He doesn't work here. He never worked here.

The tone of this blog is very 1984, the masterpiece written by George Orwell about a futuristic government that controls everything in the country, even thoughts and the past. They control the books, newspapers, etc, so when they want a fact about a person changed they just rewrite all the books and destroy the old ones. The people in this world are so conditioned to accept these contradictions that they have no problem conflicting evidence. When people started to get a little suspicious or rebellious, the "thought police" would take care of them. Since they controlled the past, the only thing that existed was the present. The main character would note that "Roger didn't come into work today. He doesn't work here. He never worked here."

Similarly, what ever happened to Alicia? Bridget? Jeremy? All gone. Maleka? Never worked here. So many people just disappear one day, and management doesn't even tell anyone why or give explanations. I usually make some sort of joke indicating that the owner of the company chops them up and creates "Orleansburgers" with them.

They say that the average work friendship lasts 2 years. That seems way high to me.

Desire - Manifest

Just now, while at work, I was looking over some notes for some job and I needed an answer to answer a question someone had about this particular job. I didn't particularly feel like going through the hassle of tracking down the man who had the answer, but I really needed to get an answer from him. As I sat here wondering if I should try calling this guy or not, I hear the person in the next cube over call him on his phone. I went over and grabbed the phone from him to ask my question and it was all done in 10 seconds. Thought - Desire - Manifestation. coo.

I'm re-listening to Erin Pavlina's podcast about lucid dreaming. Since taking her steps outlined in the podcast, I have been remembering dreams more and more. She says that you have 4 or 5 dreams per night, and the first step to lucid dreaming is to remember those dreams. I'm at a point where I remember one or two, and only short clips. She makes a good point, that since you are currently spending 1/3 of your life sleeping, you might as well get some use out of that time and spend it "awake".

Currently Reading: Ask and It is Given by Jerry and Esther Hicks. Apparently they are the leading experts/auhorities on the Law of Attraction, which is detailed in The Secret. On Jerry and Esther's page they have a 74 minute introduction about their whole thing but my work isn't letting me download it, so I'll have to wait to listen at home. Also I have the book to satisfy my curiosity. I'll keep this blog updated with my thoughts and experiences in regard to this topic.

I think I've made more plugs for other sites in this blog than any other.

Positive Thoughts

Though I haven't blogged in a while, a lot of my past ones were rants/angry. This has a place in the world, but it would probably be a good idea to have some constructive blogs. Lately I've been reading a lot of 'feel good' stuff and it would probably be a good idea to document some of it to 1) help me collect my thoughts and 2) have a record to look back on and keep me accountable.

Mentors
Finding a mentor in business is not an easy thing to do, especially when any mentor you find would likely be a competitor. One thing I got out of Think and Grow Rich was the importance of not only having a support group around you (Master Mind group) but also to have a group of advisors, alive or dead, to look up to. These "advisors" are people you admire, research, and imitate. Some people I thought would be good to emulate were Benjamin Franklin, Bill Gates, Caesar (reaching far back), Einstein, and several others. Each person in my little group are there for a particular strength or characteristic.

Real Estate
My "Master Mind" group has been a pretty good help lately. There are five of us in the group and we have a phone conference every one or two weeks. Half the meeting we focus on one person designated to be the central person on the call. I was that person last week and I talked about my goals in real estate, becoming self-employed, and threw some ideas around with the guys. The rest of the call is around five minutes per person going over what's going on with their goals.

I need to focus on wholesale deals. Specifically I need to play the numbers game. My priority for the next month is to find vacant houses, contact the owner, and put an offer on the house. After 30 of these, one should accept. Once I get the system down, it's just a short matter of time till I go full-time.

I've also been thinking about writing a real estate book. I wouldn't do it right now cause I'd feel like a fraud since I don't have a huge real estate portfolio, but maybe a year or two down the road. This came about because I just got a new real estate course and noticed that the chapter on finding motivated sellers was about 5 pages. Almost all real estate books I have only have a few pages on finding motivated sellers but to me this is the most critical part of being successful at real estate, particularly in the beginning of your career. On Amazon I searched for "Motivated Sellers" and only two audio CDs came up, not one book. I'm amazed that no one has written a book called "How to Find Motivated Sellers". It needs to be done.

I need to create a Vision Board too and think what I actually want to spend my money on when I get it, and keep up motivation in general. I think I'll use the blog for now to mostly talk about my real estate exploits so if you haven't seen a new blog in a few days that means that something's wrong and I am probably being lazy. Do not let me get away with this.

Ideas