E + R = O

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Anyone familiar with this formula? Or want to take a guess? You will have to keep reading to find out the answer.

I obtained this formula from Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles book which I am re-reading yet again as part of my re-focusing efforts. He has some great information in here and every time I read it I get something new out of it. It’s just one of those books I cannot help but recommend to people.

So what is E + R = O? It stands for Event + Response = Outcome and it means that how you respond to the events in your life form your outcome. Sounds pretty straight forward doesn’t it? It’s when you start looking around at how others are dealing with E + R = O that you start to reflect on how you are dealing with it.

Perhaps I need to step back and explain that this particular section of the book is titled “Take 100% Responsibility For Your Life”. Many people think events are out of their control and due to this it have no control of the outcome. This mindset kind of defeats the taking 100% responsibility aspect of the chapter, so let’s look at an example.

If you work for a GM dealer and it is being shut down by GM (the Event), you will eventually be unemployed (the Outcome).You have no control over what GM will be doing so it appears you are resigned to your outcome. The difference between settling for this as your outcome or taking control of your life is your response to the pending event. Basically do you roll over and settle, or do you use this as a catapult to make a change in your life for the better?

If working for GM was the best thing that ever happened to you, your response may be to become the best employee that GM ever had and that everyone in the local dealerships is made aware of this. This could change your outcome so you become so valuable another dealership snaps you up. If you were just putting in time and it was another job, perhaps your response it to start taking night courses in something that interests you. In the end your outcome is related directly to how you respond!

Can you follow along and perhaps relate it to what is happening in your life? Are you currently blaming the economy for your situation, or is it a partner, a spouse, a boss or something else affecting you negatively? It’s how you respond to these factors that determine your outcome and ultimately allow you to take 100% responsibility for your life.

This is particularly relevant to me right now as we have effectively locked ourselves into full time jobs with the operation of our shared accommodation properties. During a boom these properties can be a gold mine as vacancies are minimal and they provide high cash flow per property. Unfortunately during a recession or economic slowdown the vacancies skyrocket, the cash flow dries up and there is still a huge amount of maintenance and management required.So do we blame the recession and hope we can muddle through it? Or do we respond differently to it and change the outcome to our favor?

Well we have been actively changing our response over the last month and through various channels and organizations we are starting to make some headway by transitioning new tenants in who pay monthly. This is reducing some of the weekly rent collection pickups, reducing our workload. We had previously aligned ourselves with placement agencies and some companies in an effort to provide streams of tenants. We are actively expanding on this as well to help reduce vacancies.

None of this will change over night and we understand that, the summer may be very long and very busy, but we know we can take control of the events in our life to achieve the outcome we want.  Once again I am throwing this back at you, what event in your life can you change your response to so you too can achieve the result you are looking for? The only thing holding you back from achieving anything you want is you!

This is a big book, and I am sure you will receive quite a few more updates like this from me over the next few weeks, if you like them great, pass them on, if you don’t I’m sorry, delete them. It’s back to the horse and water, I can lead you, but if you don’t take a drink, well you know what can happen. Here’s more information on Jack Canfield’s Success Principles if you want to buy your own copy and follow along, oh and if you buy it from the link below I am one step closer to a better outcome!

I had previously written about this when my wife Karen, a business partner and a friend attended his event he held in Calgary last year and once again, this type of information can have amazing results for people, if they take advantage of it and apply it to their lives.