It was a few weeks ago I got some news from Youtube that they were making changes to the Youtube Partnership Program (YPP). Unfortunately for me, I was one of the many channels faced with removal from this program.

It’s no surprise, after all Youtube announced it’s new policy change will affect 99% of small channels that are already in this program. Naturally many people are peeved by this.

But I’m not. And I know I’m not the only one.

My secret is a technique: I changed my circumstances. What I mean by that is I changed the angle of this problem and it’s changed my life.

On top of that this technique can work in even the most complex of situations. By all means this issue I am faced with is small (and I’ll explain throughout this post), but this can be used in other places and can pay dividends.

Don’t want to read today? Here’s a video on the matter.

First Check Yourself

One of the first things that I did when that change was announced to me was check myself. Yes I was a little bothered by it. No longer will I be making money from Youtube.

It does suck a lot. After all, my goal was to juggle both a blog and a Youtube channel AND make money from it.

But after thinking more about this and checking myself and my goals I left myself with a question:

“Why do I actually care about this?”

I know that disclosing income is a sort of taboo thing, but seriously last month my profits was $0.14. Why am I getting worked up over literally pennies and dimes?

My profits on Youtube are so abysmal I have yet to get a single cheque from AdSense. Note that I’ve been under this program for pretty much 3 years.

Yeah it says something about my marketing and overall performance, I know. But in my defence I really haven’t been paying attention at all to my channel.

It’s only been since December that I’ve figured out my channel’s angle. Furthermore that was the time I started posting videos consistently. Before that, it was four months since my last video.

My point is when a problem occurs in your life, take some time to ask yourself how this lines up with your life. For many people they will be responding to all sorts of things. Turn on the news today and no doubt you’ll have some fodder to complain about something.

Obviously most things the news talks about is a serious problem. But not all the problems will affect you. If the stock market is down it’s not going to have a serious impact on you, unlike what most people think and say. In fact, many successful investors will say that’s a positive thing.

But when you check yourself and align the events with what’s happening in your life, you’ll be better able to respond to what’s going on. It’s why some investors will panic, while the most successful ones will stay calm and think in a positive way.

How we respond to what happens around us is what will determine where our life will go. So check yourself first.

Secondly Pay Attention To How You Respond

To change your circumstances it all comes down to how you respond, like I just said above. I said check yourself first as it’s an incredible tool in order to determine how you want to respond to things. Where the real magic happens, is in this step where we respond.

It matters very little what the actual problem is, but our lives and our path lay in how we respond to situations. It’s those responses to the problem that determine the course of our lives.

In Tony Robbin’s book Unshakeable, he provides a solid blueprint to setting up for your financial future. However he also shares many examples of people who have ruined their financial futures with but one decision.

When the news was talking about doom and gloom in the stock market world, many people pull out. This is the case with so many investors. But as Tony Robbin’s outlines in his book, every three years something like this happens (aka a bear market). However it’s also followed up by a massive boom (aka bull market).

Many people ruin their financial futures because they responded to the bad news that stocks aren’t doing great by pulling out. But if you knew that historically these gloomy times are followed by massive growth, you’d stay. Such was the case with many people.

Even in most recent cases of the 2008 massive crash, people panicked. So many people lost decades of savings because they pulled out instead of staying in. When it recovered and skyrocketed, many people thought it was too late to re-invest.

You see, when certain events occur, even massive ones, our actions can have massive repercussions. Of course we need to learn from our mistakes, but through this strategy you are having more control in the situation instead of reacting to everything.

When you pay attention to how you respond you become aware of yourself. Paired with checking yourself first you can actually get more clarity of the situation.

Remember it all comes down to how you respond to every situation in your life that changes your course of life.

Change Your Situation, Change Your Life

When you look at problems from that angle we are mitigating faults and analyzing how we respond. We are doing this by paying attention to ourselves, focusing on the problem and then coming up with a response. This is the process where we are responding to our problems with calculation rather than pure emotion.

No longer will we be reacting to everything. We’ll actually be responding.

It’s why the most successful people in the world are people who take time to process statements, information, and are generally level headed people. You won’t see them get angry or frustrated or explode in a flurry of emotions.

They’ve learned that how they respond to everything in life, be it success, honours, or problems, makes a massive difference in how their life is shaped and how they grow.

Apply this simple technique to start thinking like them.

To your growth!

Eric S Burdon