THINK about what you THINK ABOUT… and if you catch yourself thinking about unhappiness, ill health and adversity, “change the channel” and think about what you want to happen!
• When something happens by chance, follow up. Lucky people tend to notice and act on good things that occur by happenstance.
• Believe that good things will happen. Expectations have a way of coming true.
• When bad things happen, look for the bright side; i.e., “what did I learn from that?” or, “how do I keep it from happening again?” Don't dwell on it, move on!
• If the horse dies, dismount. Don't continue to pour money and effort into a lost cause.
• Don’t look for love in the wrong places… not just romantic love but the love of “stuff.” Stuff is O.K., but understand the delusion of “I'll be happy when I have this or that,” or “when I live over there,” or “when this happens.” Happiness is a state of mind in which our thinking is pleasant most of the time.
• Failure is a CHOICE made by the undisciplined. Failing to meet your objectives, regardless of what they are, is a choice, because something else has been given higher priority. If you fail, it is because you choose to fail.
• You don't “catch” depression and you don't “catch” happiness… you “create” them by the thoughts you put into your mind. Carefully choose what you read, listen to and the people with whom you associate.
Get Ego Out of the WayI once asked Abraham Maslow, “What do you mean when you say self-actualization?” He said, “There are just two things to remember: one is to learn to become independent of the good opinion of other people, and the second is to master the art of being detached from the fruits of your labors.”
For example, you may experience turbulence in your life. But you can learn how to remove yourself from the turbulence and see that it’s just your body going through it.
When you become the observer, you detach yourself from the outcome. You get your ego and everything in the material world out of the picture, and you allow the highest part of you to observe the circumstance. You remove all that inner turbulence, anguish, fear, and anxiety, and you then replace it with the calmness of a detached observer. The minute you sense that calmness, the solution is at hand. You’re not operating from adrenaline or fear or angst.
When you face a crisis or deadline from the perspective that you only have so much time and “have to hurry,” you become one more person who brings stress and anxiety to the problem.
It’s in the taming of the ego that you find the sacred in your life. You find greater strength when you can stop being so focused on you and your bottom line and start reaching out to others.
They said of Jesus and Buddha that when they went into a village, their very presence raised the consciousness of those around them. They radiated a blissful serenity. That kind of peace is where you can resolve virtually any difficulty.
One of the great teachers in my life was Carl Jung. He died when I was four years old, but he wrote a book called Modern Man in Search of a Soul wherein he talked about four stages that people go through to reach maturity.
The highest stage is the stage of the Spirit. This is when you finally recognize that you are not an athlete, a warrior, or a statesman, that you are in this world, but not of this world. You recognize that you are not a human being having a spiritual experience, but you are a spiritual being having a human experience. In a sense, this life is all very temporary; this life is like a garage where we park our souls for a time, but our inner spirits are not so confined. The mystery of that is what we call unconditional love. When you are able to live this unconditional love you will have achieved this final state.
It doesn’t happen if you try to figure it out using logic or look for results in the material world. When you start taking your attention off of building your business so you can make more money—and instead put your attention on serving everyone who comes through your door as best you can—your energy begins to spread...and the more people become attracted to your office.
That energy becomes infectious, because it promotes more of that love—and as it does, your bottom line becomes blacker and blacker. But your awareness is always focused on serving. You let the bottom line take care of itself.
It has worked for me in my organization. My profits, my sales, my bookings have just gone up and up over the years, and I have less and less concern with how I am doing.
So, Lighten Up
You do not have to strive to prove anything—unless, of course, you choose to listen to your omnipresent false self, which stipulates that if you don’t stay busy pursuing something you are a failure.
It can be difficult to lighten up and understand that life is what happens while you are making other plans. Each and every instant of your life takes place in the present moment.
Using your present moments to chase after future moments is an ego-based activity. Your ego wants you to feel incomplete so that it can control your life. Your false self would keep you in perpetual motion chasing after more and more until your final breath.
Your higher self does not want you to be lazy or without purpose but to realize the power in knowing that this moment is your entire life. When you stop focusing on past or future moments, you release the stress and tension that accompany the striving lifestyle. With that release, you become more productive and peaceful than you are when you look behind or ahead of yourself and don’t allow your mind to rest in the still center or the present moment.
Contrary to what your ego attempts to convince you, you will not simply vegetate, become homeless or an irresponsible drifter when you stop striving. What will happen is that you will lighten up and become so engrossed in your mission that you are more vibrant. With this power, you will discover that you are free to serve whatever you are intuitively drawn to.
When you stop striving and start knowing that you are on a divine mission, and that you are not alone, you will be guided to the experience of arriving. That experience will introduce you to the bliss of being in the realm of spirit, where there is no worry or guilt.
When you encounter a personal dilemma about what you want to go after in your life, turn the decision over to your sacred self: “Decide for me. I leave it in your hands.” Then let go and listen. Your answers will come as you develop the internal willingness to allow your higher self to guide you. Miraculously, the right person will show up and say precisely what you need to hear, or you will be guided to the right source. To do this, you must let go and allow your higher awareness to exercise itself.
When you allow yourself to be still, you will understand the futility of constant striving and chasing after more.
Keep in mind the advice offered in A Course in Miracles: “Only infinite patience produces immediate results.” By giving yourself moments for appreciation, you allow yourself the freedom to arrive rather than strive. You choose to be free of ego demands and allow the loving presence to be felt.
Excellence in Action: Learn to be still.
It's Not Over Until You Win!
As someone well acquainted with life’s ups and downs, I savor the good times as a gift. I think it is important to enjoy those times when life smiles upon you. But I believe also that it is unrealistic to expect good times to last forever. For most of us, life offers abundant opportunities for both laughter and tears. The good times you put in your pocket to savor. The hard times go to your heart and into your soul.
Our ability to handle life’s challenges is a measure of our strength of character. And yet, where do we learn how to deal with those challenges, hard times, and difficulties? Where do we enroll in Life 101? Where are the classes for dealing with the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, the failure of a relationship? Unfortunately, those lessons are mostly learned through trial by fire, and the school of hard knocks.
No wonder so many people feel lost and alone when they are going through hard times. No wonder so many turn to alcohol, drugs, and even suicide. How many times have you heard someone in distress say, “I can’t see a way out. I feel so alone. It’s over for me”?
"It is your absolute right to experience and enjoy the best that life has to offer."
But no matter how difficult your life may become, no matter how hard you get it, there is always reason to keep on going and fighting because you can survive and thrive. After encountering difficult times, setbacks, failures, losses, and defeats in your life you can reach the point where no experience in your life is too difficult to overcome, no defeat is permanent, no failure overwhelms you. You can look beyond temporary setbacks and fight your way through them by understanding that it is not only within your power, it is your absolute right to experience and enjoy the best that life has to offer.
Often, people do not consciously focus on dying, but they stop living. It is wrong to do that. It is a waste of your gifts and talents to give up on life. It is a betrayal of the love others have granted you. You have to live dynamically. We all have to keep focused, even through the hard times, on our dreams and goals. We have to monitor our thoughts and reject negative thinking and negative people who hold us back.
Failure and defeat and loss afflict us all. Expect it, learn to deal with it. And then learn to get back after life without waiting for an invitation. One way to do that is to trust in a power greater than yourself, and to believe that good things are going to follow, that great things will occur when you get up, dust yourself off, and go after life with determination and courage.
Learn to take life on, to live it passionately and courageously, and to never let a failure or a defeat stop you for more than the time it takes you to acknowledge it, recognize its impact on your life, accept it, learn from it, and then move on.
Excellence in Action: Failure and defeat and loss afflict us all. Expect it, learn to deal with it. And then learn to get back after life without waiting for an invitation.
Get Ego Out of the Way
once asked Abraham Maslow, “What do you mean when you say self-actualization?” He said, “There are just two things to remember: one is to learn to become independent of the good opinion of other people, and the second is to master the art of being detached from the fruits of your labors.”
For example, you may experience turbulence in your life. But you can learn how to remove yourself from the turbulence and see that it’s just your body going through it.
When you become the observer, you detach yourself from the outcome. You get your ego and everything in the material world out of the picture, and you allow the highest part of you to observe the circumstance. You remove all that inner turbulence, anguish, fear, and anxiety, and you then replace it with the calmness of a detached observer. The minute you sense that calmness, the solution is at hand. You’re not operating from adrenaline or fear or angst.
When you face a crisis or deadline from the perspective that you only have so much time and “have to hurry,” you become one more person who brings stress and anxiety to the problem.
It’s in the taming of the ego that you find the sacred in your life. You find greater strength when you can stop being so focused on you and your bottom line and start reaching out to others.
They said of Jesus and Buddha that when they went into a village, their very presence raised the consciousness of those around them. They radiated a blissful serenity. That kind of peace is where you can resolve virtually any difficulty.
One of the great teachers in my life was Carl Jung. He died when I was four years old, but he wrote a book called Modern Man in Search of a Soul wherein he talked about four stages that people go through to reach maturity.
The highest stage is the stage of the Spirit. This is when you finally recognize that you are not an athlete, a warrior, or a statesman, that you are in this world, but not of this world. You recognize that you are not a human being having a spiritual experience, but you are a spiritual being having a human experience. In a sense, this life is all very temporary; this life is like a garage where we park our souls for a time, but our inner spirits are not so confined. The mystery of that is what we call unconditional love. When you are able to live this unconditional love you will have achieved this final state.
It doesn’t happen if you try to figure it out using logic or look for results in the material world. When you start taking your attention off of building your business so you can make more money—and instead put your attention on serving everyone who comes through your door as best you can—your energy begins to spread...and the more people become attracted to your office.
That energy becomes infectious, because it promotes more of that love—and as it does, your bottom line becomes blacker and blacker. But your awareness is always focused on serving. You let the bottom line take care of itself.
It has worked for me in my organization. My profits, my sales, my bookings have just gone up and up over the years, and I have less and less concern with how I am doing.
So, Lighten Up
You do not have to strive to prove anything—unless, of course, you choose to listen to your omnipresent false self, which stipulates that if you don’t stay busy pursuing something you are a failure.
It can be difficult to lighten up and understand that life is what happens while you are making other plans. Each and every instant of your life takes place in the present moment.
Using your present moments to chase after future moments is an ego-based activity. Your ego wants you to feel incomplete so that it can control your life. Your false self would keep you in perpetual motion chasing after more and more until your final breath.
Your higher self does not want you to be lazy or without purpose but to realize the power in knowing that this moment is your entire life. When you stop focusing on past or future moments, you release the stress and tension that accompany the striving lifestyle. With that release, you become more productive and peaceful than you are when you look behind or ahead of yourself and don’t allow your mind to rest in the still center or the present moment.
Contrary to what your ego attempts to convince you, you will not simply vegetate, become homeless or an irresponsible drifter when you stop striving. What will happen is that you will lighten up and become so engrossed in your mission that you are more vibrant. With this power, you will discover that you are free to serve whatever you are intuitively drawn to.
When you stop striving and start knowing that you are on a divine mission, and that you are not alone, you will be guided to the experience of arriving. That experience will introduce you to the bliss of being in the realm of spirit, where there is no worry or guilt.
When you encounter a personal dilemma about what you want to go after in your life, turn the decision over to your sacred self: “Decide for me. I leave it in your hands.” Then let go and listen. Your answers will come as you develop the internal willingness to allow your higher self to guide you. Miraculously, the right person will show up and say precisely what you need to hear, or you will be guided to the right source. To do this, you must let go and allow your higher awareness to exercise itself.
When you allow yourself to be still, you will understand the futility of constant striving and chasing after more.
Keep in mind the advice offered in A Course in Miracles: “Only infinite patience produces immediate results.” By giving yourself moments for appreciation, you allow yourself the freedom to arrive rather than strive. You choose to be free of ego demands and allow the loving presence to be felt.
Excellence in Action: Learn to be still.
Character and Competence
To be a 21st century leader, you must have two things: competence and character. I’ve met a lot of leaders who are very competent, but they lack character. And for every job they do well, they seek a reward in the form of promotions, awards, or decorations—in the form of getting ahead at the expense of somebody else or in the form of another piece of paper that awards them another degree. And the only reason they want the decoration is to secure a faster route to the top. These may be very competent people, but they lack character.
On the other hand, I’ve met many leaders who have superb character, but they aren’t willing to hold their own feet to the fire; they aren’t willing to pay the price of leadership. They are not willing to go the extra mile, to do the extra little bit. Those extras are what it takes to be a great leader.
Not Being Watched
I look for both character and competence. I would never send a leader who lacked one or both of these vital attributes into battle. Because when you lead in battle, you are leading people—you are leading human beings. A competent leader will stand in front of a platoon of 44 people and think of them as a platoon. But a great leader will stand in front of the same platoon and think of them as 44 individuals, each having hopes and aspirations and wanting to live and do a good job.
So, you must have competence, and you must have character. Some great man once said that character is best seen in men and women when nobody is watching them. It’s not what people do when they are being watched that demonstrates character; it’s what they do when they are not being watched that demonstrates true character. And that’s what leadership is all about.
Excellence in Action: Be trustworthy when no one else is around.
In Pursuit of Excellence
I have the goal of being the best, but I approach everything step by step using short-term goals. When I meet one goal, I set another reasonable goal I can achieve if I work hard. Each success leads to the next one. Each time I visualize where I want to be and what kind of person and player I want to become. I approach it with the end in mind. I know exactly where I want to go, and I focus on getting there. As I reach those goals, I gain a little more confidence. It’s all mental for me. I never write anything down. I just concentrate on the next step.
I’m not afraid to ask anybody anything. Why should I be afraid? My attitude is “Help me; give me direction.”
I could apply that approach to anything I might do. It’s no different for the person whose goal is to become a doctor. All those steps are like pieces of a puzzle. They all come together to form a picture. If it’s complete, you reach your goal. If not, don’t get down on yourself.
Don’t Think About Failure
I never look at the consequences of failing. Because when you think about the consequences, you always think of a negative result. If I’m jumping into any situation, I’m thinking I’m going to be successful—not about what happens if I fail.
Some people get frozen by fear of failure by thinking about the possibility of a negative result. They might be afraid of looking bad or being embarrassed. I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life, I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it. I don’t believe you can achieve anything by being passive.
I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but to me it’s an illusion. Any fear is an illusion. You think something is standing in your way, but nothing is there—only an opportunity to do your best and gain some success.
If it turns out my best isn’t good enough, then at least I’ll never be able to look back and say I was too afraid to try. Maybe I just didn’t have it. Maybe I just wasn’t good enough. There’s nothing wrong with that and nothing to be afraid of either. Failure always made me try harder the next time.
My advice is “think positive” and “find fuel in failure.” Sometimes failure gets you closer to where you want to be. The greatest inventions in the world had hundreds of failures before answers were found.
Fear sometimes comes from a lack of focus or concentration. If you know you are doing the right things, just relax and perform. Forget about the outcome. You can’t control anything anyway.
When you make a presentation in business, you may do all the things necessary, but then it’s out of your hands. Either the clients like the presentation, or they don’t. It’s up to the client or the buyer. So don’t worry about it.
I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. It doesn’t matter if you win as long as you give everything in your heart and work at it 110 percent. If you put in the work, the results will come. I can’t do things halfheartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect halfhearted results. That’s why I approach practices the same way I approach games. I can’t dog it during practice and then, when I need that extra push late in the game, expect it to be there.
But that’s how a lot of people approach things. And that’s why they fail. They sound like they’re committed to being the best they can be. They say all the right things, make all the proper appearances. But they’re looking for reasons instead of answers.
Overcome Obstacles
You see it all the time in business. There are a million excuses for not paying the price. “If only I was given a particular opportunity” or “if only the boss liked me better, I could accomplish this or that.” Nothing but excuses.
That’s not to say there aren’t obstacles or distractions. If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
You have to stick to your plan. A lot of people try to pull you down to their level because they can’t achieve certain things. But very few people get anywhere by taking shortcuts. More people gain success the honest way, by setting their goals and committing themselves to achieving those goals.
Our society tends to glamorize individual success without considering the entire process. What if you have a CEO with a great idea, but he doesn’t have the people to make it happen? If you don’t have all the pieces in place, particularly at the front lines, that idea doesn’t mean a thing. You can have the greatest salespeople in the world, but if the people making the product aren’t any good, no one will buy it.
Managers, like coaches, have to find ways to utilize individual talents in the best interests of the company. It’s a selfless process. In our society sometimes it’s hard to come to grips with filling a role instead of trying to be a superstar. We tend to ignore or fail to respect all the parts that make the whole possible. Talent wins games, but team-work and intelligence win championships.
Everything I achieved can be traced back to the way I approached and applied the fundamentals, the basic building blocks or principles that make everything work. I don’t care what you’re doing—you can’t skip fundamentals if you want to be the best. But some guys don’t want to deal with that. They're looking for instant gratification, so maybe they skip a few steps. They’re so focused on composing a masterpiece that they never master the scales. You can get away with it through the early stages, but it’s going to catch up with you eventually. The minute you get away from fundamentals—whether it’s proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation—the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you're doing.
When you understand the building blocks, you see how the entire operation works. And that allows you to operate more intelligently. It sounds easy, but it isn’t. You have to monitor your fundamentals constantly because the only thing that changes will be your attention to them. The fundamentals will never change. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.
Lead By Example
I’ve always tried to lead by example. I never tried to motivate by talking because I don’t think words ever mean as much as action. A picture carries a thousand words. So I tried to paint a picture of hard work and discipline. Why not? If the person out front doesn’t work hard, why should anyone else?
A leader has to earn that title. You aren’t the leader just because you’re the best player on the team, the smartest person in the class, or the most popular. No one can give you that title either. You have to gain the respect of those around you by your actions. You have to be consistent in your approach whether it’s basketball practice, a sales meeting, or dealing with your family. Those around you have to know what to expect. They have to be confident that you’ll be there, that your performance will be consistent from game to game, particularly when things get tight.
Ultimately, coaches or players can say anything they want, but if they don’t back it up with performance and hard work, the talking doesn’t mean a thing. A leader can’t make any excuses. There has to be quality in everything you do—off the court, on the court, in the classroom, on the playground, inside the meeting room, outside of work. You have to transfer those skills, that drive, to whatever environment you’re in. And you have to be willing to sacrifice certain individual goals, if necessary, for the good of the team. A leader is also a person who has had past successes in certain situations and isn’t afraid of taking the chance to lead others down that road again.
Along the way, you also have to stand up for what you believe and hold on to your convictions. Every home, every business, and every neighborhood needs someone to lead.
Excellence in Action: “Think positive” and “find fuel in failure."
Friday, February 29, 2008
A Matter of Style
Treating others the way they want to be treated by adapting to their personality style can quickly make you a more sensitive, effective leader and friend. Indeed, treating others in this way can have a positive effect on almost every aspect of your life.
There’s a different way to communicate and delegate, compliment and correct, motivate and counsel people with different personalities. Your power to influence others springs from two sources: position power and personal power. Position power is derived from your position, job, title or status; personal power, in contrast, comes from earning it. Personal power can turn mere compliance into cooperation. You can’t lead until you are genuinely accepted. If you honor people’s individuality, they’ll feel like they’re on a winning team and will work harder, better for you. But you must empower them rather than just seeking power over them.
The best leaders realize what a job or task requires—and then do it by working well with all of the personality styles in all sorts of situations.
Be aware of your style and how it can affect others. Being conscious of the extremes of your style will allow you to become a better leader and have better relationships at home as you see for the first time how others view you.
Four Styles of Leadership
These four styles bring different ways of doing things to a group:
1. Directors tend to communicate with short, task-oriented comments. They like to assume control, have a clear agenda, set things in motion, and keep the discussion on track and on time. They influence others by structuring agendas, tasks, and assignments. Directors want to make key decisions on key issues, then delegate the rest of the work.
2. Socializers communicate frequently. Their comments are likely to include jokes, cover a range of topics, and use flattery or compliments to win over the group and get its members to feel good as a team. They’ll often use humor to defuse tension or conflict. They try to avoid a hard line that will lose them acceptance or recognition. They involve others in the give-and-take, work out compromises, and downplay divisions.
3. Relaters ask questions, try to understand others’ points of view or what follow-through will be expected. They act as synthesizers, go-betweens, or translators. They keep the process moving along. They’ll elaborate on what others say and encourage everyone to have their say. They exert influence by keeping things mellow and moving. They work toward consensus.
4. Thinkers observe until they fully grasp an issue and figure out what they want to say. They often begin by asking a few questions. Then, if the climate seems receptive, they relate what they believe is the answer. Information and logic are their tools. They like to furnish information that suggests their expertise and experience. They’re likely to focus on the “rightness,” or logic, of a solution. They involve others to get information from various sources. However, they prefer to have much of the group work done behind the scenes. They like to be the only ones who know how all the parts of the task fit together. They crave “rational” decisions. They like to list pros and cons of issues to select the best course of action.
Polishing Your Style
Whatever your primary style, you can round off the sharper edges.
1. If you’re a director: Remember that others have feelings and that your hard-charging, know-it-all style can make others feel inadequate and resentful. Accept that mistakes will occur, and try to temper justice with mercy. You might even joke about errors you make. Encourage growth in others by praising them when they do something well and by giving them some authority and then staying out of their way so they can use it. Whatever you lose in control, you’ll gain in commitment and competency. Try not to be so bossy. Ask others’ opinions and plan some collaborative actions.
2. If you’re a socializer: Your people depend on you not just for ideas, but for coordination, too. So anything you can do to become more organized—making lists, keeping your calendar current, prioritizing goals—will pay big dividends. Nothing’s so dispiriting as to see the boss drop the ball. If you fail to follow-up, procrastinate on tough decisions, or make pledges you don’t keep, people will lose faith. Your charm and warmth can’t compensate for being unreliable. When conflicts occur, try to deal with them up front, not sweep them under the rug. Organize your time better and keep your socializing in balance with your tasks.
3. If you’re a relater: You’re probably popular, and so your goal should be to become more effective. Learn to stretch a little, taking on more or different duties, and accomplishing them more quickly. You may want to be more assertive and more open about your thoughts and feelings. Experiment with a little risk, a little change. Being sensitive to the feelings of others is one of your greatest strengths. But you must seek a middle ground between that and being knocked off balance by the first negative comment or action that comes your way.
4. If you’re a thinker: Your high standards are a two-edged sword. Others may be inspired by your quest for excellence, but often they feel frustrated because they can never seem to please you. Soften your criticism and ease up on your need to control. You can have high standards without requiring perfection in others. That’ll take a load off your shoulders—and off theirs.
Whatever your style, being adaptable can help you to build bridges and make others feel valued. By learning how to best respond to their interests and concerns, their strengths and weaknesses, you can get the most from your people and leave them more satisfied.
Excellence in Action: Which leadership style best fits your personality? Identify which leadership style you most closely resemble and implement the necessary changes to become a more authentic leader.
Optimism vs. Pessimism
Let’s talk about optimism and pessimism. The optimist believes in the triumph of hope over expectations. Real optimism flies in the face of the facts. It has to be irrational, otherwise it’s simply common sense. Pessimists calculate the odds. Optimists believe they can overcome them.
Our problem is that, seen through the prism of history, the optimism of the victorious always looks inevitable. If only each of us could be blessed with that kind of confidence, that fibre of moral certainty, now, as we are confronted by our daily trials and tests. We are talking, ultimately, about faith, about a willingness to hang onto something that transcends logic. But it is important for you to remember that even those who are held up to us as paragons of faith and optimism and iron will know despair.
Even the greatest among us, throughout all of history, have been afflicted by doubt and despair. It’s a natural part of the human condition. Optimism is the quality that allows us to triumph over despair. It requires courage and a willingness to dare.
"Life is not easy, but you must dare to hope."
Dante wrote that “the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who preserve their neutrality in times of crisis.” A perfect definition, I’ve always thought, of the journalist. I have struggled all my life to maintain objectivity. That is the proper condition for an observer, but not for those who get things done. The paradox you will confront throughout life is that optimists do not always triumph. They are mocked and reviled, imprisoned and killed; but the progress of the human race ultimately depends upon those who are willing to put hope above expectations.
When all is said and done, intelligence alone is not what will save us. Intelligence fueled by hope and faith and courage is what will save us. It is willingness to believe in something beyond ourselves. And yes, I do mean some infinite power that infuses our existence with a meaning that transcends the simple span of our lives. If we do not believe in that, then there is no reason to build for a future. No reason to build churches or synagogues or mosques, no reason to teach values to children, no reason to plant trees, no reason to fight intolerance against anyone other than ourselves.
We need some optimism again, some hope. We need some adventurers, some planners, farmers, builders. We need to put some of our cynicism aside. It is our challenge—yours and mine—to accept society’s daring proposition that self-control works; to dare to believe that the future can be better than the past; that even among our self-centered generation there have been optimists who have planted seeds so that you can reap the harvest; and that, encouraged by their example, even more of you will do the same for your children. Life is not easy, but you must dare to hope.
Excellence in Action: Instead of complaining about your next difficult task, solve it optimistically.
Power in the PositiveUndoubtedly, there are people today who have within themselves astonishing power. I think that may be said of everyone, and yet we allow the smallest and most insignificant things to frustrate our power. I do not know what constitutes an obstacle in the way of your success or happiness. But I do know that it is not necessary for you to be hobbled, hampered, or defeated.
I am constantly amazed at the astonishing power that can be released in people by the simple habit of positive thinking, which is another term for faith. Anyone who becomes a great person did so because he refused to be a little person. He refused to allow obstacles to defeat him. The most inspirational thing in life is a person who has overcome obstacles and hardships.
But, you may say, “I’ve tried positive thinking, and things didn’t turn out right.”
Who said everything would turn out right? And what do you mean by “right”? Do you mean as you wanted? How do you know that your idea, the thing you wanted, was in harmony with God’s idea? It is my humble belief that when you and I are willing to put ourselves in harmony with God’s ideas, not trying stubbornly to force our own way, then things turn out right. That does not necessarily mean as we thought we wanted.
Positive thinking is realistic thinking. It always sees the negative, but it doesn’t dwell on the negative and nurture it, letting it dominate the mind. It keeps the negative in proper size and grows the positive big.
"As you think, so are you."
Those who are skeptical about positive thinking will cite instances where it didn’t seem to get results. But what, or who, was at fault? Was it the principles of positive thinking? Or was it the person who was using it, or who thought he was?
“If you have faith,” says the most reliable document ever written, “nothing shall be impossible.” And how do you release it? You release it by changing the cast of your thoughts. By practicing belief rather than disbelief. You probably go along every day affirming, “I cannot do that, I cannot do this.”
“I can’t.” How many times a day do you say, “I cannot do it”? All you have to do is repeat that negative thought to your subconscious mind and it will become a fact, because your subconscious mind wants to believe it anyway. Then you come up with a proposition and you hopefully ask your subconscious mind, “Can I, or can’t I?” Your subconscious mind will answer that you cannot do it. You have trained it to answer negatively. Your creative imagination has formed a picture of yourself as failing. As you think, so are you. You have thought yourself into a state of disbelief in yourself.
If, over a long period of time, you create in your mind the picture that you cannot, you will inevitably have a picture of yourself failing and, therefore, you will fail. You have two powers within you, creative imagination and will. You may summon your will, which will say, “I can.” But your creative imagination says, “No, you cannot.” In this conflict of opinion, you cannot, because your creative imagination is stronger than your will. This is true because imagination is in the realm of belief, and what you believe in your heart determines what you can or cannot do.
If, over time, you believe that with the help of God you can overcome, you can achieve, then you will get a deep, unshakable, picture that you can. Then your will and your imagination flow together, and against that power nothing negative can stand.
Philosopher William James once said, “Believe, and your belief will in time create the fact.” And Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Beware of what you want, because there is a strong likelihood that you will get it.” If you want some bad thing and keep forming a picture of it, you will get it. It will come to you. The whole universe will conspire to give it to you. If, on the contrary, you want some good thing, picture it, believe it, until it becomes your real desire: If you seek with all your heart, you shall find. Get into your mind positive convictions about what you want to be, what you want to become, and what you want to do. And you will go far toward attaining your goal.
"Identify yourself with success, and success will come to you."
If there is still in your mind the idea that you cannot do something, the reason you do not accomplish it is because you are thinking negatively. Start believing; start having faith. And presently, you will attain results. Identify yourself with success, and success will come to you.
The Bible points out that you have to repent and forgive if you want faith to operate in your life. You have to get all sin out. Did you commit a sin yesterday? And are you sorry for it? Then repent and ask for forgiveness, and don’t let it linger in consciousness as guilt. If it does, it will burrow down into your unconscious and will block power in your life.
You can’t get much faith through a person who is filled with sin, wrong, and guilt. To have a flow of this power through a personality, to release it, you must have a transformed personality. You have to get rid of hate, ill will, grudges, and sins, for they block power. Only a little power trickles through, not enough to give great strength.
So form in your mind a picture of yourself believing, achieving, what God wants you to do and to be. Cleanse yourself so that His power may get through you. No matter what obstacles are before you, if you will cleanse yourself and believe, you will attain absolutely astonishing feats.
Throw back your shoulders, let your heart sing, let your eyes flash, let your mind be lifted up. Live with verve and victory and enthusiasm, such as you have never had before. Leave those old negative defeats at the altar of God. And like Joan of Arc, let Him touch your bright and shining sword and storm the walls of defeat to conquer them.
Excellence in Action: Practice belief rather than disbelief.
There’s a different way to communicate and delegate, compliment and correct, motivate and counsel people with different personalities. Your power to influence others springs from two sources: position power and personal power. Position power is derived from your position, job, title or status; personal power, in contrast, comes from earning it. Personal power can turn mere compliance into cooperation. You can’t lead until you are genuinely accepted. If you honor people’s individuality, they’ll feel like they’re on a winning team and will work harder, better for you. But you must empower them rather than just seeking power over them.
The best leaders realize what a job or task requires—and then do it by working well with all of the personality styles in all sorts of situations.
Be aware of your style and how it can affect others. Being conscious of the extremes of your style will allow you to become a better leader and have better relationships at home as you see for the first time how others view you.
Four Styles of Leadership
These four styles bring different ways of doing things to a group:
1. Directors tend to communicate with short, task-oriented comments. They like to assume control, have a clear agenda, set things in motion, and keep the discussion on track and on time. They influence others by structuring agendas, tasks, and assignments. Directors want to make key decisions on key issues, then delegate the rest of the work.
2. Socializers communicate frequently. Their comments are likely to include jokes, cover a range of topics, and use flattery or compliments to win over the group and get its members to feel good as a team. They’ll often use humor to defuse tension or conflict. They try to avoid a hard line that will lose them acceptance or recognition. They involve others in the give-and-take, work out compromises, and downplay divisions.
3. Relaters ask questions, try to understand others’ points of view or what follow-through will be expected. They act as synthesizers, go-betweens, or translators. They keep the process moving along. They’ll elaborate on what others say and encourage everyone to have their say. They exert influence by keeping things mellow and moving. They work toward consensus.
4. Thinkers observe until they fully grasp an issue and figure out what they want to say. They often begin by asking a few questions. Then, if the climate seems receptive, they relate what they believe is the answer. Information and logic are their tools. They like to furnish information that suggests their expertise and experience. They’re likely to focus on the “rightness,” or logic, of a solution. They involve others to get information from various sources. However, they prefer to have much of the group work done behind the scenes. They like to be the only ones who know how all the parts of the task fit together. They crave “rational” decisions. They like to list pros and cons of issues to select the best course of action.
Polishing Your Style
Whatever your primary style, you can round off the sharper edges.
1. If you’re a director: Remember that others have feelings and that your hard-charging, know-it-all style can make others feel inadequate and resentful. Accept that mistakes will occur, and try to temper justice with mercy. You might even joke about errors you make. Encourage growth in others by praising them when they do something well and by giving them some authority and then staying out of their way so they can use it. Whatever you lose in control, you’ll gain in commitment and competency. Try not to be so bossy. Ask others’ opinions and plan some collaborative actions.
2. If you’re a socializer: Your people depend on you not just for ideas, but for coordination, too. So anything you can do to become more organized—making lists, keeping your calendar current, prioritizing goals—will pay big dividends. Nothing’s so dispiriting as to see the boss drop the ball. If you fail to follow-up, procrastinate on tough decisions, or make pledges you don’t keep, people will lose faith. Your charm and warmth can’t compensate for being unreliable. When conflicts occur, try to deal with them up front, not sweep them under the rug. Organize your time better and keep your socializing in balance with your tasks.
3. If you’re a relater: You’re probably popular, and so your goal should be to become more effective. Learn to stretch a little, taking on more or different duties, and accomplishing them more quickly. You may want to be more assertive and more open about your thoughts and feelings. Experiment with a little risk, a little change. Being sensitive to the feelings of others is one of your greatest strengths. But you must seek a middle ground between that and being knocked off balance by the first negative comment or action that comes your way.
4. If you’re a thinker: Your high standards are a two-edged sword. Others may be inspired by your quest for excellence, but often they feel frustrated because they can never seem to please you. Soften your criticism and ease up on your need to control. You can have high standards without requiring perfection in others. That’ll take a load off your shoulders—and off theirs.
Whatever your style, being adaptable can help you to build bridges and make others feel valued. By learning how to best respond to their interests and concerns, their strengths and weaknesses, you can get the most from your people and leave them more satisfied.
Excellence in Action: Which leadership style best fits your personality? Identify which leadership style you most closely resemble and implement the necessary changes to become a more authentic leader.
Optimism vs. Pessimism
Let’s talk about optimism and pessimism. The optimist believes in the triumph of hope over expectations. Real optimism flies in the face of the facts. It has to be irrational, otherwise it’s simply common sense. Pessimists calculate the odds. Optimists believe they can overcome them.
Our problem is that, seen through the prism of history, the optimism of the victorious always looks inevitable. If only each of us could be blessed with that kind of confidence, that fibre of moral certainty, now, as we are confronted by our daily trials and tests. We are talking, ultimately, about faith, about a willingness to hang onto something that transcends logic. But it is important for you to remember that even those who are held up to us as paragons of faith and optimism and iron will know despair.
Even the greatest among us, throughout all of history, have been afflicted by doubt and despair. It’s a natural part of the human condition. Optimism is the quality that allows us to triumph over despair. It requires courage and a willingness to dare.
"Life is not easy, but you must dare to hope."
Dante wrote that “the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who preserve their neutrality in times of crisis.” A perfect definition, I’ve always thought, of the journalist. I have struggled all my life to maintain objectivity. That is the proper condition for an observer, but not for those who get things done. The paradox you will confront throughout life is that optimists do not always triumph. They are mocked and reviled, imprisoned and killed; but the progress of the human race ultimately depends upon those who are willing to put hope above expectations.
When all is said and done, intelligence alone is not what will save us. Intelligence fueled by hope and faith and courage is what will save us. It is willingness to believe in something beyond ourselves. And yes, I do mean some infinite power that infuses our existence with a meaning that transcends the simple span of our lives. If we do not believe in that, then there is no reason to build for a future. No reason to build churches or synagogues or mosques, no reason to teach values to children, no reason to plant trees, no reason to fight intolerance against anyone other than ourselves.
We need some optimism again, some hope. We need some adventurers, some planners, farmers, builders. We need to put some of our cynicism aside. It is our challenge—yours and mine—to accept society’s daring proposition that self-control works; to dare to believe that the future can be better than the past; that even among our self-centered generation there have been optimists who have planted seeds so that you can reap the harvest; and that, encouraged by their example, even more of you will do the same for your children. Life is not easy, but you must dare to hope.
Excellence in Action: Instead of complaining about your next difficult task, solve it optimistically.
Power in the PositiveUndoubtedly, there are people today who have within themselves astonishing power. I think that may be said of everyone, and yet we allow the smallest and most insignificant things to frustrate our power. I do not know what constitutes an obstacle in the way of your success or happiness. But I do know that it is not necessary for you to be hobbled, hampered, or defeated.
I am constantly amazed at the astonishing power that can be released in people by the simple habit of positive thinking, which is another term for faith. Anyone who becomes a great person did so because he refused to be a little person. He refused to allow obstacles to defeat him. The most inspirational thing in life is a person who has overcome obstacles and hardships.
But, you may say, “I’ve tried positive thinking, and things didn’t turn out right.”
Who said everything would turn out right? And what do you mean by “right”? Do you mean as you wanted? How do you know that your idea, the thing you wanted, was in harmony with God’s idea? It is my humble belief that when you and I are willing to put ourselves in harmony with God’s ideas, not trying stubbornly to force our own way, then things turn out right. That does not necessarily mean as we thought we wanted.
Positive thinking is realistic thinking. It always sees the negative, but it doesn’t dwell on the negative and nurture it, letting it dominate the mind. It keeps the negative in proper size and grows the positive big.
"As you think, so are you."
Those who are skeptical about positive thinking will cite instances where it didn’t seem to get results. But what, or who, was at fault? Was it the principles of positive thinking? Or was it the person who was using it, or who thought he was?
“If you have faith,” says the most reliable document ever written, “nothing shall be impossible.” And how do you release it? You release it by changing the cast of your thoughts. By practicing belief rather than disbelief. You probably go along every day affirming, “I cannot do that, I cannot do this.”
“I can’t.” How many times a day do you say, “I cannot do it”? All you have to do is repeat that negative thought to your subconscious mind and it will become a fact, because your subconscious mind wants to believe it anyway. Then you come up with a proposition and you hopefully ask your subconscious mind, “Can I, or can’t I?” Your subconscious mind will answer that you cannot do it. You have trained it to answer negatively. Your creative imagination has formed a picture of yourself as failing. As you think, so are you. You have thought yourself into a state of disbelief in yourself.
If, over a long period of time, you create in your mind the picture that you cannot, you will inevitably have a picture of yourself failing and, therefore, you will fail. You have two powers within you, creative imagination and will. You may summon your will, which will say, “I can.” But your creative imagination says, “No, you cannot.” In this conflict of opinion, you cannot, because your creative imagination is stronger than your will. This is true because imagination is in the realm of belief, and what you believe in your heart determines what you can or cannot do.
If, over time, you believe that with the help of God you can overcome, you can achieve, then you will get a deep, unshakable, picture that you can. Then your will and your imagination flow together, and against that power nothing negative can stand.
Philosopher William James once said, “Believe, and your belief will in time create the fact.” And Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Beware of what you want, because there is a strong likelihood that you will get it.” If you want some bad thing and keep forming a picture of it, you will get it. It will come to you. The whole universe will conspire to give it to you. If, on the contrary, you want some good thing, picture it, believe it, until it becomes your real desire: If you seek with all your heart, you shall find. Get into your mind positive convictions about what you want to be, what you want to become, and what you want to do. And you will go far toward attaining your goal.
"Identify yourself with success, and success will come to you."
If there is still in your mind the idea that you cannot do something, the reason you do not accomplish it is because you are thinking negatively. Start believing; start having faith. And presently, you will attain results. Identify yourself with success, and success will come to you.
The Bible points out that you have to repent and forgive if you want faith to operate in your life. You have to get all sin out. Did you commit a sin yesterday? And are you sorry for it? Then repent and ask for forgiveness, and don’t let it linger in consciousness as guilt. If it does, it will burrow down into your unconscious and will block power in your life.
You can’t get much faith through a person who is filled with sin, wrong, and guilt. To have a flow of this power through a personality, to release it, you must have a transformed personality. You have to get rid of hate, ill will, grudges, and sins, for they block power. Only a little power trickles through, not enough to give great strength.
So form in your mind a picture of yourself believing, achieving, what God wants you to do and to be. Cleanse yourself so that His power may get through you. No matter what obstacles are before you, if you will cleanse yourself and believe, you will attain absolutely astonishing feats.
Throw back your shoulders, let your heart sing, let your eyes flash, let your mind be lifted up. Live with verve and victory and enthusiasm, such as you have never had before. Leave those old negative defeats at the altar of God. And like Joan of Arc, let Him touch your bright and shining sword and storm the walls of defeat to conquer them.
Excellence in Action: Practice belief rather than disbelief.
5 Tips to Improve Your Wealth Attitude
1. Write down all that you are grateful for in your life right now—read it every day.
2. Make a decision that you will be wealthy. Affirm that decision every day by taking action in that direction.
3. Surround yourself with the people who are where you want to be financially
4. Read and listen to material (like this magazine!) that will support your new outlook and attitude about what’s possible.
5. Teach others the attitudes of wealth. Once you teach it, you will learn it.
Why build wealth? If you think wealth will answer all life’s questions and make you troublefree, you are delusional. I have had wealth twice in my life, and I don’t fi nd it to be trouble-free; as a matter of fact, most of the troubles have zeros attached to them. Wealth is not an escape mechanism. It is, instead, a tremendous responsibility. After years of studying, teaching and even preaching on this subject across America, I can find only three good uses for money. Money is good for fun. Money is good to invest. And money is good to give. Most anything else you find to do with it doesn’t represent good mental and spiritual health on your part.
Having Fun
The kid in us likes the fun part of this equation. If you’ve reached the point of wealth building, you have made the kid inside you behave for a long time with promises of ice cream. So if you’ve made it to this point, the kid should get some ice cream. Should anyone wear a $30,000 watch? Should anyone drive a brand-new $50,000 car? Should anyone live in a $700,000 home? Absolutely, they should. The problem with people is they buy those things when they can’t afford them. Taking your family, even the extended ones, on a seven-day cruise, buying large diamonds or even buying a new car are things you can afford to do when you have millions of dollars. You can afford to do these things because, when you do them, your money position is hardly even affected. If you like travel, travel. If you like clothes, buy some. I am releasing you to have some fun with your money,because money is to be enjoyed.
Investing
The grown-up inside us likes investing money because that is part of what makes you wealthy. In the movie Two Weeks Notice, Hugh Grant plays George Ward. The character of George is a very wealthy and spoiled corporate figure. His character isn’t one we want to imitate, but he has a great line in the movie about his wealth. He is telling Sandra Bullock’s character that he lives in this luxury hotel, when he says nonchalantly, “Actually, I own the hotel; my life is a little bit like Monopoly.”
Investing can feel like that after a while—“a little bit like Monopoly.” When you play Monopoly, you can be up, or you can get behind. Sometimes the market fluctuates, but as mature investors we ride out the waves and stay in for the long term. Sometimes I meet people who arrive at this step and are scared because just as they reach retirement age, their investments are heading down. Never fear; if you have quality investments with long-term track records, they will come back. Besides, you don’t need all the nest egg at once to retire on; you just need some of the income from it. So since you don’t need it all right then, it would be silly to cash everything out while the market is at the bottom. “Buy high; sell low” is not the formula to wealth. Be patient with the market while living off the income the nest egg produces. You can choose to be a little more sophisticated, but until you have more than $10 million, I would keep investing very simple. You can clutter your life with a bunch of unnecessary stress by getting into extremely complex investments. I use simple mutual funds and debt-free real estate as my investment mix—very clean, simple investments with some basic tax advantages. As you arrive at this step, if you want to own some paid-for real estate, it can be fun.
Always manage your own money. You should surround yourself with a team of people smarter than you, but you make the decisions. You can tell if they are smarter than you if they can explain complex issues in ways you can understand. If a member of your team wants you to do something “because I say so,” get a new team member. You are not hiring a daddy; you are gathering counsel. God did not give them the responsibility over this money. He gave that to you. Celebrities and pro athletes often lose their entire fortunes because they give up the responsibility of managing their own money. The money manager who loses your hard-earned investments won’t live with the regret and pain that you will. A good estate-planning attorney, a CPA or tax expert, an insurance pro, an investment pro and a good Realtor are a few of the essential team members you should gather around you. I endorse the use of financial planners if they are team members and not the sole captains of their teams. When selecting and working with your wealth team, it is vital to bring on members who have the heart of a teacher—not the heart of a salesman or the heart of an “expert.” The salesman is always chasing a commission and thinking short-term, and the “expert” can’t help being condescending, which is humorous because they likely have less money than you. Also, when taking advice, evaluate whether the person giving the advice will profit from it. If your insurance pro is coming up with more great insurance ideas every week, you may have a problem. That is not to say everyone who makes a commission off you is out to get you. There are plenty of commission-only financial people who have extreme levels of integrity. Just be aware of possible conflicts of interest.
When your money makes more than you do, you are officially wealthy. When you can comfortably live on your investment income, you are financially secure. Money is a hard worker—harder than you. Money never gets sick, never gets pregnant and is never disabled. Money works 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Money gets its job done, and it asks only for directions and a firm master.
Giving
The most mature part of who you are will meet the kid inside as you learn to involve yourself in the last use of money, which is to give it away. Giving is possibly the most fun you will ever have with money. Fun is good, but you will tire of golf and travel. Investing is good, but going around and around that Monopoly board eventually loses its appeal. Every mentally and spiritually healthy person I’ve met has been turned on by giving as long as it didn’t mean his own lights got cut off. I can promise you from meeting with literally thousands of millionaires that the thing the healthy ones share in common is a love of giving.
Someone who never has fun with money misses the point. Someone who never invests money will never have any. Someone who never gives is a monkey with his hand in a bottle. Do some of each.
Being a Winner
How many times have our parents said “Winning isn’t everything.” If winning isn’t everything, why do we fight so hard to achieve it, and feel so empty and miserable when we don’t? It’s the feeling of knowing you were the best on that day; and when you lose, it’s the painful awareness that you just didn’t get it done.
Being a winner starts with a determination to strive for victory—fairly, squarely, decently, by the rules—but always to win. Winning, of course, is as much about how you play the game as it is about who’s ahead when the final whistle blows. Being a winner is a state of mind, both on and off the field.
Don’t be afraid to celebrate your victories in a sportsmanlike manner. Goals are so difficult to come by (in soccer and in life) that when you get one, you should mark the occasion; celebrate every achievement. Show some excitement and emotion.
To win on the field of life, your body needs every edge it can get off the field. That means eating good foods, exercising, and of course, avoiding drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. Learning what foods work for you, how much rest your body needs, when you can push yourself to your limit and what your limits are: These are the foundation for your hard work and training.
The real winners have balance in their lives. You can’t stay focused on one thing all the time. It’s just not healthy, and you risk burning yourself out. Having hobbies and other interests will keep you fresh, so that when you return to work, you’ll be relaxed and eager to go.
Being a winner is also pursuing your dream with energy and determination. I admire dreamers—people who set lofty goals and then go about trying to reach them. Set your goals high enough so that it takes effort to achieve them; the goals themselves are not as important as the simple fact that you have them and are striving to realize them.
You have to differentiate between big dreams and the attainable goals. Your ultimate dream may be to own a very successful business, to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or to play for the U.S. Women’s National Team. But in fact, few people do. So start with some reachable goals—it is in the journey that you learn the most about yourself. That self-knowledge will help you not only along the way but also beyond, because as you reach one goal, you gain confidence to aspire to the next.
Setting goals helps you grow and succeed. Without goals, how can you be sure what you are training for, why you’re asking so much of yourself? Most people have a vague idea in their mind about the future, and that uncertainty impedes their ability to achieve greatness. Write your goals down or articulate them. This process will give you focus, help you determine whether those aspirations are right for you or whether you need to set new ones. Setting out without a direction will lead you nowhere, and dreams without follow-through are just that—dreams.
One of the most important parts of being a winner in life is being happy. A happy person makes those around them happy as well, and that is one of the greatest gifts of all. Make decisions in your life that lead to happiness, and that can be a lot more difficult than making decisions on the field that lead to goals. If you make a bad decision, you have to bounce back and try to make the next one better. If you pursue what you love, you will find happiness. We all know that the pursuit will be filled with its share of hardships and struggles, but if I can follow my life’s passion despite all the changes in schools, cities, and friends of my childhood, so can you.
Excellence in Action: What can you do to find more balance in your life? Spend a few hours each weekend enjoying your favorite hobby.
Life's Journey
I’m fascinated by life journeys—how you get from one place to another, and how sometimes the journey brings you back home.
Journeys in life are far more random, far less orderly, than they seem at first glance. Paths that appear random, are random, especially when you are looking at them one step at a time. It’s only when you stand back and see the whole journey in perspective, the paths chosen, the paths rejected, a pattern emerges—a pattern that over time defines the journey of life.
At any moment in time you often can’t see where your path is heading, and logic and intellect alone won’t lead you to make the right choices; they won’t, in fact, take you down the right path. You have to master not only the art of listening to your head, you must also listen to your heart and gut. Look beyond the immediate choice of it all. It is too easy to freeze up at important moments.
In some ways, the world today, while far more prosperous, is actually far more complex and complicated than the one faced years ago. But have no fear, although fear is part of the journey as well, because you have all the tools you need up in your head, in your heart, and in your gut. All you really have to do is engage your heart, your gut, and your mind in every decision you make; engage your whole self, and the journey will reveal itself with the passage of time. See your life as a journey and pause at moments to see life’s patterns.
Engage Your Mind
Life teaches lessons in strange ways. The lesson I learned early in life was to love what you do, or don’t do it. Don’t make a choice of any kind, whether in career or in life, just because it pleases others or because it ranks high on someone else’s scale of achievement or even because it seems to be, perhaps even for you at the time, simply the logical thing to do at that moment on your path. Make the choice to do something because it engages your heart as well as your mind. Make the choice because it engages all of you. The freedom to choose is yours.
To make the most of that freedom, use your mind and your heart and your gut. Freedom to choose can sometimes feel like a terrible burden, but the burden is greatly lightened when you learn how to use your whole self, when you realize that you have everything you need for this journey of life. You can absorb knowledge, invent, and create.
Now, of course, for some of you, engaging all of yourself—your mind and your heart—is natural; it’s easy for you. You’ve known how to do it perhaps since birth. But for the rest of us, getting there is a process. It can take years, or decades. Some of us never get to know our whole selves, but we need to keep trying.
My own process of finding the soul to guide me brings me back once again to my parents. My mother was a stay-at-home wife and an artist, but my mother, more than anyone else, taught me about the power of aspiration and courage. She also taught me the world of dreams expressed in art, the world of things freed from the laws of everyday. And she did it with a strength and a passion that I wish could be bottled. Even when it wasn’t easy or convenient, both my mother and father were ultimately true to themselves. And I absorbed that lesson from them. Their definition of greatness was about greatness of character.
Think for a moment about all the people who have influenced you—your parents, grandparents, partners, guardians, friends—whoever has been a catalyst, whoever has had defining influence and lasting impact on your life, whether they truly know it, whether you really see it, whether you really fully feel its weight yet. Take a moment now and remember them.
Technology is only as valuable as the use to which it is put. In the end, technology is ultimately about people. And in this technology renaissance, we will witness and experience the transference of power to the people, to the masses—to the individuals who bring their own spark, their own energy to the process, technology becomes not about bits and bytes, but about the celebration of people’s minds and people’s hearts.
Become a Leader
What will it mean to be a leader in this world? How must leadership be re-invented to be commensurate with the opportunity?
Leadership is not about controlling decision-making. We don’t have time anymore to control decision-making. It’s about creating the right environment. It’s about enablement and empowerment. It is about setting guidelines, boundaries, and parameters—and then setting people free.
Leadership is not about hierarchy, title, or status; it is about having influence and mastering change. Leadership is not about bragging rights, battles, or even the accumulation of wealth; it’s about connecting and engaging at multiple levels. It’s about challenging minds and capturing hearts. Leadership in this new era is about empowering others to decide for themselves. Leadership is about empowering others to reach their full potential. Leaders can no longer view strategy and execution as abstract concepts, but must realize that both elements are ultimately about people.
Now, of course, traditional aspects of being a leader will continue to be important, like understanding the business or the institution, understanding the numbers or the assets, or pushing the right levers to bring about the right results. But the most magical and tangible ingredient in the transformed landscape is people. The greatest strategy, financial plan, or turnaround will only be temporary if it isn’t grounded in people.
There are small and large acts of leadership. And small acts of leadership can change the world as surely as large acts. Ultimately they can have as much effect on people’s lives as big ones. A mother who teaches a child inventive ways of thinking, who encourages her daughter’s professional desires, is performing a small act of leadership.
Believe in Yourself and Others
Our generation of leaders will know that everyone on this earth is born with the potential to lead. And that is a shift worth celebrating. A leader’s greatest obligation is to make possible an environment where people’s minds and hearts can be inventive, brave, human, and strong—where people can aspire to do useful and significant things.
At Hewlett-Packard we call this way of thinking, this set of behaviors, the "rules of the garage." You see, "the garage" is a special place to us—it is where we began. But these rules are about the way we compete and the way we work. And our rules are: Believe you can change the world, work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever, know when to work alone and when to work together; share tools, ideas, and trust your colleagues. No politics, no bureaucracy: These are ridiculous in a garage. The customer defines a job well done. Radical ideas are not bad ideas. Invent different ways of working. Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage. Believe that together we can do anything. Invent.
While they really are core to our culture, I believe that if you carry these rules with you on your journey, if you create an environment where people’s hearts and minds are fully engaged, where strategy is ennobling, where great aspirations are powered by the desires of people to do something worthwhile, you will touch many others.
Engage your whole self in everything you do. Leadership is not about you, but about the people who you are trying to inspire by unleashing their talents, their hopes, their aspirations. Leadership comes in small acts as well as bold strokes. Whatever is your passion, make sure people are at the heart of your endeavors.
Throughout this journey, the only limits that really matter are the ones you put on yourself. In crucial moments when you know what you need to do, but others advise against what they perceive to be a detour from your path, know yourself, trust your whole self, and don’t blink. If you do these things, when you look back, you will know that this journey was a wonderful gift and that you have made as much of this wonderful gift as you could have.
Excellence in Action: Make a list of your strongest leadership attributes and commit your whole self to some worthwhile quest.
Being a winner starts with a determination to strive for victory—fairly, squarely, decently, by the rules—but always to win. Winning, of course, is as much about how you play the game as it is about who’s ahead when the final whistle blows. Being a winner is a state of mind, both on and off the field.
Don’t be afraid to celebrate your victories in a sportsmanlike manner. Goals are so difficult to come by (in soccer and in life) that when you get one, you should mark the occasion; celebrate every achievement. Show some excitement and emotion.
To win on the field of life, your body needs every edge it can get off the field. That means eating good foods, exercising, and of course, avoiding drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. Learning what foods work for you, how much rest your body needs, when you can push yourself to your limit and what your limits are: These are the foundation for your hard work and training.
The real winners have balance in their lives. You can’t stay focused on one thing all the time. It’s just not healthy, and you risk burning yourself out. Having hobbies and other interests will keep you fresh, so that when you return to work, you’ll be relaxed and eager to go.
Being a winner is also pursuing your dream with energy and determination. I admire dreamers—people who set lofty goals and then go about trying to reach them. Set your goals high enough so that it takes effort to achieve them; the goals themselves are not as important as the simple fact that you have them and are striving to realize them.
You have to differentiate between big dreams and the attainable goals. Your ultimate dream may be to own a very successful business, to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or to play for the U.S. Women’s National Team. But in fact, few people do. So start with some reachable goals—it is in the journey that you learn the most about yourself. That self-knowledge will help you not only along the way but also beyond, because as you reach one goal, you gain confidence to aspire to the next.
Setting goals helps you grow and succeed. Without goals, how can you be sure what you are training for, why you’re asking so much of yourself? Most people have a vague idea in their mind about the future, and that uncertainty impedes their ability to achieve greatness. Write your goals down or articulate them. This process will give you focus, help you determine whether those aspirations are right for you or whether you need to set new ones. Setting out without a direction will lead you nowhere, and dreams without follow-through are just that—dreams.
One of the most important parts of being a winner in life is being happy. A happy person makes those around them happy as well, and that is one of the greatest gifts of all. Make decisions in your life that lead to happiness, and that can be a lot more difficult than making decisions on the field that lead to goals. If you make a bad decision, you have to bounce back and try to make the next one better. If you pursue what you love, you will find happiness. We all know that the pursuit will be filled with its share of hardships and struggles, but if I can follow my life’s passion despite all the changes in schools, cities, and friends of my childhood, so can you.
Excellence in Action: What can you do to find more balance in your life? Spend a few hours each weekend enjoying your favorite hobby.
Life's Journey
I’m fascinated by life journeys—how you get from one place to another, and how sometimes the journey brings you back home.
Journeys in life are far more random, far less orderly, than they seem at first glance. Paths that appear random, are random, especially when you are looking at them one step at a time. It’s only when you stand back and see the whole journey in perspective, the paths chosen, the paths rejected, a pattern emerges—a pattern that over time defines the journey of life.
At any moment in time you often can’t see where your path is heading, and logic and intellect alone won’t lead you to make the right choices; they won’t, in fact, take you down the right path. You have to master not only the art of listening to your head, you must also listen to your heart and gut. Look beyond the immediate choice of it all. It is too easy to freeze up at important moments.
In some ways, the world today, while far more prosperous, is actually far more complex and complicated than the one faced years ago. But have no fear, although fear is part of the journey as well, because you have all the tools you need up in your head, in your heart, and in your gut. All you really have to do is engage your heart, your gut, and your mind in every decision you make; engage your whole self, and the journey will reveal itself with the passage of time. See your life as a journey and pause at moments to see life’s patterns.
Engage Your Mind
Life teaches lessons in strange ways. The lesson I learned early in life was to love what you do, or don’t do it. Don’t make a choice of any kind, whether in career or in life, just because it pleases others or because it ranks high on someone else’s scale of achievement or even because it seems to be, perhaps even for you at the time, simply the logical thing to do at that moment on your path. Make the choice to do something because it engages your heart as well as your mind. Make the choice because it engages all of you. The freedom to choose is yours.
To make the most of that freedom, use your mind and your heart and your gut. Freedom to choose can sometimes feel like a terrible burden, but the burden is greatly lightened when you learn how to use your whole self, when you realize that you have everything you need for this journey of life. You can absorb knowledge, invent, and create.
Now, of course, for some of you, engaging all of yourself—your mind and your heart—is natural; it’s easy for you. You’ve known how to do it perhaps since birth. But for the rest of us, getting there is a process. It can take years, or decades. Some of us never get to know our whole selves, but we need to keep trying.
My own process of finding the soul to guide me brings me back once again to my parents. My mother was a stay-at-home wife and an artist, but my mother, more than anyone else, taught me about the power of aspiration and courage. She also taught me the world of dreams expressed in art, the world of things freed from the laws of everyday. And she did it with a strength and a passion that I wish could be bottled. Even when it wasn’t easy or convenient, both my mother and father were ultimately true to themselves. And I absorbed that lesson from them. Their definition of greatness was about greatness of character.
Think for a moment about all the people who have influenced you—your parents, grandparents, partners, guardians, friends—whoever has been a catalyst, whoever has had defining influence and lasting impact on your life, whether they truly know it, whether you really see it, whether you really fully feel its weight yet. Take a moment now and remember them.
Technology is only as valuable as the use to which it is put. In the end, technology is ultimately about people. And in this technology renaissance, we will witness and experience the transference of power to the people, to the masses—to the individuals who bring their own spark, their own energy to the process, technology becomes not about bits and bytes, but about the celebration of people’s minds and people’s hearts.
Become a Leader
What will it mean to be a leader in this world? How must leadership be re-invented to be commensurate with the opportunity?
Leadership is not about controlling decision-making. We don’t have time anymore to control decision-making. It’s about creating the right environment. It’s about enablement and empowerment. It is about setting guidelines, boundaries, and parameters—and then setting people free.
Leadership is not about hierarchy, title, or status; it is about having influence and mastering change. Leadership is not about bragging rights, battles, or even the accumulation of wealth; it’s about connecting and engaging at multiple levels. It’s about challenging minds and capturing hearts. Leadership in this new era is about empowering others to decide for themselves. Leadership is about empowering others to reach their full potential. Leaders can no longer view strategy and execution as abstract concepts, but must realize that both elements are ultimately about people.
Now, of course, traditional aspects of being a leader will continue to be important, like understanding the business or the institution, understanding the numbers or the assets, or pushing the right levers to bring about the right results. But the most magical and tangible ingredient in the transformed landscape is people. The greatest strategy, financial plan, or turnaround will only be temporary if it isn’t grounded in people.
There are small and large acts of leadership. And small acts of leadership can change the world as surely as large acts. Ultimately they can have as much effect on people’s lives as big ones. A mother who teaches a child inventive ways of thinking, who encourages her daughter’s professional desires, is performing a small act of leadership.
Believe in Yourself and Others
Our generation of leaders will know that everyone on this earth is born with the potential to lead. And that is a shift worth celebrating. A leader’s greatest obligation is to make possible an environment where people’s minds and hearts can be inventive, brave, human, and strong—where people can aspire to do useful and significant things.
At Hewlett-Packard we call this way of thinking, this set of behaviors, the "rules of the garage." You see, "the garage" is a special place to us—it is where we began. But these rules are about the way we compete and the way we work. And our rules are: Believe you can change the world, work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever, know when to work alone and when to work together; share tools, ideas, and trust your colleagues. No politics, no bureaucracy: These are ridiculous in a garage. The customer defines a job well done. Radical ideas are not bad ideas. Invent different ways of working. Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage. Believe that together we can do anything. Invent.
While they really are core to our culture, I believe that if you carry these rules with you on your journey, if you create an environment where people’s hearts and minds are fully engaged, where strategy is ennobling, where great aspirations are powered by the desires of people to do something worthwhile, you will touch many others.
Engage your whole self in everything you do. Leadership is not about you, but about the people who you are trying to inspire by unleashing their talents, their hopes, their aspirations. Leadership comes in small acts as well as bold strokes. Whatever is your passion, make sure people are at the heart of your endeavors.
Throughout this journey, the only limits that really matter are the ones you put on yourself. In crucial moments when you know what you need to do, but others advise against what they perceive to be a detour from your path, know yourself, trust your whole self, and don’t blink. If you do these things, when you look back, you will know that this journey was a wonderful gift and that you have made as much of this wonderful gift as you could have.
Excellence in Action: Make a list of your strongest leadership attributes and commit your whole self to some worthwhile quest.
Rules to Weight Loss
Here are five simple ideas to help you maintain your weight:
1. Keep a food and exercise diary.
Writing down what you eat is one of the best ways to prevent poor food choices and useless calories. You’ll be amazed at how many calories you’re consuming—and identifying the culprit foods is the first step in eliminating them
2. Get more sleep.
When you’re sleep deprived, you’re more likely to catch a cold or have an accident. Your work performance can suffer, too. A tired body is also less efficient at building muscle and burning fat. You may go through the moves, but your sluggish pace makes your workout less effective. Eight hours is the optimum rest for most people. If you have trouble adjusting to an earlier bedtime, turn the lights low and put on soft music one hour beforehand.
3. Eat breakfast.
Skipping meals is a big mistake. You need food energy in the morning to get your body moving. Make breakfast well-rounded with a bit of protein and fruit as well as fiber. The simple act of eating wakes up your metabolism, so you start burning more calories right away.
4. Get moving before dinner.
I like to power walk or get outside and play with my daughters in the late afternoon or right before dinner. After a long work day, a quick walk or a rousing game of catch helps perk me up and releases stress. And that’s not all: predinner physical activity—even if it’s just a 10 minute walk—can help curb your appetite, so you end up eating less. Even better, it will give your metabolism a quick boost so your body is fully prepared for the food you’re about to eat. So before dinner, go for a short walk, hop on a bike, dance around your living room, or do 10 minutes of yoga—anything to burn a few calories and get your blood pumping!
5. Establish a kitchen curfew.
Experts have different theories on whether eating in the evening makes you more likely to gain weight. I believe that it does, and here’s why. During the day, you’re constantly getting up and moving—lifting boxes at the office, running to catch the bus—so your body needs steady fuel. But by evening, your body starts to slow down as you return home and prepare for bed. Your metabolism slows down, too. Therefore, if you eat a large meal before going to sleep, the food is more likely to get stored rather than burn for instant energy. So, when the clock strikes eight, turn off the lights and tell yourself that the kitchen is closed until morning. This will prevent late-night snacking and ensure that you won’t be putting on pounds while you sleep.
1. Keep a food and exercise diary.
Writing down what you eat is one of the best ways to prevent poor food choices and useless calories. You’ll be amazed at how many calories you’re consuming—and identifying the culprit foods is the first step in eliminating them
2. Get more sleep.
When you’re sleep deprived, you’re more likely to catch a cold or have an accident. Your work performance can suffer, too. A tired body is also less efficient at building muscle and burning fat. You may go through the moves, but your sluggish pace makes your workout less effective. Eight hours is the optimum rest for most people. If you have trouble adjusting to an earlier bedtime, turn the lights low and put on soft music one hour beforehand.
3. Eat breakfast.
Skipping meals is a big mistake. You need food energy in the morning to get your body moving. Make breakfast well-rounded with a bit of protein and fruit as well as fiber. The simple act of eating wakes up your metabolism, so you start burning more calories right away.
4. Get moving before dinner.
I like to power walk or get outside and play with my daughters in the late afternoon or right before dinner. After a long work day, a quick walk or a rousing game of catch helps perk me up and releases stress. And that’s not all: predinner physical activity—even if it’s just a 10 minute walk—can help curb your appetite, so you end up eating less. Even better, it will give your metabolism a quick boost so your body is fully prepared for the food you’re about to eat. So before dinner, go for a short walk, hop on a bike, dance around your living room, or do 10 minutes of yoga—anything to burn a few calories and get your blood pumping!
5. Establish a kitchen curfew.
Experts have different theories on whether eating in the evening makes you more likely to gain weight. I believe that it does, and here’s why. During the day, you’re constantly getting up and moving—lifting boxes at the office, running to catch the bus—so your body needs steady fuel. But by evening, your body starts to slow down as you return home and prepare for bed. Your metabolism slows down, too. Therefore, if you eat a large meal before going to sleep, the food is more likely to get stored rather than burn for instant energy. So, when the clock strikes eight, turn off the lights and tell yourself that the kitchen is closed until morning. This will prevent late-night snacking and ensure that you won’t be putting on pounds while you sleep.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Life is The Way It Is!
Life is The Way It Is!
Thought for the Moment
Failure is one of God's greatest teaching tools. Be thankful even for failures, for they make you stronger and wiser.
Be Good to You
Be Yourself... truthfully.
Accept Yourself... gratefully.
Value Yourself... completely.
Treat Yourself... generously..
Balance Yourself... harmoniously.
Bless Yourself... abundantly.
Trust Yourself... confidently.
Love Yourself... wholeheartedly.
Empower Yourself... prayerfully.
Give Yourself... enthusiastically.
Express Yourself... radiantly.
Honor Yourself... purposefully.
You can change your beliefs so they empower your dreams and desires. Create a strong belief in yourself and what you want.
Everyday happiness means getting up in the morning, and you can't wait to finish your breakfast. You can't wait to do your exercises. You can't wait to get out -- and you can't wait to come home, because the soup is hot.
5 Simple Rules To Be Happy
Free your heart from hatred.
Free your mind from worries.
Live simply.
Give more.
Expect less.
No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
When something happens to you, good or bad, consider what it means. There's a purpose to life's events, to teach you how to laugh more or not to cry too hard.
You can't make someone love you. All you can do is to be someone who can be loved.
It's better to lose your pride to the one you love, than to lose the one you love because of pride.
We spend too much time looking for the right person to love or finding fault with those we already love, when instead we should be perfecting the love we give.
Never abandon an old friend. You will never find one who can take his or her place. Friendship is like wine; it gets better as it grows older.
I try to live what I consider a "poetic existence." That means I take responsibility for the air I breathe and the space I take up. I try to be immediate, to be totally present for all my work.
Responsibility
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you have it.
Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap.
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
We never repent of having eaten too little.
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
Take things always by their smooth handle.
When angry, count to ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.
Start With a Dream
When we were young, we had dreams and expectations. We imagined things, we kept thinking about what we wanted to be, what we wanted to do, what made us proud and happy, and what we would become.
Things might have changed, but they cannot take away our dreams. We still need to dream on, to visualize our desires, our wants, our vision of the future.
Colonel Sanders started his successful KFC business when he was sixty. The main thing is not age - whether being too old or too young. It is the desire to dream on, and the courage to realize the dream.
Vivid visualization, taking it to sleep, thinking constantly about it, talking about it, planning it, adding all the spices to our dreams will make us a bit closer to their realization.
Entrepreneurship starts with a dream: a simple wish for a tiny restaurant operation, a huge business of real- estate development, a modest training center, or any other self-employment or worthwhile goal.
The ability to dream on is one of the fine qualities of the human race that other species do not possess. So dream on. Make it a giant dream, a tiny one, an everlasting one, a new-found one, a hobby-related one, a change-of-life one, or a stroke-of-genius one. Just continue to dream on... Then, just go do it!
The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.
Can a poor person become wealthy? Of course! The unique combination of desire, planning, effort and perseverance will always work its magic. The question is not whether the formula for success will work, but rather whether the person will work the formula. That is the unknown variable. That is the challenge that confronts us all. We can all go from wherever we are to wherever we want to be. No dream is impossible provided we first have the courage to believe in it.
Whether it takes ten minutes, a hundred plans, or a life time, we can achieve our goals only if we take a stand and begin. Our Creator provides the talent, desire, and a limited number of chances to show up at the starting line. Today is another of those chances.
Six-Step Recipe for Success
BE PASSIONATE.
Love what you do.
THE GREATEST WEALTH IS FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
Enjoy their love.
EVERY DAY IS SPECIAL.
Make it the best it can be.
"NO" IS UNACCEPTABLE.
Don't stop there. Go for "yes."
CELEBRATE EXCELLENCE.
Make people feel important.
THE GREATEST FAILURE IS NOT TO TRY.
When you dream, wake up and do.
Thought for the Moment
Purposeful living is a life style allowing us to make choices that result in life-enhancing value for others as well as ourselves.
God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. The way we learn those lessons is not to deny the feelings but to find the meanings underlying them.
Valuable Lessons: Past and Present
Rough times are some of life's most generous teachers. When viewed from a wide perspective, these difficult yesterdays transform into beautiful todays.
We can find magnificent blessings in exceedingly difficult times. If we observe closely, a ray of light—a very small ray at first—begins to reveal why we needed to travel rough roads.
An English proverb states, "A stumble may prevent a fall." Who would not rather stumble if it would prevent a tragic accident or a deeply sad regret?
Stumbles wake us up; they often show us that we've taken the wrong path. We see, perhaps for the first time, that if we had not stumbled, we would not be standing as straight and strong this moment.
The sun breaks through each overcast sky, and we find ourselves wiser and more resilient—able to see with a joyful spiritual vision. Then we receive one of the greatest spiritual gifts: the recognition of authentic happiness. Authentic happiness is true joy that lives within the soul. It is not a reaction to material possessions or events. It is a deep inner appreciative joy that follows us in spite of circumstances.
Emerson beautifully described authentic happiness when he wrote, "The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the heart of the child. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows."
Our life stories, with all their transitions and challenges, can be exciting page turners. We must simply move past the introduction into the heart of the plot where the drama and adventure unfold.
Allow the first chapter of your story to teach you, no matter how difficult it might have been. Let its valuable lessons inspire a future that you can envision with enthusiastic anticipation. Your story is waiting to be written, and only you can write the final copy.
The greatest human quality is that of becoming unstoppable! And you become unstoppable by refusing to quit, no matter what happens.
Climb 'Til Your Dream Comes True
Often your tasks will be many,
And more than you think you can do.
Often the road will be rugged
And the hills insurmountable, too.
But always remember, the hills ahead
Are never as steep as they seem,
And with Faith in your heart start upward
And climb 'Til you reach your dream.
For nothing in life that is worthy
Is never too hard to achieve
If you have the courage to try it
And you have the Faith to believe.
For Faith is a force that is greater
Than knowledge or power or skill
And many defeats turn to triumph
If you trust in God's wisdom and will.
For Faith is a mover of mountains.
There's nothing that God cannot do,
So start out today with Faith in your heart
And Climb 'Til Your Dream Comes True!
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
Believe in Yourself
Believe in yourself
To the depth of your being
Nourish the talents
Your spirit is freeing
Know in your heart
When the going gets slow
That your faith in yourself
Will continue to grow
Don't forfeit ambition
When others may doubt
It's your life to live
You must live it throughout
Learn from your errors
Don't dwell in the past
Never withdraw
From a world that is vast
Believe in yourself
Find the best that is you
Let your spirit prevail
Steer a course that is true
Believe in yourself
To the depth of your being
Nourish the talents
Your spirit is freeing
Know in your heart
When the going gets slow
That your faith in yourself
Will continue to grow
Don't forfeit ambition
When others may doubt
It's your life to live
You must live it throughout
Learn from your errors
Don't dwell in the past
Never withdraw
Hold your dreams fast
Thought for the Moment
Failure is one of God's greatest teaching tools. Be thankful even for failures, for they make you stronger and wiser.
Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently try again.
Try, Try Again
"Tis a lesson you should heed,
Try, try again;
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try again;
Then your courage should appear,
For if you will persevere,
You will conquer, never fear,
Try, try again.
Once or twice through you should fail,
Try try again;
If you would at last prevail,
Try, try again;
If we strive, 'tis no disgrace
Though we do not win the race;
What should you do in the case?
Try, try again.
Time will bring you your reward,
Try, try again.
All that other folks can do,
Why, with patience, should not you?
Only keep this rule in view;
Try, try again.
Thought for the Moment
Step out, do what you were afraid to do, and you will see your fear as a test to make you wiser and more resilient to life's challenges
5 Tips to Improve Your Wealth Attitude
Darren Hardy February 22, 2008 Categories: Wealth /Money Making Ideas, Wealth, Wealth /Wealth What's New
Write down all that you are grateful for in your life right now—read it every day.
Make a decision that you will be wealthy. Affirm that decision every day by taking action in that direction.
Surround yourself with the people who are where you want to be financially
Read and listen to material (like this magazine!) that will support your new outlook and attitude about what’s possible.
Teach others the attitudes of wealth. Once you teach it, you will learn it.
Thought for the Moment
Failure is one of God's greatest teaching tools. Be thankful even for failures, for they make you stronger and wiser.
Be Good to You
Be Yourself... truthfully.
Accept Yourself... gratefully.
Value Yourself... completely.
Treat Yourself... generously..
Balance Yourself... harmoniously.
Bless Yourself... abundantly.
Trust Yourself... confidently.
Love Yourself... wholeheartedly.
Empower Yourself... prayerfully.
Give Yourself... enthusiastically.
Express Yourself... radiantly.
Honor Yourself... purposefully.
You can change your beliefs so they empower your dreams and desires. Create a strong belief in yourself and what you want.
Everyday happiness means getting up in the morning, and you can't wait to finish your breakfast. You can't wait to do your exercises. You can't wait to get out -- and you can't wait to come home, because the soup is hot.
5 Simple Rules To Be Happy
Free your heart from hatred.
Free your mind from worries.
Live simply.
Give more.
Expect less.
No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
When something happens to you, good or bad, consider what it means. There's a purpose to life's events, to teach you how to laugh more or not to cry too hard.
You can't make someone love you. All you can do is to be someone who can be loved.
It's better to lose your pride to the one you love, than to lose the one you love because of pride.
We spend too much time looking for the right person to love or finding fault with those we already love, when instead we should be perfecting the love we give.
Never abandon an old friend. You will never find one who can take his or her place. Friendship is like wine; it gets better as it grows older.
I try to live what I consider a "poetic existence." That means I take responsibility for the air I breathe and the space I take up. I try to be immediate, to be totally present for all my work.
Responsibility
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you have it.
Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap.
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
We never repent of having eaten too little.
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
Take things always by their smooth handle.
When angry, count to ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.
Start With a Dream
When we were young, we had dreams and expectations. We imagined things, we kept thinking about what we wanted to be, what we wanted to do, what made us proud and happy, and what we would become.
Things might have changed, but they cannot take away our dreams. We still need to dream on, to visualize our desires, our wants, our vision of the future.
Colonel Sanders started his successful KFC business when he was sixty. The main thing is not age - whether being too old or too young. It is the desire to dream on, and the courage to realize the dream.
Vivid visualization, taking it to sleep, thinking constantly about it, talking about it, planning it, adding all the spices to our dreams will make us a bit closer to their realization.
Entrepreneurship starts with a dream: a simple wish for a tiny restaurant operation, a huge business of real- estate development, a modest training center, or any other self-employment or worthwhile goal.
The ability to dream on is one of the fine qualities of the human race that other species do not possess. So dream on. Make it a giant dream, a tiny one, an everlasting one, a new-found one, a hobby-related one, a change-of-life one, or a stroke-of-genius one. Just continue to dream on... Then, just go do it!
The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.
Can a poor person become wealthy? Of course! The unique combination of desire, planning, effort and perseverance will always work its magic. The question is not whether the formula for success will work, but rather whether the person will work the formula. That is the unknown variable. That is the challenge that confronts us all. We can all go from wherever we are to wherever we want to be. No dream is impossible provided we first have the courage to believe in it.
Whether it takes ten minutes, a hundred plans, or a life time, we can achieve our goals only if we take a stand and begin. Our Creator provides the talent, desire, and a limited number of chances to show up at the starting line. Today is another of those chances.
Six-Step Recipe for Success
BE PASSIONATE.
Love what you do.
THE GREATEST WEALTH IS FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
Enjoy their love.
EVERY DAY IS SPECIAL.
Make it the best it can be.
"NO" IS UNACCEPTABLE.
Don't stop there. Go for "yes."
CELEBRATE EXCELLENCE.
Make people feel important.
THE GREATEST FAILURE IS NOT TO TRY.
When you dream, wake up and do.
Thought for the Moment
Purposeful living is a life style allowing us to make choices that result in life-enhancing value for others as well as ourselves.
God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. The way we learn those lessons is not to deny the feelings but to find the meanings underlying them.
Valuable Lessons: Past and Present
Rough times are some of life's most generous teachers. When viewed from a wide perspective, these difficult yesterdays transform into beautiful todays.
We can find magnificent blessings in exceedingly difficult times. If we observe closely, a ray of light—a very small ray at first—begins to reveal why we needed to travel rough roads.
An English proverb states, "A stumble may prevent a fall." Who would not rather stumble if it would prevent a tragic accident or a deeply sad regret?
Stumbles wake us up; they often show us that we've taken the wrong path. We see, perhaps for the first time, that if we had not stumbled, we would not be standing as straight and strong this moment.
The sun breaks through each overcast sky, and we find ourselves wiser and more resilient—able to see with a joyful spiritual vision. Then we receive one of the greatest spiritual gifts: the recognition of authentic happiness. Authentic happiness is true joy that lives within the soul. It is not a reaction to material possessions or events. It is a deep inner appreciative joy that follows us in spite of circumstances.
Emerson beautifully described authentic happiness when he wrote, "The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the heart of the child. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows."
Our life stories, with all their transitions and challenges, can be exciting page turners. We must simply move past the introduction into the heart of the plot where the drama and adventure unfold.
Allow the first chapter of your story to teach you, no matter how difficult it might have been. Let its valuable lessons inspire a future that you can envision with enthusiastic anticipation. Your story is waiting to be written, and only you can write the final copy.
The greatest human quality is that of becoming unstoppable! And you become unstoppable by refusing to quit, no matter what happens.
Climb 'Til Your Dream Comes True
Often your tasks will be many,
And more than you think you can do.
Often the road will be rugged
And the hills insurmountable, too.
But always remember, the hills ahead
Are never as steep as they seem,
And with Faith in your heart start upward
And climb 'Til you reach your dream.
For nothing in life that is worthy
Is never too hard to achieve
If you have the courage to try it
And you have the Faith to believe.
For Faith is a force that is greater
Than knowledge or power or skill
And many defeats turn to triumph
If you trust in God's wisdom and will.
For Faith is a mover of mountains.
There's nothing that God cannot do,
So start out today with Faith in your heart
And Climb 'Til Your Dream Comes True!
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
Believe in Yourself
Believe in yourself
To the depth of your being
Nourish the talents
Your spirit is freeing
Know in your heart
When the going gets slow
That your faith in yourself
Will continue to grow
Don't forfeit ambition
When others may doubt
It's your life to live
You must live it throughout
Learn from your errors
Don't dwell in the past
Never withdraw
From a world that is vast
Believe in yourself
Find the best that is you
Let your spirit prevail
Steer a course that is true
Believe in yourself
To the depth of your being
Nourish the talents
Your spirit is freeing
Know in your heart
When the going gets slow
That your faith in yourself
Will continue to grow
Don't forfeit ambition
When others may doubt
It's your life to live
You must live it throughout
Learn from your errors
Don't dwell in the past
Never withdraw
Hold your dreams fast
Thought for the Moment
Failure is one of God's greatest teaching tools. Be thankful even for failures, for they make you stronger and wiser.
Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently try again.
Try, Try Again
"Tis a lesson you should heed,
Try, try again;
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try again;
Then your courage should appear,
For if you will persevere,
You will conquer, never fear,
Try, try again.
Once or twice through you should fail,
Try try again;
If you would at last prevail,
Try, try again;
If we strive, 'tis no disgrace
Though we do not win the race;
What should you do in the case?
Try, try again.
Time will bring you your reward,
Try, try again.
All that other folks can do,
Why, with patience, should not you?
Only keep this rule in view;
Try, try again.
Thought for the Moment
Step out, do what you were afraid to do, and you will see your fear as a test to make you wiser and more resilient to life's challenges
5 Tips to Improve Your Wealth Attitude
Darren Hardy February 22, 2008 Categories: Wealth /Money Making Ideas, Wealth, Wealth /Wealth What's New
Write down all that you are grateful for in your life right now—read it every day.
Make a decision that you will be wealthy. Affirm that decision every day by taking action in that direction.
Surround yourself with the people who are where you want to be financially
Read and listen to material (like this magazine!) that will support your new outlook and attitude about what’s possible.
Teach others the attitudes of wealth. Once you teach it, you will learn it.
A Deliberate Life...
Every moment is priceless, and each one belongs to us
to use as we choose.
Although we cannot achieve everything we want in one
day, there is enough time today to begin with what we
have. Today, we can make a commitment to paint our
personal life masterpieces--one brush stroke at a
time.
We were meant to enjoy life, to live completely, and to
experience all the exciting gifts that God has offered
to us. In each moment, we move toward or away from any
goal through our choices and actions. To live
deliberately, we must get out of auto-pilot mode and
become conscious of our choices.
When we live consciously, we live deliberately. We use
our minds as the magnificent tools that God designed;
we make up our minds to act in constructive and loving
ways.
In auto-pilot, or ego mode, the mind is no longer our
tool--the mind uses us instead of us using it. It
"makes us up", manipulating us to react in hurtful
ways to situations and events that are different from
what we imagined as ideal. Observe the mind doing this,
and it stops; the auto-pilot mind does not like our
conscious presence to spy on it.
Inside most people, there are treasures and talents
that they have not discovered. When we rush through the
day without observing our thoughts with the eyes of the
heart, we will overlook those treasures.
As Alan Cohen insightfully points out in the article
below, no one else can live our lives for us. The self-
awareness that only human beings have, is within us.
Each person has the sole responsibility to live in ways
that foster soul growth, fulfillment, and joy.
Each one of us will have a unique idea of what living
deliberately means. For me, it involves these five
actions:
1. Choose what is essential: my purpose, joy, and
legacy.
2. Express gratitude for experiencing the essential.
3. Clean away what is not essential.
4. Take corrective actions when needed.
5. Continue to see what is essential, and purposely
repeat these actions each day.
Consider this question: What does living
deliberately mean to you?
By using our minds and our time on purpose, expressing
gratitude for all we have, and sharing some of our time
with those we care about, we can experience the joy of
a deliberate life.
to use as we choose.
Although we cannot achieve everything we want in one
day, there is enough time today to begin with what we
have. Today, we can make a commitment to paint our
personal life masterpieces--one brush stroke at a
time.
We were meant to enjoy life, to live completely, and to
experience all the exciting gifts that God has offered
to us. In each moment, we move toward or away from any
goal through our choices and actions. To live
deliberately, we must get out of auto-pilot mode and
become conscious of our choices.
When we live consciously, we live deliberately. We use
our minds as the magnificent tools that God designed;
we make up our minds to act in constructive and loving
ways.
In auto-pilot, or ego mode, the mind is no longer our
tool--the mind uses us instead of us using it. It
"makes us up", manipulating us to react in hurtful
ways to situations and events that are different from
what we imagined as ideal. Observe the mind doing this,
and it stops; the auto-pilot mind does not like our
conscious presence to spy on it.
Inside most people, there are treasures and talents
that they have not discovered. When we rush through the
day without observing our thoughts with the eyes of the
heart, we will overlook those treasures.
As Alan Cohen insightfully points out in the article
below, no one else can live our lives for us. The self-
awareness that only human beings have, is within us.
Each person has the sole responsibility to live in ways
that foster soul growth, fulfillment, and joy.
Each one of us will have a unique idea of what living
deliberately means. For me, it involves these five
actions:
1. Choose what is essential: my purpose, joy, and
legacy.
2. Express gratitude for experiencing the essential.
3. Clean away what is not essential.
4. Take corrective actions when needed.
5. Continue to see what is essential, and purposely
repeat these actions each day.
Consider this question: What does living
deliberately mean to you?
By using our minds and our time on purpose, expressing
gratitude for all we have, and sharing some of our time
with those we care about, we can experience the joy of
a deliberate life.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
SUCCESS — What Achievers Read. On Newsstands March 4, 2008
SUCCESS — What Achievers Read. On Newsstands March 4, 2008: "'Identify yourself with success, and success will come to you.'
If there is still in your mind the idea that you cannot do something, the reason you do not accomplish it is because you are thinking negatively. Start believing; start having faith. And presently, you will attain results. Identify yourself with success, and success will come to you.
The Bible points out that you have to repent and forgive if you want faith to operate in your life."
If there is still in your mind the idea that you cannot do something, the reason you do not accomplish it is because you are thinking negatively. Start believing; start having faith. And presently, you will attain results. Identify yourself with success, and success will come to you.
The Bible points out that you have to repent and forgive if you want faith to operate in your life."
Monday, February 18, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Identity theft can happen anywhere to anyone. In line at the store, online at home or when you're buying your morning coffee. If your identity is stolen, you can spend hundreds of hours cleaning up your credit and struggling to get back your good name. That's because stolen identities are used up to 30 times, with most victims only discovering the theft after they've been turned down for a loan or contacted by a collection agency. You may already be a victim, many times over, and not even know it. Sign up now at
www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/grace80
www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/grace80
Monday, February 11, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
"LIFE IS TO SHORT"
'Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets,
so love the people who treat you right,
forget about the ones who don't,
and believe that everything happens for a reason.
If you get a chance, take it.
If it changes your life, let it.
Nobody said life would be easy,
They just promised it would be worth it.
'Respect Yourself
Make an internal commitment to respect yourself and feel worthy of all that the universe has to offer. If you disrespect anyone or anything that God creates, you disrespect that creative force and tarnish your connection to the power of intention.
By banishing doubt and thinking in no-limit ways, you clear a space for the power of intention to flow through. The power of intention is so doubt-deficient, that when you’re connected to it you see what you’d like to have as already being present.
so love the people who treat you right,
forget about the ones who don't,
and believe that everything happens for a reason.
If you get a chance, take it.
If it changes your life, let it.
Nobody said life would be easy,
They just promised it would be worth it.
'Respect Yourself
Make an internal commitment to respect yourself and feel worthy of all that the universe has to offer. If you disrespect anyone or anything that God creates, you disrespect that creative force and tarnish your connection to the power of intention.
By banishing doubt and thinking in no-limit ways, you clear a space for the power of intention to flow through. The power of intention is so doubt-deficient, that when you’re connected to it you see what you’d like to have as already being present.
MUTYA NG PILIPINAS 2002
WINNERS GALLERY: "Pictured is Miriam Chui , Mutya ng Pilipinas-USA 2002, during her coronation in Manila , Philippines as Mutya ng Pilipinas 2002. She represented the Fil-Am community in the Philippine national finals and won the coveted title. She also took home three special awards, namely; Best in Swimsuit, Best in Evening Gown, and Miss Creamsilk Beautiful hair. Winning the national finals in the Philippines led her to represent the Philippines in the Miss Asia Pacific Quest, an international pageant. There she won the 3rd Runner Up spot and also received two other special awards, Miss Telegenic and Miss Creamsilk."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)