Striving towards Excellence

THE COURAGE TO BEGIN SEPARATES DREAMERS FROM ACHIEVERS

Your difficulty and the difficulty of every individual who ever desired to achieve anything worthwhile, comes in the movement.

Don't always be intending to live a new life, but never find the time to begin living it. Most people fail because they never get started. They don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin.

Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have. As you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more.

The worst thing you can do is not to try.

"Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can’t be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people."

– Lee Iacocca, Chrysler chairman

"It is only our deeds that reveal who we are."

– Carl Jung, psychiatrist

"Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction."

– Kenichi Ohmae, management consultant

"Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down."

Charles F. Kettering

1876-1958, Engineer and Inventor

- Cavett Robert

"In every man’s life there lies latent energy. There is, however, a spark that, if kindled, will set the whole being afire, and he will become a human dynamo, capable of accomplishing almost anything to which he aspires."

– James Cash Penney, retailer

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.

- Maya Angelou.

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all".

-Helen Keller

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

– Helen Keller, 1880-1968, American Blind/Deaf Author and Lecturer

Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open.

– Sir James Dewar, 1842-1923, British Chemist and Physicist

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

– F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940, American Novelist/Essayist/Playwright

"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it."

– William James, psychologist

"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."

– Aristotle, philosopher

"Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable."

-- Brenda Ueland

Great forces are directing you to conform to the patterns of your society. You have DNA that has been handed down from generation to generation, coding repeated behaviour patterns into your being. You have archetypal energies setting the standards for how you behave as a man or a woman, as husband or wife, as father or mother .... You are immersed in consensual reality, whereby the world around you reflects societal understanding of how life has been and is to be.

At the same time, you have an even greater force within you inspiring you to wake up and recognize the reality of who you are. This force, the creative power underlying the entire universe, is urging you to create brand new standards of reality.

The status quo is blind to our creative power. Create a brand new world for yourself, one that meets your deepest needs, and you will help raise the quality of consciousness of the entire world.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

-- Gandhi

"What Are Your Priorities Today?"

"Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to do what they want to do."

-- Kathleen Winsor

When we clearly set an intention, our conscious and subconscious minds mobilize to help us meet that intention. At the start of each day, thoroughly review what commitments you have made to others for the day, and decide what commitment(s) you will make for yourself.

What can you do today that will move you one step closer to your personal goals? Own your power to choose to meet your own needs. After all, we are much better able to help others when our own needs are met. And at the end of the day, when you've honoured your commitment to yourself, acknowledge your success.

"If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got."

-- Lee Iacocca

by R. Sridhar, Times of India

Why do we all run away from ’negative energy’ so much? "Oh, he has got so much negative energy", "God, I don’t want any negativity in my life" — often, we get to hear such statements. Is negative energy so bad? Is there anything called negative energy at all? If so, why is it there? What is its use? Can we function without it?

The answer lies in the way cosmic energy functions. As a principle, energy always remains in a state of balance. That means if there is a ’give’, there is also a ‘take’; if there is life, there is also death. This balance takes place all the time.

Energy seeks its state of balance: we don’t consciously do it. For instance, when we stay awake for X number of hours, the body automatically decides when and how much sleep it requires. Bargaining is a classic example of energy balance. Suppose, you want to buy a kg of apples. The price quoted is $ 40. You want it for $ 30. The bargaining pendulum swings from left to right, and then voila it stops at $ 35 — perfect balance.

The point here is that if there is positive energy, there is bound to be the other side — negative energy to balance. We eat food (positive energy), the body draws whatever it requires from it, and the rest is discarded (negative energy). This process continues all the time.

Energy is energy. Its property changes to positive or negative depending on the situation. For eg: garbage is considered negative energy, right? We wouldn’t touch it. But, for a rag-picker, it’s positive because his livelihood depends on garbage. Here’s another example: Would you ordinarily want to touch the shoes of people? But, for a shoeshine boy, it’s his source of energy. He would love it, for money, of course!

So energy can be made positive or negative any time. It depends on our outlook, approach and attitude. An event can be a debacle (negative energy) or an opportunity (positive energy). It just depends on how we see it.

This cycle of energy generation — positive and negative — happens all the time. What we need to do is recycle the negative energy back to positive. When we release negative energy into the world, it may affect somebody, sometime. For eg, if we throw garbage out, we may have got rid of it, but it is affecting someone else. Instead, if we collect the garbage, give it to the sweeper, who transports it into the bin for the municipality to collect and burn in the dump — it helps in converting negative energy to positive.

Hence, when we are asked to remain positive in life, it means constantly converting negative energy into positive. So, if you lose your job, the negative way to react would be — "Oh, I lost my job!". You can convert it into positive energy by saying, "No problem, it’s an opportunity for me to do something better in life."

by Thomas Murrell

For more than 25 years, U.S.-based motivational speaker and success coach Anthony Robbins has been passionately pursuing the answers to questions such as "What shapes human behavior? And how can we create lasting change within oursleves and others?"

He has spoken in front of more than 3 million people around the world and sold around 35 million books and audio coaching products.

After attending his 4-day 'Unleash The Power Within' seminar recently in Kuala Lumpur, I learned many strategies to perform at your best.

I even took part in his famous barefoot walk over hot coals. This powerful physical metaphor shows how anyone can overcome their deepest and greatest fears with focus, passion, and desire.

Part rock concert, part learning experience, part aerobic workout, the seminar was attended by more than 4,000 people in a giant indoor sporting stadium that was built for the Commonwealth Games.

Standing 6'7", weighing 265 lbs. and with a shoe size of 16, Robbins was impressive on stage as he harnessed the energy of the crowd.

In fact, security guards have to line the stage as he is regularly swamped by overeager fans.

At 43 years old, he has been enormously successful and has worked with people like President Clinton and Nelson Mandela.

What was it like?

Hot, humid, high energy, and simple take-home messages packaged with a high-tech light, sound, and video show.

I was impressed, motivated, and got some great ideas from it.

Here is my gift to you. The Top 10 Secrets of Success I learned from spending 4 days with Tony Robbins.

1. Your Potential Is Determined (Or Limited) By Your Self-Belief.

As the promotional material says, the event was "about creating breakthroughs, moving beyond fears and limiting beliefs, accomplishing goals and realizing true desires, turning dreams into reality, creating
fulfilling relationships, and modeling the strategies of peak performers to produce a quantum difference in your life."

If you cut out the hype, the simple message is if you believe in yourself enough you can achieve anything.

A memorable one-liner was "the only thing that's keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself."

2. Most People Have Self-Doubt Around Universal Themes.

Ask anyone and most people will admit they lack confidence in some areas of their life. The interesting thing I learned from this seminar is that this self-doubt is around universal themes. These themes cross age, gender, religious, cultural, and language barriers.

Common doubts include 'I am not good enough', 'I am lazy' and 'No-one loves me'.

3. You Can Learn Mechanisms To Eliminate Self-Doubt.

Robbins calls it 'immersion' where you break old patterns and build new ones by repetition. He uses a lot of Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques to achieve this with his audiences.

He says "progress is not automatic."

A memorable moment in the seminar was when we had to visualize ourselves inside a bubble, and inside that bubble was a series of videotapes neatly arranged in a timeline that represented all our memories in our lives
so far. We had to pull out the negative videotapes and destroy them. This was followed by time spent visualizing the future and how your life will look 10 and 20 years from now.

4. Belief Impacts On Many Levels.

The Robbins message was that 3 things shape our self-belief. He calls them the Triad. These are our patterns of physiology, focus, and language or meaning.

He highlighted this with the quote: "Where focus goes energy flows."

5. Our Values And Beliefs Shape Our Actions.

Robbins believes you can "vanquish whatever is holding you back from taking action."

Walking barefoot across a bed of glowing coals is the physical metaphor he uses in his seminars to prove this point to the skeptics.

Eliminate negative self-belief and take massive action are his keys to success.

6. To Create Positive Outcomes You Must Take Massive Action.

"Where focus goes energy flows" is a quote used by Robbins in his presentation to highlight why you need to know your outcome and why achieving this is a must.

But many people fail to take the next step. They delay, put off, and find many reasons or excuses not to act.

Robbins believes "progress is not automatic" and "action is power." Take action, even if it is the wrong action. He says it is "never a failure if you learn something."

7. Matching & Mirroring Creates Connection, Trust, & Empathy.

Robbins spent a fair amount of time in the seminar talking about and demonstrating interpersonal communication skills.

He used people from the audience to show how the process of "matching and mirroring" the non-verbal communication and body language of others can be a very powerful way to connect with people.

In essence, you create rapport by adopting the body language of the person you are communicating with.

He believes "rapport is power" and "total responsiveness is created by a feeling of commonality."

If you have learned these techniques before and haven't used them for a while, I suggest it is time to dust them off and put them into action next time you are communicating with someone on a one-to-one basis.

8. Anything Is Possible If You Focus On Passion And Purpose.

Robbins believes that "to have an extraordinary quality of life you need two skills: the science of achievement (the ability to take anything you envision and make it real) and the art of fulfillment (this allows you
to enjoy every moment of it)."

He says "success without fulfillment is failure."

Find your passion and purpose in life. My purpose is to make a difference in people's lives and use my gift as a speaker.

9. Model Yourself On Other Achievers.

To gain improvements quickly and step up to a new level of achievement, Robbins believes learning from others who are the best in their field is the fastest way to achieve success.

He told the story of how he wanted to improve his tennis game and so employed Andre Agassi, the then number-one ranked player to help him achieve this.

Who could you model yourself on?

"People's lives are a direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group," according to Robbins.

10. Success Is Built On A Healthy, High Energy Body, Heart, And Mind.

If you are not healthy - all of the above points are a waste of time.

Your health is determined and influenced by your lifestyle.

One major change I've made since the seminar is to eat a healthier diet and exercise more regularly.

As a speaker, my whole business depends on my ability to perform at a peak state. Like any professional athlete, the success of business is directly linked to my diet and health.

Take care of yourself; your body is ultimately your most important asset.

"The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds."

– Tyron Edwards, theologian

Credits due: Cynthia Ybarra

It's always too early to quit.

-Norman Vincent Peale

Credits due: Cynthia Ybarra

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain cool and unruffled under all circumstances."

-Thomas Jefferson

by Swami Sukhabodhananda

Enlightened living requires one to be open to the miracle of life. Life is filled with surprises and each surprise is a gift from the unknown. We can’t experience a surprise as a gift, as our minds are filled with the preconceived notion of what we should receive and what we should not. This pollutes our experience of the moment and we lose the wonderful experience. The most surprising thing about life is that there are very few who experience moments of surprise. Life then becomes boring. We feel bored because we have a borewell of boredom within us.

We tend to take life for granted and we are indifferent to the mystery of life. The soul of enlightened living is not to be indifferent to the message of life… not to be indifferent to the surprises of life, but learning to flow with life. Learn to train your eyes to see the miracle of life. Is it not a miracle to see when the sun rises, and the birds chirping? Is it not a miracle to see the seed becomes a tree and from the tree, seeds, flowers and fruits? In the finite seed, the infinite possibility is hidden.

People who don’t take life for granted will be child-like and innocent, and participate in the ‘movement of life’ with grace and joy. Success and failure become points of celebration rather than a point of frustration.

How is it possible to celebrate success and failure? The ordinary paradigm: when you are successful you want to be more successful and you forget to rejoice in your success. This greed to be more successful makes you look at the other person as a threat and competitor. When there is failure, instead of learning from failure, you wallow in self-pity. One has to celebrate one’s learning, and failure is an opportunity to learn.

So when you are successful, celebrate your success – don’t fill that moment with greed but with joy. Think about your actions. Planning is not a part of greed, but a part of wise living. Greed is an ulcer of the soul.

When success and failure come, look at the surprise element. See the variables that have contributed to it. Don’t be dead to surprise. The moment wonderment is dead, you are dead too.

In every moment keep surprise and embrace each moment with this energy – you will then be able to celebrate success and failure.

What constitutes the soul of enlightened living?

Firstly, understand that truth wins and not lies.

Secondly, hurt or upset, whether you justify it or not, is bad for you. Thirdly, seeing opportunity in a difficulty and not a difficulty in an opportunity.

Fourthly, see every experience and situation as messages from the divine. Then learn to operate from infinite possibilities and learn to be ‘prosperity conscious’, not ‘poverty conscious’.

Then find out who you are.

by Robin Sharma

Please allow me to be a little self-indulgent today and share a little list of “botherations”:

People who play small with their lives

People who disrespect others

People who squander their talents

People who forget that we all have greatness within us

People who spend the best years of their lives watching television in a subdivision

People who forget that their health is their wealth

People who forget to put their family first

People who let their fears undermine their faith (in their dreams and their goals and their ideals)

People who rule their lives by luck and the alignment of the stars and the way the wind blows (versus blending personal responsibility with good old fashioned hard work to make great things happen for them)

People who fail to stand for excellence and mastery in the work they do (whether that work is sweeping streets or running the country)

Okay, maybe these things don't “bother” me. Too strong a word (or the wrong one) perhaps. What I'm trying so desperately to convey is that you and me and everyone you meet have this spectacular potential to shine ever so brightly resting within us. A beautiful life and a brilliant career are not the sole domain of “special people.” Actually, no matter where you live or who you are - YOU are one of those “special people.” I travel the world helping so-called ordinary people get to extraordinary. And they do. By doing the right things. By thinking the right things. By taking baby steps each day (that lead to giant results over time). And it pains me when people forget what they are meant to be.

So don't believe any negative stories that the weaker part of you might be trying to sell yourself (don't buy what your shadow side's selling). You are just thirty days away from starting a totally new level of greatness.

Some things in life are optional, and some things in life are mandatory. Taking your next vacation to the Caribbean is optional. Building a personal library and becoming an excellent reader is mandatory. It is no longer something you can choose to do or not do. It is absolutely essential and indispensable for your success.

A great many people do not read very much. Fifty-eight percent of adult Americans never read a nonfiction book from cover to cover after they finish school. The average American reads less than one book per year. In fact, according to a Gallup study of the most successful men and women in America, reading one nonfiction book per month will put you into the top 1 percent of living Americans.

It takes regular, persistent reading and studying for you to improve, to move to the front of your field. It is not optional.

There are a variety of reasons why people don’t read as much as they should. One is that probably 50 million Americans have been graduated from high school with poor reading skills.

Another reason why people don’t read is because they have not been told how important reading is. Lifelong learning, lifelong reading is the minimum requirement for success in any field today. If you are in sales, management, service, administration or any other field that relies on the written word to convey information and data, your ability to read well is absolutely critical to your success.

Some people don’t read because they are simply lazy. They are surrounded by so many distractions, especially television, radio, socializing and other activities, that they just never get around to doing any serious reading. They are so busy and caught up in day-to-day activities and amusements that they put off reading and then never get around to it. If continued, this pattern could have devastating consequences.

Another reason why people don’t read is that they probably are not working in the right field. One of the best tests for compatibility with your work is your desire to read and learn more about it. If you are doing the job that is right for you, you will naturally be eager to read everything that you can possibly find about your field. You will want to get better and better. You will be hungry for new knowledge. You will be determined to become excellent. And every single bit of new information motivates and stimulates you and makes you excited about learning even more.

However, if you are in the wrong field, you will look upon reading about it as drudgery. If the reading and studying is a required condition of your job or profession, you will do it, but only under duress. You will want to get it over with, like a visit to the dentist. If, for any reason, you are not eager to learn more about what you are doing, it could very well be that you are wasting your time and your life in the wrong field.

In one 22-year study of self-made millionaires, the researchers found that one of the common characteristics of those special men and women who went from rags to riches was that they were absolutely fascinated by their work. They didn’t think so much about making a lot of money. They were more concerned about becoming better and better at what they did. Their work absorbed them completely. In almost no time at all, because of their commitment to reading and self-development, they were paid more and more. And once they reached a high level of income, their fascination with their work still continued. Instead of drawing extra money from their business and spending it frivolously, they reinvested it in themselves and in their career. As a result, they became more and more proficient and wealthier and wealthier. Then, one day, they opened their eyes, looked around and found that they were worth more than $1 million. And the continuous learning, the nonstop reading, was the key ingredient.

Some years ago, a young man came to me and asked for advice. He had been graduated from high school without the ability to read. He told me that reading a whole paragraph actually made him tired. His problem was that he was working at a dead-end job at minimum wage, and he had been there for two years. He was living in a small apartment on a limited budget. All his friends from high school, none of whom could read either, were in pretty much the same predicament. They all were working at low-level, low-skill jobs with no future. He had been out of school for two years and had made no progress. What advice could I give him?

I told him that he had to learn to read, and read well. He said he didn’t like to read, and he wanted to be successful at something that didn’t require reading. I told him that this was not a matter of choice. The only jobs that didn’t require reading were the kinds of jobs that he and his friends were already doing. And even they soon would be surpassed by younger, more eager people with better educations.

Much to his credit, he thought about this for a while and then accepted the fact that he had to become a good reader. He began taking community-college courses in remedial reading. Eventually, he applied for entrance to a technical institute, and he managed to get in by the skin of his teeth. Because of his poor high-school education, it took him almost three years to complete a two-year program in biomedical engineering. He stuck in there and worked hard, and he finally came up with a degree.

A small company hired him as a sales representative, to call on hospitals and clinics in a rural territory. It wasn’t much, but he took it and ran with it. He continued to read and studied sales and communications. He started at $22,000 per year, and within two years, he was up to $30,000 per year. In his third year, he was hired away by a rival company and paid $40,000 per year. Two years later, an international company heard about his success in the marketplace and hired him at more than $50,000 per year, with a company car, an expense account and substantial benefits.

In seven years, he went from being a semiliterate, minimum wage worker to a highly paid biomedical technical representative working for an international corporation. And he was back in the big city with a town house, a new car, a wife, children, and a great life. The interesting thing was that as he went around to renew his old friendships, he found that most of the people he had graduated with were still working at dead-end jobs.

Seven years seems like a long time in the course of a life, but it passes in a flash when you are busy doing something you enjoy and getting continually better at it.

The last great obstacle to regular reading and continuous learning is that most people have been brought up with what we might call the old paradigm, the outdated way of viewing education. It’s likely that as you grew up, education was looked upon as something that was done to you by other people. For the first 18 years of your life, you went off to school and education was done to you as though you were a passive object. Even when you went to college, you signed up for the courses that were recommended, you learned the subjects that were required, and you took the exams that were given. When you came out, you were the product of an education. It was almost as though the education had "just happened" to you, while you merely went along and did your share at the right time.

However, after you finish school, you are responsible for your education. From that moment onward, you are responsible for buying your books, planning your courses of study, learning your subjects and continually upgrading your skills. It’s not the responsibility of anyone else. You are in charge. It’s all up to you.

Many people think that it’s up to their company to educate them if they need additional training. Well, if your company provides training, you should take every minute of it that you can get. But if it doesn’t, and most companies don’t, you are still solely responsible for maintaining and increasing your value through continuous reading. There is no other way.

Let me share with you some ideas that helped me to go from high-school dropout and dishwasher, working in the kitchen of a small hotel, to chief operating officer of a $265 million company. These are practices of most of the successful men and women in America. Their cumulative effect on the quality of your life can be amazing. First, if you are not a good reader, make the decision, right now, that you are going to go any distance, pay any price, overcome any obstacle and spend whatever amount of money it takes to become an excellent reader. If you do not know how to read particularly well, stop everything else that you are doing outside your work and dedicate yourself to reading. Spend every spare minute reading as if your future depended on it, because it does.

It may take a week, a month or a year to become a better reader. It may take even longer. But it doesn’t matter. Your becoming an excellent reader will kick open doors of opportunity for you that you cannot now imagine.

Second, if you are already a good reader, or when you become a good reader, learn to speed-read. The Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics program is probably the best that has ever been developed. Also, many communities throughout America offer speed-reading classes. Speed-reading is like touch-typing. In typing, you can use the hunt-and-peck method all your life, or you can learn how to do it right and increase your speed to 50 or 60 words per minute. In reading, you can take your speed from 50 or 60 words per minute up to 300, 400, 500 or even 1,000 words per minute, with no loss of comprehension. Speed-reading courses are absolutely essential to the success of really ambitious men and women today.

Third, build a personal library. Although public libraries are extremely helpful for research, you should buy your own books. People often ask me what books they should buy. To decide this, you can use the Law of Relative Importance. Buy the books that are most important to your life at this moment. The key word here is relevant. Adults learn best when what they are studying is extremely relevant to their needs, their work, their life, and their present situation. If you read material that is not relevant to what you are doing, you will find it difficult. You will not be drawn to the material, and you will forget most of it as you go along. But when you read material that is both relevant and applicable to your work, your mind sparkles with all kinds of ideas on how you can use this new information to be more effective. The prospect of learning new methods and techniques that you know will improve your life is both exciting and highly motivating.

Next, in building your own library, ask the most successful people in your field what books they would recommend. Then, go straight to the bookstore and buy them.

One of the marks of the professional, and professionalism is a state of mind, is that he has a library in his field. If you are in sales, you should have a library of sales books. You should be reading at least one hour per day in sales, one book per week, 50 books per year. You should be a consistent, persistent student of your craft. You should know more about the field of selling than anybody within 500 miles does. You should set a goal to become so knowledgeable about your field that you would be able to give advanced classes in your profession within a few years. With this idea as your guiding star, you will find yourself learning and remembering far more than you would if you were just browsing through the material.

Should you buy hardcover books or softcover books? I recommend that you purchase any book, of either kind, that can help you. Some books cost $20 to $30. The average person complains that he can’t afford such a book. The superior person recognizes that the information contained in that book can save him a year or two of hard work. Remember, it may take an author 10 to 20 years to learn his subject. It may take him two to three years to write a book on it. It then may take one to two years to get the book published. By paying a few dollars for a book, you probably are getting the results of 20 or 25 years of effort by one of the smartest people in your field.

Never scrimp on your education. It is one of the most damaging things you could ever do.

Get some good bookshelves, and begin categorizing your books by subject. Have a section on sales. Have a section on management. Have a section on family and child raising. Have a section on personal motivation and success. If you like novels, have a section on fiction, or on history.

Organize your sections in alphabetical order, either by the title of the book or by the author. You don’t have to make it too formal or structured. The point is to set up your library in such a way that you pretty well know where each book is, you know whether or not you have a book, and you know where to go to get a piece of information when you need it.

Once you’ve bought a book, read it with a red pen in hand, underlining and making notes at every key point you find. If you read a book twice, use a different-color pen to underline points you may have missed the first time.

I have books that I have read 10 or 20 times and that look like rainbows from page to page. They are literally covered with all kinds of colors and marks. Needless to say, the information and ideas in those books has soaked so deeply into my psyche that I can recite much of the material in my dreams.

You need to read an hour or two each day just to keep current with your field. You need to read newspapers, magazines, newsletters, correspondence and other materials. But you don’t get ahead with regular reading. You must invest in the future while you keep current with the present. If you want to get ahead, you must read things that give you new ideas and insights, not merely things that confirm what you already know.

Becoming a proficient and persistent reader may not be easy to do so, but it’s certainly possible. The future does belong to the competent. Those who know more will always win out over those who know less. The more you read, the better you get. The more you learn, the easier it is for you to learn. And the more you challenge your mind, the smarter you get.

When I began searching for the secrets of success many years ago, I discovered an interesting principle: success leaves tracks. A wise man who had studied success for more than 50 years concluded that the greatest success principle of all was, "learn from the experts."

Learn From The Experts

Be Both Effective and Efficient

High performing men and women were both effective and efficient. They did the right things, and they did them in the right way. They were constantly looking for ways to improve the quality and quantity of their output. As a result, their contribution to their organizations was vastly higher and therefore much better paid, than the contributions of the average person.

Action Exercises

First, develop a study plan today to learn from the experts in your field. This can save you years of hard work.

Second, decide what is the most important thing to do, and then decide how to do it.

by Brian Tracy

The 80/20 Rule is one of the most helpful of all concepts of time and life management. It is also called the Pareto Principle after its founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who first wrote about it in 1895. Pareto noticed that people in his society seemed to divide naturally into what he called the "vital few," the top 20% in terms of money and influence, and the "trivial many," the bottom 80%.

The Great Discovery
He later discovered that virtually all economic activity was subject to this Pareto Principle as well.

For example, this rule says that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results. 20% of your customers will account for 80% of your sales. 20% of your products or services will account for 80% of your profits. 20% of your tasks will account for 80% of the value of what you do, and so on.

This means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth as much or more than the other eight items put together.

The Greatest Payoff

Here is an interesting discovery. Each of these tasks may take the same amount of time to accomplish. But one or two of those tasks will contribute five or ten times the value as any of the others.

Often, one item on a list of ten things that you have to do can be worth more than all the other nine items put together. This task is invariably the one that you should do first.

The Most Valuable Tasks
The most valuable tasks you can do each day are often the hardest and most complex. But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous. For this reason, you must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80% while you still have tasks in the top 20% left to be done.

Before you begin work, always ask yourself, "Is this task in the top 20% of my activities or in the bottom 80%?"

Getting Started
The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you seem to be naturally motivated to continue. There is a part of your mind that loves to be busy working on significant tasks that can really make a difference. Your job is to feed this part of your mind continually.

Managing Your Life
Time management is really life management, personal management. It is really taking control over the sequence of events. Time management is control over what you do next. And you are always free to choose the task that you will do next. Your ability to choose between the important and the unimportant is the key determinant of your success in life and work.

Effective, productive people discipline themselves to start on the most important task that is before them. They force themselves to eat that frog, whatever it is. As a result, they accomplish vastly more than the average person and are much happier as a result. This should be your way of working as well.

Action Exercises
Make a list of all the key goals, activities, projects and responsibilities in your life today. Which of them are, or could be, in the top 10% or 20% of tasks that represent, or could represent, 80% or 90% of your results?

Resolve today that you are going to spend more and more of your time working in those few areas that can really make a difference in you life and career, and less and less time on lower value activities.

"The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you."

– Tom Bradley, former Los Angeles mayor

"God grants victory to perseverance."

– Simon Bolivar, South American liberator

"A good teacher is like a candle-it consumes itself to the light of the others"

-Anon

By John C. Maxwell

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn't. In fact, I didn't even know you were supposed to have one.

Up until that point, the best term for my growth would be "accidental growth." I didn't grow on purpose, but I loved people and worked hard so that I caught a few things along the way.

That night with Kurt, I realized that to grow like I wanted, my personal development couldn't be hit-and-miss. I needed to initiate and activate. I made a decision to devote myself to personal growth. I literally made personal growth my personal mission.

In my book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, I talk about the Law of Process, which says, "Leaders develop daily, not in a day." Our natural inclination is to overestimate the event and underestimate the process. We wait for a special occasion or an intense experience to boost our growth instead of appreciating the process. In the words of my friend Kevin Myers: "Everyone is looking for a quick fix, but what they really need is fitness."

We don't mature momentarily, but over the long-term. As we continue on our quest to become more skillful as leaders, let's look at seven statements about the growth process.

1. Growth is not automatic. Paul Harvey said it best: "You can tell you're on the road to success; it's uphill all the way." You can't coast uphill. Growth doesn't happen by itself; it requires an active investment of time.

Earl Nightingale said, "If you'll spend one hour a day, every day for five years on a given subject, within five years you'll become an expert on that subject." In 1974, I made that decision—to set aside one hour per day for personal growth. Over thirty years later, I find that the more I learn and grow, the more precious that hour is to me.

2. Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it's almost always due to personal growth. As Bennis & Nanus say, "It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from followers."

When I went to college, there was no gap between me and my peers, none at all. Since 1974, I have diligently followed through on my commitment to grow an hour every day, and now the gap, in most cases, is wide. Am I smarter than my former classmates? Not at all. Many of them danced circles around me academically. The growth factor—my long-term commitment to personal development—made the difference.

3. Growth takes time, and only time can reveal certain lessons to us. We've all heard, "Experience is the best teacher," but it never has been and never will be. Evaluated experience is the best teacher. Reflective thinking is required to turn experience into insight. If you're a young LW subscriber without a wealth of personal experience, borrow the experience. Ask questions, listen, and learn from a successful leader that has gone before you.

4. The more we grow, the more we know we need to grow. In other words, when you start developing yourself, instead of feeling wise, you'll be struck by how much you don't know. Alvin Toffler, in Future Shock, once observed, "The illiterate of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

5. Growth equals change. To develop, we must step away from comfort and welcome fresh and challenging experiences. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean giving up familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, and relationships that have lost their meaning.

6. Growth inside fuels growth outside. The highest reward of our toil is not what we get for it, but what we become by it. At the age of 17, I decided to read extensively, file my favorite articles, and prepare lessons. Little did I realize that out of the simple discipline of reading, filing, and preparing lessons, I would receive content, develop creativity, begin to speak, and eventually author numerous books.

7. Choose to grow in the areas of your strengths, not in the areas of your weakness. There are only four things I do well, just four, and I focus exclusively on them. I lead, communicate, create, and network. That's it. I spend all of my time on one of those four strength zones. The secret of successful people lies in their ability to discover their strengths and to organize their life so that these strengths can be applied.

Benjamin Franklin personifies the spirit of inventiveness of the modern world. His accomplishments read like an almanac of greatness:

Yet for all of his achievements, the epitaph that Franklin wrote for himself simply reads, "Here lies the body of Ben Franklin, printer."

In honoring his humble roots as a printer's apprentice, Benjamin Franklin reveals the mystery to his greatness. It was in the world of printing where Franklin was first exposed to new books, writers, and ideas. His fame, accomplishments, and accolades would never have been possible without the love of learning and habits of growth imprinted in his life during his early days as a printer.

"This article is used by permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell's free monthly e-newsletter 'Leadership Wired' available at www.MaximumImpact.com."

This poem was written by Mother Teresa and is engraved on the wall of her home for children in Calcutta.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, & self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight: Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."

– John F. Kennedy, 35th U. S. president

Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.

– James A. Garfield, 1831-1881, 20th President of the United States

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.

– Maya Angelou, American Author and Poet

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

– Eric Hoffer, 1902-1983, American Social Writer

"Recognize that you are unique in all eternity...You are one of a kind!...there is nobody like you anywhere on Earth today, and there never will be anybody like you in all eternity, because the Universe never duplicates itself. It all boils down to the fact that if any one of us does not fulfill that purpose for which he or she was placed on Earth, growth is slowed down because nobody can do what you do, exactly the way you do it. Very simply, that means that there is no competition."
-Foster Hibbard

by Denis Waitley

Prime time is that period between 6 and 10 p.m. during which most of the general public watches television. Commercials in prime time are the most expensive, approaching a million dollars per minute. Your real success in life will take a quantum leap when you stop watching other people making money in their professions performing in prime time, and start living your own dreams and goals in prime time. Time is the ultimate equal opportunity employer. Time never stops to rest, never hesitates, never looks forward or backward. Life's raw material spends itself in the now, this moment, which is why how you spend your time is far more important than all the material possessions you may own or positions you may obtain. Positions change, possessions come and go, you can earn more money. You can renew your supply of many things, but like good health, that other most precious resource, time spent is gone forever.

Each yesterday, and all of them together, are beyond your control. Literally all the money in the world can't undo or redo a single act you performed. You cannot erase a single word you said. You can't add an "I love you," "I'm sorry," or "I forgive you," not even a "thank you" you forgot to say. Each human being in every hemisphere and time zone has precisely 168 hours a week to spend. And some of the most precious hours occur in prime time.

Consider this: most of your daytime hours are spent helping other people solve their problems. The little time you have in the evenings and on weekends is all you have to spend on yourself, on your own dreams and goals, and personal development. Some thoughts to ponder:

* Have supper with your loved ones at least two to three times per week. It's the best time for casual conversation to listen to what those close to you feel is important in their lives. Mealtime is a time for
dialogue.

* A television set is an appliance. It should be used, at most, for two hours at a time. It should be off, unless specific programs of interest are selected. It should not be used as a one-eyed babysitter. For the most part, TV exposes us to negative role models.

* Instead of watching television, why not read a good fiction or nonfiction book, write a letter, engage in a hobby or craft, call a friend or someone in need of encouragement on the phone, network on your computer, go out to an ethnic restaurant, a home show, an entrepreneurial show, a musical recital, a play, a fitness class, or cultural event. Take an art or photography class. Use prime time to live the kind of life others put on layaway.

Action Idea: If you and your family/friends watch TV, try not turning it on for one week. When you do watch TV, reduce by 50% the amount of time you spend watching it. Concentrate your evenings and free time engaged in hands-on, real-life experiences that you can touch, feel, smell and engage all your senses in. Instead of virtual reality, insist on the real thing.

A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home from the war. He called his parents from San Francisco.

"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring home with me."

"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."

"There's something you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."

"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."

"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are. Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.

Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer that God will give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us!!! There's a miracle called Friendship that dwells in the heart. You don't know how it happens or when it gets started But you know the special lift It always brings and you realize that Friendship Is God's most precious gift! Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us.

An old man lived alone in Minnesota. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation:   

Dear Son,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year. I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting time. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren't in prison.

Love,

Dad
 
Shortly, the old man received this telegram: "For Heaven's sake, Dad, don't dig up the garden!! That's where I buried the GUNS!!"
 
At 4 a.m. the next morning, a dozen FBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug up the entire garden without finding any guns. Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what happened, and asked him what to do next.
 
His son's reply was: "Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad. It's the best I could do for you from here."
 
Moral:
 
NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE IN THE WORLD, IF YOU HAVE DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING DEEP FROM YOUR HEART YOU CAN DO IT. IT IS THE THOUGHT THAT MATTERS NOT WHERE YOU ARE OR WHERE THE PERSON IS.

By: Brian Tracy

Appreciate People For Everything They Do
There are three keys to getting the best out of others, and the first of these is appreciation. Every time you thank another person, you cause that person to like themselves better. You raise their self-esteem and improve their self-image. You cause them to feel more important. You make them feel that what they did was valuable and worthwhile. You empower them.

Build Your Own Self-Esteem
And the wonderful thing about thanking other people is that, every time you say the words “thank you,” you like yourself better as well. You feel better inside. You feel happier and more content with yourself and life. You feel more fully integrated and positive about what you are doing. When you develop an attitude of gratitude that flows forth from you in all of your interactions with others, you will be amazed at how popular you will become and how eager others will be to help you in whatever you are doing.

Praise and Approve Others Continually
The second way to make people feel important, to raise their self-esteem and give them a sense of power and energy, is by the generous use of praise and approval. Psychological tests show that, when children are praised by the people that they look up to, their energy levels rise, their heart rates and respiratory rates increase and they feel happier about themselves overall.

Values in life needs to be inculcated in children.

A kindergarten teacher has decided to let her class play a game.The teacher told each child in the class bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a name of a person the child hates, so the number of potatoes the child will put in his/her bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.So when the day came every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had two potatoes, some three while some unto five potatoes. The teacher told them to carry the plastic bag wherever they go for a weekdays after days passed and the children started to complain due to unpleasant smell let out by by rotten potatoes.. Besides those having 5 potatoes have also to carry heavier bag.. After one week the children were relieved because the game has finally ended.

The teacher asked "How did you feel while carrying the potatoes for a week?" The children let out their frustrations and started compiling the trouble they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.

Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. The teacher said " This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the the smell of rotten potatoes for a week can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime."

Moral of the story;

Throw away any hatred for anyone from your heart so that you will not carry sins for a lifetime Forgiving others is the best attitude to take. Love others even if you don't like them. True love is not loving a perfect person, but loving an imperfect person perfectly.

"Self Talk Is Revealing"

"If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words."

-- Chinese Proverb

What passes over your lips each day?

Are your words typically negative, critical, gossiping, deceptive, illusory, justifying, blaming, manipulative and argumentative? Are they more uplifting, inspirational, positive, questioning, beautiful, loving, universal, truthful, accepting and supportive?

The throat is our center of expression. Who we are sneaks out in our attitudes and in what we say.

"Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs."

-- Pearl Strachan Hurd

"The wise weigh their words on a scale with gold."

-- Bible

You know what you are today but not what you may be tomorrow.
Use your imagination and look at things as they can be.

You can do anything you wish to do, have anything you wish to have, and be anything you wish to be.
You don't know what you can really do until you try.
All you have to do is to act on your dreams.

You have the power within you to do things you never dreamed possible.
You would amaze yourself if you did all the things you're capable of doing.
This power becomes available to you as soon as you change some of your beliefs.

Success begins in your mind.

Whatever you plant in your subconscious mind and nourish every day with conviction and emotion will one day become a reality.

Constant repetition carries conviction.
Repeat something often enough and it will start to become you.
A change in what you tell yourself will result in a change in your behavior.

What you impress upon your mind, you'll inevitably become.
Self suggestion will make you master of yourself.

While your character is formed by circumstances, your own desires can do much to shape those circumstances.Thus, you have the power over the formation of your own character.

You're the master of your fate and the captain of your soul.

Nature is always at work around you. Your character and destiny are her handiwork.
She gives you love and hate, jealousy and reverence.

You have the power to choose which impulse you will follow.

You can at any time decide to alter the course of your life.
No one can ever take that away from you.

The greatest power you possess is the power to choose.
You're the master of your joys and your sorrows

You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true.

The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it.
If you have the desire, you have the power to attain it.

You can have anything you want in life if you're willing to make sacrifices to get it.

Your dreams can come true if you pursue them.

Where there's a will, there's always a way.

"Thinking about interior peace destroys interior peace. The patient who constantly feels his pulse is not getting any better."

-- Hubert van Zeller

Are you trying too hard to be good, to be perfect, to be spiritual?

‘Trying too hard’ is an expression of fear. If you can replace the fear with faith that everything always serves our highest good, your confidence and peace of mind will serve your aspirations.

"So many people work so hard, to achieve, attain, accumulate and cherish their fortunes. How many of us blissfully fill our days and nights being the Divine expression we are? This is the meaning of life. It is to be. As a result, all of your creations are a natural outflow from the Divine within your being. This is the joy of life."

-- Barbara Rose

YOU CLIMB A MOUNTAIN ONE STEP AT A TIME

Everyone who got where they are had to begin where they were.
Your opportunity for success is right in front of you.

To attain success or to reach your goal, don't worry about having all the answers in advance.
You just need to have a clear idea of your goal and move toward it.

Don't procrastinate when faced with a difficult problem.
Break your problems into parts and handle one part at a time.

Develop a tendency toward action.
You can make something happen today.
Break your big plan for success into small steps and take the first step right away.

Success starts with a first step.

"Lord, where we are wrong, make us willing to change; where we are right, make us easy to live with."

– Peter Marshall, US Senate chaplain

"May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true. May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong. May you stay forever young."

- Bob Dylan.

"If anything terrifies me, I must try to conquer it."

– Francis Charles Chichester, yachtsman, aviator

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

-Voltaire

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."

– Seneca, statesman, dramatist, philosopher

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player, was dying of CANCER. From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease?" 

To this Arthur Ashe replied "The world over -- 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 5 hundred thousand learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach , 50 reach the grand slam Wimbledon, 4 to the semifinals, 2 to the finals. When I was holding a cup, I never asked GOD "Why me?" And today in pain I should not be asking GOD. "Why me?"

Happiness keeps you sweet....

Trials keep you strong....

Sorrow keeps you human....

Failure keeps you humble....

Success keeps you glowing....

But only God keeps you going!!!!

You know what you are today but not what you may be tomorrow.
Use your imagination and look at things as they can be.

You can do anything you wish to do,
have anything you wish to have,
and be anything you wish to be.
You don't know what you can really do until you try.
All you have to do is to act on your dreams.

You have the power within you to do things you never dreamed possible.
You would amaze yourself if you did all the things you're capable of
doing.

This power becomes available to you
as soon as you change some of your beliefs.

Success begins in your mind.