First off, I would echo the voice of 18th century French philosopher Voltaire, made popular and relevant in today’s leadership lexicon by "Good to Great" author Jim Collins, who said, "Good is the Enemy of Great."
1. "Good is the Enemy of Great." Get rid of the good to make room for the great in your life. Instead of keeping the main thing the main thing, we major in too many minor things. In other words, many people do a few things that are good, a lot of things that are mediocre, but nothing that is GREAT.
Find the ONE thing you can be the best in the world at and focus unrelentingly on improving that one thing, polishing it to perfection.
Choose great over good in ALL areas of your life! It is far better to have a few great things than a lot of good or mediocre things.
Instead of having six cheap shirts that you don’t feel so great in, have one fine quality shirt that you can feel proud to wear and that makes you feel like a million bucks! Instead of having five or six ho-hum paintings to decorate your walls, invest in ONE magnificent masterpiece that leaves you breathless and enriches your soul every time you look at it! Instead of going to the usual cottage retreat every long-weekend, save up your money and go on one GREAT vacation that you’ve always dreamed of like going on a European boat-cruise, snorkeling in the Red Sea, or taking an art class in Paris. Instead of many mediocre friendships, have a few great friendships that energize and inspire you and that you can spend quality time fostering deeper relationships. You get the point.
Greatness is a choice! And choice is the democratic equalizer of all people. Everyone, regardless of their rank, social status or income level has the power to choose great over good.
2. Commit to an annual theme. Instead of making and breaking a number of well-wished but half-hearted New Year’s Resolutions, commit to an annual or lifetime theme. Pick a theme that defines your singular life purpose or what you are most passionate about and stick to it.
For example, my theme is: "Write First!" I have this theme posted right in front of me above my computer. My purpose is to write.
I write first and ask questions later. I focus on writing (or things related to developing my writing) first and then worry about the urgent but non-important interruptions (paying bills, answering calls and emails, responding to invitations, etc.) that plague everyone. This theme takes precedence over everything else except my spiritual relationship with my Creator. The only exception to this rule would be a genuinely important priority that falls in one of my top values in life or attending to a family emergency.
Your main theme for 2006 could be "Family First!" or "Health First!" or "Listen First!" or "Service Above Self." Just pick one and commit to it.
Beside your main theme, make a list of your top values such as love, health, giving, peace, wealth, etc. to ground yourself and distinguish between important and non-important but urgent matters. In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin listed thirteen virtues (Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, and Humility) to which he governed his life and gave a week’s strict attention to mastering one virtue at a time repeating the list in order every thirteen weeks.
3. Practice a policy of planned neglect. In other words, once you have established your theme or singular purpose (the one thing you can be the best in the world at) get into the habit of practicing your main habit FIRST before anything else.
Everything else that’s non-important can get neglected and keep getting put-off. In other words, your daily to-do list will keep changing around your main theme which will remain constant – with very few exceptions.
4. Make a stop doing list. I’m not sure where I first heard this idea, but I borrowed it most recently from Jim Collin’s book, "Good to Great." Too many people have important to-do lists that keep getting longer and longer. But very few people have ‘stop-doing’ lists. Make a list of everything you are doing that is not contributing to your core genius or main purpose and core values – and stop doing it! Forget about your image and what other people will think, and STOP doing what’s not great in your life.
5. Be Simple. Get rid of the good to make room for the great. Literally! Get rid of the junk in your basement and file folders!
Anything you haven’t touched or looked at in a year you probably need to get rid of it. Donate books and magazines you haven’t read and clothes you know you’re never going to wear. Empty your mind and physical space of unnecessary clutter and make room for abundance! (Daily meditation is a great way to empty the mind and allow new inspiration).
6. Make HEALTH a priority NOW! Get a full physical check-up at least once a year. If something’s bothering you or you don’t feel right about something, get it checked out IMMEDIATELY! Don’t wait, until it’s too late. Take a proactive approach to your health by taking preventative measures, eating healthy and exercising regularly. And make LOVE a top priority. If you haven’t taken the time to tell your loved ones how deeply you value and love them, then make time for it now.
Are you still reading this article? WHY? Pick-up your phone, right now, and call your doctor to make that appointment! Call your loved ones now and book some real quality time together. Life is short and fragile. You may never get the chance again.
7. Dreams. The dream is a window into your soul, a gateway into the unseen world, giving access to the unknown and revealing the invisible behind all that is visible. In my book, "Psychology of the Hero Soul," (http://www.herosoul.com; Chapter 14; pg. 77)I mention the importance of dreams and how to harness your dreams to awaken your creative potential. I can’t stress enough how important it is to get into the habit of jotting down your dreams and making an effort to interpret them. It is a great way to develop self-awareness and self-understanding and will enrich your life in many, many unforeseen ways.
Self-awareness and self-acceptance is so important in developing your self-esteem. Take the time to seriously ask yourself, "Who am I and what’s my purpose in life?" Write down your strengths and weakness, your highest ambitions and deepest fears, and make a list of everything you enjoy doing and all your hobbies. Take some personality tests to gain deeper understanding of who you are.
8. Face the brutal facts! Never hide from reality. Always get the hard facts about any situation you are facing. It doesn’t matter if you have a Harvard MBA and are the world’s greatest optimist if you pick the wrong location to open up a retail business!
Likewise, face the brutal facts about yourself. If you haven’t even come close to achieving your dreams and goals, you need to honestly ask yourself why you haven’t reached your goals and figure out what has been preventing you. A great way to accomplish this is to ask a few friends you trust and who know you the following question: "How do you see me limiting myself?" (I have Jack Canfield to thank for this great question).
Once you have the facts and fully understand the problem, spend over eighty percent of your time focusing on the solution.
9. ASK for help! If you need help, ask for it. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Ask for the sale, ask for the date, ask for support. Stop worrying about your image, reject the rejection, and ASK!
But don’t just be a taker. Please also give. Earn the right to ask by being a giver. Be a generous giver because whatever you put out into the world will return multiplied. The hero’s journey is about following your bliss, and doing what you love to do in service to others. "Service above self," is a great motto to adopt.
10. Take Action! In my Hero Soul book, I have dedicated an entire chapter on taking action. The great succeed by taking continuous and concerted action toward a singular objective. And they continue to take unrelenting, consistent action for a period of years before becoming overnight successes.
If you do just five new things every day towards achieving your biggest dream, you will one day be living your dream and as Thoreau once said, ‘meet with a success unexpected in common hours.’
But if you aren’t going to take action on the advice in this article, why the heck are you reading it? Move on to something else!
One of my favorite movies is "The Shawshank Redemption" (based on Stephen King’s short story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption) about a successful banker, Andy Dufresne, who is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife. I’m sure many of you have seen it.
For nineteen years Dufresne quietly chips away at his goal to escape by literally chipping the wall in his cell – a little bit every day – until one day he reaches his goal and escapes.
His jail buddy, Red, comments that all it took "was pressure and time."
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any movie replayed so many times on TV. It really intrigued me. So I did some research and found out that according to IMDB, The Shawshank Redemption is the second most popular movie of all time with The Godfather taking first place! That’s quite the accomplishment given how long The Godfather has been out.
Why is this movie so popular? I don’t really know the answer. But I think it’s because many people feel like they’re living in a prison and have been given a life sentence to doing work they really hate. They want to break free from their shackles.
More than anything else, they want FREEDOM! And Shawshank delivers that moment of freedom. It’s a beautiful story that makes the soul weep with joy and provides the hope and promise of being human.
The great thing about Shawshank is that it also provides a solution: by quietly chipping away at your main goal and consistently taking action everyday, you will achieve the success and freedom you have been longing for. With ‘pressure and time’ you can take the darkest coal and turn it into the most brilliant, most magnificent diamond the world has ever seen.
Published At: Isnare.com Free Articles Directory - http://www.isnare.com/
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=65071&ca=Self+Help
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
Six Secrets Of Motivating Yourself For Success
Are you creating your foundation of success? Are you motivated to take on challenges that others are not willing to do? The following is a story of someone who did and achieved great success in his life and how you can, too!
There once was a young man who grew up in Crawford, Mississippi. His father worked as a brick mason building home foundations. Everyday after school and during the summers, this young man would help his father build foundations. It's not the most glamorous job by any stretch of the imagination, but it's an honest, backbreaking, and low paying job that put food on the table and paid the bills. The father would start by throwing bricks towards the son in the area where they would build a housing foundation. Under the hot, sweltering Mississippi sun, his son would catch brick after brick with his hands, day after day. While most other kids were enjoying their summers or working in less strenuous jobs, this young man was motivated to work long and hard with his father, while catching those bricks and building a foundation for success in more ways than one.
You see, each time that young man caught bricks, he was not only making his hands stronger, he was building character and the foundation for success in his later years. With each brick he caught, he was even more determined to be successful in life. When he wasn’t helping his father and going to school, he was pushing himself through football workouts to be better than any other football player. You see the young man's name is Jerry Rice, and he went on to become the most successful NFL All-Pro wide receiver of all time with the San Francisco 49ers. Some of you non-football fans may know him as a contestant from the television program, “Dancing with the Stars.”
The following are the six success secrets that Jerry Rice used that can easily motivate you to achieve success in any aspect of your business, career, and life:
1. Motivate Yourself to See Opportunities in Every Challenge – Jerry could have looked at the job of catching bricks as a chore that was a waste of his time. But he saw the big picture and made the chore more enjoyable by developing games out of the activities. Many times in life, we are thrown bricks and complain and miss the opportunity it presents to us. The person who can find solutions in the challenges they are faced with can write their own ticket for success. When you take on a challenge, it’s preparing you for an opportunity in the future. You may not know when the opportunity is coming, how it is coming, or what the opportunity will look like, but it is coming; and will you be prepared? Embrace your challenges so you will be prepared.
2. Motivate Yourself to See That It’s Normal to Experience a Little Pain – As Jerry was experiencing the pain of catching bricks each day, this pain was actually building him to becoming a stronger person. Each brick was fueling Jerry’s internal desire to be successful. Think of some situation at work, in business, or in life that was painful. Your pain may be an embarrassing moment, it may be a learning experience, and it may be a setback. How can you use this setback to motivate you to become more successful? We achieve success in our businesses, careers, and life when we develop the success tools of using our “pains” as a learning experience and a springboard to success.
3. Motivate Yourself to Take on Unpopular Tasks – Catching bricks all day is not the most glamorous job in the world. Many times we are thrown bricks in life and avoid them like the plague. Volunteer to catch these bricks while others decline. This will allow people of influence to see your special skills and offer you opportunities for success. It is what I always say, “It’s not what you know, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows what you know.” When you volunteer to catch those bricks, you allow others to now know and see the special skills and talent you exhibit.
4. Motivate Yourself To Take Action – Just the simple act of taking action will make you more successful than 98% of other people. Many times people are waiting for “just the right moment” or “more resources.” Motivate yourself to take action where you are at today and make the appropriate corrections as needed.
5. Motivate Yourself to Go the Extra Mile – Jerry Rice’s off-season personal football workouts were legendary. He would train six days a week running five miles, along with running wind sprints up the steepest mountains in his community. He didn’t need to do this grueling workout, but he wanted to be in better physical shape than any other professional football player. He went the extra mile to be the best.
What are you doing to go the extra mile? Do you have a continuous learning program in place? Do you give of yourself to make your employees better? Do you give your clients something extra to show appreciation of their business? These are all opportunities to put you above the rest and to succeed in your business, in your career, and in your life.
6. Motivate Yourself to Create a Masterpiece – Jerry Rice wanted to be the best professional wide receiver ever in football, and he achieved that title. He was motivated to pay the price to achieve that goal.
Are you motivated and ready to create a masterpiece? Do you have a vision of what your business, career, or life masterpiece looks, feels, or sounds like? Are you willing to sustain the quality effort, attitude, and determination to create your masterpiece? What are you willing to give up in order to achieve your masterpiece? Until you are ready to answer these questions, you can’t lay the foundation for achieving your masterpiece.
After you answer the above questions, create S-M-A-R-T-E-R goals as your roadmap for success. If it’s not on paper, your goals don’t exist. Be motivated to create, write, and act on your goals.
Follow these six success secrets and you, too, will be motivated to lay the foundation for your success.
Published At: Isnare.com Free Articles Directory - http://www.isnare.com/
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=155653&ca=Self+Help
Important Notice
What You Need To Do To Be Successful
What do you need to do to be successful? If you are searching the net you may feel that you need to sign up for the latest affiliate marketing programme. Or perhaps you need to be a member of the latest MLM scheme. On the other hand it may be that you need to follow the directions of the latest web marketing guru. Each of theses routes give you the opportunity of being successful but without courage, zeal and enthusiasm you will join the ranks of the 80% plus who fail.
You need the courage to identify your dream. Your passion. You need the courage to stick with the process while you concretise your focus and then to stay the course when others are telling you that it is a stupid idea and will never work.
To start your own business is difficult enough. It becomes virtually impossible when you select something that only looks good or looks interesting and you don’t have passion for. To be successful you must identify your true calling in life. Your passion. Can you imagine what the result would be if you allowed your passion to be your focus in life? So. What is it that turns you on? What motivates you? What do you constantly talk to yourself and others about? What excites you?
Once you have identified your focus, your calling, you now need zeal and enthusiasm to carry it through. To be successful. Zeal and enthusiasm is more than determination. It’s about commitment, fun, enjoyment. Something you want to do because you believe in it. A natural way to reach your aim and objective in life. A belief that means you are willing to live with your dream 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
You need to see life the way a sportsperson does. Can you commit to working day in day out with the sole purpose of working towards your dream? Can you keep going when nothing appears to be happening? Can you hold onto the slightest increase in your ability as a sign of success? Are you dedicated to continually improving your personal best? Can you believe in yourself and your passion enough to rethink the formula when the business reaches crisis point? Can you step back and honestly analyse your actions when you have just lost a potential sale or the time you spent on a marketing campaign was wasted? Can you be a totally focussed individual?
However, zeal and enthusiasm alone are useless. It’s like driving a car at full speed without knowing the destination. Alone they will not bring you success, but coupled with an aim and objective, a focus, a passion, a desire to constantly improve and courage then, like the sportsperson, the world is your oyster.
When you do something you love doing, time is immaterial and happiness and personal growth naturally follow. You work because you want to and enjoy it. You are fulfilling your passion and boy it shows. People buy your enthusiasm, your excitement. They can see the excitement in your eyes; they can read it in your writings.
Look at your business and materials:
Do they show excitement, passion?
Would you buy from you, your site, if you were a customer?
The secret to success in life is simple:
If you have the power of determination in your thoughts, every task is possible.
Those who are successful in their chosen field have an extraordinary degree of self confidence. They know they are living their passion. The only thing on their minds is to be the best. To give their best at every opportunity. They know that the key to success is their mental toughness.
What about you? There are no shortcuts. You can only be successful because you have a passion and the zeal and enthusiasm to work hard and conquer your inappropriate habits. The talent to focus and refocus your activities. The courage to stand out from the crowd. It’s not the money that drives people to success it’s the game, it’s wanting to be the best. Do you have what it takes? Can you do what you need to do to be successful?
Graham and Julie
www.desktop-meditation.com
Published At: Isnare.com Free Articles Directory - http://www.isnare.com/
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=2369&ca=Career
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)