Would you consider yourself to be an “enterprising” individual? What does the word enterprising conjure up in your mind? Well, given today’s economic realities, we all must be enterprising; it’s simply part of the power of ambition. You’re ambitious, right? Sure! But how does one become that? Is it a skill that can be learned? Well, yes, and here’s why it’s important.

Building your ambition is building your enterprising skills. Building your skills to be self-enterprising. To consistently create opportunity, new opportunity. To consistently take advantage of the opportunity that you’ve created. To be aware. To face life with your eyes and ears open to the possibilities that may be just around the corner.

An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the makings of a wonderful sculpture.  An enterprising person is one who drives through an old, decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development.  An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.

To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active.  It’s to be skilled enough and confident enough and creative enough and disciplined enough to seize opportunities that present themselves… regardless of the economy.

An enterprising mortgage broker will develop creative financing strategies during slow markets.  An enterprising lawyer will study new laws and market herself to people who may need help in those areas.  An enterprising salesman will research beyond the obvious to find new prospects for his products or services.  Isolate a secondary market.  Develop another benefit.

An enterprising attitude says, “Find out before action is taken.”  Do your homework.  Do the research.  Be prepared.  Be resourceful.  Do all you can in preparation of what’s to come.

Think of a few people you know who are enterprising.  Think of people in the news, in your office, in your neighborhood.  What do these people have in common?  Well, they’re probably always on the go.  Developing a plan.  Following a plan.  Reworking the plan until it fits.  They’re probably very resourceful, never letting anything get in their way.  They probably don’t understand the word no when it applies to their visions of the future.  And, when posed with a problem, they probably say, “Let’s figure out a way to make it work,” instead of, “It won’t work.” They take charge of the situation.  You need to be like that pesky little Energizer Bunny.  You need to keep going and going and going.

Self-enterprising people always see the future in the present.  Self-enterprising people will always find a way to take advantage of a situation, not be burdened by it.

And self-enterprising people aren’t lazy. They don’t make excuses. They don’t wait for opportunities to come to them; they go after the opportunities.  Self-enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working toward your ambition.

Self-enterprise requires two things.  Number one:  creativity.  Creativity to see what’s out there and shape it to your advantage.  Creativity to look at the world a little differently.  Creativity to take a different approach.  Creativity to be different.  And what goes hand-in-hand with the creativity of self-enterprise is number two, the courage to be creative.  The courage to see things differently.  The courage to go against the crowd.  The courage to take a different approach.  The courage to stand alone if you have to.  The courage to choose activity over ease.

And activity generally relates to how you feel about yourself.  Understanding your self-worth. 

How valuable are you?  What could you do if you had all the skills?  Took the classes, read the books, burned the midnight oil?  What could you do, what true value could you develop?

This is one of the better exercises.  What could I become?  What could I really do in the marketplace, in enterprise, family, home, experience, love, friendship, marriage… how valuable could I become?  Am I valuable enough to work on what’s not working so I can reach my full capacity?  If I’m operating at 20 percent, what could I possibly do with the other 80 percent?

Once you start understanding how valuable you are, it is a whole new experience.  Understanding self-worth.  It plays a major role in our ability to be self-enterprising.  Our self-worth makes the difference between being lazy and being active, being-self-enterprising.  If we don’t feel good about ourselves, we won’t feel good about our lives.  And if we don’t feel good about our lives, we won’t be very interested in looking for opportunities. 

So you see, being self-enterprising doesn’t just relate to the ability to make money.  Being self-enterprising also means feeling good enough about yourself, having a great enough self-worth, to want to seek advantages and opportunities that will make a difference in the future.

Enterprise is always better than ease.  Every time we choose to do less than we possibly can, it affects our self-confidence, our self-worth.  If we keep doing a little less every day, a little less, a little less… every day that we keep doing a little less, we are also being a little less.  Can you imagine what you’d end up being after 10 years of doing a little less every day?  It’s devastating!  Think about it… doing less could ruin your life!

Now, you can reverse the process of doing a little less, doing a little less.  You can reverse this process by using your self-direction, your self-reliance, your self-discipline.  You alter your course by doing a little more each day.  A little more, a little more, a little more.  And pretty soon, you’ll develop a new habit of doing rather than neglecting.  And days and weeks and months of doing a little more will ultimately do what?  It’ll increase your confidence and your courage and your creativity and your self-worth.

In the end, it’s how we feel about ourselves that provides us with the increased courage and creativity for self-enterprise.  It’s how we feel about ourselves that provides the greatest reward from activity and enterprise.  It’s not what we get or what we accumulate that makes us valuable.  It’s what we become that makes us valuable. Our life becomes exceptional.

Success isn’t in the having.  Success is in the doing.  It’s the process of doing that brings value.  It’s the activity that transforms our dreams into reality, that converts ideas into actuality.  Self-enterprise is found in the activity.  For without activity, we’ll miss the opportunity.

Let me tell you what I think most messes with the mind.  I think that simply doing less than you can messes with the mind.  It causes all kinds of psychic damage.   I think being less than you could be, doing less than you could do, trying less than you could try, doing it with less enthusiasm than you could do it messes with the mind.

It somehow damages the mind.  It damages our self-image.  Because here’s what I’ve discovered happens.  The minute you turn this around and start extending yourself, you’ll see immediate rewards.  Maybe not monetary ones, not yet.  But it’s how you feel about yourself that’s the greatest value.  You see, it’s not what we get that makes us valuable.  It’s what we become.  Discover all you can do.  See how much you can earn.  How much you can share. How much you can start.  How much you can finish.  How far you can reach.  How far you can extend your influence. 

Some people out there would have us believe that positive affirmation is more important than activity.  Instead of doing something constructive to change our lives, they would have us repeating slogans and canned affirmations like, “Every day and in every way, I’m getting better and better.”

Well, getting better and better doesn’t just happen from wishful thinking.    Getting better and better only happens with the discipline of doing better and better.  Discipline is the requirement for progress.  And, affirmations without discipline are—in all reality—delusions.

Now, don’t get me wrong here.  There’s nothing wrong with affirming the good life, as long as we are disciplined enough to take action.  Affirmations can be effective as long as we remember two very important rules.  Number one, we should never allow affirmation to replace action, activity, enterprise.  Feeling better is no substitute for doing better. 

And number two, whatever we choose to affirm must be the truth.  If the truth happens to be that we’re broke, the best affirmation would be to simply say, “I’m broke.”  Wow!  Face it.  Accept it.  Be responsible for it.  And change it.  By admitting that you’re broke, by saying it out loud, you’ll probably be disgusted enough to start the thinking process for how to change it.  Anyone saying “I’m broke” with conviction will most likely be driven from ease into action.

Confronting harsh realities has an incredible effect.  Confronting the truth, and then applying the discipline to express the truth—instead of disguising it—inevitably leads to positive change.

And reality is always the best beginning.  You see, within reality lies the possibility to create our own personal miracle.  Our own personal miracle.  And the power of faith starts with reality.  If we can bring ourselves to state the truth about a situation, then, as the saying goes, the truth will set us free.  Here’s another old saying.  “Faith isn’t faith unless it’s all you’re holding on to.”  If your life and your circumstances have resulted in a situation that is ugly, call it ugly.  If you’ve lost it all, admit that you’ve lost it all.  Be responsible to it.  And, if faith is all you’ve got left, use it.  Create your own personal miracle.

Once we understand and accept the truth, the promise of the future is freed from the shackles of deception.  Once we accept the truth, the promise of the future will pull us.

Here are some creative techniques that’ll help keep you on the right track toward that promising future.  Remember, creativity is the first requirement for self-enterprise.  Number one.  Think on paper.  You can’t take a trip to somewhere new without a road map.  You can’t build a house with the plans in your head.  You can’t build a company with the business plan in your head.  You can’t seek venture capital with the financials in your head.

But here’s what you can do.  You can put it all on paper.  Your road map, your blueprints, your business plan, your financial projections.  When you put it on paper, you can analyze your path, solve your problems, and isolate what works and what doesn’t.  You can use this for your life as well.

If you’re faced with a mental roadblock, put it all down on paper.  When you put a problem on paper, you take the emotion out of it.  With the emotion gone, you can look at the roadblock objectively.  You can figure out what you did right.  You can figure out what you did wrong.  You can figure out how to change it.

So, here’s what you do.  Pick a problem out of your head and pull out a piece of paper.  And then draw a line down the middle.   On the left-hand side, jot down the problem.   Just what is the problem?  Write it out.  We’ve got so much going on in our heads that we can’t figure things out until we take a piece of it out and put it on paper.  What is the problem?  This is the problem.  State it the best you can.

The doctor says, “Oh, you look good.  Come and see me in a year.”  And you say, “No, Doc, I’m hurting here.”  He says, “No, that’s negative; just be positive.”  No.  No… we’ve got some negative stuff we need to deal with.

So what is the problem?  State the problem.  Write it down.  Now, on the other side of this paper you put the answers or the solutions.  And I’ve got three questions to ask in order to find the answers. And by the way, these three questions can be used to solve almost any problem.  Here they are:

The first question you need to write down is this, “What can I do?”  What can I do?  Because you don’t want to go any further than that if you can solve it yourself.  “What can I do?”  Then what you do is develop working papers.  You just start jotting down… I could do number one.  I could do number two.  I could do number three.  Here are some alternatives.  And then, you start analyzing them.  Let’s see, number three, no… that one would take too long.  I haven’t got that much time.  Okay.  Number two?  Not sure.  Okay.  Let’s look at number one.  Maybe this is my best one, the one I thought of first.

Now, if that won’t work, here’s question number two:  “What could I read?”  Maybe there’s a book on your problem.  Somebody spent a lifetime trying to figure out this problem.  Maybe it’s written out in concise language somewhere to give you the instant benefit of somebody’s advice.  You don’t need to reinvent the wheel… do your homework and find the solution.

And then, you start developing some working papers on what you’re reading.  Book number one.  This just isn’t for me.  Book number two.  Not enough meat here.  Book number three.  This person’s got some interesting things to say about this problem. This will solve something.  

I’m telling you, if you want to solve a problem, the best questions to ask are number one, “What could I do?”  And number two, “What could I read?” Don’t miss the book that could help. 

So, I’m asking you.  Don’t sell yourself short here.  You can find some answers.  Now, first, try to find them yourself.  From your own experience.  Then, second, if you can’t find them yourself, now, ask, “What could I read?”  Go to the library.  Go to the bookstore.  Search your own library.  Go back through your own journals to find the stuff that’s been helpful and valuable to you.  And see if, maybe, you’ve made some notes that could be helpful in your situation.  Now, if that doesn’t work, then ask question number three.

And question number three is, “Who could I ask?” 

Now, guess what you’re prepared with when you ask somebody to help you?  You’ve got your working papers to show them.  You say, “You know, I’ve got my working papers.  I’ve tried my best to figure it out myself… and that finally left me short.  Here are some of the books I’ve read.  I’ve researched this material, and I’m still short.  Now, could I possibly ask you?  And, could you possibly help me?”

You can’t believe how willing somebody will be to help you if, first of all, they’ve gotten the idea that you were willing to help yourself.  Yes, it is legitimate to ask for a fish if you’re hungry and starving and you’ve got no choice. 

So, if you’ve got a problem, pull it out of your head and put in down on paper.  Then, ask yourself, “What can I do?”  And, if that doesn’t work, ask yourself, “What can I read?” And, if after researching all you can, you still can’t come up with the answer, ask yourself, “Who can I find to help me?”

I promise you, if you try these ideas and ask these questions when you’ve got a problem, you’ll be able to solve about anything that gets in your way.

The second step to keeping yourself on the right track and to being self-enterprising is to develop the ability to brainstorm.  Develop the ability to brainstorm.  We hear this term all the time.  But what is brainstorming?  Just what it sounds like.  Letting your brain go.  Being free from all inhibitions and objections and negatives… just putting an idea into your brain and letting it take off.  Free associating.  Not planning a train of thought, but thinking freely.

Now, if you’re planning a creative strategy session with your associates, a brainstorming session, let me give you a little hint.  Effective brainstorming can only happen if you’re free from your ego.  You can’t be worried about saying something stupid, or silly, or totally off-the-wall.  Because your silly thought may trigger someone else’s brain to take it one step further.  Brainstorming in a group is an experience of collective thought, an experience of developing one idea, or several ideas, through a variety of thought processes. 

Here’s another hint on brainstorming.  It can’t be effective unless everyone involved is comfortable with each other.  If you don’t feel comfortable within the group, you may withhold the very thought that provides the solution to the problem.  You may withhold it because you don’t want to appear unknowledgeable.

How do you think all the advertisements you see on TV and in the magazines get created?  How do you think some of those crazy campaigns are born?  The process happens through hours and hours of creative brainstorming.  And working papers.  Every member of the team jots down notes, and one idea builds on another idea, and another and another, and pretty soon, a campaign is born out of the collective thoughts of the group.

Now, I don’t believe that the best decisions are made by committee, but great ideas are often created by committee.  That’s number two to keeping on the track of self-enterprise.  Finding answers through brainstorming.  Whether you’re letting your brain go by itself, or whether you’re part of a group, brainstorming can often lead you to solutions.  Solutions you’d never have thought of if you’d imposed parameters on your thought process.

Here’s number three for creatively keeping on the track of self-enterprise.  And it’s really an extension of number two.  Number three says, imagine outlandish solutions.  Get your brain out of the rut by considering ideas without considering their practicality.

Consider ideas without considering how practical they are.  You see, if you allow yourself to think without confinement, you may come across a solution that seems totally inappropriate.  But, guess what else this type of thinking will do?  It’ll allow you to open up the process, which will eventually lead to totally appropriate solutions.

The fourth creative technique for keeping yourself on the right track to self-enterprise is through flow charts and doodles and formulas.  That’s right.  Doodling.  The thing you got in trouble for in grade school is actually quite stimulating to the brain.  Because, the way you think while doodling is quite different from the way you think while creating a flow chart or writing a formula.

Your doodles may end up looking like some symbol that will trigger your brain to think of an alternative solution.  Drawing creative doodles wakes up a different part of your brain.  Try creating a flow chart showing the path to success.  What does it look like?  Is it a straight course?  Is it a varied course?  Does it have a lot of curves and corners and different angles?   Try creating your flow chart to success.  It doesn’t matter if it ends up being accurate or not.  What matters is that it’s stimulating the creative thought process.

And once you awaken that creative part of you, you’ll be amazed at the opportunities that were always there, ones you never saw before.  It’s all a matter of how you look at life and opportunities.

The fifth method of creatively staying on the self-enterprising track is to access the information highway.  It’s amazing the kind of information that one comes across these days.  With your computer, you can go online with hundreds of services.  You can access stock quotes.  You can access worldwide newspapers.  You can do research.  You can directly ask questions of other users.  You can make new contacts, develop an entirely new network.

By taking advantage of our electronic age, you can learn more than you could otherwise learn.  Network with people whom you’d otherwise never meet.  You can find information that your library may not have.  You can share information faster than ever before.

The sixth technique for staying on track?  Commit yourself to learning.  Feed your mind. 
Sharpen your interest in two major subjects:  life and people.  Learn how you can better interact with others.  Learn more on how to get the most from life.  Learn all that you can so you can become all that you can become.

Learning is the beginning of a life worth living.  Learning is the beginning of wealth.  Learning is the beginning of happiness.  Learning is the beginning of health.  Learning is the beginning of spirituality and faith.  Learning and searching is where the process of creating your own personal miracle begins.  Learning is the beginning of self-enterprise. Keep learning!

So, there you have the six steps for building your self-enterprising traits and ultimately building your ambition. Put them to work for you.

By Jim Rohn

When it comes to achieving accomplishments there are two foundational actions that must take place. When these two actions take place, and take place in the right order, you will become unstoppable. You will also enter into an elite group of people who actually do both.

You see, most people are given to only one or the other, and in doing so negate their opportunity to accomplish what it is that they want to accomplish. What are these two actions?

Intake and output.

Think about it. Do you want to have a healthy body? You must take in proper food and output vigorous exercise. Do you want to be financially fit? You must intake income and output investments.

The same is true in our personal and professional lives. But what specifically do we intake and output?

We intake information and we out put effort through the exercise of our will.

The twin actions of accomplishment then are the intake of information and the exercising of our will.

As I said, most people do one or the other. They are simply information addicts or they are action addicts. You have some who go to every seminar in the world and then never exercise their will to put it into practice. Others are simply a flurry of action but going in no specific direction.

When you only intake information you become fat! Not physically fat but personally fat. You become lethargic. You become frustrated because all of this information was supposed to change your life!

When you only exercise your will and become a tornado of activity you become spent. You become tired because you aren’t achieving anything but a busy schedule!

But when you put these two together – WOW! Look out because you will turn the world upside down! So let’s look at these two a little closer.

How can you intake information?
1. Choose as close friends, people who will challenge and stimulate you intellectually and personally.
2. Go back to school.
3. Buy success products and listen to them.
4. Read books.
5. Go to a seminar.
6. Get involved in an ongoing discussion group with people who want to grow.

How can you exercise the will? This is a bit simpler but not so easy.
1. You simply must act on the information.
2. Eat better foods – put down the ice cream.
3. Save more money – stop spending on superfluous items.
4. Lose weight – start walking every day.
5. Manage your time – shut off the TV.

All of these things we know what to do, but we must simply do it.

Are you a person who has all the info? Then act.

Are you a person who acts but doesn’t get anywhere? Then learn.

Intake information, exercise the will. The twin actions of accomplishment.

You are Made for Success,
Chris Widener

There are four areas concerning Leaving a Legacy that I consider to be fundamental; a Life Well-Lived, Principles to Live By, The Importance of a Spiritual Legacy and an Impact Legacy and a Financial Legacy. Today I would like to share on a Life Well-Lived.

You know, I have had an amazing life. I have traveled the world. I have shared my heart with so many wonderful people. I have been fortunate enough to make a great living and enjoy the fruit of my work. I have met thousands of people who are dedicated to personal development and self growth. I have made it my life’s pursuit to teach others the philosophies and actions that would help them achieve greatness and personal fulfillment in their own lives. Forty years ago, it felt like it would never end. Today, I still imagine I have many years left, but I also am more aware than ever that there is much less time left than before.

Being aware of this has made me even more clear on my goal of living well and teaching others to do the same. Our One-Year Plan of Success is designed to help others achieve all of their dreams and is part of one of the legacies I want to leave behind.

Leaving a legacy for others to follow is part of what drives me. I followed others who had gone before me; they left a legacy for me. Now I am making sure that those who come after me will have a trail to follow as well. You see, leaving a legacy is important.

Think about those who left a legacy for us to follow and for you specifically:

Your parents
Your grandparents
Your aunts and uncles
Your schoolteachers
Your coaches
Your neighbors where you grew up

For those of us in America (For our international readers, take a moment to reflect on those leaders who helped form the foundations of your country):

The founding fathers of the U.S., who had a dream of a place of self-determination

Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves

FDR, who saw us through the great depression

The many men and woman who defended our liberties through the wars of the 20th century so we could live in freedom

JFK, who called us to space exploration and set us on course to have a man walk on the moon

Martin Luther King Jr. who left us a legacy to pursue the dream of racial equality

There are literally thousands of men and women who lived in a way that affects our lives today.

And yes, the list goes on from there as well. These are the people who we knew, who we lived with, and who shaped us deeply, for good and for bad in some cases.

You see, a legacy can be anywhere on the continuum, from very bad to very good. It all depends on how we live our lives.

How we live our lives is critically important. I want to challenge you to take a look at how you live. We want to challenge you to think deeply about the major areas of your life where you can and should leave a lasting legacy.

Why is leaving a legacy important? Here are a few reasons:

The legacy we leave is part of the ongoing foundations of life. Those who came before leave us the world we live in. Those who will come after will have only what we leave them. We are stewards of this world, and we have a calling on our lives to leave it better than how we found it, even if it seems like such a small part.

Legacies have raw power for good and for bad. There are people who have changed the world for good, people who have opened up new worlds for millions of others, people who have spurred others onto new heights. And there are people who have caused massive destruction for countless millions, people who left a wake of pain behind them wherever they went.

There are parents who have blessed their children with greatness and other parents who have ruined their children’s fragile minds and hearts. What we do affects others. Our lives have the power to create good or purvey evil. It is important that we choose to do good.

It is an act of responsibility to leave a legacy. Because of the power of our lives and the legacies we leave, it is a great responsibility to choose to leave a positive legacy. All good men and women must take responsibility to create legacies that will take the next generation to a level we could only imagine. I truly believe that part of what makes us good and honorable people is to have a foundational part of our lives based on the goal of leaving a legacy.

Purposefully leaving a legacy for others breaks the downward pull of selfishness that can be inherent in us. When we strive to leave a legacy, we are acting with a selflessness that can only be good for us. Yes, I suppose someone could work hard to earn money so that when he or she dies, a building is named after them, but that is not the kind of legacy we are talking about. We are talking about legacies that make life better for those who come after us, not about our own fame or recognition, but about helping others. After all, we won’t be around to watch our legacy. To build that which will last beyond us is selfless, and living with that in mind breaks the power of selfishness that tries so desperately to engrain itself in our lives.

It also keeps us focused on the big picture. Legacy building is “big picture.” It keeps us focused on the long-term and gives us values that we can judge our actions by. When we are acting based on selfishness, personal expediency and the like, we are “small picture”–whatever is pragmatic right now. When we are building a life that will give for many years, we are “big picture.” Ask yourself: How does this action affect my overall goals? How will this affect people in the years to come?

Yes, your legacy is very important. Take some time this month to reflect on how you are going to use your information and skills to build a life that leaves a tremendous legacy!

Until next time, let’s do something remarkable!
Jim Rohn

Have you ever said “yes” when you meant “no”? Agreed to do something you really didn’t want to do? Given in to someone’s demands because you didn’t want to make them angry or hurt their feelings? If so, then you have used a passive communication style.

The Passive Personality – Path of Least Resistance

Indeed, there are some times when you will decide it is not worth the hassle, anguish, frustration, time or energy to deal assertively with a person or situation. Instead, you choose to ignore or avoid the problem, often hoping it will just go away. These are your passive times.

Passive personalities are intimidated when faced with manipulative anger and feel guilty when faced with manipulative hurt. Passives may avoid a confrontation, but in so doing they create a great deal of unhappiness for themselves. Most stress is caused by avoiding problems and people rather than dealing with them.

No more excuses, please.

People with passive personalities love to tell themselves that their input does not matter. They even make excuses when someone is treating them badly. Rather than place the blame on the manipulator, they often blame themselves saying, “It must be me. Something I did caused this to happen.” The passive plays right into the hand of the aggressive personality.

It’s easy to see why aggressives love to work with, be friends with and marry passive people. Aggressives like to push others to the limit to see just how much they can get away with. Passives often fail to set any limits at all. They would rather let others make the decisions so they do not have to be responsible if things do not work out.

You must decide to take control.

We all have the power to make our own choices as adults and we have the obligation to assume responsibility for those choices. No one will treat us any better than we expect to be treated. You may have experienced things in your life over which you had no control, but you can control how you allow those experiences to define you as a person.

There are two main reasons passives have a hard time with confrontation. Many simply hate the physiological changes that take place in their bodies when they are in a tense situation. The fear of what might happen if you take a stand combined with the anger and frustration of not speaking up is enough to make anyone ill. Many more learned at a young age that in order to stay out of trouble they needed to keep their heads down and their mouths shut.

Assertive is about taking control of your life. Passive is about letting go of control and handing it to others. Setting boundaries means identifying healthy and ethical principles upon which to base your life and making sure that how you treat others and are treated by others is within the framework of those principles.

How do passives get their way?

They seldom do. Passives generally have low esteem as a result of making unhealthy, even self-destructive, choices. Passive people usually avoid saying “no” in order to be nice. They think the only alternative to being nice is to be mean or selfish. Aggressives enjoy being around passive people because passives allow them to do their own thing, in their own time, in their own way, even if it involves manipulation and/or abuse.

Passives are generally intuitive people who play a game called “let’s see if you can guess what I want”. The problem is that they expect others to do the same for them. This “testing” usually leads to their disappointment.

Surprisingly, the passive person values healthy, assertive principles for everyone but themselves. They do not believe they deserve what they work so hard to give to everyone else. In the passive person’s futile attempt to be all things to all people, they often fail to live up to the very principles they work so diligently to model.

When passivity becomes our default response, then we have a problem because not only do we continue to “compromise” with nothing gained, but our ethics and values are inevitably compromised as well. As a result, our self-esteem is diminished. Compromising with another person is one thing. Compromising ourselves is quite another. It is nearly impossible to maintain a healthy sense of self-respect when passive is the communication style of choice.

Take Action!

Think about a time when you chose to be passive.

Why did you choose to be passive? Were you afraid of hurting someone’s feelings? Were you afraid of making someone angry?

Do you often wish you had said or done something instead of remaining silent? If so, think about communicating more assertively in the future.
 

Connie Podesta

My family and I had the good fortune last summer to be invited, by an incredibly successful business associate and long time friend, to stay at his private beach house in Florida. We go every single year to the Destin area, but had never experienced the privacy and proximity to the beach that this house had.

Toward the end of our stay, my friend came through town and we all had dinner together. He is very passionate about personal development and in particular Jim Rohn, but over dinner I found out a new piece to the puzzle of his success.

He never graduated from college… okay (neither did I), but then we found out he had never graduated from high school. In fact he was constantly in trouble and eventually was expelled. But in the process he found a mentor and was given the book Think and Grow Rich… and the rest is history. He has built close to a 100 million dollar company and pretty much does whatever he wants to do when he wants to do it.

This is a very familiar story. The book Think and Grow Rich, I would assume, is probably the most quoted book on success of all time, next to the Bible.

Not long after that I received in the mail something from another very good friend of mine, something I had waited on for several months, and was so excited to finally get.

This package is something you must at least take a look at and see if the timing is right for you to take the time to invest into your own future success using the tools that helped create so many other mega wealthy people.

“I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have gone ourselves.”  E. M. Forster

If you ask most people whether they would like to be considered a winner or a loser in life, they would most assuredly reply that they would like to be a winner. But this begs the question, “What does it mean to win at life?” In some things it’s easy to define a clear winner. In a basketball game, whoever has the most points at the end of the game is the winner. In a game of hearts, my favorite card game, whoever has the least amount of points when one of the players reaches 100 points is the winner.

But it isn’t quite as easy to decide what it means to win in the game of life, is it? And that is because people define winning in different ways. For many, winning is through the accumulation of money or material possessions. “He’s a success, a real winner,” they say. Others think winning means living the longest. Still others say that it is to have their body in tip-top shape. Some say it is to have a happy family. Some say it is to regularly enjoy their hobbies.

All of these are fine, in and of themselves. But…

I would like to encourage us to think about winning or success in a different way. Generally, people think of winning as the over-achievement in a particular, chosen area. I like to believe, however, that to truly win at life is not to overachieve in one area but to succeed in maintaining balanced achievement in numerous areas.

Let me repeat that: To truly win; to be a success, is not to overachieve in one area, but to maintain balanced achievement in all areas of our lives.

For instance, is a person of success if they earn millions of dollars but lose their family? Is a person a success if they garner national fame but have no friends? Of course not. In fact, they may live the most pitiful of all lives.

First, Define
So the first thing we must do is define what we will consider “winning in life.” As you ponder this for yourself, I would like to recommend that you focus in on three overarching areas: Body, Soul, and Spirit.

The body is that which has actual connection with the physical world and would encompass physical health, financial health, family, work, and relationships.

How is your health? How are your finances? Are your relationships, both with your family and others all that they could be? Is work fulfilling? How would you define winning in these areas?

The next area, the soul, is that which deals with the emotions, will, and intellect. It is our thoughts, ideas, and attitudes.

How are you emotionally? Are you able to exercise your will? Are you growing intellectually? Have you done an attitude check lately? How would you define winning in these areas?

And the spirit is the part of us that transcends this life, the part of us that communes with God. Zig Ziglar said, “Money will buy me a house, but not a home, a bed, but not a good night’s sleep.” So true. Inner peace comes from something much deeper.

Have you thought about going back to your spiritual roots? Are you able to spend time in quiet, solitude, and prayer from time to time? This is an extremely important area and all too often neglected. What would you like to achieve in this area? How would you define winning in these areas?

As we experience balance in these areas, we will find ourselves much more at peace with ourselves than if we were to experience tremendous success in one area but loss or failure in the other areas. We were designed to work as congruent, balanced people. This is how we get to the end of our lives and say, “I won.”

Second, Prioritize
Once you have defined what it is that you would like to achieve in each of these areas, you have to prioritize them, and let other, non-important areas drop off the chart. Commit to developing a plan to succeed in a balance of areas. Exercise your will. Choose. Dwight D. Eisenhower said that “The history of free men is written not by chance, but by choice – their choice.”

When we manage our time and schedule, we are simply making choices in regard to our priorities. For most, their priority is to take action on whatever is screaming the loudest at the moment. For those who become winners, they reflect on what they desire to achieve, make a plan and decide to eliminate the rest.

Last, Do it
Okay, you have defined winning. You have prioritized your life. Now, the hard part: Doing it. This is where we are all alone. We all make this step on our own, but having a written plan is as good a preparation as you can get. Rather than saying that you are going to do this for the rest of your life, take the next week to implement your new balance of winning. If a week sounds too long, just focus on today. Spend some time, be it ever so small, enhancing your life in these areas. Exercise a little. Read for a while to challenge your mind. Deal with your emotions. Spend time in silent contemplation to renew your spirit. Give some time to your spouse and children. Will Rogers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you won’t get anywhere if you’re standing still.” There has got to be action.

As we do this over time, and balance our lives out, we will begin to finally feel like we are winning at life. That will be exciting, as will the process!

By Chris Widener

Isn’t it interesting how much time and energy people will spend organizing closets, washing windows and throwing out surplus items from their garage when Spring fever hits, yet never stop to take the time to clear out negative thoughts or limiting thinking? Those self-sabotaging subtleties that prevent them from living a life filled with clarity, purpose and joy. As the seasons change and the birds begin to sing, the weather warms and the trees bloom, it’s the perfect time for you to purge your mind of stinking thinking.

Where to begin? The first step in the quest for a mental un-cluttering is Awareness. Recognizing and realizing when your inner critic shows up, invites himself in and starts chirping about your abilities. “You can’t do that!” “You’re too old to change careers.” “You’re not smart enough to start your own business.” All LIES (Limiting Ideas Eliminate Success) to strip your confidence and cause you to take a step back, do nothing, and play it safe. Lies that get you to quit before you begin. Lies covertly protecting you from harm when in truth they are causing you continuing unnecessary pain.

Play a game with yourself and notice how many times the liar pops up on a daily basis to make you feel guilty (“I yelled at my kids, I’m a horrible parent”), to make you doubt yourself (“I better not ask for a raise, it’s not a good time”), or to make you play small (“Even though my company pays for university classes, I can’t handle the homework”). Pay careful attention to the distinction between the fact and the falsity. The truth is you raised your voice at your children, but it doesn’t necessarily make you a bad parent – that’s the lie. The truth is you may have to adjust your schedule, ask for help, or be tutored to manage college homework, but that you can’t handle it – there’s the lie. The truth is you’ve managed everything that has shown up in your life thus far. Why couldn’t you deal with this one too?

Becoming aware of how these LIES control your decisions is critical to making positive change. However, awareness is not enough to silence those destructive, derailing thoughts. Cleaning your mind to reflect the real you also requires Asking. Ask yourself where you’re “at”, between the “a” of being afraid and the “t” of trusting. The only way you are going to squelch the lies is to honestly answer the question “What are you afraid of?” or “Why don’t you trust yourself on this one?”

Chances are you will come up with two or three of the same reasons every time. And typically, they are related to approval (somebody else’s) or appearances (what will people think), accuracy (what if you’re wrong), or alienation (it’s lonely at the top).   

Ask yourself, “Why don’t I give myself the kudos I seek from others?” What makes you think others notice anyway? What´s worse? Being wrong or not trying? News flash: You’re not alone. Everybody has doubts and fears. Everybody has stuff they need to clean up and work through despite how outwardly organized they appear. Most people keep shoving their true feelings back into their psychological closet instead of acknowledging the reality of their circumstance. Discarding the limiting thinking opens up and releases space for clear and positive reasoning. It’s this release that allows you to breathe life and energy back into your spirit.

There’s no time like the present to get real. Dust off your Authenticity and genuinely acknowledge your fears – “face the truth, embrace the excuse”. Allow your humanness. The process is similar to getting rid of old clothes that no longer fit, no longer represent your style or never really felt comfortable. Once you’ve tackled the task of separating the actual from the sentimental, you’re already feeling better about your potential. Letting go of thoughts that never appropriately served you frees up space and energy to go after what you now know you want.

But hold on! Just because you’ve come clean doesn’t mean you’re done. Like garages needing constant maintenance to stay orderly and neat, your mind requires continuing Accountability to discern and decipher your LIES. Consider making daily deposits into your emotional bank account. Why? If you’re like most people, you’re probably emotionally bankrupt when it comes to giving yourself the approval and support you deserve. Every time your inner critic starts chirping a restrictive or negative comment, stop the withdrawal and start the rationale.

For example, your supervisor sends an email asking you to deliver a short presentation to the entire team on the new computer software. Your inner critic immediately goes into overdraft: “You are a horrible speaker. You don’t know the new system that well; you’re going to look like a loser in front of everyone!” Immediately cancel that transaction and speak your truth: “I am capable and responsible.” “I have delivered effective presentations before.” Remind yourself of the time you taught a couple of colleagues how to work the new phone system. “I am knowledgeable.” You do know more about the computer software than others in your office. Why make three deposits? One to balance the withdrawal you just made, and two more to account for the years of withdrawals and debits.

To stop going through the motions and the e-motions of stinking thinking, you’re going to have to develop a new LIAR (Let’s Inspire Another Response) approach. Anchor your intentions and attract your desired results with positive language. Affirmation is attitude expressed. Rather than say “I should exercise” or “I’ll try to be more assertive at work,” substitute choose, will or want. “I will exercise.” “I choose to speak up at work.” “I want to make this change.” These deliberative, action-oriented words state a positive intention that unfreezes the emotional bank account and creates movement in the direction of accomplishing your goals.

The next time you are overlooked for an assignment you desired, rather than say, “There’s nothing I can do about it,” invoke the LIAR approach. Rephrase your self-talk to “I have choices and I accept that things happen for the best.” Repeat. “I have choices and I accept that things happen for the best.” These words empower rather than disable. Will you choose to have a professional conversation with your supervisor? Will you choose to enroll in a class to update your skills and increase your opportunities?

Remember, our minds can only hold one thought at a time. You have the Authority to select any thought at any given moment and the ability to control where it leads. You decide what to keep and what to toss, whether it will focus on your gifts and incredible talents. Grab the Windex, wipe off the mirrors of your mind and see clearly how bright and brilliant you are meant to be.

– Colette Carlson

 They say that “everybody’s a critic,” and that never seems truer than when you’re pursuing a dream. There will always be well-meaning people who want to “protect” you from your “unrealistic fantasies.”  Critics tried to discourage the people profiled in Unstoppable.  Everyone ignored the negative input and achieved their goals.  Follow their lead and you, too, will be UNSTOPPABLE!

1. The timing is all wrong. In 1987, prior to accepting Paramount’s offer to host a late-night talk show, Arsenio Hall was told by everyone: “It’s too hard to crack into the late-night ratings. Television isn’t ready for a black talk show host. This is America, and you can forget it.”

2. Why don’t you get a real job? Not understanding his desire to become Mr. Universe, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s family pleaded with him, saying: “How long will you go on training all day in a gymnasium and living in a dream world?”

3. It’ll never work, you’ll lose everything. Weeks before she opened her first store, cosmetic tycoon Mary Kay Ash’s attorney said: “Liquidate the business right now and recoup whatever cash you can. If you don’t, you’ll end up penniless.”

4. Don’t rock the boat. In response to Muriel Siebertís application to be the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, officials responded: “The language on the floor is too rough and there’s no ladies’ room.”  She bought a seat anyway and remained the only woman there for nine years.

5. It’s never been done before. Upon applying for a job after graduation from Columbia University, announcers for NBC Radio responded to Sally Jessy Raphael: “You have the perfect voice for broadcasting, but you should get a job as a secretary. We’re not using women.”

6. You don’t have enough talent. Responding to his desire to become a recording artist, Ray Charles’ teachers said: “You can’t play the piano, and God knows you can’t sing. You’d better learn how to weave chairs so you can support yourself.”

7. Don’t even try, you’ll just be disappointed. When auditioning for a part in a high school musical, a teacher rejected Diana Ross saying: “You have a nice voice, but it’s nothing special.”

8. You don’t fit the mold OR you’re not the right “type.” Trying to convince her she didn’t have the right look, fashion photographer Richard Avedon told Cher: “You will never make the cover of Vogue because you don’t have blond hair or blue eyes.”  When she did make the cover, Vogue sold more copies than it had ever sold before.

9. Don’t give up your day job. Commenting on the first manuscript of an unpublished author, a New York publisher told James Michener: “You’re a good editor with a promising future in the business. Why would you want to throw it all away to try to be a writer? I read your book. Frankly, it’s not really that good.” Michener’s first book, Tales of the South Pacific, later won a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted for stage and screen as South Pacific.

10. There’s no market for it. When hearing his plans to launch Perrier in the United States, several consulting firms advised Gustave Leven: “You’re foolish to try to sell sparkling water in the land of Coca-Cola drinkers.”

The only opinion about your dream that really counts is yours. The negative comments of others merely reflect their limitations — not yours. There is nothing unrealistic about a dream that aligns with your purpose, ignites your passion, and inspires you to plan and persevere until you attain it. On the contrary, it’s unrealistic to expect a person with such drive and commitment not to succeed.

Choose to be unstoppable!
Cynthia Kersey

“Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.” — Lou Holtz

Success in life depends upon being strong people with clear goals and indomitable spirits. Unfortunately most of us aren’t born that way. We grow that way. And that growth can either come from us entering willfully into situations that will cause us to grow, like subscribing to Made for Success, or from the way we react when circumstances come upon us without our consent. The latter is what we call adversity.

Most of us spend our lives trying to avoid adversity, and I guess that is just as well. We shouldn’t pursue adversity, but when she arrives, we should welcome her as a foe who, through our interaction with her, will make us into better people. Every contact we have with adversity gives us again the opportunity to grow personally and professionally and to forge our character into one that will achieve much later on.

With that in mind, here are some thoughts on adversity, and how it can help you to succeed in every area of your life and achieve your dreams.

Adversity brings out our resources. Horace said “Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.” When everything is going well, we coast. There isn’t a lot of stress, and we don’t have to draw too much on the resources that reside within us. But when adversity comes we begin to draw upon each and every resource that we have in order to conquer the circumstances at hand. Adversity then, keeps us sharp. It keeps us using our personal muscle, if you will. That is a good thing because we grow through the use of our resources.

Adversity brings us together with others. Sure a team can have their problems with each other, but when they step on the court, when they experience the adversity of facing another obstacle, they pull together. One for all and all for one, as they say. The next time you experience adversity of some kind, keep your eyes open for how it can bring you together with your family, your co-workers or your team. Then when you are through it, you will find a bond that was created that wasn’t there before.

Adversity makes us better people with stronger characters. Never underestimate the power of adversity to shape us inwardly. How will courage, discipline and perseverance ever flourish if we are never tested? After adversity, we come out stronger people and able then to use our character and influence in an even greater way to lead those around us and to improve their lives as well as our own.

Adversity makes life interesting. John Amatt said, “Without adversity, without change, life is boring.” How true. Have you noticed that while we are in the middle of adversity we only long to get out of it, but we then spend a lifetime recounting it to anyone who will listen? This is because it spices life up a little. Imagine how boring life would be if everything always went well, when there was never a mountain to be climbed.

Question – If you are in the middle of some adversity right now, what resources are you drawing on? Who are you drawing closer to and working with? What part of your character is being tested, and built up? What can you do to view this adversity as one who will be better for it on the other side?

Remember the words of Napoleon Hill – “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” Believe it, it is true!

If you were to choose just one part of your personality to develop that would virtually guarantee your success, I’d like to suggest that you place persistence at the top of your list.  

Napoleon Hill, in his classic Think and Grow Rich felt so strongly about this subject, he devoted an entire chapter to it. Hill suggested, “There may be no heroic connotation to the word persistence but the quality is to your character what carbon is to steel.”  

Think about it. If you took a quick mental walk down memory lane and reviewed some of your accomplishments in the past – large and small – you would have to agree that persistence played an important role in your success.

Napoleon Hill studied many of the world’s most successful people. He pointed out the only quality he could find in Henry Ford, Thomas Edison or a host of other notable greats, that he could not find in everyone else was persistence. What I found even more intriguing was the fact that Hill made comment of the fact that these individuals were often misunderstood to be ruthless or cold-blooded and that this misconception grew out of their habit of following through in all of their plans with persistence.  

It’s both interesting and sadly amusing to me that, as a society, we would be quick to criticize people for realizing they had an unshakeable power within them and were capable of overcoming any obstacle outside of them. This power would ultimately move them toward a greater chance of achieving any goal they set for themselves!
 
Milt Campbell is a good friend of mine. He and I have shared many hours together discussing the very topic of persistence. Milt was a Decathlete in the Olympic Games held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. His goal was to capture gold for the US. Unfortunately, another fierce competitor who had taken home the gold four years previous in London wasn’t satisfied with one gold, Bob Mathias wanted two; Milt had to settle for silver. That did not deter Milt one bit. He had formed the habit of persistence and four years later in Melbourne, Australia, Milt won the gold medal, earning him the title of the greatest athlete in the world.  

On numerous occasions Milt has said, “There were many guys in school who were far better athletes than me, but they quit.” I can recount story after story about individuals who overcame obstacles so great, but only did so because they dared persist. These individuals are no different than you and I.

Ultimately persistence becomes a way of life, but that is not where it begins. To develop the mental strength – persistence – you must first want something. You have to WANT something so much that it becomes a heated desire… a passion in your belly. You must fall in love with that idea. Yes, literally fall in love with the idea and magnetize yourself to every part of the idea. At that point, persistence will be virtually automatic.  

Persistence is a subject I have studied all of my adult life and I can tell you one thing I know for certain: very few people ever, mentally or verbally, say to themselves… this is what I really want and I am prepared to give my life for it, and thus, they never develop the persistence to achieve it.

Persistence is a unique mental strength; a strength that is essential to combat the fierce power of the repeated rejections and numerous other obstacles that sit in waiting and are all part of winning in a fast-moving, ever-changing world. As Napoleon Hill found out, there are hundreds of highly successful men and women who have cut a path for others to follow, while leaving their mark on the scrolls of history… and every one of these great individuals was persistent. In many cases it was the only quality that separated them from everyone else.

It is generally believed that a lack of persistence is a consequence of a weak willpower. That is not true. A person could have a highly evolved willpower and still lack the persistence required to keep moving forward in life. In more cases than not, if a person lacks persistence, they do not have a goal that is worthy of them, a desirable goal that excites them to their very core.

Though willpower is important in moving a person toward their goal, if there is ever a war between the will and the imagination, the imagination will win every time. What that means is: you’re powered by desire and fuelled by the dream you hold. Once you start to use your imagination to help you build a bigger picture of your dream, to define and refine it until you get it just right in your mind, the emotion that is triggered by that desire far outweighs any force that may be caused by sheer will alone. I am not suggesting the will does not have to be developed, it does. It must become highly developed in order to direct you toward the image with which you are emotionally involved.

Your intellectual factors hold the potential for enormous good when they are properly employed. However, you must remember that everything has an opposite and any of your intellectual factors can turn, without warning, into destructive lethal enemies when they are directed toward results that are not wanted. It is easy to find individuals who are persistently doing what they don’t want to do and achieving results that they do not want. A lack of persistence is not their problem; that person is persisting to their own detriment. Ignorance and paradigms are the enemy that we must defeat. Everyone is persistent. Our objective must be to put persistence to work for us rather than against us.  

Vision and desire have to be the focus of your attention if you’re going to develop persistence into the great ally it can become.

Another excellent example of persistence was demonstrated when, in 1953, a beekeeper from Auckland, N.Z., Edmund Hillary and his native guide, Tenzing Norguay, became the first two people to climb Mt. Everest and return, after having tried and failed the two previous years.

Hillary had two obvious character strengths that took him to the very top —- vision and desire. Even despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges, he had no trouble persisting with the strenuous acts that were required because every act was hooked into the image of him standing on top of the mountain. They were expressed because of his persistence, but he was persistent because he was emotionally involved with the image. Without persistence, all his skills would have meant nothing.  

Persistence is an expression of the mental strength that is essential in almost every profession, where repeated rejection and obstacles are part of a daily routine.  

In closing, let me give you four relatively simple steps that will help you to turn persistence into a habit. These steps can be followed by virtually anyone.  

1. Have a clearly defined goal. The goal must be something you are emotionally involved with, something you want very much. (In the beginning, you may not even believe that you can accomplish it—the belief will come.)

2. Have a clearly established plan that you can begin working on immediately. (Your plan will very likely only cover the first and possibly the second stage of the journey to your goal. As you begin executing your plan, other steps required to complete your journey will be revealed at the right time.)

3. Make an irrevocable decision to reject any and all negative suggestions that come from friends, relatives or neighbors. Do not give any conscious attention to conditions or circumstances that appear to indicate the goal cannot be accomplished.

4. Establish a mastermind group of one or more people who will encourage, support and assist you wherever possible.

What do you dream of doing with your life? Do it. Begin right now and never quit. There is greatness in you. Let it out. Be persistent.

Bob Proctor