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GOALS!
How to Get Everything You
Want – Faster Than You Ever
Thought Possible
By Brian Tracy
© Brian Tracy
...
The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced
in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy
...
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Preface
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Conclusion: Take Action Today
...
I only wish you could be here to read this book
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PAGE 1
GOALS!
PREFACE
This book is for ambitious people who want to get ahead faster
...
The ideas contained in the pages ahead will save you
years of hard work in achieving the goals that are most important to
you
...
My seminars and talks have varied in
length from five minutes to five days
...
After countless talks on various
themes, if I was only given five minutes to speak to you, and I could
only convey one thought that would help you to be more successful, I
would tell you to “write down your goals, make plans to achieve
them, and work on your plans every single day
...
Many university graduates have
told me that this simple concept has been more valuable to them than
four years of study
...
It will change yours as well
...
All of them were
millionaires and multi-millionaires
...
As they discussed
the reasons why they had managed to achieve so much in life, the
wisest man among them spoke up and said that, in his estimate,
“success is goals, and all else is commentary
...
The biggest waste of time and
life is for you to spend years accomplishing something that you could
have achieved in only a few months
...
The speed at which you
move onward and upward will amaze both yourself and all the
people around you
...
You can transform your experience from poverty
and frustration to affluence and satisfaction
...
In my talks, seminars and consulting, I have worked with more than
two million people all around the world
...
PAGE 3
GOALS!
My personal mission statement has not changed in years
...
”
This book contains the distilled essence of all that I have learned in
the areas of success, achievement and goal attainment
...
For my children, this book is meant to be a road map
and a guide to help you get from wherever you are to wherever you
want to go
...
Welcome! A great new adventure is about to begin
...
There have never been more
opportunities for creative and determined people to achieve more of
their goals than they can today
...
In the year 1900, there were five thousand millionaires in America
...
Experts predict that there will be another
ten to twenty million millionaires created in the next two decades
...
This book will show you
how
...
My first job
was as a dishwasher in the back of a small hotel
...
For the next few years, I drifted and worked at various laboring jobs,
earning my living by the sweat of my brow
...
I worked on farms and ranches
...
I worked as a construction laborer on tall buildings, and as a seaman
on a Norwegian Freighter in the North Atlantic
...
When I was 23, I was working as an
itinerant farm laborer during the harvest, sleeping on the hay in the
barn and eating with the farmer’s family
...
When I could no longer find a laboring job, I got a job in straight
commission sales, cold calling from office-to-office and from door-todoor
...
This was not a great start at life
...
It was to earn $1,000 per month in doorto-door and office-to-office selling
...
But 30 days later, my entire life had changed
...
Meanwhile, the owner of my company sold out to
an entrepreneur who had just moved into town
...
I accepted his offer and from that day
forward, my life was never the same
...
I went from personal selling to becoming a sales
manager with people selling for me
...
I went literally from worrying about my next meal to
walking around with a pocket full of $20 dollar bills
...
In almost no time at all, they doubled
and tripled and increased their incomes as much as ten times
...
It’s important to note that, since those days in my mid-20s, my life
has not been a smooth series of upward steps
...
I have traveled, lived and worked in more than 80 countries,
learning French, German and Spanish along the way, and working in
22 different fields
...
In every case when this happened, I would begin by sitting
down with a piece of paper and laying out a new set of goals for
myself, using the methods that I’ll explain in the pages ahead
...
By assembling these ideas and strategies in one place, I
PAGE 7
GOALS!
developed a goal setting methodology and process, with a beginning,
middle and end, and began to follow it every day
...
In January of that year, I was living in a
rented apartment with rented furniture
...
By December, I was living in
my own $100,000 condominium
...
Then I really got serious about success
...
I invested hundreds and then
thousands of hours reading and researching on goal setting and goal
achieving, synthesizing the best ideas I could find into a complete
goal setting and achieving process that worked with incredible
effectiveness
...
I
began audiotaping and video taping my courses so that others could
use them
...
What I found was that these ideas work everywhere, for everyone, in
virtually every country, no matter what your education, experience
or background may be when you begin
...
The
regular and systematic practice of goal setting has taken us from
poverty to prosperity, from frustration to fulfillment, from
underachievement to success and satisfaction
...
What I learned early on is that any plan is better than no plan at all
...
All the answers have already
been found
...
And what others have done, you
can do as well, if you just learn how
...
You will find that there are no limits to
what you can accomplish except for the limits you place on your own
imagination
...
This is one of the greatest
discoveries of all
...
“A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step
...
”
Brian Tracy
Success is goals, and all else is commentary
...
They know what they want and they are
focused single mindedly on achieving it, every single day
...
Goals unlock
your positive mind and release ideas and energy for goal attainment
...
With
goals, you fly like an arrow, straight and true to your target
...
Whatever you have
accomplished up until now is only a small fraction of what is truly
possible for you
...
And where you are going is solely determined by yourself and your
own thoughts
...
As sales trainer Tom Hopkins says,
Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement
...
Everything you see around
you in the man-made world began as a thought or an idea in the
mind of a single person before it was translated into reality
...
Your
thoughts are creative
...
The great summary statement of all religions, philosophies,
metaphysics, psychology and success is this: “You become what you
think about — most of the time
...
Whatever you think about continuously
emerges in your reality
...
The most common answer given
by successful people is that they think about what they want, and how
to get it most of the time
...
They talk about their problems and worries,
and who is to blame, most of the time
...
They think and talk about what they want most of the
time
...
No matter
how powerful or well engineered your car, you drive slowly,
hesitantly, making little progress on even the smoothest road
...
Clear goals enable
you to step on the accelerator of your own life and leap ahead rapidly
toward achieving more of the things you really want
...
You can then drive a
thousand miles in any direction
...
This is the only creature on earth that has this incredible cybernetic,
goal-seeking function, except for man
...
When you are absolutely clear about
your goal, you do not even have to know where it is or how it is to be
achieved
...
At exactly the right time, and in
exactly the right place, you and the goal will meet
...
You
move toward them and they move toward you
...
If your goal is to create a wonderful life full of health, happiness
and prosperity, you will achieve that as well
...
It works automatically
and continuously to bring you what you want, regardless of what
you program into it
...
If you set
little goals, your automatic goal achieving mechanism will enable
you to achieve little goals
...
The size, scope and
detail of the goals you choose to think about most of the time is
completely up to you
...
I believe there are four reasons why people don’t set goals
...
If you grow
up in a home where no one has goals, or you socialize with a group
where goals are neither discussed nor valued, you can very easily
reach adulthood without knowing that your ability to set and achieve
goals will have more of an effect on your life than any other skill
...
How many of your friends or family members are
clear and committed to their goals?
They Don’t Know How
The second reason that people don’t have goals is because they don’t
know how to set them in the first place
...
”
But these are not goals at all
...
A goal however is something distinctly
different from a wish
...
It can be
quickly and easily described to another person
...
It is possible to take an advanced degree at a leading university
without ever receiving one hour of instruction on goal setting
...
And of course, if you
never hear about goals until you are an adult, as I experienced, you
will have no idea how important they are to everything you do
...
Failure hurts
...
Everyone has had failure experiences from time to
time
...
They then make the mistake of
unconsciously sabotaging themselves by not setting any goals at
which they might fail
...
The Fear of Rejection
The fourth reason that people don’t set goals is because of the fear of
rejection
...
This is one of the
reasons why, when you begin to set goals, you should keep your
goals confidential
...
Let them see by your results
and achievements what you have accomplished, but don’t tell them
in advance
...
PAGE 15
GOALS!
Join The Top Three Percent
Mark McCormack in his book What They Don’t Teach You In The
Harvard Business School tells of a Harvard study conducted between
1979 and 1989
...
13% had goals, but
they were not in writing
...
Ten years later, in 1989, they interviewed the members of that class
again
...
But most surprisingly, they
found that the 3% of graduates who had clear, written goals when
they left Harvard were earning, on average, ten times as much as the
other 97% of graduates all together
...
No Road Signs
The importance of clarity is easy to understand
...
But here’s the catch
...
In fact, all you are given is a
very general description of the home or office that is your goal
...
If you ever did find the
home or office, it would be very much a matter of luck
...
The average person starts life traveling through an unmapped and
uncharted world with no road map
...
He or she simply figures things
out as he or she goes along
...
And
still, he or she goes home every night and watches television, wishing
and hoping that things would get better
...
Not by
themselves
...
You only feel truly happy when you are making progress, step-bystep, toward something that is important to you
...
PAGE 17
GOALS!
Goals give you a sense of meaning and purpose
...
As you move toward your goals you feel happier
and stronger
...
You feel more
confident and competent in yourself and your abilities
...
More people today fear change, and worry about the future, than at
any other time in our history
...
Goals enable you to assure that the changes in your life are largely
self-determined and self-directed
...
One of the most important teachings of Aristotle, the Greek
philosopher, was that man is a teleological organism
...
What Aristotle concluded was that all
human action is purposeful in some way
...
The great questions then become: What are your goals?
What purposes are you aiming at? Where do you want to end up at
the end of the day?
Clarity Is Everything
Your inborn potential is extraordinary
...
Your greatest responsibility to yourself is to invest the
PAGE 18
GOALS!
whatever time is required to become absolutely clear about exactly
what it is you want, and how you can best achieve it
...
You have probably heard it said that the average person uses only
10% of his or her potential
...
The remainder just sits there in reserve, being
saved up for some later time
...
The other $98,000 dollars simply sat in the
account unused throughout your life
...
You must develop
an intense, burning desire for your goals if you really want to achieve
them
...
The good news is that almost anything that you want long enough
and hard enough, you can ultimately achieve
...
L
...
” He replied that success required two things, and two things
only
...
Most
PAGE 19
GOALS!
people never make this decision
...
The Cafeteria Model of Success
Life is more like a buffet or cafeteria than it is a restaurant
...
But
in a buffet or cafeteria, you have to serve yourself, and pay in full
before you enjoy the meal
...
They sit in front of the stove of life and say, “First give me
some heat, and then I’ll put in some wood
...
But the stairs are always open
...
Whatever you do, he said, it is aimed at
increasing your happiness in some way
...
The Key To Happiness
Setting goals, working toward them day-by-day, and ultimately
achieving them is the key to happiness in life
...
To unlock and unleash your full potential, you should make a habit
of daily goal setting and achieving for the rest of your life
...
You must resolve, from this moment on, to be a goalseeking organism, like a guided missile, or a homing pigeon, moving
unerringly toward the things that are important to you
...
Clear goals enable you to release your full potential for personal and
professional success
...
Unlock Your Potential:
1
...
What do you really want to
be, have and do?
2
...
Look at your personal and work life today and identify how
your own thinking has created your world
...
What do you think and talk about most of the time, what you
want, or what you don’t want?
5
...
What one action should you take immediately as the result of
your answers to the above questions?
PAGE 22
GOALS!
CHAPTER TWO
Take Charge of Your Life
“A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with –
a man is what he makes of himself
...
I usually couldn’t afford to go out of
my apartment in the evenings, where at least it was warm, so I had a
lot of time to think
...
It changed my life
...
No one else was ever going to help me
...
I was thousands of miles from home with no intentions of going back
for a long time
...
If I didn’t
change, nothing else would change
...
The Great Discovery
I still remember that moment
...
It
was both scary and exhilarating
...
And I decided to jump
...
I knew that if I wanted things to be
different, I would have to be different
...
I later learned that when you accept complete responsibility for your
life, you take the giant step from childhood to adulthood
...
I have met countless men and
women in their 40s and 50s who are still grumbling and complaining
about earlier unhappy experiences, and still blaming their problems
on other people and circumstances
...
They are trapped in the
past and they can’t get free
...
It is negative emotions that hold you down, tire you out
and take away all your joy in life
...
One of your most important goals, if you want to be truly happy and
successful, is to free yourself from negative emotions, and
fortunately, this can be done, if you learn how
...
PAGE 24
GOALS!
Once you identify and remove these factors from your thinking, your
negative emotions stop automatically
...
Stop Justifying
The first of the four root causes of negative emotions is justification
...
This
is why angry people are continually explaining and elaborating on
the reasons for their negative feelings
...
For example, a person is laid off from a job due to a change in the
economy and declining sales in the company
...
He can even get himself so incensed that he decides to sue, or get
even in some way
...
However, as soon as he says, “Well, I’ve been laid off
...
It’s not personal
...
I guess I’d
better get busy finding a new job
...
He
becomes calm, clear and focused on the goal, and on the steps he can
PAGE 25
GOALS!
take to get back into the workforce
...
Refuse to Rationalize And Make Excuses
The second cause of negative emotions is rationalization
...
”
You rationalize to explain away or put a favorable light on something
that you have done that you feel bad or unhappy about
...
You often create complex ways of putting yourself in the
right by explaining that your behavior was really quite acceptable, all
things considered
...
Rationalization and justification always require that you make
someone or something else the source or cause of your problem
...
”
Rise Above the Opinions of Others
The third cause of negative emotions is an over concern or
hypersensitivity to the way other people treat you
...
They have
little sense of personal value or self-worth apart from the opinions of
others, and if those opinions are negative for any reason, real or
imagined, the “victim” immediately experiences anger,
embarrassment, shame, feelings of inferiority and even depression,
self-pity and despair
...
No One Else Is Responsible
The fourth cause of negative emotions, and the worst of all, is
blaming
...
Once you cut down the trunk of the tree, all
the fruits of the tree, all the other negative emotions, die immediately,
just as when you jerk the plug out of the wall that lights up the
Christmas lights in the tree, all the lights go out instantly
...
You cannot say the words,
“I am responsible!” and still feel angry
...
PAGE 27
GOALS!
The discovery of this simple but powerful affirmation, “I am
responsible” and its instant ability to eliminate negative emotions
was a turning point in my life, as it has been for many hundreds of
thousands of my students
...
It is only when you free yourself from negative emotions, by taking
complete responsibility that you can begin to set and achieve goals in
every area of your life
...
This is why, without the
acceptance of complete personal responsibility, no progress is
possible
...
Stop Blaming Others
From now on, refuse to blame anyone for anything - past, present or
future
...
Buddy Hacket, the comedian, once said, I never
hold grudges; while you’re holding grudges, they’re out dancing!
From this point forward, refuse to make excuses or to justify your
behaviors
...
Every time you blame someone else or make
excuses, you give your power away
...
You feel negative and angry inside
...
Control Your Emotions
To keep your mind positive, refuse to criticize, complain about or
condemn other people for anything
...
And you are
the one who suffers
...
Being angry with someone is allowing him or her to control
your emotions, and often the entire quality of your life, at long
distance
...
Remember, as Gary Zukacs says in his book, Seat of the Soul, Positive
emotions empower; negative emotions disempower
...
Negative emotions of anger, hurt or blame
weaken you and make you hostile, irritable and unpleasant to be
around
...
You
become “the master of your fate and the captain of your soul
...
President!
In a study done in New York some years ago, researchers found that
the top 3% of people in every field had a special attitude that set them
apart from average performers in their industries
...
They saw themselves as
responsible for their companies, exactly as if they owned the
companies personally
...
From this moment forward, see yourself as the President of your own
personal services corporation
...
See
yourself as in complete charge of every part of your life and career
...
You are very much
the architect of your own destiny
...
If there is anything in
your life that you don’t like, you are responsible
...
As the president of your own personal services corporation, you are
completely responsible for everything you do, and for the results of
what you do
...
You are where you are and what you are
today because you have decided to be there
...
If you are not happy with your
current income, decide to earn more
...
As the president of your own career and your own life, as the
architect of your own destiny, you are free to make your own
decisions
...
You are in charge
...
You are
responsible for overall management strategy, setting goals, making
plans, establishing measures and performing to get results
...
As president, you are responsible for marketing strategy, for selfpromotion and advancement, for creating your image and packaging
yourself to be able to sell yourself for the very highest price in a
competitive market
...
These numbers are entirely up to you
...
You are responsible for your people strategy and your relationships,
both at home and at work
...
” Your choice of a boss is going to
have a major impact on how much you earn, how fast you get ahead,
and how happy you will be at your job
...
If you are not happy with any of your current
choices, it is up to you to begin taking steps to improve or change
them
...
It is up to you to
determine the talents, skills, abilities and core competencies you will
need to earn the kind of money you want to earn in the months and
years ahead
...
No one is going to do
PAGE 32
GOALS!
it for you
...
Become A “Growth Stock”
To take this analogy a little further, see yourself as a company with a
stock that trades on the market
...
Take The Wheel of Your Own Life
From this point forward, see and think about yourself as the master
of your own fate
...
See yourself as the president of your own personal services
corporation
...
Refuse to whine and complain about things that happened in the
past, which cannot be changed
...
Above
all, think about your goals
...
Determine Your Locus of Control
There is a large body of psychological literature that revolves around
the concept of “Locus of Control Theory
...
Here is why
...
This person feels
strong, confident and powerful
...
He or she feels terrific about him or herself and feels very
much in charge of his or her destiny
...
They feel “out of control” and as a result, they feel weak,
angry, fearful, negative, hostile and disempowered
...
The more you say, “I am responsible!” the more of an internal
PAGE 34
GOALS!
locus of control you develop within yourself, and the more powerful
and confident you feel
...
The more responsibility you accept, the happier you
become
...
The more responsibility you accept, the greater amount of control
you feel you have
...
When you feel positive
and in control of your life, you will set bigger and more challenging
goals for yourself
...
You will feel as if you hold your life in your own
hands, and that you can make it into whatever you decide to
...
The second part of goal setting is for you to accept complete
responsibility for your life, and for everything that happens to you,
with no blaming and no excuses
...
Take Charge of Your Life:
1
...
In what ways are you responsible for this situation?
2
...
How
would you act differently if you owned 100% of the shares?
3
...
What actions should you be taking?
4
...
Imagine that
your favorite excuses have no basis in fact, and act
accordingly
...
See yourself as the primary creative force in your own life
...
What should you change?
6
...
Let it go
...
Instead, get so busy
working on something that is important to you that you don’t
have time to think about it again
...
”
James Allen
In more than 3300 studies of leaders conducted over the years, there
is a special quality that stands out, one quality that all great leaders
have in common
...
Leaders have vision
...
Earlier I said that the most important discovery in all of human
history is that, “You become what you think about — most of the
time
...
Non-leaders, on the other hand, think about the present, and the
pleasures and problems of the moment
...
Think About The Future
We call this leadership quality “Future-Orientation
...
Leaders think about what
they want, and what can be done to achieve it
...
Dr
...
Banfield defined
long-time perspective as the “ability to think several years into the
future while making decisions in the present
...
Just think! The further you think
into the future, the better decisions you will make in the present to
assure that that future becomes a reality
...
Anyone who really wanted to could save $100 per month, if he or she
had a long enough time perspective
...
PAGE 38
GOALS!
Create A Five Year Fantasy
In personal strategic planning, you should begin with a long-term
view of your life, as well
...
In the process of idealization, you
create a five-year fantasy for yourself, and begin thinking about what
your life would look life in five years if it were perfect in every
respect
...
”
These are areas where you believe yourself to be limited in some way
...
As
a result, you sell yourself short
...
Imagine No Limitations
By combining idealization and future-orientation, you cancel or
neutralize this process of self-limitation
...
You imagine that you have all the
time, talents and abilities you could ever require to achieve any goal
you could set for yourself
...
You imagine that you have no limitations whatsoever on what you
PAGE 39
GOALS!
could be, have or do in the pursuit of the goals that are really
important to you
...
He analyzed men and women who had
achieved only average results at work for many years, but who
suddenly exploded into great success and accomplishment
...
”
In blue-sky thinking, you imagine that all things are possible for you,
just like looking up into a clear blue sky, with no limits
...
You then look back to where
you are today and ask yourself these this question: “What would
have to have happened for me to have created my perfect future?”
You then come back to where you are in the present in your own
mind, and you ask, “What would have to happen from this point
forward for me to achieve all my goals sometime in the future?”
Refuse To Compromise Your Dreams
When you practice idealization and future-orientation, you make no
compromises with your dreams and visions for yourself and your
future
...
Instead,
you “dream big dreams” and project forward mentally as though you
are one of the most powerful people in the universe
...
You decide what you really want, before you come
back to the present moment and deal with what is possible for you
within your current situation
...
Imagine that your work life was
perfect five years from now
...
What would it look like?
2
...
Where would you be doing it?
4
...
What kind of skills and abilities would you have?
6
...
What level of status would you have in your field?
Practice No Limit Thinking
When you answer these questions, imagine that you have no limits
...
Peter Drucker once said,
“We greatly overestimate what we can accomplish in one year
...
” Don’t let this
happen to you
...
How much do you want to be earning five years from today?
2
...
What kind of car do you want to drive?
4
...
How much do you want to have in the bank?
6
...
How much do you want to be worth when you retire?
Imagine that you have a “magic slate
...
You can erase anything that may have
happened in the past, and create whatever picture you desire
for your future
...
You have no limits
...
If your family life were perfect five years from now, what
would it look like?
PAGE 42
GOALS!
2
...
Where and how would you be living?
4
...
What kind of relationships would you have with the most
important people in your life, five years from now, if
everything were perfect in every respect?
When you fantasize and imagine your perfect future, the only
question you ask is, “How?” This is the most powerful question of
all
...
Unsuccessful people always
wonder whether or not a particular goal is possible
...
Ideal Health and Fitness
Review your levels of health and fitness in every area:
1
...
What would be your ideal weight?
3
...
What would be your overall level of health?
PAGE 43
GOALS!
5
...
You are making a significant
contribution to the world around you
...
If your social and
community status and involvement were ideal:
1
...
What organizations would you be working with or
contributing to?
3
...
” Men and women who accomplish tremendous
things in life are intensely action oriented
...
They are always busy
...
On the other hand, low achievers and non-achievers are full of good
intentions, but they always have an excuse for not taking action
today
...
”
PAGE 44
GOALS!
Examine yourself in terms of your personal inventory of skills,
knowledge, talent, education and ability
...
What additional knowledge and skills would you have
acquired five years from now?
2
...
What would you be doing each day in order to develop the
knowledge and skills you need to be one of the top
performers in your field sometime in the future?
Once you have answered these questions, the only question you ask
is, “How?” How do you attain the skills and expertise you will
require to lead your field in the years ahead?
Design Your Perfect Calendar
Especially, decide how you would like to live, day in and day out,
your ideal lifestyle
...
What would you like to do on your weekends and vacations?
2
...
Where would you like to go?
4
...
” What
this means is that, if you lack an exciting vision for your future, you
will “perish” inside in terms of lacking motivation and enthusiasm
for what you are doing
...
The Key To Happiness
You remember that, “Happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy
ideal
...
You will be more positive
and optimistic
...
You will
feel internally motivated to get up and get going every morning,
because every step you are taking will be moving you in the direction
of something that is important to you
...
Remember,
the very best days of your life lie ahead
...
The highest income you will
ever earn is going to materialize in the months and years ahead
...
There are no limits
...
The greater clarity you have about who you are
and what you want, the more you will achieve and the faster you will
achieve it in every area of your life
...
Imagine that there is a solution to every problem, a way to
overcome every limitation, and no limit on your achieving
every goal you can set for yourself
...
Practice “back from the future thinking
...
What would have to have
happened for your world to be ideal?
3
...
How
much would you be earning? How much would you be
worth? What steps could you take, starting today, to make
these goals a reality?
4
...
What
would it look like? What should you start doing more of, or
less of, starting today?
5
...
Design your year from January to
December as if you had no limitations
...
Imagine that your levels of health and fitness were perfect in
every way
...
”
Marcus Aurelius
One of the most important characteristics of leaders, and top people
in every area of life, is that they know who they are, what they believe
in and what they stand for
...
Men and women who become
leaders, on the other hand, with the same or even fewer abilities and
opportunities, go onto accomplish great things in whatever they
attempt
...
The very core of your personality is
your values
...
Everything you do on the outside is dictated and determined by your
values on the inside, whether clear or fuzzy
...
The Five Levels Of Personality
You can imagine your personality by thinking of a target with
concentric rings, from the inside to the outside
...
Your values determine your beliefs, about yourself and the world
around you
...
Expect The Best
Your beliefs in turn determine the third ring of your personality, your
expectations
...
If you believe yourself to be a good person, you
will expect good things to happen to you
...
You will look for the good in other people and situations
...
Your attitude will be an outward
manifestation or reflection of your values, beliefs and expectations
...
As a result, you will have a positive mental attitude toward
other people and they will respond positively toward you
...
You will be someone that
others want to work with and for, buy from, sell to and generally
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help to be more successful
...
The fifth ring, or level of life, is your actions
...
This is why what you achieve
in life and work will be determined more by what is going on inside
of you than by any other factor
...
A positive, optimistic, goal and
future oriented person — on the inside — will enjoy a happy,
successful and prosperous life on the outside, most of the time
...
You are the very happiest when what
you are doing on the outside is congruent with your values on the
inside
...
Your goals must be congruent with your values, and your values
must be congruent with your goals
...
Values clarification requires that you think through
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what is really important to you in life
...
Any attempt to live on the outside in a manner that contradicts the
values you hold on the inside will cause you stress, negativity,
unhappiness, pessimism and even anger and frustration
...
Know What You Really Want
Stephen Covey once said, “Be sure that, as you scramble up the
ladder of success, it is leaning against the right building
...
This occurs when the outer
accomplishment is not in harmony with your inner values
...
Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living
...
Values
clarification is something you do on a “go-forward” basis
...
The unhappiest people are those who are attempting to
live incongruent with what they truly value and believe
...
Self-trust comes from
listening to your intuition, to your “still, small voice” within
...
Living in alignment with your true values is the royal road to selfconfidence, self-respect and personal pride
...
Whenever
you experience stress of any kind, look into yourself and ask, “In
what way am I compromising my innermost values in this
situation?”
Watch Your Behavior
How can you tell what your values really are? The answer is simple
...
Whenever you are forced to
choose between one behavior and another, you will always act
consistent with what is most important and valuable to you at that
moment
...
You have a series of
values, some of them very intense and important, and some of them
weaker and less important
...
Once you are clear about
the relative importance of your values, you cans then organize your
outer life so that it is in alignment with them
...
First of all, you can look at your past
...
Dale Carnegie once wrote, “Tell me what gives a person his greatest
feeling of importance, and I will tell you his entire philosophy of life
...
Determine Your Heart’s Desire
The spiritual teacher Emmet Fox wrote about the importance of
discovering your “Heart’s Desire
...
They have
fallen onto hard times and become associated with the wrong people
...
Sometimes they have even been convicted and sent to prison for their
crimes
...
They
thought seriously about the kind of person that they wanted to be
known as, and thought of, in the future
...
By making these
decisions and sticking to them, they changed their lives
...
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Remember, “It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from; all that
really matters is where you’re going
...
Self-esteem is defined as: “How much you like yourself
...
This is
the way you see yourself and think about yourself in your day-to-day
interactions with others
...
Your self-ideal is made up of the virtues, values, goals, hopes,
dreams and aspirations that you have for yourself sometime in the
future
...
On the other hand, whenever you behave in a way that is inconsistent
with your ideal of your very best behavior, you experience a negative
self-image
...
As a result, your self-esteem and your level
of happiness decrease
...
For example, whenever you are complimented or praised by another
person, or given a prize or an award for accomplishment, your selfesteem goes up, sometimes dramatically
...
You feel that your whole life is in harmony, and that you
are living congruent with your highest ideals
...
Your aim should be to deliberately and systematically create the
circumstances that raise your self-esteem in everything you do
...
Know What You Believe
What are your values today with regard to your work and your
career? Do you believe in the values of integrity, hard work,
dependability, creativity, cooperation, initiative, ambition, and
getting along well with people? People who live these values in their
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work are vastly more successful and more highly esteemed than
people who do not
...
What are your values with regard to money and financial success? Do
you believe in the importance of honesty, industry, thrift, frugality,
education, excellent performance, quality and persistence? People
who practice these values are far more successful in their financial
lives than those who do not, and far faster as well
...
Think Only About What You Want
Remember, you become what you think about — most of the time
...
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The big payoff is that, the more you live your life consistent with your
values, the happier, healthier, more positive and energetic you will be
...
A
billionaire once said to me, “Integrity is not so much a value in itself;
it is rather the value that guarantees all the other values
...
Once you have decided that
you are going to live consistent with a value, your level of integrity
determines whether or not you follow through on your commitment
...
And the
higher your level of integrity, the happier and more powerful you
will feel in everything you do
...
They live their lives consistent with their highest
values, even when no one is looking
...
Live In Truth With Yourself and Others
Decide today to be a man or woman of honor
...
Crystallize your values
in each area of your life
...
Think of how you would
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behave if you were living consistent with those values, and then,
refuse to compromise them for any reason
...
You are
now on the launching ramp and ready to take off toward the stars
...
Make a list of your 3-5 most important values in life today
...
What qualities and values are you best known for today among
the people who know you?
3
...
What are your values regarding money and financial success?
Are you practicing these values daily?
5
...
Write your own obituary, to be read to your friends and family
at your funeral, exactly as you would like to be remembered
...
What one change could you make in your behavior today that
would help you to live in greater harmony with your values?
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CHAPTER FIVE
Determine Your True Goals
“Realize what you really want
...
”
William Moulton Marsden
My favorite word in goal setting, and in success in general, is the
word “Clarity
...
Superior men and women invest the time necessary to develop
absolute clarity about themselves and what they really want, like
designing a detailed blueprint for a building, before they begin
construction
...
Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “Have you built your castles in the
air? Good
...
Now, go to work and build
foundations under them
...
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Make Your Goals Personal
Earlier I mentioned that intense, burning desire is absolutely essential
to the overcoming of obstacles and the achieving of great goals
...
They must be goals that you choose for yourself, rather
than goals that someone else wants for you, or that you want to
achieve to please someone in your life
...
This doesn’t mean that you cannot do things for other people, either
at home or at work
...
The Great Question
One of the most important questions in goal setting is this: “What do
I really want to do with my life?” If you could do or be or have
anything at all in life, what would it be? Remember, you can’t hit a
target you can’t see
...
“What do I really want to do
with my life?”
In determining your true goals, you start with your vision, your
values and your ideals
...
However, now your job is to
make them concrete, like designing a dream house on paper
...
What are your three most important goals in your business
and career, right now?
2
...
What are your three most important family or relationship
goals, right now?
4
...
What are the ideal solutions to each of these problems?
2
...
What is the fastest and most direct way to solve this
problem?”
A Great Thinking Tool
In 1142, William of Ockham, a British philosopher, proposed a
method of problem solving that has come to be referred to as
“Ockham’s Razor
...
What Ockham said was that, “The
simplest and most direct solution, requiring the fewest number of
steps, is usually the correct solution to any problem
...
But the more complicated the solution, the less likely it is
ever to be implemented, and the longer the time it will take to get any
results
...
Double Your Income
For example, many people tell me that they would like to double
their incomes
...
“Double the amount of time that you spend face to face with
qualified prospects
...
“Spend more time with better prospects
...
According to studies that go back as far as 1928, the average
salesperson today spends 90 minutes each day face to face with
prospects
...
They organize their days efficiently to assure that they
spend more minutes in the presence of people who can and will buy
their products or services
...
The
better they get, the more they sell and the more they earn, and in less
time
...
In my
Advanced Coaching Programs, we teach our clients to identify those
20% of activities that contribute the very most value and then do
twice as many of them
...
Some of our clients double their productivity, and
subsequently, their income in as little as 30 days with this approach,
even if they have been working for many years in the same position
...
Look for the solution that has the
fewest number of steps
...
Get
busy
...
” The best ideas in the world are
of no value until they are implemented
...
”
Wave A Magic Wand
In determining your true goals, use the “Magic Wand” technique
...
When you wave this magic wand, your
wishes come true!
Wave a magic wand over your business and career
...
If you could have any three wishes in
your financial life, what would they be?
Wave a magic wand over your family life and your relationships
...
If you could have
any three wishes with regard to your body and your physical wellbeing, what would they be? If your health were perfect, how would it
be different from today?
Wave a magic wand over your skills and abilities
...
Whenever you imagine that you have a magic
wand, your true goals in that area emerge
...
It is amazing what comes out when you ask
this question
...
Imagine that you went to a doctor for a full medical check-up
...
The good news is that, for the
next six months, you are going to live the healthiest and most
energetic life you could possibly imagine
...
”
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If you learned today that you only had six months left to live, how
would you spend your last six months on earth? Who would you
spend the time with? Where would you go? What would you strive
to complete? What would you do more of, or less of?
When you ask yourself this question, what comes to the top of your
mind will be a reflection of your true values
...
Very
few people in this situation would say, “Well, I’d like to get back to
the office and return a few phone calls
...
” A dream list is a list of
everything you would like to be, have or do in your life, sometime in
the future, if you had no limitations at all
...
Then
imagine that you have all the time, all the money, all the friends, all
the abilities and all the resources necessary to achieve these goals
...
Just write down everything that you
would like to have as if you had no limitations at all
...
This seems to happen to
virtually once they have written down at least 100 goals
...
You could be amazed at the results
...
But when you imagine that you have all the money that you
will ever need, to do or be whatever you want, your true goals often
emerge
...
If you were in the right job for you
however, winning a lot of money would not affect your career choice
at all
...
One of your aims in life is to
enjoy as many peak experiences as possible
...
What have been your happiest moments in
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life up to now? How could you have more of those moments in the
future? What do you really love to do?
Make A Difference
You should have goals for social and community involvement and
contribution as well
...
What organizations, causes, needs or
social problems would you like to work on or in? What changes
would you like to see? Who is there who is less fortunate than you
that you would like to help?
If you were independently wealthy, what causes would you support?
Most of all, what could you do today to begin making a difference in
your world? Don’t wait until some future date when everything will
be ideal
...
Set Clear Financial Goals
One of the most important areas of goal setting is your financial life
...
If your life were ideal, how much money would you like to earn each
month, each year? How much would you like to save and invest each
month and year? How much would you like to be worth sometime in
the future? What sort of estate would you like to accumulate by the
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time you retire, and when would you like that to be? Most people are
hopelessly confused about their financial goals, but when you
become absolutely clear about them for yourself, your ability to
achieve them increases dramatically
...
And the more you think
about them, the faster they will materialize in your life
...
As Zig Ziglar says, “You move from being
a wandering generality to becoming a meaningful specific
...
This is the springboard for great achievement
and extraordinary accomplishment
...
Determine Your True Goals:
1
...
2
...
If you won a million dollars cash, tax free, tomorrow, what
changes in your life would you make immediately?
4
...
If you could wave a magic wand over your life and have
anything you wanted, what would you wish for?
6
...
What would you really want to do with your life, especially if
you had no limitations?
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CHAPTER SIX
Decide Upon Your Major Definite Purpose
“There is one quality which one must possess to win,
and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants,
and a burning desire to possess it
...
As
Peter Drucker said, “Whenever you find something getting done, you find
a monomaniac with a mission
...
You begin to attract to you people, opportunities, ideas and resources
that help you to move more rapidly toward your goal, and move
your goal more rapidly toward you
...
When
you have a major definite purpose that you think about, talk about
and work on all the time, your outer world will reflect this, like a
mirror image
...
Any thought, plan or goal that you can clearly define in
your conscious mind, will immediately start to be brought into reality
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by your subconscious mind (and your superconscious mind, as we
will discuss later)
...
” This small finger-like part of the brain functions in
a way similar to a telephone switchboard in a large office building
...
Your reticular cortex contains your reticular activating system
...
A Red Sports Car
For example, imagine that you decided that you wanted a red sports
car
...
You begin to think about and
visualize a red sports car
...
This
picture immediately goes up onto your mental radar screen
...
You will even see them driving and turning
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corners several blocks away
...
Everywhere you go, your world will seem to be
full of red sports cars
...
If you decided to take a trip to Hawaii, you
would begin to notice posters, advertisements, brochures and
television specials with information on Hawaiian vacations
...
Achieve Financial Independence
If you decide to become financially independent, you will suddenly
begin to notice all kinds of opportunities and possibilities around you
that have to do with achieving your financial goals
...
You will receive information and solicitations in the mail
...
It will seem as though you are surrounded by ideas and
information that can be helpful to you in achieving your financial
goals
...
You will be largely unaware of
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all these opportunities and possibilities around you
...
It has been said that, “Attention is the key to life
...
When you decide upon a major
definite purpose, you increase your level of attentiveness and become
increasingly sensitive to anything in your environment that can help
you to achieve that goal faster
...
It is usually the one goal that
will help you to achieve more of your other goals than anything else
you can accomplish
...
It must be something that you personally really, really want
...
2
...
You must be able to define it in
words
...
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3
...
Rather than “make a lot of money,” it must be
more like, “I earn $100,000 per year by (a specific date)
...
It must be both believable and achievable
...
Keep Your Feet On The Ground
A woman approached me at one of my seminars and told me that she
had decided upon her major definite purpose
...
She said, “I am going to be a millionaire in one year
...
It turned out that she was broke
...
It turned out that she had just been fired from her job
because of incompetence
...
I had to explain to
her that her goal was so unrealistic and unattainable in her current
circumstances that it would only discourage her when she found
herself so far away from it
...
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Be Honest With Yourself
A man at one of my seminars told me that his major definite purpose
was “world peace
...
” Such a goal would only keep him from setting a
personal goal that was attainable, something he could work on every
day
...
In both of these cases, they were using goal setting against
themselves
...
This is a real danger when you begin setting big goals for yourself,
and you must be careful to avoid it
...
Don’t Sabotage Yourself
I made this mistake myself when I was younger
...
After many months, and no progress at all, I
realized that my goal was not helping me
...
In my heart of hearts, although I wanted it, I really did not
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believe it was possible
...
Don’t let this happen to you
...
Your major definite purpose should have a reasonable
probability of success, perhaps 50:50 when you begin
...
Make it easy on yourself, at
least at the beginning
...
But in
the beginning, set goals that are believable, achievable and
which have a high probability of success so that you can be
assured of winning right from the start
...
Your major definite purpose must be in harmony with your
other goals
...
Your major goals must be in harmony with your
minor goals, and congruent with your values
...
From then on, the only question you ask
is, “How?” The only real limit is how badly you want it, and how
long you are willing to work toward it
...
He told me that, when he
started his university career in his twenties, he decided that he
wanted to make a major contribution in the field of chemistry
...
He focused on it for more than 25
years
...
He told me, “I was clear from the very beginning
...
I was happy when it
happened, but it was not a surprise
...
The only
question is whether or not you are willing to do all the things
necessary, and invest all the years required, to achieve that financial
goal
...
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The Ten Goal Exercise
Here is an exercise for you
...
Write them in the present tense, as though you had already
achieved these goals
...
” Or, “I earn XXX dollars per year
...
It
is the one goal that can have the greatest impact on your life, and on
the achieving of most of your other goals, at the same time
...
Write down everything that you can think of that you can do to
achieve this goal, and then take action on at least one item on your
list
...
Think about this goal morning, noon and
night
...
And the only question
you ask is, “How?”
Think About Your Goal
Your selection of a major definite purpose, and your decision to
concentrate single mindedly on that purpose, overcoming all
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obstacles and difficulties until it is achieved, will do more to change
your life for the better than any other decision you ever make
...
Decide Upon Your Major Definite Purpose:
1
...
Make a list of ten goals you would like to achieve in the
months and years ahead, in the present tense
...
3
...
Write it down
...
Make a list of everything you can think of to do that will
move you toward your goal
...
5
...
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Analyze Your Beliefs
“The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is
often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible
...
DeVos
Perhaps the most important of all mental laws is the Law of Belief
...
You do not believe what you see; you see what you
already believe
...
“You are not
what you think you are, but what you think, you are
...
”
This means that, you always act on the outside based on your
innermost beliefs and convictions about yourself
...
” This is another way of saying that your intense beliefs
become your realities
...
Dr
...
” He went on to say, “The greatest revolution of my generation is the
discovery that individuals, by changing their inner attitudes of mind, can
change the outer aspects of their lives
...
Personal growth comes from
changing your beliefs about what you can do and about what is
possible for you
...
Since
you started your first job, haven’t you already doubled or tripled
your income? Aren’t you already earning vastly more than you
earned when you started? Haven’t you already proven to yourself
that it is possible to double and triple your income? And what you
have done before, you can do again, and probably over and over, if
you just learn how
...
Napoleon Hill said, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe,
it can achieve
...
Everything
you do or achieve in your life, every thought, feeling or action, is
controlled and determined by your self-concept
...
Your self-concept is the master program of your
mental computer
...
Everything that
you accomplish in your outer world is a result of your self-concept
...
Because of this, you always
operate in a manner consistent with your self-concept, whether
positive or negative
...
Even if your
self-concept is made up of erroneous beliefs about yourself or your
world, as far as you are concerned, these are facts and you will think,
feel and act accordingly
...
They
are often not based on fact at all
...
Your beliefs have been shaped and
formed by your early childhood, your friends and associates, your
reading and education, your experiences, both positive and negative,
and a thousand other factors
...
If you believe yourself
to be limited in some way, whether or not it is true, it becomes true
for you
...
Overcoming self-limiting beliefs and
self-imposed limitations is often the biggest obstacle standing
between you and the realization of your full potential
...
His parents were told that he was incapable of
being educated
...
Dr
...
His
parents were encouraged to apprentice him to a shoemaker so that he
would have a safe, secure job when he grew up
...
According to an article in Fortune Magazine on learning disabilities
in business, many presidents and senior executives of Fortune 500
corporations today were diagnosed in school as being not
particularly bright or capable
...
Thomas Edison was expelled from school in the 6th Grade
...
Edison went on to become the
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greatest inventor of the modern age
...
Self-limiting beliefs, sometimes based on a single experience or a
casual remark, can hold you back for years
...
Perhaps this
has happened to you
...
You Are Better Than You Know
Louise Hay, the writer, says that the roots of most of our problems in
life are contained in the feeling, “I’m not good enough
...
Alfred
Adler said that it is the natural inheritance of western man to have
feelings of “inferiority” that start in childhood and often continue
through adult life
...
In virtually every
case, these beliefs are false
...
No one is better than you and no one is smarter than
you
...
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You Could Be A Genius
According to Dr
...
Unfortunately, only two intelligences are measured and reported
throughout school and university: verbal and mathematical
...
As the saying on the wall of the inner city school reads, “God don’t
make no junk
...
You have within you, right now, the ability to
function at genius or exceptional levels in at least one, and perhaps
several different intelligences
...
Your responsibility to yourself is to cast off all these self-limiting
beliefs and accept that you are an extraordinarily capable and
talented person
...
You have competencies and capabilities that have never been
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tapped
...
Your Beliefs Are Acquired, Not Inborn
The good news about beliefs is that all beliefs are learned
...
When you
came into the world, you had no beliefs at all - about yourself, your
religion, your political party, other people, or the world in general
...
But, as the comic Josh Billings
once wrote, “It ain’t what a man knows what hurts him
...
”
There are many things that you know about yourself that are simply
not true
...
The starting point of unlocking more of your potential is for
you to identify your self-limiting beliefs and then ask, “What if they
were not true, at all?”
What if you were possessed of an extraordinary ability in an area
where you didn’t think you were very good at all, such as selling,
entrepreneurship, public speaking or money making?
Think Of Yourself Differently
Everywhere I go, throughout the world, I have taught these
principles to many tens of thousands of people
...
But once they heard it, they changed
their entire attitudes towards themselves
...
In no time at all, they began transforming their lives and changing
their results
...
Many of them became millionaires and multi-millionaires
...
After they changed their beliefs about themselves and their personal
potentials, they learned new skills and took on new challenges
...
By
questioning their beliefs, and by refusing to accept that they were
limited in any way, they took complete charge of their lives and
careers, and created new realities for themselves
...
Select The Beliefs You Want
Imagine that there was a “Belief Store,” very much like a computer
software store that you could visit and purchase a belief to program
into your subconscious mind
...
Select this belief: “I am destined to be a big
success in life
...
And as it happens, this is
how the top people think in every field
...
They know that it is
always there
...
They believe that every setback is part of a great
plan that is moving them inexorably toward achieving the great
success that is inevitable for them
...
You will confidently believe that there are
many things that you have to learn on the road to achieving and
keeping your ultimate success
...
Napoleon Hill wrote, “Within
every difficulty or obstacle, there is the seed of an equal or greater
advantage or benefit
...
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Act Your Way Into Feeling
There is a Law of Reversibility in psychology and metaphysics that
says, “You are more likely to act yourself into feeling a particular
way than you are to feel yourself into acting
...
You will not have the selfconfidence that comes from a record of successful achievement
...
You will feel that
you are not good enough, at least, not yet
...
You will actually act
yourself into feeling the way you want to feel by the Law of
Reversibility
...
Groom like the top people
...
Pick the most successful people in your field
and use them as your role models
...
And whatever
advice they give you, follow it immediately
...
When you start to walk, talk, dress and behave like the top people,
you soon begin to feel like the top people
...
You will work the way the top people work
...
In no time at
all, you will be one of the top people yourself
...
The Secret Of A Sales Manager
A friend of mine is a very successful sales manager
...
The salesman would usually balk at
the idea
...
But the sales manager would insist that
he buy the Cadillac as a condition of employment
...
But after she had
settled down, he would take her for a ride around the neighborhood
in the new Cadillac
...
He would park his new
Cadillac in front of his house or in his driveway
...
Gradually, imperceptibly, at a subconscious level,
his attitude toward himself and his earning potential would begin to
change
...
He saw himself as a big money earner in his
field
...
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And time after time, almost without fail, average salespeople in this
organization became sales superstars
...
Soon, the
payments on the new Cadillac were of no concern because their
incomes were so much greater
...
”
Your focus must be on creating the beliefs within yourself that are
consistent with the great success you want to be in your outer world
...
You reinforce the development of new, life-enhancing beliefs by
increasing your knowledge and skills in your field to the point where
you feel equal to any demand or challenge
...
Finally, you act continually as if you
were already the person that you desire to be
...
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Behave Consistent With Your New Self Image
You develop new beliefs by taking actions consistent with those
beliefs
...
You behave like a positive, optimistic
and cheerful person toward everyone
...
You act as if you have a secret guarantee of
success, and only you know about it
...
Since you become what you think about, you should only say and do
those things that are consistent with your self-ideal, the person you
most aspire to be, and your long-term future ideals
...
Make A Decision
Make a decision this very day to challenge and reject any self-limiting
beliefs that you might have that could be holding you back
...
You might ask your friends and
family members if they see any negative beliefs that you might have
...
In every case, once you have
identified these negative beliefs, ask yourself, “What if the opposite
were true?”
What if you had the ability to be extraordinarily successful in an area
where you currently doubt yourself? What if you had been
programmed from infancy with genius ability in a particular area?
For example, what if you had within you, right now, the ability to
earn and keep all the money you could ever want, throughout your
life? What if you had a “golden touch” with regard to money?
If you absolutely believed these things to be true, what would you do
differently from what you are doing today?
Keep Your Words and Actions Consistent
Your beliefs are always manifested in your words and actions
...
In time, you will replace more and more of your self-limiting
beliefs with life-enhancing beliefs
...
When this occurs, the transformation
that takes place in your outer life will amaze you, and all the people
around you
...
“Act as if!” If you were one of the most competent and highly
respected people in your field, how would you think, act and
feel differently from today?
2
...
If you were an extremely competent money manager,
how would you handle your finances?
3
...
How would you act if they were completely untrue?
4
...
Pretend as if you already believe this to
be true about you
...
Look into the most difficult situation you are dealing with
right now
...
”
Earl Nightingale
Imagine that you were going to take a long trip across the country
...
Each day, before you started out, you would locate yourself on a map
relative to where you are and where you plan to go in the hours
ahead
...
Once you have decided upon your values, vision, mission, purpose
and goals, the next step is for you to analyze your starting point
...
” He
defined this as the ability to see the world as it really is, not as you
wish it were
...
Abraham Maslow once wrote that the
first quality of the self-actualizing person was the ability to be
completely honest and objective with himself, or herself
...
If you want to be the best you can be, and to achieve what is truly
possible for you, you must be brutally honest with yourself and your
point of departure
...
Start At The Beginning
For example, if you decided to lose weight, the very first thing you
would do is to weigh yourself to determine how much you weight
today
...
If you decide to begin a personal exercise program, the first thing you
do is to determine how much you are exercising today
...
You then use this answer as a starting point and make your exercise
plans for the future based on it
...
How
much did you earn last year, and the year before? How much will
you earn this year? How much are you earning each month? The best
measure of all is for you to determine how much you are earning
each hour, right now
...
Even better, you can divide your monthly income by 172, the number
of hours you work, on average, each month
...
They then set a goal to
increase the value of what they do each hour so as to increase the
amount they earn each hour on a go-forward basis
...
Tight Time or Financial Measures Improve Performance
The tighter and more accurate your calculations regarding your
income, or any other area, the better and faster you can improve in
each one of them
...
This is hard to analyze and increase
...
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Since you are the president of your own personal services
corporation, you should view yourself as being on your own payroll
...
Be just as demanding
on yourself as you would be on someone else who was working for
you
...
Your Current Net Worth
If you have set a long-term financial goal, the next step is for you to
determine exactly how much you are worth today, in financial terms
...
Most people are confused or dishonest about this calculation
...
Many people place a high value on their personal possessions
...
But the true value of these items is usually not more than
10% or 20% of what you paid, and sometimes less
...
Divide the line by the number of years you intend to spend to
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achieve that financial goal
...
Is your goal realistic, based on where you are today and the time that
you have allocated to get to where you want to go? If your goal is not
realistic, force yourself to be completely honest and revise both your
calculations and your projections
...
”
In zero based thinking, you ask this question, “Knowing what I now
know, is there anything that I am doing today that I wouldn’t start
up again today, if I had to do it over, knowing what I now know?”
No matter who you are or what you are doing, there are certain
things in your life that, knowing what you now know, you wouldn’t
get into again today if you had them to do over
...
If there is something in your life that you wouldn’t get into
again today, your next question is, “How do I get out, and how fast?”
Apply zero based thinking to the people in your life, both business
and personal
...
Evaluate Each Area of Your Life
Examine every aspect of your work life and career
...
Is
there any investment of time, money or emotion that, knowing what
you now know, you wouldn’t get into again today, if you had to do it
over? If the answer is “no”, how do you get out, and how fast?
Be Prepared to Make Necessary Changes
I have a good friend who was a golfer in high school and university
...
He organized his
entire life around golf, even flying south in the winter to golf courses
that had no snow on them
...
But he was still “locked in” to the idea of playing golf
several times a week
...
When the stress became too great, he sat down and zero based his
activities
...
By reducing his golfing time, he got his whole life back
into balance in just a few weeks
...
When you made the decision or commitment, it
was probably a good idea, based on the circumstances of the
moment
...
You can usually tell if you are in a zero based thinking situation
because of the stress that it causes
...
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Sometimes people spend an enormous amount of time trying to
make a business or personal relationship succeed
...
The only real question is whether or not you
have the courage to admit that you were wrong and take the
necessary steps to correct the situation
...
Look around you and identify people who are earning the kind of
money that you want to earn
...
Find out
...
Determine Your Level of Skills And Ability
Do a skills inventory on yourself
...
These are the tasks that you absolutely, positively have to
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fulfill in an excellent fashion in order to do your job well
...
These
are critical tasks
...
You must be good at
every one of these tasks if you want to earn the kind of money that
you are capable of earning
...
Your weakest key result
area, whatever it is, determines your income in your field
...
In what area, at which skill are you the very best at what you do?
What particular skill, or combination of skills, is responsible for your
success in your career to date? What is it that you do as well or better
than anyone else?
Identify Your Weakest Areas
Once you have answered these questions, you then look at yourself
in the mirror and ask, “What are my weakest skill areas?” Where are
you below average or poor? What is it that you do poorly that
interferes with your ability to use your other skills? What is it that
you do poorly, that other people do better than you? Especially, what
key skills do you lack that are essential for your success? Whatever
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they are, you need to identify them accurately and honestly and then
make a plan to improve in each area
...
)
Imagine Starting Over
When you embark on the achievement of any great goal, you should
imagine that, at any time, you could start your career over again
...
Keep focused on the future
...
They are honest
enough to recognize that there is a limited future in the direction they
are going, and they are determined to get into something where the
future possibilities are far greater
...
In doing a baseline assessment of yourself and your life, you must
face the facts, whatever they are
...
” Seek out the real facts, not the obvious facts, the
apparent facts, the hoped for facts or the wished for facts
...
Be Prepared to Reinvent Yourself
Take a hard look at your current company and industry
...
Take a hard look at your market
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relative to your competitors
...
Imagine that your job and your industry disappeared overnight
...
If you were
starting over again today, with your special combination of talents
and skills, what would you choose to do that is different from what
you are doing now?
Your Most Valuable Asset
Your most valuable financial asset is your earning ability
...
In reality, you could lose your home, your car, your bank
account, and your furniture, and be left with nothing but the clothes
on your back
...
Your earning ability is extremely precious to you
...
Your
earning ability can grow in value if you continue to invest in it and
develop it
...
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Bundle of Resources
See yourself as a “bundle of resources,” capable of doing many
different things
...
There are many jobs
and tasks that you could do, or learn to do, extremely well
...
In mentally starting over, as though you were beginning your career
anew, look deeply into yourself as well
...
What are some of the
brutal questions that you have to ask yourself before you launch
wholeheartedly toward your goals?
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Whenever I do strategic planning for a company, we start off the
session with four questions
...
Second, we ask, “where would we ideally like to be in the future?”
We idealize and practice future orientation
...
Third, we ask, “How did we get to where we are today? What did we
do right? What would we do differently? What have been our biggest
successes so far, and why did they occur? What have we failed at,
and what were the reasons for it? As George Santayana wrote,
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it
...
There is an old saying, “Well begun is half done
...
” Taking the time to honestly
evaluate each part of your situation before you launch toward your
goal will save you months and even years on your journey
...
It will dramatically improve the speed at
which you achieve your goals once you get going
...
Determine the reality of your current situation relative to your
major goals
...
Apply the zero based thinking principle to every area of your
life
...
Do a complete financial analysis of your life
...
Do a complete skills analysis on yourself and your work
...
Determine exactly how much you earn each hour, and what it
is you do to earn that amount
...
Imagine your future was perfect in every way
...
”
Jean de la Bruyere
You have incredible mental powers that you habitually fail to use to
their full extent
...
Goal setting
enables you to use vastly more of your thinking powers than the
average person
...
Its role is to
deal with the information in your environment and then to identify,
analyze, compare it against other information and then to decide
what actions to take
...
At least 90% or more of your mental powers are “below the surface
...
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Program Yourself With Goals
Your subconscious mind functions best with clear goals, specific
tasks, deliberate measures and firm deadlines
...
As you set your goals and begin moving toward them, it is essential
that you establish a series of benchmarks or measures that you can
use to evaluate your progress, day-by-day and hour-by-hour
...
Your subconscious mind requires a “forcing system,” composed of
deadlines that you have imposed on yourself for task
accomplishment and goal attainment
...
Three Keys To Peak Performance
There are three keys to peak performance in achieving your goals
...
When you make a firm commitment to achieve a particular goal, and
you put aside all excuses, it is very much like stepping on the
accelerator of your subconscious mind
...
Great men and women are
those who make clear, unequivocal commitments and then refuse to
budge from them, no matter what happens
...
There is an
enormous difference between doing 95% of a task and doing 100% of
a task
...
This is a temptation that you must fight
against
...
Nature’s Wonder Drug
Every time you complete a task of any kind, your brain releases a
small quantity of endorphins
...
It makes you feel happy and
peaceful
...
It is nature’s “wonder drug
...
Over time, you can develop a
positive addition to the feelings of well being that you receive from this
“endorphin rush
...
When you
complete a large task, you feel happier still
...
You feel continuously
happy and exhilarated when you are working steadily toward the
completion of an important job
...
” And feeling like a winner
requires that you win
...
When you do this repeatedly, eventually
you develop the habit of completing the tasks that you begin
...
In psychology the reverse is always true
...
In fact, much of the unhappiness
that people experience is because they have not been able to
discipline themselves to follow through and complete an important
task or responsibility
...
The longer you wait to get
started on an assignment and the closer the deadline approaches, the
greater stress you experience
...
But when you finally launch into the task and
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push it through to completion, you feel a great sense of relief and
well being
...
At the same time, nature penalizes you
with stress and dissatisfaction when you fail to do the things that
move you toward the goals and results that are important to you
...
” Using these scorecards, every
person, at every level of the business, is encouraged to identify the
key measures that indicate success, and then to give themselves
scores every day and every week in each of those key areas
...
The very act of identifying a number or
score, and then paying close attention to it will cause you to improve
your performance in that area
...
You would listen far
more carefully and attentively throughout the meeting because you
knew that this behavior was being observed
...
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One of the most helpful actions you take in your own career is to set
benchmarks, and create scorecards, measures, metrics and deadlines
for every key task that you must complete on the way to one of your
goals
...
This forcing system will then motivate you and drive you, at an
unconscious level, to start earlier, work harder, stay later and get the
job done
...
” This is
the difference between an “open loop” and a “closed loop
...
Lack of closure, unfinished business, an incomplete action of any
kind, are all major sources of stress, dissatisfaction and even failure in
business
...
The Key Ability
Perhaps the most important ability in the world of work is “dependability
...
Whatever your goals, make a list of all the tasks that you will have to
accomplish in the achievement of those goals
...
Then, work every day and every hour to hit
your deadlines
...
Speed up or slow down where necessary
...
The greater clarity that you have with
regard to deadlines and measures, the more you will accomplish and
the faster you will get it done
...
It has
no energy behind it
...
Unless you establish deadlines to which you are committed, you will
end up “firing blanks” in life and work
...
Set another deadline, and then another, if necessary
...
The more you set and work toward deadlines, the more
accurate you will become in predicting the time necessary to
complete them
...
Eating An Elephant
You have heard the question, “How do you eat an elephant?”
And the answer is, “One bite at a time
...
How do
you achieve a huge goal? You accomplish it one step, one task, one
measure at a time
...
Even if your long-term goal is financial
independence, look for a way to break that down into how you are
going to use each hour of the coming day in such a way that longterm financial independence is far more likely
...
” Look at everything you do and then ask
yourself how you could add more value so that you can be worth
more than you are earning today
...
It is absolutely amazing how much you can accomplish if you break
your tasks down into bite sized pieces, set deadlines and then do one
thing at a time, every single day
...
”
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Continuous and Never Ending Improvement
If you want to increase your hourly rate and your income, look for
ways to get a little bit better at the most important things you do,
every single day
...
Listen to audio
programs on your way to and from work
...
These activities will propel your entire career onto
the fast track
...
Get Healthy and Fit
If you want to lose weight, there is a simple five-word formula: “Eat
Less and Exercise More
...
No matter how much
you weigh today, if you lose one ounce each day that will equal about
two pounds per month
...
In no time at all, you can retrain your body and your appetite so
that you lose the weight and keep it off for the rest of your life
...
Set a goal to save $3, $5, or $10 per day
...
As it grows, invest it
carefully in well-chosen mutual funds or index funds
...
In no time at all, you will become comfortable living on slightly less
than you are spending today
...
In a few weeks, a few months, a few years,
you will be out of debt and have a large amount of money put away
and working for you
...
Become A Learned Person
If you read 15 minutes each evening, rather than watching television,
you will complete about 15 books per year
...
You will be
one of the best-educated and most erudite people of your generation
...
Increase Your Income
If you are in sales and you want to increase your income, keep careful
track of how many calls, how many presentations, how many
proposals and how many sales you are making each day, each week
and each month at the present time
...
Set a goal to
increase your number of sales each week and each month
...
If You Measure It, You Can Manage It
In each area of your life, analyze your activities carefully and select a
specific number that, more than anything else, determines your level
of success in that area
...
The very act of focused attention will cause
you to perform better in that area, both consciously and
unconsciously
...
If you want to be successful financially, you can focus on
the amount you earn each hour, or the amount that you save each
month
...
If you want to be successful in
your relationships, you can focus on the number of minutes that you
spend face to face with the most important people in your life, each
day and each week
...
” There
is another saying, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it
...
Measure Your Progress:
1
...
Refer to it daily
...
Determine the most important part of your job as it affects
your income, and measure your daily activities in that area
...
Set a minimum, specific amount for daily, weekly, monthly
saving and investment, and discipline yourself to put away
those amounts
...
Break every large goal down into measurable, controllable
parts, and then focus on accomplishing each part on a fixed
deadline
...
Make it a game with yourself to set benchmarks, measures,
scorecards, targets and deadlines for every goal, and then
focus on those numbers and dates
...
6
...
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CHAPTER TEN
Remove the Roadblocks
“The person interested in success has to learn to view failure as a healthy,
inevitable part of the process getting to the top
...
Most
people give up before they even make the first try
...
The fact is that successful people fail far more often than unsuccessful
people
...
Unsuccessful people try a few things, if they try at all, and very soon
quit and go back to what they were doing before
...
You should look upon failure and temporary
defeat as a part of the price that you pay on your road to the success
that you will inevitably achieve
...
”
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Once you have decided upon your goal, ask yourself, “Why am I not
there already?” What is holding you back? Why haven’t you
achieved that goal up to now?
Identify all the obstacles that stand between you and your goal
...
Think In Terms of Solutions
Remember, “You become what you think about – most of the time
...
”
Successful people think about solutions, most of the time
...
Solution-oriented people are constantly looking for ways to
get over, around and past the obstacles that stand in their ways
...
Solution oriented
people, on the other hand, simply ask the question, “How can we
solve this?” and then take action to deal with the problem
...
This is why success is
sometimes defined as the ability to solve problems
...
Effectiveness is the ability to solve
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problems
...
Problem Solving Is A Skill
Fortunately, problem solving is a skill, like riding a bicycle or typing
with a typewriter, which you can learn
...
The better
you get at solving problems, the faster you will be at solving each
subsequent problem
...
Eventually, you will be solving problems that can have
significant financial consequences for you and others
...
The fact is that you have the ability to solve any problem or to
overcome any obstacle on the path to your goal, if you desire the goal
intensely enough
...
The Theory of Constraints
One of the most important breakthroughs in thinking in the last few
decades was described by Elihu Goldratt in his book The Goal as “The
Theory of Constraints
...
For example, if you are driving down the freeway and there is traffic
construction that is narrowing all the cars into a single lane, this
bottleneck or chokepoint becomes the constraint that determines how
fast you get to your destination
...
In accomplishing any major goal, there is always a constraint or
bottleneck you must get through as well
...
Your ability to remove this bottleneck, or deal with
this limiting factor can help you move ahead faster than perhaps any
other step you can take
...
This rule says that 80% of your constraints will be within
yourself
...
To put it another way, it is
you personally who is usually the major roadblock that is setting the
speed at which you achieve any goal that you set for yourself
...
But superior people are more
concerned with what is right rather than who is right
...
Look Into Yourself
Ask yourself, “What is it in me that is holding me back?” Look deep
within yourself and identify the key constraints in your personality,
temperament, skills, abilities, habits, education or experience that
might be holding you back from achieving the goals that you have set
for yourself
...
Be completely honest with
yourself
...
They are psychological and emotional in character
...
And it is
with these mental obstacles that you must begin if you want to
achieve everything that is possible for you
...
It is first of all, the fears of failure, poverty, loss,
embarrassment or rejection that holds the average person back from
trying in the first place
...
As soon as he thinks
of the goal, these fears overwhelm him and, like a bucket of water on
a small fire, extinguishes his desire completely
...
We doubt our own abilities
...
We think, “I’m not good
enough
...
Negative Emotions Can Be Unlearned
Fortunately, if there is anything good about doubt and fear it is that
they are both learned emotions
...
And
whatever has been learned can be unlearned, through practice and
repetition
...
The higher your level of courage and confidence, the lower will be
your levels of fear and doubt, and the less effect these negative
emotions will have on your performance and behavior
...
Most fear and doubt arises out of ignorance and feelings of
inadequacy of some kind
...
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Think about learning to drive for the first time
...
You may
have driven erratically and been a danger to yourself and others
...
Today, you can quite comfortably get into your car and drive across
the country with no fear or worry at all
...
The
same principles apply to any skills you need to learn to achieve any
goal you can set for yourself
...
” What Seligman concluded, after
interviewing and studying many thousands of people, was that more
than 80% of the population suffers from learned helplessness to some
degree, and occasionally to a very high degree indeed
...
The most common manifestation of learned helplessness is contained
in the words “I can’t
...
” He then goes on to give all the reasons
why a particular goal or objective is not possible for him
...
I can’t get a better job
...
I can’t save money
...
I can’t start my own
business
...
I can’t change or
improve my relationship
...
”
Whatever it is, he always has a self-limiting reason that immediately
slams on the brakes of his potential
...
Another
famous observation of Henry Ford was, “If you believe you can do a
thing or you believe you cannot, in either case, you are probably right
...
The way you get over this natural tendency to sell
yourself short is by setting small goals, making plans and working on
them each day
...
As you become more
confident in yourself and your abilities, you can set even larger goals
...
Eventually, with a record of successes behind you, it won’t
be long before you become unstoppable
...
” Many people become complacent with their current
situations
...
The comfort zone is a major obstacle to ambition, desire,
determination and accomplishment
...
Don’t let this happen to you
...
You then
break these goals down into specific tasks, set deadlines and work on
them every day
...
Organize Your Obstacles By Priority
Once you have made a list of all the obstacles that are standing in the
way of your achieving your major goals, organize the obstacles by
priority
...
He says that, “Whatever the problem, define it several
different ways before you attempt to solve it
...
”
When you ask the question, with regard to your goal, “why am I not
there already?” what answer comes to mind? What is holding you
back? What is standing in your way? It is at this point that you have
to drill down to determine the correct obstacle before you begin taking
steps to remove it
...
Conducting A Sales Analysis
In my work with corporations, or with individuals, we start off with
the goal of doubling our profits or doubling our income
...
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Here is an example of the questioning process:
“We are not making enough sales
...
” What else
could be the problem?
“Our advertising is not attracting enough customers
...
If we don’t have enough sales, our solution is to increase the
number of sales
...
If our advertising
is not drawing enough customers, our solution is to improve the
quality of our advertising in some way
...
”
What else could be the problem?”
“Our customers are not buying frequently enough from us
...
” This
could lead to totally revamping the quality of the sales force through
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better recruiting, training and management
...
” What else could be the problem?
“Our competitors are selling too much of their products to our
customers
...
” What else could be the problem?
“It costs us too much to make each sale
...
Each new definition of the problem suggests
different ways that the goal of increased sales or profitability could
be achieved
...
This can
apply to your problems and obstacles as well
...
They require that you think in different ways
...
The accuracy with which you
identify the obstacles or bottlenecks that are holding you back will
determine the appropriateness of the various steps that you can take
to remove or alleviate those obstacles
...
”
What else is the problem?
“I’m not contributing enough value to be worth more money
...
”
What else could be the problem?
“I don’t use my time efficiently enough during the work day
...
”
Aha! Now you have found the real problem
...
Define the Obstacle As a Goal
Once you have determined the major obstacle that is holding you
back, rewrite that obstacle as a positive goal
...
”
You then make a list of all the things that you could do to upgrade
your knowledge and skills, improve your time management, increase
your efficiency and effectiveness and make more sales for your
company
...
You then select one key task and take
action on it immediately
...
You become your own taskmaster
...
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This exercise of identifying what is holding you back and then setting
a clear, written goal to remove that obstacle puts you back in control
of your own life
...
Strive For Accuracy
If you have any questions or concerns about the accuracy of your
problem definition, discuss it with someone you know and trust
...
Invite honest feedback and criticism
...
Be brutally
honest with yourself
...
You will begin to
attract into your life all kinds of resources that will help you to
overcome the obstacle or difficulty, either within yourself or within the
situation around you, and move you more rapidly toward your goal
...
If there is a solution, go and find it
...
”
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For every problem or obstacle that is standing between you and what
you want to accomplish, there is a solution of some kind somewhere
...
By removing your major obstacle, you will
often make more progress in a few months than the average person
might make in several years
...
Identify a major goal and then ask, “Why aren’t I there
already? What is holding me back?” List everything you can
think of
...
Look into yourself and face the possibility that it is your own
fears and doubts that are your biggest roadblocks to success
...
Identify the constraint or limiting factor, in yourself or the
situation, that sets the speed at which you achieve your goal
...
Develop several definitions of your major problem or
obstacle
...
Define your best solution as a goal, set a deadline, make a
plan of action and then get busy on your plan
...
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
Become An Expert In Your Field
“The uncommon man is merely the common man thinking and dreaming of
success and in more fruitful areas
...
” The market only pays excellent rewards for excellent
performance
...
In our economic system, your income will be determined by three
factors: first, what you do; second, how well you do it; and third, the
difficulty of replacing you
...
” They decided to be
the best at what they do
...
And as a result of this decision, they
pulled away from the pack of average performers and moved
themselves upward into the income category where today they earn
three, four, five and ten times as much as their peers who have not
made this commitment
...
He said that 20% of the
salespeople made 80% of the money
...
At that point, many years ago, I decided that I
would prefer to be a member of the top 20% rather than the bottom
80%
...
Because I had come from a difficult childhood and received below
average grades in school, I grew up with a poor self-image and a low
level of self-confidence
...
If ever I attempted something and did it well, I
immediately dismissed it as an accident or a lucky break
...
The Great Insight
Then one day I had a sudden flash of insight
...
Everybody who is doing well today was once doing poorly
...
And even more importantly, it dawned on me that
whatever others have done, within reason, I could do as well
...
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No one is better than you and no on is smarter than you
...
In addition, all business skills are
learnable
...
If you are not achieving what others are achieving, it
simply means that you have just not learned these skills YET!
The Iron Law of Self-Development
Here was another breakthrough realization for me: “You can learn
anything you need to learn to achieve any goal you can set for yourself
...
If you
decide to become excellent, to join the top 10% of people in your
field, there is nothing on earth that can stop you from getting there,
except yourself
...
Everything worthwhile takes a long time and a lot of work to
accomplish
...
And it is worth every bit of the effort
once you get there!
Les Brown, the motivational speaker says, “To achieve something
that you have never achieved before, you must become someone that
you have never been before
...
”
Once you decide to become one of the best people in your field, the
only question you ask is, “How do I achieve it?” The very fact that
hundreds of thousands, and even millions of people, have gone from
the bottom to the top in every field is ample proof that you can do it
as well
...
In most areas of life, it
is more hard work and dedication than natural ability and talent that
leads to excellence and great success
...
The reason I mention this is because many people feel that, if they
didn’t get good grades in school, they are permanently limited in
what they can accomplish later in life
...
Some of the wealthiest, most successful men and women in
America, and throughout the world, did poorly in school
...
” This is the same way that you
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become absolutely excellent at what you do
...
Appreciating or Depreciating Asset?
The fact is that your current level of knowledge and skill is becoming
obsolete at a faster rate today than ever before
...
This is a choice you are making, or
failing to make, every day
...
You very soon move ahead of the pack and
into the lead position
...
The idea of committing to excellence has never even occurred to
them, as it has to you
...
What
would have to have happened? What would you have to have done,
learned or accomplished to reach this point? What skills would you
have had to master to lead your field?
Make A Career Move
Once upon a time, I had a good friend who was a lawyer in a small
firm
...
When he got out of school in his early 20s, he began
practicing law amongst his friends and associates
...
He decided to make a career in
business instead
...
In the face of considerable
opposition, he gathered all his resources and concentrated single
mindedly in getting into Harvard University to attend their MBA
program
...
It then
took him two more years to complete the required courses and
graduate with the coveted Harvard MBA
...
It turned out to be a perfect career move
...
He
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became one of the youngest and most respected executives in charge
of a major company in the country
...
Fully 40
million Americans will be contingency workers for most of their
careers
...
It is almost inevitable that your career will change continually as you
grow and mature
...
Identify Your Key Result Areas
As I mentioned before, every job is made up of about five to seven
key result areas
...
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If you are in sales, you should give yourself a grade of one to ten,
with one being the lowest and ten being the highest, in each of these
areas
...
Once you have graded yourself in these seven areas, you should take
the list to your boss, or even better, to one of your customers, and ask
them to give you a grade as well
...
Very often, your evaluation of yourself is much different and
higher than the way you are evaluated by others
...
Your weakest key skill sets the height of your
income and determines how fast and how far you go in your career
...
Your
answer to this question is essential to your achieving excellence in
your field
...
Ask your coworkers
...
Ask
your spouse and your friends
...
This becomes
your major definite purpose for personal and professional
improvement
...
Once you have achieved mastery in your weakest key result area,
you then ask the question again
...
The highest paid people in every field score an 8, 9 or 10 across the
board in each of their key result areas
...
The Excellent Executive
If you are in management, there are seven key result areas that
determine your success or failure at your job
...
All top managers are excellent in every one of these areas
...
A serious weakness
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GOALS!
in any one of these key result areas can be fatal to your success in
your work
...
I have worked with managers who were so poor at
delegating that they could get nothing done
...
Give yourself a grade of one to ten in each of these key result areas
...
And be honest
...
Perform a 360-Degree Analysis
One of the popular management tools being used today is called a
“360 Degree Analysis
...
The survey is
filled out anonymously and all the surveys are returned to an outside
consultant who summarizes the answers on the survey
...
It often comes as quite a
shock to the manager
...
” But the staff will say, “He is weak, indecisive and
insecure when it comes to making decisions
...
Most managers
rated themselves in the top 20% in terms of personality and
intelligence, as well
...
This is why
it is so helpful for a person to be rated by his or her peers on a regular
basis
...
Then, you go to work to
improve yourself in that area every day
...
You will have become an expert
...
”
You are born with certain natural skills, abilities, tendencies,
strengths, weaknesses and talents
...
They do not change very much
over the course of your lifetime
...
Mary Baker Follett, a management consultant in the 1920’s, once
wrote, “The very best direction to ride a horse is in the direction it is
going
...
Jim Cathcart, the author and
speaker, says, “Nurture your nature
...
You are put on this earth with special talents and abilities that make
you unique and different from all other people who have ever lived
...
One of your great goals in life is to
identify and isolate the one or two things that you can do better, and
enjoy more, than anything else, and then concentrate on becoming
absolutely excellent in those areas
...
” The poet Longfellow once wrote,
“The great tragedy of the average man is that he goes to his grave
with his music still in him
...
Napoleon Hill once wrote that the key to success in America is for
you to “find out what you really love to do, and then find a way to
make a good living doing it
...
”
What they did was to find out what they really enjoyed, and then
they did more and more of it
...
Here they are:
First, you will always be the best and happiest at something that you
love to do
...
It
brings out the very best in you and you get a tremendous amount of
satisfaction and enjoyment when you are engaged in that particular
work
...
You seem to have a natural ability to perform
in this area
...
From an early age, it is something
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that you have enjoyed to do and from which you got the greatest
rewards and compliments from other people
...
In
fact, it was so easy to learn that you actually forget when and how
you learned it
...
Fifth, it holds your attention
...
You
like to think about it, read about it, talk about it and learn about it
...
Sixth, you love to learn about it and become better at it all your life
...
Seventh, when you do it, time stands still
...
And eighth, you really admire and respect other people who are good at
what you are most suited to do
...
If the above descriptions apply to anything that you are doing, or
anything that you have done in the past, they can lead you into what
you were uniquely put on this earth to do, to your “heart’s desire
...
They are
programmed into your subconscious mind
...
Your job is to discover this area of natural
talent and ability and then to develop it throughout your life
...
They are dependent on each other
...
Sometimes, you have to learn
and develop skills that you do not particularly love and enjoy
...
One Skill Away
Here is the rule: You could be only one skill away from doubling your
productivity, performance and income
...
Remember that all business skills are learnable
...
If there is any business skill that you need to
learn to realize and utilize your full potential, you can learn it by
practice and repetition
...
You will fall into the trap of “learned
helplessness
...
”
Or, “I don’t have any natural talent or ability in that skill
...
If the skill is
important enough to you, you can learn it
...
Don’t let this happen to you
...
” It is not practice that makes perfect; it is imperfect
practice that eventually makes perfect
...
You will feel clumsy and awkward at first
...
You will often feel silly and embarrassed
...
You will
always have to pay the price of success, in advance, and that price
often involves the hard work of mastering a difficult skill that you
need to move to the top of your field
...
Imagine that you could wave a magic
want and be absolutely excellent at any particular skill
...
Become a lifelong “do-it-to-yourself” project
...
Be willing to pay any price, make any sacrifice to be the best at
what you do
...
It is simple,
and it works every single time
...
Knowledge is cumulative
...
Second, listen to educational audio programs on the subject in your
car
...
Turn driving time into
learning time
...
Third, attend seminars and workshops on your subject
...
Forever after, they
were completely different in that area
...
Every time you hear a good idea, take action on
it
...
Practice Make Perfect
The more you practice what you are learning, the faster you will
become competent and skilled in that area
...
The more you practice, the
more rapidly you will overcome your feelings of inadequacy in that
skill and the faster you will master it
...
Resolve today, right now, to join the top 10% of people in your field
...
Determine the special knowledge and skills they have
developed and resolve to develop them yourself
...
No
one is better than you and no one is smarter than you
...
There are no limits
...
Resolve to day to join the top 10% of people in your field
...
2
...
3
...
4
...
5
...
Read, listen to audio
programs, attend courses and seminars, and then put what
you learn into action as quickly as you can
...
Your whole career will be modified, shaped molded by your surroundings,
by the character of the people with whom you come in contact every day
...
Everything you
accomplish or fail to accomplish will be bound up with other people
in some way
...
The more people you know, and who know you in a positive way,
the more successful you will be at anything you attempt
...
No One Does It Alone
A key part of goal setting is for you to identify the people, groups
and organizations whose help you will require to achieve your goals
...
Who are they?
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GOALS!
There are three general categories of people whose help and
cooperation you will require in the years ahead
...
You
need to develop a strategy to work effectively with each group
...
Who are the most important people in your
business life? What is your plan to develop higher quality
relationships with them? Make a list of everyone who works inside
and outside of your business - your boss, colleagues, co-workers, subordinates and especially, your customers, supplies and vendors
...
I then point out that
everyone is in the business of customer service, no matter what they
call it, or what they do
...
A customer can
also be defined as anyone who depends on you, in any way
...
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GOALS!
For example, your boss is your primary customer at work
...
If you displease everyone else, but your boss is delighted with
you, you will be safe and secure in your job
...
Your Customer Service Strategy
One of the best strategies you can use is to make a list of everything
that you believe that you have been hired to do
...
Then, take this list to your boss and ask your boss to organize this
list in order of his or her priority
...
From that moment onward, discipline yourself to work on your
boss’s top task all day long
...
This will do more to help you in
your career than any other single decision you make
...
86% of the
senior executives selected two qualities as being more important for
career success and advancement than any others
...
Second, it was the ability to get the job done fast, to execute quickly
...
Hard Work On The Wrong Task?
But here’s the catch
...
The sad thing is that
if you do an unimportant job very well, this could hurt your career
and even threaten your job
...
As conditions change, keep the lines of communication open with
your boss
...
And then make a game of doing it fast
...
Be sure that you are that person
...
Go to each one of them and ask them if there is anything that
you can do to help them
...
The fact is that people think about themselves and their own jobs all
day long
...
The Law of Sowing and Reaping is not the Law of Reaping and Sowing
...
First you put in, and then you
get out
...
You should look for every opportunity in your work to help people
and to do nice things for others
...
The most popular people in every organization are those who are
always willing to lend a helping hand
...
Develop a reputation as a go-giver, as well as being a gogetter
...
Be A Team Player
Perhaps the most important quality you can develop for long-term
success in your business is that of being a good team player
...
Team dynamics are very interesting
...
The other 80% contribute very little to
the meetings and very seldom raise their hands or volunteer for
anything
...
To be a good team player, always come prepared to every meeting
...
Speak early and ask questions
...
And when you offer to do something, do it quickly and
well so that it is clear who the go-to person is in the company
...
As a result, you will be given more
and bigger jobs, and both the authority and the rewards that go with
those jobs
...
Talk to them and ask them
questions
...
Be especially kind and
courteous with them
...
You will be amazed at the difference
this makes in your career
...
Initially, it may
seem that relationship building takes a lot of time
...
Outside of your business, you should get involved with your
industry and with your industry associations
...
They keep expanding
their professional contacts and friendships
...
Select one or
two organizations that contain people that it would be helpful for
you to know in the years ahead
...
Once you have decided that it would be useful for
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GOALS!
you to be a member of one of these organizations, join up and begin
attending every meeting
...
Select an important
committee within the organization and volunteer to work on that
committee
...
Choose a committee that is
engaged in activities that will bring you into contact with other key
people, both inside and outside the organization
...
Even
though this work is unpaid, these activities give you an opportunity
to work with and perform before other key people who can help you
in your career sometime down the road
...
The more people that you know and
work with in your industry, the more doors of opportunity there are
that will open for you when the time is right
...
As you read your local
newspapers, make a list of the top people in your community
...
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GOALS!
As you gather these names, write each of them a letter and send them
something that is non-business related
...
Each time you see a reason to communicate with that person, drop
them a note
...
Often, I don’t get through or make
direct contact
...
” Eventually I will end up meeting a key
person socially or in business and they remember that I dropped
them a letter a week, a month or even a year ago
...
He said, “Aren’t you the one that wrote me
the letter about such and such?” That led to a conversation, a meeting
and many years of work with his organization
...
”
No effort that you make to expand your contacts will ever be
completely lost
...
Some will yield results immediately
...
You must be prepared
to be patient
...
David McClelland of Harvard University did many years of
research into the qualities and characteristics of high achievers in our
society
...
As
Zig Ziglar says, “If you want to fly with the eagles, you can’t
continue to scratch with the turkeys
...
Make it a point to associate with the
kind of people that you like, admire, respect and want to be like
sometime in the future
...
The choice of a positive, goal-oriented reference group can
do more to supercharge your career than any other factor
...
In a few weeks, that person’s attitude has completely
changed
...
This is why almost every major
change in your life will be associated with a change in the people you
live or work with
...
Baron de Rothschild once
wrote, “Make no useless acquaintances
...
In this sense, you must be
perfectly selfish with regard to yourself and your future ambitions
...
Many people get into bad relationships and form useless friendships
early in their careers
...
There is nothing
wrong with making mistakes, especially if you are young and
inexperienced
...
And your
choice of the people you associate with will have more of an impact
on what you become than any other single factor
...
As Benjamin Disraeli said, “No
success n public life can compensate for failure in the home
...
When your family life is solid
and secure, characterized by warm, loving relationships, you will do
better in everything else in the outer world
...
Problems at home distract your attention and drain
your energy
...
Deliberate Extremes
If you have to work very hard to get started in your field, be sure that
you discuss and explain this clearly to the people in your family
...
” You will have to work long hours and often many days
without breaks or vacations in order to take advantage of an
opportunity or to complete a project
...
Arrange to compensate
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afterwards by taking time off, or going away on family vacations
...
Become A Relationship Expert
Once you have decided upon the people, groups and organizations
whose help and cooperation you will need to achieve your goals,
resolve to become a relationship expert
...
Practice the Golden Rule
...
”
Above all, the simplest strategy is to treat everyone you meet, at
home or at work, like a “Million Dollar Customer
...
Treat them as though they were capable of buying a million dollars
worth of your product or service
...
”
Every day, in every way, look for ways to lighten the load and help
other people to do their jobs better and live their lives more easily
...
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Associate With The Right People:
1
...
Develop a plan to help each person in some way
...
Make a list of the most important people in your personal life
...
3
...
Phone today
and arrange to attend the next meeting
...
Make a list of the top people in your community, or in your
field, and make a plan to get to know them personally
...
Look for every opportunity to expand your social and
business circle
...
Build bridges at every opportunity
...
Genius is the art
of taking infinite pains
...
“
Elbert Hubbard
Your ability to set goals and make plans for their accomplishment is
the “master skill” of success
...
All major accomplishments today are “multi-task jobs
...
Even something as simple as
preparing a dish in the kitchen with a recipe is a multi-task job
...
The purpose of planning is to enable you to turn your major definite
purpose into a planned, multi-task project with specific steps- a
beginning, middle and end – with clear deadlines and sub-deadlines
...
This skill will make you one of the most effective and influential
people in your business or organization, and the more you practice it,
the better you will get at it
...
1
...
You know what you want and why you
want it
...
You have written out your goals, organized them by priority
and selected your major definite purpose
...
You have created measures and standards to track your
progress, you have set both deadlines and sub-deadlines as
targets to aim at
...
You have now identified the key obstacles, difficulties and
constraints that stand between you and your goal, and
organized them by priority
...
You have identified the essential knowledge and skills that you
will require to achieve your goal
...
You have organized these competencies by priority and
developed a plan to learn what you need to learn to
accomplish what you have decided to accomplish
...
You have identified the people, groups and organizations whose
help and cooperation you will require, both inside and
outside your business
...
Throughout this process, you have written and taken notes so that
you now possess the raw materials and tools for the creation of a plan
of accomplishment
...
The Planning Process Is Essential
Some time ago, Inc
...
Half of these companies had
spent several months and even more to develop complete business
plans before they began operations
...
Two to three years later, the researchers went back to determine the
levels of success and profitability of these companies
...
The companies that had started
operations with clear, written business plans, carefully thought
through and detailed in every respect, were vastly more successful
and profitable than those companies that had started spontaneously
and had made things up as they went along
...
Many of them were
already bankrupt and had gone out of business
...
Once it was done, they put it in a
drawer and seldom revisited it until the following year, when they
went through the strategic planning process again
...
Planning Pays Off
General Dwight D
...
He said, “The plans were not
important, but the planning process was critical
...
This is why Alex Mackenzie, the time
management expert said, “Action without planning is the cause of
every failure
...
” From the first day that you begin actual business
operations, the situation will change so rapidly that your plan will
become obsolete in many respects within a few days, or even a few
hours
...
Scott
McNealy of Sun Microsystems says, “In a start-up business, you have
to throw out all assumptions every three weeks
...
The great
achievements of mankind, from the building of the Pyramids
forward to the great industrial operations of the modern age, were
proceeded by and accompanied by detailed plans, carefully designed
and thought through from beginning to end – before they began
...
Every minute that you spend planning and thinking before you begin
will save you time, money and energy in getting the results you
desire
...
”
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Planning Saves Time and Expense
The number one reason for failure is action without planning
...
It is said that every new business start-up is a “race against time
...
If they
figure out the “profit model” and begin generating revenues in
excess of costs before the money runs out, the business can turn the
corner and succeed
...
The Formula For Success
There is a six “P” formula for personal and business success: “Proper
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance
...
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GOALS!
Second, thinking through what you must do to accomplish your
goals enables you to plan your actions carefully before you
begin, thereby saving you enormous costs of time, people and
money
...
It enables you to ask “what if?” questions
...
Sometimes, the very best business deals
in your career are the ones that you don’t get into in the first
place
...
He said, “It is always easier to get into
something than it is to get out of it
...
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GOALS!
Identify The Weaknesses In Advance
The fourth benefit of proper prior planning is that it enables you to
identify weaknesses in your plan and make provisions to compensate
for those weaknesses
...
This is only possible by going through the planning process
...
Often, you will be unaware of your particular
strengths, or the opportunities that exist in the situation, before you
go through the planning process
...
In
the absence of clear focus and concentration, you will tend to spread
your energies over a wide area and end up accomplishing very little
...
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GOALS!
The Vital Discipline
Planning is a discipline and a skill
...
This means that you can learn and them to a high level
through repetition and practice
...
List Every Task and Activity
In its simplest form, a plan is a list of every activity that you will have
to engage in, from the beginning to the end, in accomplishing a
specific goal or objective
...
As you think of new items, add them to the list
...
This list becomes your blueprint for the construction of your “dream
house,” your ideal goal or result
...
You organize the items on your list by priority
by determining which tasks or activities are more important than
other tasks or activities
...
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GOALS!
You organize your list by sequence, as well
...
Often, one task cannot be accomplished until another task
has been completed
...
Identify The Limiting Factor
In planning, very often the success of the plan will be determined by
the achievement of a particular goal or objective within the plan
...
It may be the date of delivery of the first finished product or
service
...
It could be the hiring of a key person for an essential
job
...
Expect Failure At First
No plan is perfect the first time it is created
...
This is
to be expected
...
Keep asking, “What’s
working?” and “What’s not working?” Be more concerned with
what’s right rather than who’s right
...
Focus On the Solution
When you have a problem, resolve to be solution oriented
...
If you are not achieving your goals on schedule, ask,
“What is the problem? What else is the problem? What are the
solutions? What else is a solution? What can we do now? What is the
next step?”
It seems that when you begin work on the achievement of a new goal,
you immediately experience setbacks, obstacles, difficulties and
temporary failure
...
It is normal and natural
...
But this is the price that you have to pay to achieve the
goals that you have set for yourself
...
Be continually making lists and sub-lists of
every step in every process
...
Remember, planning is a skill
...
Your ability to think, plan, organize and initiate action
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toward your goal will eventually put you in the top 10% of your
field
...
One of the ways that you can “think on paper” is to create a project
planning sheet for the accomplishment of a multi task goal
...
This can be very helpful in opening your eyes to
the strengths and weaknesses of the planning process
...
If
it is a 12-month project, or goal, you write the names of the 12
months, from this month forward
...
Down the left hand column, you make a list of all the tasks that must
be accomplished, in proper sequence, for you to achieve the ultimate
goal
...
In the lower right hand corner, you write clearly what your final,
ideal result will look like
...
You can now use horizontal bars to indicate the amount of time
necessary, from beginning to end, to complete a particular task
...
Certain of these tasks are of
high priority and others are of lower priority
...
Assemble Your Team
Everyone who is responsible for carrying out a part of the plan
should be involved in the planning process
...
It is often a shock to find out that something that
seems simple and easy is actually going to take several months from
beginning to end
...
One of my managers decided to put out a newsletter to all out
customers on a new development in our business
...
He was shocked to discover that a professionally written, designed
and produced newsletter would take 6-8 weeks to print and mail,
and cost more than $2000
...
When you start the planning process, your biggest concern should be
accuracy in identifying every step necessary, and the exact time
required to accomplish every step in the plan
...
You must be absolutely honest with yourself at
every step of the planning process, and never trust to luck, or hope
that the laws of nature will be suspended temporarily on your behalf
...
There is
usually one major goal that must be achieved before any of the other
goals can be achieved
...
For example, many companies will start up with every single detail
in place except for a professional sales process to bring in revenues
...
But a first class selling process has not been installed, and within a
few months, or even weeks, without sales revenues, the company
grinds to a halt
...
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Determine the Critical Results
What are the critical results that you must accomplish, at each step of
the way, to achieve your final goal? How can you plan them,
prioritize them and assure that they are completed on schedule?
What is your plan if things go wrong? What will you do if it takes
much longer and costs much more to achieve your critical objectives
on your way to the goal? What is your fallback plan? You may have
heard the line, “A great life, like a great ship, should never be held by
a single hope, or a single rope
...
The more often
and more carefully you plan before you begin, the better you will get
at the planning process overall
...
Your ability to decide exactly what you want, write it down, make a
plan and then execute that plan is the key to personal effectiveness
and high achievement
...
In no time at all, you can transform your life or business, double your
sales or profitability, achieve your goals and fulfill your true
potential
...
Make a list of everything that you can think of that you will
have to do to achieve your goal
...
2
...
3
...
Determine how much time and money it will take to achieve
your goal or complete your task
...
Revisit and revise your plan regularly, especially when you
get new information, or things are not going as you had
expected
...
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Manage Your Time Well
“Time slips through our hands like grains of sand,
never to return again
...
”
Robin Sharma
To achieve all your goals, and become everything you are capable of
becoming, you must get your time under control
...
And a sense
of control is only possible when you practice excellent time
management skills
...
No matter how disorganized you have been in
the past, or how much you have tended to procrastinate or to get
caught up in low-value activities, you can change
...
Through repetition and practice, you can
become one of the most result-oriented people in your field
...
Your choices and decisions have
combined to create your entire life, to this moment
...
The starting point of time management is for you to determine your
goals, and then to organize your goals by priority and value
...
At one moment, your goal could be a business, financial or career
goal
...
On still another
occasion it could be a health or fitness goal
...
The Right Thing To Do
The metaphysician and philosopher Peter Ouspensky was once asked
by a student, “How do I know what is the right thing for me to do?”
Ouspensky replied, “If you tell me your aim, I can tell you what is the
right thing for you to do
...
The only way that you can determine
what is right or wrong, more or less important, having higher or
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lower priority, is by first determining your aim, or goal at that
particular moment
...
An “A” activity is something that moves you toward your goal, the
faster and more directly the better
...
The Role of Intelligence
In Gallup interviews of thousands of men and women to determine
the root causes of success in life and work, the importance of
“intelligence” was mentioned again and again
...
Intelligence was not defined as IQ or grades in
school
...
”
In other words, if you act intelligently, you are intelligent
...
And what then, by definition, is an intelligent way of acting? An
intelligent way of acting is anything that you do that is consistent
with achieving the goals that you set for yourself
...
On the other hand, an
unintelligent way of acting is doing things that are not moving you
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toward your goals, or even worse, moving you away from your
goals
...
The world is full of people who are acting
stupidly every day, and they are not even aware of what a negative
effect this is having on their lives
...
You take the time to sit down
with a piece of paper and think through exactly what it is you want
to accomplish in each area of your life
...
Once you are clear about the targets you
are aiming at, you then come back to the present and plan every
minute and hour of every day so that you accomplish the very most
that you possibly can with the time allocated to you
...
The fact is that
you can’t manage time; you can only manage yourself
...
Time management requires that you make the best choices
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and decisions necessary to enhance the quality of your life and work,
and then you follow through on your decisions
...
You should plan every month, in
advance, with a list of the things you want to accomplish during that
month
...
Use Advance Planning
Begin today to plan every week in advance, preferably the Sunday
before
...
When you make a list of everything you have to do for the following
day, your subconscious mind works on that list, all night long
...
By writing out your
plans, you will activate the Law of Attraction
...
Separate the Urgent From The Important
In the process of managing your time, you must separate the
“urgent” from the “important
...
” They are determined by external pressures and
requirements
...
Most
people spend most of their days responding and reacting to urgent
tasks, in the form of telephone calls, interruptions, emergencies, and
the demands of your boss and your customers
...
Some of these tasks may be
planning, organizing, studying, researching your customers and
setting priorities before you begin
...
Because these
activities take place during the workday, it is easy to confuse them
with real work
...
No matter how many urgent but unimportant activities you
engage in, you contribute nothing to your work or your company
...
These activities are positively harmful to your career because
they consume time that you could be using to get the results for
which you are paid and upon which your future depends
...
” A task that is valuable and
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important is a task that has serious consequences for completion or
non-completion
...
A task for which there are few if any consequences is by definition
not particularly important
...
Apply the 80/20 Rule
Once you have prepared a list of tasks for the coming day, review
your list and apply the 80/20 Rule before you begin
...
If you have a list of ten items to
complete, two of those items will be more valuable than other eight
items all together
...
Sometimes it will even be the “90/10 Rule” that applies
...
This task unfortunately
is usually the task that you will procrastinate on most readily
...
Since you cannot do
everything, you will have to procrastinate on something
...
Procrastinate on the 80% of tasks that
contribute very little to your desired goals and results
...
Focus your attention on those tasks that can have
the greatest possible consequences for successful completion
...
This
method requires that you review your list of tasks, before you begin,
and put an A, B, C, D or E next to each one
...
An “A” task is something that is very important
...
If you do it or don’t
do it, it can have a major impact on your results and your success
...
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If you have more than one “A” task, you organize them by priority,
as “A-1, A-2, A-3,” and so on
...
A “B” task is something that you should do
...
For example, calling a friend,
going for lunch with your coworkers or checking your email would
be a “B” task
...
A “C” task is a task that would be nice to do but it will have no
consequences at all
...
Whether you do them or not, they will have no
consequences in your life or work at all
...
Never do a “C” task when you have a “B” task left undone
...
A “D” task is something that you can delegate to someone else who
works at a lower hourly rate than you do, or than you want to earn
...
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An “E” task is something that you eliminate altogether
...
Much of what you do during the day or
week can be eliminated with no consequences at all
...
It is in this hour-by-hour and minuteby-minute choosing of what you will do, and simultaneously, what
you will not do, that your entire life is made
...
”
Whenever you begin on a task of any kind, you are consciously or
unconsciously deciding not to do any other task that you could do at
that moment
...
Choose the Most Valuable Task
Successful, highly paid people are usually no more intelligent or
skilled than unsuccessful, lowly paid people
...
Unsuccessful people are always killing time on tasks of
low value
...
You are always free to
choose what you do more of and what you do less of
...
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Practice Single-Handling On Each Task
Single handling is one of the most powerful time and personal
management techniques of all
...
You
discipline yourself to concentrate without diversion or distraction
...
Thomas Edison once wrote, “My success is due more to my ability to
work continuously on one thing without stopping than to any other
single quality
...
Create Chunks of Time
Plan your day in advance and create 30, 60 and 90-minute chunks of
uninterrupted work time
...
These
chunks are essential for the accomplishment of any large, important
task
...
Sometimes you can create chunks of time in the evenings or on the
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weekends
...
Earl Nightingale once said, “Every great accomplishment of mankind
has been preceded by an extended period, often over many years, of
concentrated effort
...
The first of these questions is, “Why am I on the payroll?” What exactly
have you been hired to accomplish? If you were being questioned by
your boss, and your boss were to ask you, “Why do we pay you
money around here?” what would be your answer?
The fact is that you have been hired to achieve specific results that
have economic value to your organization
...
You must be
crystal clear about exactly why you are on the payroll and then focus
your time and attention, all day long, on doing exactly those tasks
that make the greatest difference to your business or organization
...
What are they?
If you are not absolutely sure of the answers, go and ask your boss
what he or she thinks your highest value activities might be
...
Work On Your Key Result Areas
The third question you should ask all day long is “What are my key
result areas?” As we mentioned earlier, your key result areas are those
tasks that you absolutely, positively must complete in an excellent
fashion if you are to achieve the most important results required of
your job
...
You should clearly identify each of these tasks and then focus on not
only performing at your best in each of them, but also at becoming
better in each key result area every day
...
Don’t
allow yourself to be held back because of a weakness in one area,
especially when you can learn anything you need to know to excel in
that particular area
...
What is it that you and only you can do that can make
the greatest difference in your career? Again, if you are not sure of
the answer, go and ask your boss
...
Sometimes, he or she will not have thought about it at all
...
This will do more to help you in your career than
any other single decision you make
...
What is the most valuable use
of your time, right now?
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When you discipline yourself to ask and answer this question
repeatedly, and you are sure that whatever you are doing is the
answer to this question, you will start to accomplish two and three
times as much as the people around you
...
You will plow through more work of higher value,
and accomplish greater results than anyone around you
...
Become Intensely Result-Oriented
In the final analysis, the key to high productivity and performance is
this: Dedicate yourself to getting better and better at the few things
that you do that account for most of your results
...
As Goethe said, “The things that matter most must never be at the
mercy of the things that matter least
...
Develop the Habits of Time Management
The good news is that time management is a skill and a discipline
that you can learn with practice
...
”
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You can become excellent at time management with daily practice
...
Organize your list by priority, separating the urgent from the
important, and using the 80/20 Rule or the ABCDE method
...
Discipline yourself to concentrate singlemindedly on that one task or activity until it is 100% complete
...
You will
feel energized and stronger
...
You will feel on top of your work
...
Whenever you find yourself slowing down, or experiencing the
urge to procrastinate or delay, repeat to yourself, “Do it now! Do it
now! Do it now!” Develop a sense of urgency
...
Get started, get going, and work fast
...
These time
management practices are the keys to peak performance in every
part of your life
...
Make a list of everything you would like to be, do or have in
the months and years ahead
...
2
...
Let your subconscious mind work on your list
while you sleep
...
Organize your list by priority using the 80/20 Rule and the
ABCDE Method
...
4
...
5
...
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Review Your Goals Daily
“It is a psychological law that whatever we wish to accomplish
we must impress on the subjective or subconscious mind
...
I then go on to say, “Well, I have good news for you
...
But that is a long time to wait!
So the real question is not about doubling your income
...
In this chapter, I want to share
with you a special method that has taken more people from rags to
riches than any other single method ever discovered
...
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Earlier, I said, “You become what you think about, most of the time
...
As a teacher of mine, John Boyle, once said,
“Whatever you can hold in your mind on a continuing basis, you can
have
...
Positive Thinking Versus Positive Knowing
Many people today talk about the importance of “positive thinking
...
Left undirected
and uncontrolled, positive thinking can quickly degenerate into
positive wishing and positive hoping
...
To be focused and effective in goal attainment, positive thinking
must translate into “positive knowing
...
You must proceed
completely without doubt
...
Program Your Subconscious Mind
Everything that you do to program your subconscious mind with this
unshakeable conviction of success will help you achieve your goals
faster
...
One of the important mental laws is, “Whatever is impressed, is
expressed
...
Your aim
in mental programming is to impress your goals deeply into your
subconscious mind so that they “lock in” and take on a power of their
own
...
Systematic Versus Random Goal Setting
For many years, I worked away at my goals, writing them down once
or twice a year and then reviewing them whenever I got a chance
...
Often, I would write down a list of goals for myself in January for the
coming year
...
I then learned the technique that changed my life
...
Some authors suggest that you write down and review your goals
once a month, others once a week
...
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Write Down Your Goals Each Day
Here is the technique
...
Each day, open up your notebook and write down a list
of your 10-15 most important goals, without referring to your
previous list
...
As you do this,
several remarkable things will happen
...
Most people have never made a
list of their 10 top goals in their entire lives
...
However, your 10-15 goals will
change, both in description and order of priority
...
It may even be
forgotten and never reappear again
...
Each day that you write down your list of 10-15 goals, your
definitions will become clearer and sharper
...
Your order
of priority will also change as your life changes around you
...
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Your Life Takes Off
And at about this time, something remarkable will happen in your
life
...
Your work and personal life will begin to improve
dramatically
...
You
will start to attract people and resources into your life to help you to
achieve your goals
...
Everything will begin to
change in a very positive way
...
I have shared this “10 Goal Exercise” with
hundreds of thousands of seminar participants
...
Here it is
...
I tell them to put the list away for
12 months and then open it up
...
In almost
every case, eight out of their ten goals will have been accomplished,
sometimes in the most remarkable ways
...
In virtually every case, when I return to their
cities and countries, people line up to talk to me, like in a wedding
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receiving line, and tell me story after story about how their lives have
changed after writing down their 10 goals a year or more ago
...
Your results will
double and triple and increase five and ten times as you use the same
power of goal setting we have discussed earlier, but you will now be
writing your goals down every day
...
First, you must use the “Three ‘P’ Formula
...
Activate Your Subconscious Mind
Your subconscious mind is only activated by affirmative statements
phrased in the present tense
...
Instead of saying, “I
will earn $50,000 in the next 12 months,” you would say, “I earn
$50,000 per year
...
Instead of saying, “I will
quit smoking,” or “I will lose a certain number of pounds of weight,”
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you would say, “I am a non-smoker
...
”
Your command must be positive because your subconscious mind
cannot process a negative command
...
The third “P” stands for personal
...
You are the only person in the universe who
can use the word “I” in relation to yourself
...
It goes to work immediately to bring that goal into your
reality
...
” Instead, you would say, “I earn $50,000 per year
...
Set Deadlines On Your Goals
To add power to your daily written goals, put a deadline at the end
of each goal
...
”
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As we discussed in an earlier chapter, your mind loves deadlines and
thrives on a “forcing system
...
Remember, you can always change the deadline with new
information
...
How Badly Do You Want It?
This exercise of writing out your 10 goals every single day is a test
...
Often you will write out a goal and then forget to write it
down again
...
However, the more you can discipline yourself to write and rewrite
your goals each day, the clearer you will become about what you
really want, and the more convinced you will become that it is
possible for you
...
But this is not important
...
At
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a certain point, you will begin to believe, with absolute conviction,
that your goal is achievable
...
Your subconscious mind will
start attracting into your life people and circumstances that can help
you to achieve your goal
...
Almost without your doing anything, your goals will begin to
materialize in your life, sometimes in the most remarkable and
unexpected ways
...
He wanted to raise many millions
dollars in investment capital to create an amusement park in Hawaii
that would be composed of restaurants, displays and exhibits from a
variety of different countries from around the world
...
In my youth and experience, I gently told him that I thought his idea
was a complete fantasy
...
I thanked him for his offer
of a job in putting this whole plan together and politely departed
...
The next thing I heard about this project was
that the Walt Disney Corporation had embraced it in its entirety,
called it the “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
(Epcot Center),”and had begun construction on it next to its
Disneyland in Orlando, Florida
...
Activate All The Forces In the Universe
Here is the point
...
I will explain this in great detail in the
chapter on the “Superconscious Mind
...
You
may have the idea in your conscious mind, but you will have not yet
developed the total belief and conviction that is possible for you
...
Don’t let it stop you from using this method
every day
...
That’s all
you need
...
Even if you are skeptical about this method, it only requires about
five minutes per day to try it out for yourself
...
It is quite the opposite
...
First, after you have written down your goal in
the positive, personal, present tense, write down at least three
actions that you could take immediately to achieve that goal, also in
the present, positive, personal tense
...
You could write, “I earn $50,000 dollars over the next 12 months
...
Whatever your goal, you can easily think of three action steps that
you can take immediately to achieve that goal
...
At a certain point, you will find yourself actually
taking the steps that you wrote down, sometimes without even
thinking about it
...
Use 3 x 5 Index Cards
Another way that you can increase the effectiveness of daily goal
setting is by transferring your goals to 3 x 5 index cards
...
Carry these cards with you at all
times
...
Each of these goals should be written as a personal, positive, present
tense affirmation
...
” Each time
you use these cards, take a few moments, breath deeply and relax,
and then review each of your goals, one at a time
...
Actually see yourself at the goal, enjoying the goal,
feeling the pleasure of having achieved the goal
...
You should
actually imagine yourself taking those steps
...
Ideally, you should review your goals on index cards twice per day
...
You can also carry them around with
you and review them during the day, whenever you have a few spare
moments
...
These are: the last thing in the evening, before you go to bed,
and the first thing in the morning, before you start off
...
Your subconscious
mind then has an opportunity to work on your goals all night long
while you are sleeping
...
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When you rewrite and review your goals in the morning, before you
start off, you set yourself up for positive thinking and positive acting
all day long
...
The sum total result of rewriting and reviewing your goals each day,
morning and evening, is that you will impress them ever more
deeply into your subconscious mind
...
You will develop a deep and
unshakeable conviction that your goals are attainable, and that it is
only a matter of time before you achieve them, and you will be right
...
Get yourself a spiral notebook this very day and write down
10-15 goals that you would like to achieve in the foreseeable
future
...
Create a set of 3x5 index cards with your goals written out in
the positive, personal, present tense to carry with you
wherever you go
...
Visualize and imagine your goals as they would be when you
have achieved them each night before you go to sleep
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4
...
Always think in terms of specific actions you could
take
...
Discipline yourself to rewrite your goals every day, without
reviewing your previous list, until you become absolutely
convinced that achieving your goals is inevitable
...
”
Napoleon Hill
You possess and have available to you virtually unlimited mental
powers
...
That is why his or her results are only
average
...
You
will start moving more rapidly toward your goals than you can
currently imagine
...
All improvement in your life begins with an
improvement in your mental pictures
...
As you change your
mental pictures on the inside, your world on the outside will begin to
change to correspond to those pictures
...
Visualization activates the Law of Correspondence which says, “As
within, so without
...
Just as you become what you think about most of the time, you
become what you visualize most of the time, as well
...
” Jim Cathcart
says, “The person you see is the person you will be
...
”
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than facts
...
” Napoleon
Hill said, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can
achieve
...
” This means that they can
visualize and imagine an ideal future, well in advance of it becoming
a reality
...
As it happens, you are always visualizing something, one way or
another
...
It is essential that you
learn to manage and control this visualizing capability of your mind
and focus it, like a laser beam, in the direction of achieving the goals
that are most important to you
...
Prior to every new experience, the
successful person visualizes previous success experiences that are
similar to the upcoming event
...
A successful
trial lawyer will visualize and remember his performance in court
during a previous successful trial
...
Unsuccessful people on the other hand, also use visualization, but to
their detriment
...
” They
think about the last time they failed or did poorly in this area and
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they imagine failing again
...
Feed Your Mind With Exciting Images
You always perform on the outside consistent with your self-image
on the inside
...
And the good news is
that you have complete control over your mental pictures, for good
or for ill
...
The choice is up to you
...
If you look back,
you will find that almost everything you visualized positively
eventually came true for you
...
You visualized getting your first car, and you got it
...
You visualized taking a trip, getting a job, finding an
apartment or purchasing certain clothes, and they all came true for
you
...
But the problem is that most people use
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visualization in a random and haphazard way, sometimes to help
themselves and sometimes to hurt themselves
...
The Indispensable Man
George Washington, the first President of the United States, and
considered by most historians to be the “Indispensable Man’ at the
founding of the American Republic, started his life in humble
circumstances
...
But he was ambitious and at an early age he decided that
he had to mold and shape his character and personality so that he
could become the kind of person who would be accepted and
successful in society
...
He read this book over and over again,
and eventually committed it to memory
...
By the time he became a powerful figure in the
American Revolution, he was described as one of the most courtly
and gentlemanly men in the American colonies
...
He was outspoken and argumentative, and often made
enemies who then contrived to hurt his chances and hold him back
...
He therefore decided to develop within himself a
series of key virtues, such as sincerity, humility, temperance,
discipline and honesty, that he felt he would have to possess if he
wanted to achieve his full potential
...
They thought of a
characteristic or quality that they wanted to embody
...
In every
interaction with other people, they referred to this “inner mirror” to
see how they should behave, and then carried themselves in a
manner consistent with that ideal inner picture
...
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You Are What You Can Be
Piero Ferucci, in his book The Power To Be, explains how you can
develop any quality you desire by dwelling upon that quality
continually and imagining that you have it already
...
Learn about the quality
...
Aristotle wrote that the very best way to develop a virtue, if you
currently lack it, is to imagine and to behave in every respect as
though you already had the virtue, whenever that virtue is called for
...
Gradually, you become that new person
...
By changing your mental
images, you change the way you think, feel and act
...
You change your performance and your results
...
This is all part of the constructive use of
visualization
...
” Top athletes in every field mentally rehearse their events
before they go into active competition
...
For many days and
hours prior to a major competition, they practice visualizing
themselves performing successfully, over and over again
...
They will see themselves doing
well over and over
...
They will become
excited and happy about doing so well in the upcoming competition
...
Relax Deeply And See The Desired Result
Figure skaters for example, will play the music to their skating
routines over and over again while they sit, deeply relaxed, eyes
closed, imagining themselves skating on the ice
...
They see themselves
skating their routines perfectly, over and over again, before they
actually go onto the ice
...
Your physical body has no mind of its own
...
It is your mind that sends impulses of nerve energy down your
spine and throughout your body to your muscles to coordinate your
physical activities
...
You program your mind with the performance that
you want your body to carry out
...
How Often?
The first aspect of visualization is frequency
...
The more frequently you repeat a clear mental picture
of your very best performance or result, the more rapidly it will be
accepted by your subconscious mind and the more readily it will
appear as part of your reality
...
Duration refers to the length of time that you can hold the
picture in your mind each time you replay it
...
The longer you
can hold your mental picture, the more deeply it will be impressed
into your subconscious mind, and the more rapidly it will express
itself in your subsequent performance
...
There is a direct
relationship between how clearly you can see your desired goal or
result in your mind, and how quickly it comes into your reality
...
The vividness of your
desire directly determines how quickly it materializes in the world
around you
...
When you set a new goal for yourself,
your image or picture of this goal will usually be vague and fuzzy
...
But the more often you write it, review it and repeat it mentally, the
clearer it becomes for you
...
At that point, the goal will suddenly appear in your world,
exactly as you imagined it
...
The intensity of a
visualization refers to the amount of emotion that you attach to your
visual image
...
Sometimes, if your emotion is intense
enough and your visual image is clear enough, your goal will
immediately come true
...
Nature is neutral
...
It is like a two edged sword
...
It can either make you a success or make you a
failure
...
For example, “worry” is a form of negative goal setting
...
But because visualization is neutral, when you worry, you
are using this power in a negative way, exactly those things that you
don’t want will be attracted into your life
...
” This refers to the
unhappy consequences of negative visualization
...
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Design Your Dream Home
When my wife and I got married, we had very little money, and after
I started my own business, what little we had quickly ran out
...
” We fantasized about living in the perfect home for
ourselves and our family
...
Although we were living in a rented house at the time, and had very
little money, we subscribed to several magazines that described
beautiful homes for sale around the country
...
On the weekends, we went to
open houses in the best neighborhoods in town
...
In complete faith that the process would eventually work, we created
a scrapbook made up of pictures and descriptions of beautiful homes
...
Meanwhile, I kept working away at my job, building my business,
increasing our income and adding to our savings
...
It
was ideal in many respects, but we knew in our hearts that it was not
yet our “dream house
...
After
a solid month spent looking at dozens of homes for sale all over the
city, we walked into a home that had just been listed two days before
and knew immediately that we had found our dream house
...
It took two months of negotiation to finalize the purchase price and
five more months to arrange the financing, but right on schedule, we
took possession of our dream house, and we have lived there ever
since
...
Think Thin
Most people want to be physically fit and trim
...
” One way you
can create this mental image of thinness is to take the picture of a
person who has the kind of body you would like to have, cut off the
head and put your photo there instead
...
Make multiple copies of this picture if you can and put
them all over your house
...
Eventually, you
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will find yourself eating less and exercising more
...
Find Your Soul Mate
Often single people ask me how they can find their “soul mate
...
They are always surprised and sometimes
insulted
...
”
But that’s not the way it works
...
If you
don’t have a clear idea of what you want, you end up getting
something else
...
Write
down every single quality and characteristic that they would like
their soul mate to have
...
It is absolutely amazing what happens
...
Ten months later, he met a perfect person who fitted his
written description perfectly
...
If you are single, you should give this technique a try
...
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As Within, So Without
In every area of your life, you can use visualization to make it better
...
” This
process involves creating an ideal picture of what you would like
your life to look like sometime in the future
...
Remember, you can’t hit a target that you can’t
see
...
The Best Times To Practice
As with goal setting, the two best times to visualize are late in the
evening or early in the morning
...
It then adjusts your words
and actions during the day so that you do and say more and more of
those things that will make your goals into realities
...
Clear mental images of what you want to accomplish
during the day will make it far more likely that you achieve those
results, exactly as you imagined, and on schedule
...
Start today to flood your mind with pictures of
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the person you want to be, the life you want to live, and the goals you
want to achieve
...
Post them
everywhere
...
Discuss them often
...
Make your life an ongoing process of positive visualization,
continually imagining and “visioneering” your ideal goals and your
perfect future
...
Visualize Your Goals Continually:
1
...
What would it look like? Whatever your
answer, imagine this picture regularly
...
Cut out pictures of the things you would like to have and the
person you would like to be in the future
...
3
...
See yourself in your mind’s eye as performing at your very
best in everything you do or attempt
...
Continually feed your mind with clear, exciting, emotional
pictures
...
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5
...
Write down every ingredient it would have if it were
perfect in every respect
...
Make the process of visualization a regular part of your life
...
Then, have complete faith
that your pictures will materialize exactly when you are ready
...
With the utmost fidelity, it works to its final consequence
whatever the subjective mind impresses upon it
...
He explained
that there was a special room in the basement that contained a most
amazing computer
...
It was absolutely infallible
...
And every answer would turn out to be perfectly correct
...
It is available and
accessible to you at any time
...
” It is the most powerful faculty ever discovered in all of
human history, and you can tap into it any time you want
...
” I also said, “Whatever you can hold in
your mind on a continuing basis, you can have
...
In every case, I was referring indirectly to the
power of the superconscious mind
...
For most of this
time, it was the secret knowledge of the mystics and sages
...
Only in the last
100 years has the knowledge of the superconscious mind become
more generally available, and then, only to a few people
...
The Ego was described as the “I am
...
We call this the conscious mind
...
This is the vast storehouse of
memories and feelings where all of our previous thoughts, decisions
and experiences are gathered, and which functions automatically,
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both to operate our physical bodies and to keep our thoughts and
feelings consistent with our past experiences
...
Alfred Adler, a student of Freud, referred to it as the “Collective
Unconscious” and Carl Jung, who broke away from Freud, called it
the “Supra Conscious
...
Roberto Assagioli, the Italian psychologist, and others refer to it as
the “Super Conscious Mind” or “God Mind
...
The Source of All Breakthroughs
All important breakthroughs, in all fields, throughout history, have
been the result of superconscious functioning
...
Great scientific breakthroughs, like the discovery of DNA, or the
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breakthrough idea combining ceramics with electricity that led to the
discovery of super conductivity, were superconscious in origin
...
Mozart could
see an entire opera in his mind, note perfect, before he began writing
...
It could then be played in public
without revision
...
Beethoven created his greatest compositions after he went deaf
...
Steven Hawking, the physicist, was so crippled with Lou
Gehrig’s Disease that he needs a special computer to produce one
letter at a time
...
”
The Greatest Inventor Of All Time
Thomas Edison patented 1093 devices at the U
...
Patent office, almost
all of which were turned into commercial products during his
lifetime
...
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Edison used his superconscious mind continually throughout his
entire career to solve unsolvable problems and achieve historic
breakthroughs in electricity, motion pictures, sound recording and
transmission, and hundreds of other areas
...
The Great Law
Whenever you see a great and inspiring work of art, read a piece of
classic literature or a beautiful poem, hear an extraordinary piece of
music or see a remarkable building or construction, you are
witnessing the result of the superconscious in action
...
”
Just think! Anything that you really want to be, have or do is possible
for you
...
The only limits on what your superconscious mind can do
for you are the limits that you place on your own mind and
imagination
...
Whenever
you practice relaxation and solitude, completely letting go of all
your cares, and sit quietly, or commune with nature, your
superconscious mind begins to function
...
Your intuition is the equivalent of that supercomputer in the
basement of your new home
...
Sometimes your intuition
will speak to you so loudly in the silence that the idea or insight
it brings you will change your entire life
...
He became so excited that he leaped from the bath and ran
naked through the streets of Athens shouting “Eureka!”(“I have
found it!”)
...
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Activating Your Superconscious
Your superconscious mind is stimulated by clear, written, specific
goals, intensely desired, visualized regularly and constantly worked
toward
...
Sometimes, a superconscious inspiration can so energize and excite
you that you will be unable to sleep or think about anything else
...
This will often free up your mind and enable you
to go back to sleep
...
The more you use your superconscious mind, the more
often you will enjoy these two wonderful experiences
...
” Whenever you have a clear goal that you visualize
continually, and that you are working toward each day, happy,
unexpected events and experiences seem to occur in your life, each of
which seems to help you to achieve your goals even faster
...
You might
even flip to a program on television that has exactly the idea or
insight you need to solve a particular problem, or answer a key
question
...
Look For the Good
The interesting point is that, if you look for something good in every
situation, you will always seem to find it
...
If you calmly and confidently
believe in the magic of serendipity, no matter what happens, you will
have repeated serendipitous experiences that will help you to achieve
your real goals in life
...
” This is different from The Law of Cause and Effect,
the Iron Law of the universe, in a special way
...
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With synchronicity however, the only relationship between two
events that occur simultaneously is the meaning that you give to them
by the goals that you have in different areas of your life
...
You set a goal to double your income
...
This initially looks like a real setback
...
As it happens, you had read several
articles about that field over the past year, and you had thought of
getting into it, but you did not know how to go about it
...
You will notice that there was no direct cause and effect relationship
between these separate events
...
But they had one thing in common
...
Two Ways to Stimulate Your Superconscious Mind
There are two ways for you to stimulate your superconscious mind
into action
...
Throw your whole heart into what you are
doing
...
Do everything that you can possibly think of that
can help you to attain that goal
...
People will emerge from unexpected places to help you
...
You will come across
ideas and information that you would not have recognized before
...
The second way to stimulate your super conscious mind is to relax
completely and get your mind busy elsewhere
...
It seems that the
more you can completely relax and let go, both mentally and
physically, the more rapidly your superconscious mind will click into
action and begin giving you the ideas and insights that you need
...
You should try both methods on every goal
...
Commit 100% of your energies to
solving the problem
...
Take some
time off
...
Engage in physical exercise, or go to a
movie
...
Then, at exactly the
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right time, your superconscious mind will function and the answer
will appear
...
Therefore, when you receive a
superconscious inspiration, you should take action immediately
...
This is often time-dated information
...
If you have a
hunch about something, follow up on it
...
Three Special Qualities
A superconscious idea or solution has three qualities:
First, it will answer every aspect of the problem, or give you
everything you need to achieve your goal
...
Second, it will be a “blinding flash of the obvious
...
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Third, a super conscious solution will give you a burst of happiness
and excitement, even exhilaration
...
Whenever you get a superconscious solution, it will come
accompanied by the energy, enthusiasm and motivation you need to
take action immediately
...
You will want to stop everything
else you are doing to take action
...
Trust Is The Key Requirement
Your superconscious mind is the most powerful faculty you have
...
You “dial in” to your
superconscious mind by being absolutely clear about what you want
and then by calmly and confidently trusting that exactly the answer
you need will come to you at exactly the time you are ready for it
...
It has been said that, “Men and women begin to
become great when they begin to listen to their inner voices
...
By
tapping into your superconscious mind, you begin to bring your
whole life into harmony with this great universal power
...
You will feel as though you are plugged into
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some kind of cosmic energy source that enables you to accomplish
vastly more, and with much less effort, than ever before
...
In the past, these experiences
were random and haphazard
...
Activate Your Superconscious Mind:
1
...
Reflect on the process and think about
how you can duplicate it
...
Select your most important goal, your major definite purpose,
and visualize it clearly, over and over, with complete confidence
that it will materialize at exactly the right time for you
...
Begin the daily practice of solitude and meditation
...
4
...
Don’t hesitate
...
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5
...
At
exactly the right time, the ideal solution will emerge from
your intuition or appear in your life
...
Practice letting go on a regular
basis and wait patiently until exactly the right answer comes to you,
at exactly the right time
...
”
Thomas Edison
It is in the nature of things that some people will be more successful
and happier than others
...
Others will
not
...
They concluded, after extensive
research, that the most important single quality that you can develop,
in a time of rapid change, is the quality of “flexibility
...
” The opposite of flexible
thinking is fixed or mechanical thinking
...
The opposite of flexibility is an unwillingness to
change in the face of new information or circumstances
...
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The Speed of Change
Today, perhaps the most important factor affecting your life is the
speed of change
...
And if anything,
the rate of change is increasing, year-by-year
...
Change is coming at us from all sides and in
so many different ways that it is often impossible to anticipate what
might happen next
...
As a result, we have to remain flexible in our
thinking and in our possible courses of action
...
” They fall in love with
what they are doing, with their current methods and processes, and
are unwilling to change, even in the face of overwhelming evidence
...
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The only real question you should be asking about what you are
doing is, “Does it work?” Is it achieving the end results desired?
Based on the current situation, is this the best course of action? The
only measure of the rightness or wrongness of a particular decision
or course of action is its effectiveness in accomplishing the result
desired, or achieving the goal you have set
...
The first change factor is the explosion of information and
knowledge, in every area of our lives
...
A popular product or service, or major
industry, can be rendered obsolete by a new product or service that
achieves the same result faster, better, cheaper or easier than
something else
...
For example, in 1989, when the Soviet Union dissolved, the Iron
Curtain came down and the Cold War ended
...
Hundreds of thousands of
highly trained and skilled men and women were laid off
permanently
...
The effects of change were
overwhelming and unavoidable
...
Be Open To New Information
To remain flexible, you must be constantly open, alert to new ideas,
information and knowledge that can help you or hurt you in your
business, or in the achievement of your goals
...
One idea can start you on the
road to riches, or knock you off it
...
Lack of that information can cost you a fortune
...
It is absolutely essential that you keep current
in your field
...
Read the best selling books in your field
...
Join your industry associations and network with
other people in your business
...
The Tide of New Technology
The second factor driving change is the rapid growth and
development of new technology
...
And the speed of technological change is increasing every
day
...
” A new piece
of high-tech equipment put on the shelf is obsolete before it is
unpacked
...
If
you are not looking for ways to replace your product or service with
something better, you can be assured that your competitors are
staying up late at night looking for ways to do you one better and put
you out of business
...
You look for a way to leapfrog your competitor and serve your
customers better, faster and cheaper
...
You quickly
regroup and leap over your competitor with a new innovation or
improvement
...
The same principle of accelerating obsolescence applies to your
products, your services, your processes and especially to your sales
and marketing strategies
...
Whatever works, will soon stop working
...
Expect To Be Imitated
Not long ago, I hired an advertising agency and paid them $10,000 to
develop an ad for me, which I then ran in a national newspaper
...
We were
walking around the office patting each other on the back until the
following week, when a competitor came out with the identical ad
that we had paid to have created, but aimed at selling his product
rather than ours
...
And there was very little that we could do
...
Watch Out For the Comfort Zone
We spoke earlier about the “Comfort Zone” and how both
individuals and organizations often fall into it and keep on doing the
same things, over and over, whether they are working or not
...
Success in any area can quickly breed
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complacency and a reluctance to change in response to the new
realities of the marketplace
...
Competitive Pressures Are Unending
The third element driving change and requiring greater flexibility is
competition
...
They are constantly looking for ways to take your customers away,
steal your sales, reduce your cash flow and, if possible, put you out of
business
...
Your competitors are
aggressively using new information and technology to render you
obsolete and to gain a competitive advantage
...
The competition is
becoming tougher and more intense
...
Above all, you must be flexible
...
Zero based
thinking is a vital tool in remaining flexible as well
...
Wherever you
experience stress, resistance, or lack of success, ask the zero based
thinking question
...
Don’t let your ego cloud your judgment or your common sense
...
You must be
open to the fact that most of your decisions will turn out to be wrong
in the fullness of time
...
Three Magic Statements
There are three statements that you can learn to say, over and over, to
remain flexible in turbulent times
...
” Most people would rather bluff, bluster
and deny rather than to admit that they were wrong
...
You are the only one who is
fooling anyone, and that one person you are attempting to fool is
yourself
...
It has been estimated that as much as 80% of the time and energy of
the key people in large companies and organizations is devoted to
covering up the fact that they are wrong, and they don’t want to
admit it
...
Admit That You Are Not Perfect
The second statement that you must learn to say to remain flexible is,
“I made a mistake
...
Once you say, “I was wrong” or “I made a mistake,” the issue is
largely over
...
But as long as a key person is
unwilling to admit that he or she has taken the wrong course,
everything comes to a stop
...
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Adapt To New Information Quickly
The third statement you should learn to say quickly and easily is “I
changed my mind
...
”
It is not a weakness or a character flaw to be wrong, to make a
mistake or to change your mind
...
Be willing to deal with the world as it is, rather than the way you
wish it were, or the way that it might have been in the past
...
Be honest with yourself and everyone around
you
...
Based on what you
now know, is this the best course of action? If it is not, what else
should you do? What else could you do?
If it is a goal, and the circumstances under which you made the goal
have changed dramatically, be sure that you still want it badly
enough to struggle and sacrifice for it
...
In a time of rapid change, resolve to be the first to recognize and
embrace change when it occurs
...
Refuse to be surprised or upset when things
do not work out the way you thought they would, or should
...
Be open to
differing points of view and different ideas
...
One of the characteristics of the best leaders is that they are good
listeners
...
They also admit failure and cut their losses quickly when
they make a mistake so they can move on to bigger and better things
...
Buckminster Fuller, the scientist and
philosopher, called it the “Theory of Precession,” which does not
appear in any dictionary or encyclopedia
...
Robert Ronstadt of
Babson College called it the “Corridor Principle
...
”
What this means is that, when you set a new goal for yourself, you
will have a general idea of the steps you should take and the
direction you should pursue
...
However, by some miracle, just as you
reach a wall, another door of opportunity will open along the
corridor to success
...
But
as you move down this new corridor, you will run into another
obstacle or roadblock that might again block your progress
...
This may happen several times, with several false starts
...
You
will achieve your greatest business and personal successes doing
things that are very different from what you had initially planned
...
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Be Both Clear and Flexible
Here is the most important rule of flexibility: “Be clear about your
goal but be flexible about the process of achieving it
...
Remain sensitive to the possibility of serendipitous and
synchronous events
...
In the New Testament, Jesus said, “You must become
like a little child if you would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
...
Resolve to remain flexible and open, no matter what happens
...
Your aim should be to be alert and
aware to what it might be, to find it and then to take action in that
new direction as quickly as possible
...
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Remain Flexible At All Times:
1
...
2
...
Resolve to see the world as it is, not as you wish it were, or
could be
...
Be willing to admit, in each area of your life where you
experience stress or resistance, that you could be wrong, or
that you have made a mistake
...
4
...
Refuse to persist in a course of
action that does not make good sense
...
Should you change your direction or
course of action based on new information or experience? If so, do it
now
...
Make it work and produce for you
...
Don’t merely dream but create!”
Robert Collier
Tony Buzan is a brain expert
...
Q
...
According to him, and to many
other authorities in the field, the mental potential of the average
person is largely untapped and virtually unlimited
...
Each of these cells bristles, like a porcupine, with as
many as 20,000 ganglia or fibers that connect it to other brain cells
...
Each of these cells, and each connection
between these cells, contains an element of mental energy or
information that is available to every other cell
...
According to Tony Buzan, and other brain experts, the number of
combinations and permutations of brain connections you have is
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greater than the number of molecules in the known universe
...
Enormous Reserve Capacity
As mentioned earlier, the average person uses about 1% or 2% of their
brain capacity for 100% of their functioning in life and work
...
Most people “go to their graves with their music still in them
...
You only need to use a little bit more of your existing
brainpower than you are using today
...
According to research conducted by Professor Sergei Yeframov in
Russia some years ago, he concluded that if you could use just 50% of
your existing mental capacity, you could complete the Ph
...
requirements of a dozen universities, learn a dozen languages with ease
and memorize the entire 22 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica
...
If you could use 5% or 6% or 7% of your potential, you
would begin performing at a level that would amaze yourself and
everyone around you
...
Creativity Is A Natural Ability
Fully 95% of children tested between the ages of three and five test
out as highly creative
...
What happened to them in the
interim? As they went through school, they were taught that, “If you
want to get along, you go along
...
In their attempts to be liked and
accepted by their peers, they allowed their creativity to die down,
like a fire without fuel
...
It is inborn, a part of
your genetic structure, a faculty that is uniquely human
...
Fully 95% of the population has the ability to function at
exceptional, if not genius levels, given the right situation and
circumstances
...
If you don’t use it, you lose it
...
Your ability to generate
ideas must be constantly utilized to be kept in top condition
...
You can actually begin activating more
neurons and dendrites in your brain, creating more and more
connections and interconnections
...
Ideas Are The New Source Of Wealth
Today, we are in the information age
...
Ideas contain the keys to
solving every problem
...
And since your ability to generate new ideas is
largely unlimited, your ability to achieve any goal you set for
yourself is unlimited as well
...
One good idea for
adding value for others is all you need to start a fortune
...
Solve Any Problem
There is no problem you cannot solve, no obstacle you cannot
overcome and no goal that you cannot achieve by tapping into your
creative mind, exactly as it is today
...
Just because you have not accessed all of your
mental powers up until now does not mean that you cannot begin
using them from this day forward
...
If you want to become physically fit, you have to work out
and engage in physical exercise
...
The more
stress you put on your muscles, the stronger they become over time
...
In order to build your mental muscles,
you have to “pump mental iron
...
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Practice Mindstorming Regularly
The most powerful technique for improving your intelligence and
increasing your creativity is what I call “Mindstorming
...
The results that you get will be so amazing as to be
life changing
...
At the top of this page you write your goal or problem in the
form of a question
...
For example, instead of writing a question like, “How can I make
more money?” you would write, “How can I double my income in
the next 24 months?”
Even better, if you are earning $50,000 per year today, your question
should be, “How can I earn $100,000 per year by December 31 (of a
specific year)?”
Each of your answers should be written using the “Three ‘P’
Formula
...
In
other words, your answers should be written as affirmations or
instructions from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind
...
Then, sometime later, as a result of superconscious
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functioning, you will attract into your life an opportunity to put one
of your answers into action
...
You can write down more than 20 answers to the question, but it is
essential in this exercise that you set a goal for a minimum of twenty
...
You will quickly come
up with answers like “work harder,” “start earlier and stay later,”
“work on higher value tasks
...
You will have to drill
down and dig deeper to come up with less obvious ways but more
creative ways to answer your question
...
Many people
find this part of the exercise so difficult that their minds go blank
...
They become light headed with the rush of
blood to their brains that takes place when you begin this process of
“pumping mental iron
...
Sometimes the 20 answer
that you generate will be the breakthrough answer that enables you
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to save yourself thousands of dollars and many hours of hard work
...
Select One Action
Once you have at least 20 answers, go back over your list and review
your answers
...
You can multiple the effectiveness of this process by taking the very
best answer that you identified in the first list of 20 and writing it at
the top of a fresh sheet of paper in the form of a question
...
This
combination exercise will rev you up mentally, like stepping on the
accelerator of a car while the transmission is in neutral
...
For example, your first question could be “How can I double my
income to $100,000 over the next 24 months?” One of your answers
could be, “I work two extra hours each day
...
Whatever answer you choose, put it into action immediately
...
Do anything
...
If you generate these ideas and then do
nothing with them, the creative flow will slow down and stop
...
Each morning, you can take one goal, rewrite it as a question and
then generate 20 answers to that question
...
You can perform this exercise repeatedly on the same goal, if the
goal is big enough and important enough to you
...
The
more you practice this exercise, the more likely it is that you will
trigger completely unexpected breakthrough ideas
...
You must be patient and determined
...
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The Cumulative Power of Idea Generation
Imagine that you were to perform this exercise every morning before
you started out, five days per week
...
If you did this exercise five days per week, you
would generate 100 ideas per week
...
And you don’t even have to think on your
vacation!
If you were then to implement one new idea each day to help you to
move faster toward your goals, that would work out to one idea per
day, multiplied times five days per week, multiplied times 50 weeks
per year
...
Now, here is a question: Do you think that this exercise, conducted
regularly, would have an impact on your life and future? In a world
where the average person has very few ideas at all during the year,
do you think that this exercise would give you an edge in your field?
Do you think that, if you did this every day, you would soon become
wealthy and successful in anything to which you applied yourself? I
think the answer is clear
...
A multiple of good ideas, one after the other, building on
each other, will make you rich, happy and successful, virtually
without fail
...
The fact is that life is a continuous succession of problems and
difficulties, without end
...
In fact, if you are living a busy life, you will probably experience a
crisis of some kind every two to three months throughout your life
...
The problems and crises never stop
...
The only thing you can
control is your responses to these problems and crises
...
Successful people respond effectively to problems
...
Successful people take a deep breath, relax and think clearly
...
They seek the valuable
lesson
...
Deal With Each Problem Effectively
There is a methodology that you can use to solve any problem
...
Just like there is a
process for solving mathematical problems, there is a process for
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solving business and life problems, and you can learn it use it for the
rest of your career
...
A problem properly defined is
half solved
...
Step Two: Ask, “What are all the possible causes of this problem?”
Look for both the obvious and the not so obvious causes of the
problem
...
Step Three: Ask, “What are all the possible solutions?” Avoid the
natural tendency of most human beings to leap from a problem
definition to a conclusion regarding a solution of some kind
...
Sometimes the best
solution is to gather more information
...
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Step Four: Once you have identified several possible solutions, ask,
“What must this solution accomplish?” the only way you can judge the
attractiveness of a solution is to determine, in advance, what you
want the solution to accomplish
...
” It is very common for us to initiate a solution, and
implement it, but the problem is not only not solved, but it is worse
than it was before we took action in the first place
...
Step Five: Once you have decided on the ideal solution, assign
specific responsibility, or take responsibility yourself for
implementing the solution
...
Set a
measure by which you can determine if the solution has been
effective
...
Practice this systematic method of dealing with a problem over and
over until it becomes a habit of thinking
...
The Key To Victory and Success
In studying warfare and battles over the centuries, I have always
been fascinated by the situations where a smaller force defeated a
numerically superior force
...
By the same token, an ordinary person, with a system or recipe for
problem solving, can run circles around highly intelligent or well
educated people who throw themselves at their problems without a
method or process for solving them
...
Write It Down
Always be sure to think on paper
...
There is
something that happens between the brain and the hand when you
write
...
You think better
...
You actually become smarter and more creative by the very
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act of writing everything down as you go along, and before you
make a decision
...
” In scenario planning, you play down
the chessboard of life and imagine what might happen sometime in
the future
...
Certain events taking place
around you will affect these trends, if not interrupt them in different
ways
...
Answer Two Questions
In scenario planning, you ask yourself two questions
...
Be brutally honest with yourself
...
For example, imagine that your best customer went
out of business or was unable to pay you for the products or services
that you had sold to him
...
If it is a
potential setback, ask yourself, “How could we guard against this
setback?” Then generate 20 answers to this question
...
Each time you ask yourself one of these questions, like an electric
spark, you will trigger ideas and insights
...
Develop Your Options
One of the most important parts of your personal philosophy should
revolve around the development of options
...
”
If your goal is to be happy, successful and free, you must have choices
...
You can never allow yourself to be trapped with only one
course of action open to you
...
Develop Your Plan B
th
Frederick von Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor” of 19 century
Germany, was considered to be the finest statesmen of his age
...
His political life was an endless process of negotiating,
back and forth, winning and losing, time after time
...
This
became known as a “Bismarck Plan,” a “Plan B
...
What is your Plan B? What is your backup plan if your current job,
career, industry or course of action does not work out successfully?
What is your backup plan if your current investments do not work
out, or if your “best laid plans” fail? What are your alternatives?
What would you do if you found yourself out on the street
tomorrow, or in the position of having to start over?
The more options you have, the greater mental freedom you have, as
well
...
The
more that you have developed different courses of action, in case the
one you are following does not work out, the greater confidence and
you will have
...
”
Use your creativity to develop options and alternatives continually,
no matter how well things are going at the moment
...
All
profit, all financial success in our society comes from “adding value”
of some kind
...
This is the basic law of all market economics, and like
most basic laws, it is unknown or misunderstood by most people
working in our society today
...
Just as the
word “deserve” comes from the Latin roots “de” and “servus” which
mean “from service” you should always be looking for ways to
deserve greater rewards from serving your customers better in some
way
...
Use your
intelligence and your creativity every single day to find ways to
make yourself more valuable to your company, your industry and
your world
...
Unlock Your Inborn Creativity:
1
...
Then
discipline yourself to generate 20 answers to that question,
and implement one of those answers immediately
...
Approach every problem systematically by defining it clearly,
developing possible solutions, making a decision and then
implementing the solution as soon as possible
...
Think on paper
...
4
...
Determine what you could do to reduce
the effects of the worst outcomes and maximize the benefits or
likelihood of the best possible outcomes
...
Develop a plan B for every
important area of your business and personal life
...
”
Johnny Carson
Many studies have been conducted over the years to try to determine
why it is that some people are more successful than others
...
One of the most important
success factors discovered, over and over again, is the quality of
“Action Orientation
...
They seem to move
faster than unsuccessful people
...
They try more
things, and they try harder
...
They are in constant motion
...
They are fastidious
about taking every minute of coffee breaks, lunch hours, sick leave
and vacations
...
”
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A Story Of Failure
We use to have an employee who was always late
...
We suggested to him that he leave earlier so that the traffic
would not be a problem
...
He said, “But if I left
earlier, and there was no traffic, I might arrive at work earlier than
my starting time
...
We heard later that
he has continued on with the endless round of part time jobs and
unemployment that has marked his career throughout his life
...
The Law of Compensation
In his famous essay Compensation, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that
you will always be compensated in life in direct proportion to the
value of your contribution
...
If you want to get more out, you have to put more in
...
Napoleon Hill found that the key quality of successful men and
women, most of whom started at the bottom, many of them
penniless, was that early in life, they developed the habit of “going
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the extra mile
...
”
The Quality of Self-Made Millionaires
In one study of self-made millionaires, researchers interviewed
thousands of men and women who had started with nothing and
who had accumulated more than a million dollars in the course of
their careers
...
” They had made it a habit from their first jobs to
always put in more than they took out
...
Life Long Career Success
When I speak to a graduating class of business students, they often
ask me, usually with some concern, if I can give them some
suggestions or ideas on what they can do to be successful in the
world of work
...
It worked for me
when I was a young man and it works for everybody, at every stage
of his or her career
...
First, as soon as you get settled in at
your new job, and you are on top of your work, go to your boss and
tell him or her that you want “more responsibility
...
When I first started doing this as a young executive with a large
corporation, my boss nodded and smiled and thanked me for my
interest
...
Every few days, I
would report to my boss and mention, in parting, that I wanted
“more responsibility
...
I jumped on it like a dog jumping on a bone and ran off
...
On Monday morning, I was
back to my boss with a complete proposal on the project
...
He said, “There was no rush
...
”
I thanked him for his concern and told him that, “This project
evaluation is complete, as you requested
...
”
Things began to change for me very soon after that project
evaluation
...
Again, I grabbed the task and completed
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it to the best of my ability
...
In every case, whatever it was, whether I knew anything about it or
not, I immediately went to work on it, often on my own time, and on
the weekends
...
Move Fast On Opportunities
This brings me to my second piece of advice for anyone who wants to
be successful in his or her career
...
Move quickly
...
It is absolutely amazing the positive impression you will make on
other people when you keep asking for more responsibility, and
when you get the responsibility, you complete the task quickly
...
”
Whenever something came up that he needed handling immediately,
he called me rather than any of the other executives, some of whom
had been working there for several years
...
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Be Prepared For Your Opportunity
One day, he threw me a task, like a football to a tight end in a close
game, which I caught and ran with for a touchdown
...
If I
had delayed even a couple of days, the money would have been lost
forever
...
First I was given a large
assignment, and then responsibility for an entire new division, and
then another new division, and then a third
...
Meanwhile, my coworkers were still coming in at 9 o’clock sharp,
going for lunch with each other and quitting at 5 o’clock to go for
drinks at the bar
...
They never learned the importance of asking for more
responsibility and moving fast
...
He had become one of the
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most respected businesspeople in America, and overseas
...
He said that when he was a young man, unsuccessful and frustrated,
he came across a saying written on a brown lunch bag and posted on
a high school bulletin board
...
They said, “Your success in life will be in direct proportion to
what you do after you do what you are expected to do
...
Up to that
time in his career, he felt that he was doing a good job because he
was doing what he had been told to do, what he was expected to do
...
He resolved that he would always go
the extra mile and to do more than he was paid for
...
He moved faster from task to
task and from customer to customer
...
The faster he moved, the more
experience he got
...
The better he got, the better results he got in the same period of
time
...
By moving faster and always doing more than expected, he had
shifted onto the fast track in his career and began moving ahead
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rapidly
...
In each
case, he had one strategy
...
Do more
than others expect
...
Get busy
...
Take
action
...
And he never looked back
...
No person will
have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any
...
”
Later, he wrote, “The rising sun has never caught me in bed in my
entire life
...
The time is going to pass anyway
...
The only question is, “What are you going to do with this time?”
Since the day is going to go past in any case, why not start a little
earlier, work a little harder and stay a little later? Why not put
yourself on the side of the angels? Why not develop a reputation as
the “go-to-guy” (or gal) who everyone looks to when they need to get
something done quickly and well? This will do more to put your foot
on the accelerator of your career than anything else you can imagine
...
” This principle says that it takes considerable energy to get
yourself into motion and moving
...
This momentum principle explains success as much as any other
factor
...
They get up and they get
going, and they keep going all day long
...
They are constantly in motion, like moving targets
...
In every study, there seems to be a direct
relationship between tight time planning and high income
...
Every one of them manages their time in terms
of minutes spent on each case, or with each patient
...
They have
no problem wasting the first half of the day
...
” Sometimes they waste
the first couple of days of the week
...
Sometimes they waste the first one or two
weeks of the month
...
Fully 80% of the salespeople in these organizations, all of whom work
on monthly quotas, take it easy for the first three weeks of the month
and then suddenly go into a state of frantic activity during the last
week, working desperately to make enough sales to hit their quotas
...
The top people work on the first day of the
month with the same focus and intensity that they worked on the last
day of the previous month
...
They put the “pedal to
the metal” at seven or seven thirty in the morning
...
Generate Continuous Energy
Mentally and physically, the faster you move, the more energy you
have
...
The faster you
move, the happier you are
...
The faster you move the more
you get done, the more you get paid and the more successful you
feel
...
Once you start going, keep
going
...
” Tom Peters said that all successful people have
a “bias for action
...
” This is the real key to success and high achievement
...
Resolve today to pick up the pace in your life
...
Walk quickly
...
2
...
Work as
hard and as fast as you do just before you leave for vacation
...
Practice tight time planning
...
4
...
This one habit will
continually open doors of opportunity for you
...
Work through lunchtime and coffee breaks
...
These additions will
double your productivity and put you onto the fast track in your career
...
”
Samuel Johnson
Every great success in your life will represent a triumph of
persistence
...
And
the flip side of persistence is courage
...
Winston Churchill once wrote, “Courage is rightly considered the
foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend
...
When Franklin D
...
When you develop the habit of courage and unshakable selfconfidence, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for you
...
To do so, you need to go to work on yourself
to conquer your fears, while simultaneously building up the kind of
courage and confidence that will enable you to deal with the
inevitable ups and downs of life unafraid
...
Look it squarely in the
eye, and say, ‘I will be bigger than you
...
’” This
is the kind of attitude that leads to victory
...
As we know, the root source of fear is childhood conditioning,
usually destructive criticism from one or both parents, that causes us
to experience two types of fear
...
”
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Because of these fears, we become preoccupied with the fears of
losing our money, or our time, or our emotional investment in a
relationship
...
Our
fears tend to
paralyze us, holding us back from taking constructive action in the
direction of our dreams and goals
...
We become
indecisive
...
We make excuses and find reasons to
delay
...
”
Fear and Ignorance Go Together
Fear can be caused by ignorance
...
Ignorance causes us to fear change, to fear the
unknown and to avoid trying anything new or different
...
The very act of gathering more
information and experience in a particular area gives us more
courage and confidence in that area
...
Because of your
knowledge and experience, you feel completely capable of
handling whatever happens
...
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Fatigue Doth Make Cowards of Us All
Another factor that causes fear is illness or fatigue
...
Sometimes you can totally change your attitude toward yourself and
your potential by getting a good night’s sleep, or taking a vacation
long enough to completely recharge your mental and emotional
batteries
...
Everyone Is Afraid
Here is an important point: All intelligent people are afraid of
something
...
The courageous person is
not a person who is unafraid
...
”
It is not whether or not you are afraid
...
The
question is, how do you deal with the fear? The courageous person
is simply one who goes forward in spite of the fear
...
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However, when you avoid the thing you fear, your fears grow until
they begin to control every aspect of your life
...
As the actor Glenn Ford once said, “If you do
not do the thing you fear, the fear controls your life
...
At the top of a clean sheet of paper, write the question, “What am I
afraid of?” Begin filling out your list of fears by writing down
everything, major and minor, over which you experience any anxiety
...
Some people, dominated by the fear of failure, invest an enormous
amount of energy justifying or covering up their mistakes
...
Others, preoccupied
by the fear of rejection, are so sensitive to how they appear to others
that they seem to have no ability to take independent action at all
...
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Set Priorities On Your Fears
Once you have made a list of every fear that you think may be
affecting your thinking and your behavior, organize the items in
order of importance
...
With regard to your predominant fear, write the answers to these
three questions:
1
...
How does this fear help me, or how has it helped me in the
past?
3
...
I was afraid of not having
enough money, being broke, perhaps even being destitute
...
My fear was reinforced when I was broke at
various times during my 20’s
...
Even when I had
sufficient money for all my needs, this fear was always there
...
It
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caused me to play it safe with regard to employment
...
My answer to the second question, “How does this fear help me?”
was that, in order to escape the fear of poverty, I had developed the
habit of working much longer and harder than the average person
...
I took much more time to study
and learn about the various ways that money could be made and
invested
...
When I answered the third question, “What would be my pay-off for
overcoming this fear?” I immediately saw that I would be willing to take
more risks, I would be more aggressive in pursuing my financial goals, I
could and would start my own business, and I would not be so tense
and concerned about spending too much or having too little
...
By objectively analyzing my biggest fear in this way, I was able to
begin the process of eliminating it
...
Practice Makes Permanent
You can begin the process of developing courage and eliminating
fear by engaging in actions consistent with the behaviors of courage
and self-confidence
...
You develop courage by behaving
courageously whenever courage is called for
...
The first and perhaps most important kind of courage is
the courage to begin, to launch, to step out in faith
...
Earlier I mentioned Professor Robert Ronstadt of Babson College who
taught entrepreneurship for many years
...
He could
only find one quality that the successful graduates had in common
...
The Courage To Begin
He discovered the “Corridor Principle,” that we spoke about earlier
...
It turned out that the graduates of his entrepreneurship course who
had done nothing with what they had learned were still waiting for
things to be just right before they began
...
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The Future Belongs To The Risk Takers
The future belongs to the risk takers, not the security seekers
...
But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely it is
that you will achieve the security that you desire
...
Create a clear mental picture of the person
that you would like to be, performing the way you would like to
perform
...
Whatever
you dwell upon, grows
...
The mastery of fear and the development of courage are essential
prerequisites for a happy, successful life
...
You will set big, challenging, exciting goals, and you will
have the confidence of knowing that you can attain them
...
And
the key is courage
...
The truth is
however, is that all of this advice and input would do you no good at
all unless you took some specific action on what you had learned
...
The bookstores are
full of self-help books, each one of them loaded with ideas that you
can use to be more successful
...
The probable result of your reading the ideas in this book has been
that you have made some specific decisions about things that you are
going to do more of, and things that you are going to do less of
...
The most important question for your future now is
simply: “Will you do what you have resolved to do?”
Self-Discipline is the Core Quality
The most important single quality for success is self-discipline
...
”
Character is the ability to follow through on a resolution after the
enthusiasm with which the resolution was made has passed
...
It is whether or
not you can put your head down and discipline yourself to pay the
price, over and over, until you finally obtain your objective
...
You need self-discipline to continually
revise and upgrade your plans with new information
...
You need self-discipline to invest in yourself every day, to build
yourself up personally and professionally, to learn what you need to
learn in order to enjoy the success of which you are capable
...
You need selfdiscipline to keep your thoughts on your goals and dreams, and keep
them off of your doubts and fears
...
Persistence is Self-Discipline in Action
Perhaps the most important demonstration of self-discipline is your
level of persistence when the going gets tough
...
Persistence is the true measure of individual
human character
...
Each time that you persist in the face of adversity and
disappointment, you build up the habit of persistence
...
You become stronger and more resolute
...
You develop in
yourself the iron quality of success, the one quality that will carry
you forward and over any obstacle that life can throw in your path
...
Every great man or woman has had to endure
tremendous trials and tribulations before reaching the heights of
success and achievement
...
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Winston Churchill is considered by many to have been the greatest
statesman of the 20th century
...
During the darkest hours of
World War II, when the German Luftwaffe was bombing Britain, and
England stood alone, Churchill’s resolute, bulldog tenacity inspired
the whole nation to fight on in the face of what many felt was
inevitable defeat
...
Kennedy said of his speeches that, “Churchill
marshaled the English language and sent it forward into battle
...
We shall fight in France
...
We shall fight with growing
confidence and growing strength in the air
...
We shall fight on the beaches
...
We shall fight in the fields and in
the streets
...
”
In the later years of his life, Churchill was asked to address a class at
his old preparatory school
...
He stood before the assembly, leaning on his cane,
shaking a little, and said with a strong voice, “I can summarize the
lessons of my life in seven words: never give in; never, never give in
...
Calvin Coolidge, a President who was so reluctant to speak in public
that he was given the nickname of “Silent Cal,” will go down in history
for his simple but memorable words on this subject
...
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence
...
Genius will not;
unrewarded genius is almost a proverb
...
Persistence and determination alone are
omnipotent
...
In 1895, America was in the grip of a terrible depression
...
His name was Orison Swett Marden
...
Late one evening, he finally
finished the last page of his book and, being tired and hungry, he went
down the street to a small café for dinner
...
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Nonetheless, drawing on his inner resources, he sat down and spent
another year writing the book over again from scratch
...
He then moved to
Chicago and took another job
...
The book,
“Pushing to the Front” was subsequently published and became the
runaway bestseller in the nation
...
It exerted an enormous impact on the minds of
decision makers throughout the country, and became the greatest
single classic in all of personal development
...
P
...
The Two Essential Qualities
Orison Swett Marden says in his book that, “There are two essential
requirements for success
...
’” He wrote, “No, there is no failure for the
man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no
failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will
...
”
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Confucius said, more than 4,000 years ago, “Our greatest glory is not in
never falling, but in rising every time we fall
...
Corbett, one of the first world heavyweight boxing
champions, said that, “You become a champion by fighting one more
round
...
” Yogi Berra said
this, “It’s not over until it’s over
...
Elbert Hubbard wrote, “There is no failure except in no longer trying
...
”
Vince Lombardi said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down
...
”
All of these successful men and women had learned how critical the
quality of persistence is in achieving greater goals and objectives
...
The one quality that absolutely guarantees success in
business, in financial accumulation, and in life is this indomitable
willpower and the willingness to stick at it when everything in you
wants to stop and rest or go back and do something else
...
B
...
Forbes, the founder of Forbes Magazine, who
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built it into a major publication during the darkest days of the
depression, wrote, “History has demonstrated that the most notable
winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed
...
”
John D
...
It overcomes almost
everything, even nature
...
Successful men keep moving
...
”
Thomas Edison, the greatest failure, and also the greatest success, in
the history of invention, failed at more experiments than any other
th
inventor of the 20 century
...
He described his philosophy in these words: “When I have fully decided
that a result is worth getting, I go ahead on it and make trial after trial until
it comes
...
That’s not the place to
become discouraged
...
”
Rene McPhearson, who built build Dana Corporation into one of the
great American success stories, summarized his philosophy by
saying, “You just keep pushing
...
I made every
mistake that could be made, but I just kept pushing
...
It is that if you are an intelligent person, you do
everything possible to organize your life in such a way that you
minimize and avoid adversity and disappointment
...
All intelligent people, following the path of
least resistance to achieve their goals, do everything possible to
minimize the number of difficulties and obstacles that they will face
in their day-to-day activities
...
Benjamin Franklin said
that the only things that are inevitable are death and taxes, but every
bit of experience shows that disappointment is also inevitable
...
And the higher and more
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challenging the goals that you set for yourself, the more
disappointment and adversity you will experience
...
It is impossible for us to evolve and grow and
develop to our full potentials except to the degree to which we face
adversity and learn from it
...
Adversity therefore comes unbidden, in spite of our
best efforts
...
Adversity is What Tests Us
Throughout history, great thinkers have reflected on this paradox
and have concluded that adversity is the test that you must pass on
the path to accomplishing anything worthwhile
...
”
The very best qualities of strength, courage, character and persistence
are brought out in you when you face your greatest challenges and
you respond to them positively and constructively
...
The difference
between the high achiever and the low achiever is simply that the
high achiever utilizes adversity and struggles for growth, while the
low achiever allows difficulties and adversity to overwhelm him or
her and leave him or her discouraged and dejected
...
If you respond to
disappointment by learning the very most from it and then by
putting it behind you and pressing forward, you are very likely to
accomplish great things in the course of your life
...
Your greatest successes almost
invariably come one step beyond when everything inside of you says
to quit
...
This final act of persistence, which is often called the
“persistence test,” seems to precede great achievements of all kinds
...
Ross Perot, who started EDP Industries with $1,000 and who built
it into a fortune of almost three billion dollars, is one of the most
successful self-made entrepreneurs in American history
...
They quit
on the one-yard line
...
”
Herodotus also wrote, “Some men give up their designs when they have
almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by
exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before
...
Florence Scovel Shinn
wrote that, “Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought
into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the
big achievement comes apparent failure and discouragement
...
When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest
and most logical thing to do is quit
...
”
Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic, also
wrote these words, “Never give up then, for that is just the place and time
that the tide will turn
...
Claude M
...
”
James Whitcome Riley put it this way, “The most essential factor is
persistence — the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm
to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come
...
Persistence is the ability to face defeat again and
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GOALS!
again without giving up — to push on in the face of great difficulty
...
This poem is called Don’t Quit
...
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill
...
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh
...
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit
...
As every one of us sometimes learns
...
Success is failure turned inside out —
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
...
It may be near when it seems so far:
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit —
It’s when things seem worst that you must not QUIT
...
Identify the biggest challenge or problem facing you today on
the way to achieving your biggest goal
...
Decide that you will
never give up
...
Think back over your life and identify the occasions where
your determination to persist was the key to your success
...
3
...
4
...
You will
always find something that can help you
...
In every situation, resolve to be solution oriented and action
oriented
...
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GOALS!
CONCLUSION
Take Action Today
You have now learned perhaps the most comprehensive strategy for
setting and achieving goals that has ever been put together in one
book
...
The most important quality you can develop for lifelong success is
the habit of taking action on your plans, goals, ideas and insights
...
There is a direct
relationship between the number of things you attempt and your
accomplishments in life
...
1
...
Whatever you have accomplished in
life up to now has only been a preparation for the amazing
things you can accomplish in the future
...
Take Charge of Your Life – You are completely responsible
for everything you are today, for everything you think, say
and do, and for everything you become from this moment
forward
...
Instead,
make progress toward your goals every day
...
Create Your Own Future – Imagine that you have no
limitations on what you can do, be or have in the months and
years ahead
...
4
...
Take the time to think through what
you really believe in and care about in each area of your life
...
5
...
Clarity is
essential for happiness and high performance living
...
Decide Upon Your Major Definite Purpose – You need a
central purpose to build your life around
...
Decide what it is for you and work on it
all the time
...
Analyze Your Beliefs – Your beliefs about your own abilities,
and about the world around you, will have more of an impact
on your feelings and actions than any other factor
...
8
...
Determine your exact situation today and be both honest and
realistic about what you want to accomplish in the future
...
Measure Your Progress – Set clear benchmarks, measures,
metrics and scorecards for yourself on the road to your
goals
...
10
...
Fortunately, problem solving is a skill you can
master with practice, and thereby achieve your goals faster
than you ever thought possible
...
Become An Expert In Your Field – You have within you,
right now, the ability to be one of the very best at what you
do, to join the top 10% in your field
...
12
...
Resolve today
to associate only with people you like, respect and admire
...
13
...
Your ability to plan and organize in advance will
enable you to accomplish even the biggest and most
complex goals
...
Manage Your Time Well – Learn how to double and triple
your productivity, performance and output by practicing
practical and proven time management principles
...
15
...
Make sure that you are still on track and that you
are still working toward things that are important to you
...
16
...
Your imagination is your preview of your life’s coming
attractions
...
Your clear, exciting mental images activate all your
mental powers and attract your goals into your life
...
Activate Your Superconscious Mind – You have within you
and around you an incredible power that will bring you
everything and anything you want or need
...
18
...
Be constantly open
to new, better, faster, cheaper ways to achieve the same result,
and if something is not working, be willing to try a different
approach
...
Unlock Your Inborn Creativity – You have more creative
ability to solve problems and come up with new and better
ways for goal attainment than you have ever used
...
You can tap into your intelligence to
overcome any obstacle and achieve any goal you can set
for yourself
...
Do Something Every Day – Use the “Momentum Principle of
Success” by getting started toward your goal and then doing
something every day that moves you closer to what you want
to accomplish
...
21
...
Persistence is self-discipline in
action, and is the true measure of your belief in yourself
...
Your regular review and
practice of these principles will enable you to live an extraordinary
life
...
Good luck!
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