[Previous entry: "What Is Your Definition of Success? # 359"] [Next entry: "Essays on Excellence # 524"]
04/10/2005: "Essays on Excellence # 523"
| Good Morning Freedom Fighters and Truth Seekers, All three of today's essays deal with how can we make our lives better. I watched a DVD last night, The Five People You Will Meet In Heaven. I urge you to watch this movie sometime soon. The powerful message is that you will never really know what you do that will make the biggest differences. If you are in service to others, then the results will amaze you. Well it is tax prep day, so off to finalizing the records organization. Those of us who have worked for over 12 years on tax reform are currently disappointed with the lack of leadership in the Senate while the politicians play politics and don't focus on the needs of the nation and its people. You can learn more about our efforts by visiting www.fairtax.org and www.salestax.org. We sincerely hope that after studying this issue that you agree that the current tax system is horribly broken and needs to be put out of its misery. Your Ideal Self and Life By Brian Tracy Your self-concept is made up of three parts, each of which affects each of the others. Understanding these three parts enables you to put your hands on the keyboard of your own mental computer. When you learn to take charge of the development of a new and positive self-concept of selling, you can then control your sales destiny for the rest of your career. Determine Your Direction The first part of the self-concept is the "self-ideal." Your self-ideal largely determines the direction in which you are going with your life. It guides the growth and evolution of your character and personality. Your self-ideal is a combination of all of the qualities and attributes of other people that you most admire. Your self-ideal is a description of the person you would very much like to be if you could embody the qualities that you most aspire to. Strive Toward Excellence Throughout your life, you have seen and read about the qualities of courage, confidence, compassion, love, fortitude, perseverance, patience, forgiveness and integrity. Over time, these qualities have distilled in you an ideal to which you aspire. You may not always live up to the very best that you know, but you are constantly striving to be a better person in light of those qualities that you value so highly. In fact, everything that you do on a day-to-day basis is affected by your comparing your activities with these ideal qualities, and your striving to behave consistent with them. Clarity is Essential Successful salespeople have very clear ideals for themselves and their careers. Unsuccessful salespeople have fuzzy ideals. Successful salespeople are very clear about being excellent in every part of their work and their personal lives. Unsuccessful salespeople don't give the subject very much thought. One of the primary characteristics of successful men and women in every walk of life is that they have very clearly defined ideals and they are very aware of whether or not their current behaviors are consistent with their idealized behaviors. Set Challenging Goals Part of your ideals are your goals. As you set higher and more challenging goals, your self-ideal improves and crystallizes. When you set goals for the kind of person you want to be and the kind of life you want to live, your self-ideal rises and becomes a greater guiding and motivating force in your life. Your Future Is Unlimited Perhaps the most important thing for you to realize is that whatever anyone else has done or become, you can do or become as well. Improvements in your self-ideal begin in your imagination, and in your imagination, there are no limits except the ones that you accept. What is your ideal vision of the very best person you could possibly become? How would you behave each day if you were already that person? Asking yourself these questions and then living your life consistent with the answers is the first step to creating yourself in your ideal image. Action Exercises Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action. First, dream big dreams. Set big, exciting, challenging goals and ideals for yourself in every part of your life. Allow yourself to imagine a wonderful life ahead. Second, think about how you would act if you were an outstanding person in every way. Then, practice being this person, as though you were acting a role in a play. You’ll immediately notice a difference in your behavior. LET GO OF THE THINGS THAT KEEP YOU FROM YOUR ULTIMATE GOOD by Lisa Jimenez M.Ed. "It's an offer I can't refuse," I told Randy during one of the Mastermind Conference Calls. I was just offered a principal position at a local Christian pre-school and had all these wonderful visions of what it would be like... I pictured the students, learning and growing under my direction. I saw myself giving a smile and a hug to each one as they walked into class every morning. I heard the teachers sharing their ideas with me on how we could make our school better. I felt the parents patting me on the back and shaking my hand in congratulations to a job well done... My thoughts were interrupted with Randy's voice over the other end of the phone. "This isn't what you're supposed to be doing," he lamented. "You are a professional speaker." I replied with the strong argument that this might just be the time for me to get back to my first career, which was teaching, and use my degree in school leadership. I began sharing my vision of being a principal with him. It was a waste of breath. Randy wasn't buying it. When I told him I could do both, he went through an exhausting explanation of how I was just getting seduced by the dark side of a regular paycheck. After a couple of hours (actually it was only a few minutes), it was someone else's turn, and I closed with the promise to think more about it before making a decision. That weekend, I was giving a presentation for the National Speakers Association on how to build their speaking businesses. Something strange, almost Super Natural, happened at that convention. First, when I walked into the hotel, I noticed that there were two conventions being held that weekend. One was for the Speakers Association and the other for the Principals Association! Through out my entire stay, my conversations were either with a speaker or a principal. The principals I talked with brought back memories of why I left teaching. I remembered the bureaucracy involved in the educational system. I was reminded of the mounds of paperwork and long work hours. (I guess I forgot that part.) It seemed that every time I talked with a principal they would ask me how they, too, could get into professional speaking. The other altering experience occurred during my presentation. In the middle of my talk, a lady raised her hand with a question. "What do you do when you are torn between two careers?" she asked. "Do you think I can be successful in the speaking business if I'm working on another career?" Her question shocked me. (To this day, I think Randy must have set her up!) But what surprised me even more was my response to her. It was as though God was speaking to her through me and at the same time directing the answer - with great precision - right to my heart. "You can't serve two masters," I replied. "One will always suck the energy from the other." The next thing I knew I was telling my audience about the principal opportunity and how I was coming to realize a liberating truth: I need to have the courage to let go of things that keep me from my ultimate good. What about you? How committed are you to your business? If you were to rate your commitment level on a scale of 1 -10 what number would you give yourself? And, are you happy with that number? If not, then why not? What is keeping you from really jumping in with both feet and dedicating yourself to building your business? What's stopping you from giving it all you've got and building the kick-butt organization you know you want?! For the rest of the speech I spent time in deep confession, as both teacher and student talked about a tough subject. It's called pruning. Just like the gardener who must cut away dead, unproductive parts of a plant, we need to cut away bad habits, dead-end activities, negative people, and even tempting opportunities that keep us from our ultimate good. These dead "leaves" in our lives block the "sun" from coming in and nourishing our true destiny. Do you, like me, need more sun to reach your business? Then cut away some dead leaves like disorganization, procrastination, and even tempting opportunities that keep you from your ultimate good. Do you, like me, need more sun to reach your key relationships? Then cut away some dead leaves like TV watching or a critical tongue. Do you, like me, need more sun to reach your physical health? Then cut away some dead leaves like sleeping in too late or laziness. Do you, like me, need more sun to reach your attitude? Then cut away some dead leaves like negative people and negative thinking. Let's be honest, pruning, or cutting away, hurts! It wasn't easy for me to decline that principal position. It may not be easy for you to cut out your bad habits, negative thinking, critical tongue, or any of the other dead leaves that are blocking the sun from your success. But when you have the courage to cut away parts of your life that drain precious time and energy from what's truly important, you liberate yourself by making room for abundance! "Have the courage to let go of the things that keep you from your ultimate good." I will not be experiencing what it's like to be a principal of a school. However, I'm having an outrageous time experiencing great success in my speaking career. I am truly amazed at the rapid success I've experienced since I've made the effort to get rid of those things that were holding me back. The bottom line, my friend, is all it takes to make it BIG in your business is all you've got. Give it all you've got today! The Major Obstacle to Financial Success by Brian Tracy The major mental obstacle to financial success is that some people believe that they don't really deserve to be rich. The Biggest Demotivator Of All They have been raised with a steady drumbeat of destructive criticism, as I was, that has led them to conclude, at an unconscious level, that they don't really deserve to be successful and happy. The worst effect of negative experiences in childhood, which are all too common, is that when people actually do succeed as the result of hard, hard work, they feel guilty. These guilt feelings then cause them to do things to get rid of the money, to throw it away. They spend it or invest it foolishly. They lend it, lose it or give it away. They engage in self-sabotage, in the form of overeating, excessive drinking, drug usage, marital infidelity and often dramatic personality changes. To change your results with money, you have to change your attitude toward it. Treat Money With Care And Attention The fact is that money is very much like a lover. It must be courted and coaxed and flattered and treated with care and attention. It gravitates toward people who respect it and value it and are capable of doing worthwhile things with it. It flows through the fingers and flees from people who do not understand it, or who do not take proper care of it. Become Skilled With Money Sometimes people say that they are not very good with money. But being good with money is a skill that anyone can learn through practice. Usually, saying that one is not very good with money is merely an excuse or a rationalization for the fact that the person is not very successful or disciplined with money. The person has not learned how to acquire it or to hold on to it. Be A No-Limit Thinker The starting point of accumulating money is for you to believe that you have an unlimited capacity to obtain all the money that you will ever need. Look upon yourself as a financial success just waiting for a place to happen. And see yourself as deserving all you can honestly acquire. Open Any Door Money is good. Money gives you choices and enables you to live your life the way you want to live it. Money opens doors for you that would have been closed in its absence. But just like anything, an obsession can be hurtful. If a person becomes so preoccupied with money that he loses sight of the fact that money is merely a tool that is to be used to acquire happiness, then money becomes a harmful thing. Money Is Neutral The Bible says, "The love of money is the root of all evil." It doesn't say, "money is the root of all evil." It says, "the love of money is the root of all evil." It is the preoccupation with money, to the exclusion of the really important things in life that is the problem, not the money itself. Money is essential to our lives in society. It is also neutral. It is neither good nor bad. It is only the way that it is acquired and the uses to which it is put that determines whether it is helpful or hurtful. Action Exercises First, recognize and accept that virtually everyone who has money today at one time was broke and probably broke for a long time. Then they learned the skills of accumulating money and they are now financially independent. Whatever they have done, you can probably do as well. Second, become a student of money from this day forward. Study it, learn about it and apply the lessons you discover toward your own financial life until you begin to attract more and more money in your direction. William Prouty, CLU RHU CBC CEC MBA PhD CEO and Founder Champions For Life Foundation PO Box 989, Sun City, CA 92586-0989 Phone 951-301-0605 FAX 951-301-0606 Skype account: williamprouty wprouty@aol.com www.gewdc.org www.maie.org www.cashdoctor.com www.caltrade.com www.benefitstech.com |
