Are You an Optimist or a Pessimist?

by Chris Widener

I have been giving some thought lately to optimism and pessimism. Basically, these are attitudes—attitudes that shape and formulate our entire existence. I mean, have you ever met a happy pessimist? Of course not.

In short, our optimism or pessimism is this:

The way we interpret the past
The way we experience and view the present
The way we imagine the future

Have you given much thought about how your attitude, whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, affects you business, organization or school? Have you thought about how it affects you personally? And what about the team you are a part of?

What is optimism? It is the belief that things in our past were good for us, even if that means they were hard and taught us lessons. It is also the belief that things will be better in the future.

Here are some contrasts between optimism and pessimism and how they affect us:

Optimism breathes life into you each day.
Pessimism drains you.

Optimism helps you to take needed risks.
Pessimism plays it safe and never accomplishes much.

Optimism improves those around you.
Pessimism drags them down.

Optimism inspires people to great heights.
Pessimism deflates people to new lows.

There is only one way that optimism and pessimism are the same, and that is that they are both self-fulfilling. If you are an optimist, you will generally find that good things happen to you. And if you are a pessimist, you will find yourself in the not-so-good situations more often than not.

So can a person just become an optimist? Yes! We can choose to look at the world any way we want to. We can choose to look at the world and think the worst, or we can tell ourselves the good things about each situation. As you find yourself looking at your enterprise, begin to view it through the eyes of an optimist, and you will reap the rewards listed above, and so will the people around you.

There are tremendous benefits to being an optimist, as stated above. But there are some pessimists out there who will say, “But that isn’t realistic.” I say, “Who cares?” If things go awry, at least I have spent my time beforehand enjoying life and not worrying about it. And, being an optimist, I would view the “negative” situation as an opportunity to grow and learn. So I can even look forward to my failures because they will be steppingstones and learning tools to be applied to my future success.

Have you ever met a successful pessimist? Become an optimist, and see your world change before your eyes!

—Chris Widener

Using Our Strength

by Zig Ziglar

Some years ago Brenda Reyes was honored as the Texas Business Woman of the Year, a recognition bestowed by the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce. The 9,000-member group annually honors a businesswoman for her financial success, community involvement and professional service.

Ms. Reyes enrolled in the University of New Orleans, then decided to enlist in the Marines. She later returned to finish college. In addition to the many lessons in honor and discipline she learned in the Marine Corps, her tour gave her the incentive to search for and capitalize on her strengths.

After college, she recognized her aptitude for computers, so in her spare time she set up computer systems for friends who had lost patience with the process. At first she volunteered to help others, but soon she realized she could turn her knowledge into a career. She opened her first software development business in 1986 in her hometown of New Orleans and later moved her company (Innovative Computer Group) to Dallas.

She has faced some tough situations and some hard-core Marines…. She has kept pace with all of the technological changes, she has courageously moved to expand her business, and the results are obvious by her recognition as Texas Business Woman of the Year.

Brenda Reyes has set a good example and taught all of us a lesson in using what we have to its greatest advantage.

—Zig Ziglar

Made for Success Quote and Commentary

“The most powerful tool for change and achievement you have in your arsenal, sits, waiting to be used, right between your ears.” —Chris Widener



Chris’s Commentary:
The mind is truly incredible. Think about how much it gets done when you aren’t even purposefully using it! You have an itch and it tells your arm and hand to get busy! How much more the brain can accomplish if we set ourselves to be conscious of the effort. Your mind can control your body. Your mind can help you break bad habits. Your mind can solve problems. I find that there are two main problems with most people in this area. One, they have programmed their minds negatively and thus can’t get their minds to produce the results they want. Two, they don’t take the time to think, ponder and make conscious decisions to put their minds to work. But if they would—watch out!

Action Point:
Prepare your mind today. First, be sure to put something positive in it. This will “prime the pump,” so to speak. Secondly, take some time to get it moving consciously. Think, ponder and exercise your ability to choose!

The Power of One-on-One

by Denis Waitley

The secret to being a good role model and mentor is in finding out what others want and helping them succeed. The secret to being a good and wise communicator is the patient listening for those desires in others, and also in learning from the experiences of others by questioning and listening thoroughly, so that we may learn from their successes and failures.

Frank Sinatra learned his superb breath control in singing from his first band leader, Tommy Dorsey. In large part, the person Helen Keller became was because of Anne Sullivan. Plato learned from Socrates. Jesse Owens credits his winning of the long jump in the 1936 Olympics to a tip given to him by his top German competitor, Luz Long. In the middle of the event, after Owens had already fouled twice on takeoff, Long gave Owens a helpful hint on how to correct his takeoff point. The result was a record breaking leap of over 26 feet, which stood for more than 20 years.

Artists have always learned more from observing other artists than from going to classes or observing nature. In a sense, you and I are master artists who have the opportunity to breathe new colors, shading and perspective into the lives of other artists who are struggling with their oils, brushes and canvases. Think back to the people who have had the most influence on you. You will likely find that they have been people who really cared about you—your parents, a great teacher, a coach, business associate, a good friend—someone who was interested in you. The only people you will influence to any great degree will be the people you care about. When you are with people you care for, their interests, rather than your own, will be uppermost in your mind.

Our success in getting along with others and communicating effectively with them depends solely upon our ability to recognize their desires and needs, and help them fill those desires and needs with positive actions.

In the communication process, knowledge is not always wisdom, sensitivity is not always accuracy, and sympathy is not always understanding. All customer service and the ability to gain trust and repeat business is based on empathy. Empathy is “feeling with” and never assuming anything until you have “walked a mile in the other person’s moccasins.” Since it is impossible to know the road another has walked, the best alternative is to ask questions with interest and respect, and listen for the hidden agendas and desires.

In this way, you can be a Renoir to the next Monet!

—Denis Waitley

Thoughts Create Behavior

by Vic Johnson
(excerpted from Day by Day with James Allen)

“Cause and effect are as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things.” —As a Man Thinketh

We remember from science class Newton’s physical law that “every action creates an equal and opposite reaction.” Or, every cause has an effect. And because it is a law, it is absolute and undeviating. It always happens—in every circumstance, under every condition.

James Allen says the same law that applies in the physical also applies in the world of thought. Every effect must have an originating cause. Our life does not develop as a result of chance but as a result of causes.

In the thought world, a thought (the cause) creates a feeling (the effect). Feelings can eventually materialize in the physical world because they create actions or behavior. These actions cause results or outcomes, and thus our life goes.

When we say a person “looks worried,” what has taken place? A negative thought of some kind (the cause) triggered a feeling of worry (the effect) that materialized in the physical world through the person’s facial actions. Those feelings may also materialize in other ways. For instance, by increased blood pressure or nausea. All of these “effects” originated from the original cause, which was a thought.

Dr. Wayne Dyer writes that “all of our behavior results from the thoughts that preceded it…. So the thing to work on is not your behavior but the thing that caused your behavior, your thoughts.”

That was so liberating to me because I was so frustrated in trying to change the behaviors that I knew were causing the pain in my life. But I had been working on the wrong thing.

We cannot change anything in our life without first changing the originating cause. And everything in our life originates in our thoughts.

As Jim Rohn says: “If the idea of having to change ourselves makes us uncomfortable, we can remain as we are. We can choose rest over labor, entertainment over education, delusion over truth, and doubt over confidence. The choices are ours to make. But while we curse the effect, we continue to nourish the cause.”

And that’s worth thinking about.

—Vic Johnson

Experience

by Jim Rohn



Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experiences and invest them in the future.

Don’t let the learning from your own experiences take too long. If you have been doing it wrong for the last ten years, I would suggest that’s long enough!

Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity.

It’s easy to carry the past as a burden instead of a school. It’s easy to let it overwhelm you instead of educate you.

Be like a sponge when it comes to each new experience. If you want to be able to express it well, you must first be able to absorb it well.

Walking a New Road

by Jim Rohn
(excerpted from the Take Charge of Your Life 6-CD series)



Here is a good question to ask yourself. Ten years from now you will surely arrive. The question is, where? We don't want to kid ourselves about where. We don't want to kid ourselves about the road we're walking.

At age 25, I had a day shortly after I met my mentor Mr. Shoaff called "do not kid myself anymore" day. I didn't want to be disillusioned anymore. Up until then, I had been using the crossed-finger theory. But after meeting Mr. Shoaff, I finally decided that the crossed-finger theory was not going to get me what I wanted. That it wasn't where the treasure lies. That I was going to have to make sure which way I was headed.

Then, with the help of Mr. Shoaff, I found with a few reading disciplines, and a few disciplines of mind, and a few disciplines of activity, that when exercised, can begin making all the difference in the world as to where you will arrive.

Just a few changes. Sometimes we get the idea that we're doing about 10% and there's about 90% more that we need in order to make the difference for our fortune, but probably the opposite is true. We're doing enough things to have bought and shared in the good life so far. And maybe all we need is that extra 5% or 10% of intellectual change. Activity change. A refinement of discipline. A refinement of thought. And all we need is the ideas to make those simple changes and the equity starts gathering in one year, three years, five years, 10 years.

I have a good comment for you: Now's the time to fix the next 10 years. Now, you may have to come to grips with reality and with truth; that's what was good for me when I met Mr. Shoaff. I was 25 years old, he was 44 years old. And he brought me a wealth of experience and he started asking me the tough questions. "Big question", he said, "Are you reading the books that are going to take you where you want to go in the next 5 years?"

Excellent question. See, you want to make sure. I would assume for all of you, to get to where you want to be in the next 5 years, you are either reading the right books or you're not. You're either engaged in the disciplines or you're not. But, here's what we don't want to engage in: disillusion. Hoping without acting. Wishing without doing.

The key is to take a look and say, "Where am I? What could I do to make the changes to make sure that I can take more certain daily steps toward the treasure I want, the mental treasure, the personal treasure, the spiritual treasure, the financial treasure? I don't want to make any more errors. Now's the time to adjust my daily program to take me where I want to go."

In lecturing for more than 40 years, I've gotten letters and personal testimonies of people that have done such remarkable things with just a few suggestions. And that is why seminars, tapes and books can be so valuable. Here's a key idea for us all to remember: We could all use a little coaching. When you're playing the game, it's sometimes hard to see it all.

But the key is to start right now making these changes to walk this new road. And here's what's exciting to me: just a few daily disciplines makes a great deal of difference in one year, three years, five years. And before you know it, you will be walking a brand new road.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Seeds of Greatness

by Denis Waitley



Seeds of Family Leadership: Empowering Others

The world needs role models, instead of critics.

Others know when you have their best interests at heart.

You are truly successful when you can extend a strong hand to someone who is reaching out or just trying to hang on.

Come through for others, and they will come through for you.

People who seek attention need all the help they can get.

You know you’re a success when people tell you, “I like me best when I’m with you.”

If we succeed without sacrifice, it’s because someone sacrificed for us.

Real power comes by empowering others!

Promises should not be given lightly unless you want them lightly received.

If I help you win, then I win too!

-- Denis Waitley

Seeds of Greatness

by Denis Waitley

To be self-reliant adults, we need to set some guidelines:

* Be different, if it means higher personal and professional standards of behavior
* Be different, if it means treating animals like people, and people as brothers and sisters
* Be different, if it means being cleaner, neater and better groomed than the group
* Be different, if it means giving more in service than you expect to receive in payment
* Be different, if it means to take the calculated risk
* Be different, if it means to observe, listen and understand before passing judgment

-- Denis Waitley

A Chance Encounter

by Jim Rohn
(excerpted from Twelve Pillars, a novel by Jim Rohn and Chris Widener)

“The only way things are going to change for you is when you change.”

“Crud!”

His hand hit the dashboard as he said it. “I can’t stand this car!”

That about sums up Michael Jones’s life—crud. And... he can’t stand it.

Forty years old, a wife of fifteen years he doesn’t know how to connect with, and two kids he barely knows. Add to that a boring job that doesn’t challenge him and hardly pays the bills. In a word: crud.

Where had his life gone? Out of college, he and his wife, Amy, had been so filled with dreams. Their lives were ahead of them and nothing seemed impossible. They were full of potential and wanted to do so much. But now, they were nowhere near where they had hoped to be.

Michael loved Amy, but it just wasn’t what it could be. They had grown apart through the years and he had no idea how to fix it. The kids are great, but, again, there was just no connection with them like he thought “normal” families should have.

And his job... definitely not what he wanted. A man his age making $40,000 a year with no upside? This was hardly what he had imagined for his life. It was what it was and it seemed like he was stuck—stuck with a dead-end job and poor relationships. This wasn’t the success and happiness he and Amy had planned for.

But his life was about to change...

This car is the worst, he thought as it convulsed and finally died. Going about 30 miles an hour when it stopped running, he guided it as it coasted to a stop along the road.

He was on his way to a sales call and he had never taken this road before. It was a long, winding road that acted as a shortcut between two major roads. Not many houses on this road, he observed.

After the car rolled to a stop, Michael got out and walked around the car. It wasn’t as though he would be able to tell what was wrong from walking around; he knew zero about cars. He knew how to put gas in it, turn the key over, and that was about it. No smoke, he thought, and that had to be good.

He popped the hood and looked at the engine. All the wires seemed connected. All the caps were on. He didn’t have any idea what to do.

I should have taken shop class in high school, he thought.

Michael reached inside his jacket for his cell phone. He figured he would call a mechanic friend he knew and see if he could get some help. He flipped the phone open and saw the worst—no cell coverage there!

“Just my luck,” he said out loud. “They can put a man on the moon and clone a sheep, but they can’t put a cell site up where I need it.”

He looked around, trying to decide which way to start walking. Up ahead about 200 feet was a bend in the road, and he couldn’t see what was farther, on so he decided to go that way, just hoping there might be a house beyond the bend.

As he walked, he kicked the gravel along the road.

Frustrated, alone, and stuck. That’s how he felt right now. About this situation and life in general.

As he turned the corner, Michael came across something he had never seen in real life before. Sure, he had seen many in magazines and on TV, but never something like this with his own eyes.

Nice pad. Michael found himself standing in front of the most beautiful home he had ever seen. Home may not even be the right word for it. Right at the roadside was a huge gated entrance. The large brick and wrought-iron fence stretched at least 500 feet along the roadside. And the gate was at least ten feet high. Behind the gate was a house that had to be over 10,000 square feet. It was a white plantation style that had twelve two-story pillars across the front—which made sense since the sign at the side of the gate said, “Twelve Pillars.” It was magnificent. Michael stood in front of the gate for a few minutes, just looking in awe at the structure.

Finally, he snapped back to reality and realized that he had to get his car fixed. He didn’t see any other houses nearby, but he didn’t know how to get to the house in front of him, either.

Just then, he saw an old man in white overalls emerge from what looked like a workshop just to the right of the driveway. The old man walked toward the gate.

When he got about 25 feet from the gate, the old man spoke, “Can I help you, young man?”

Made for Success Quote and Commentary

“The treacherous, unexplored areas of the world are not in continents or the seas; they are in the hearts and minds of men.” —Allen E. Claxton

Chris’s Commentary:
Many of us would be excited to take a journey, an exploration, into unknown areas of the world where the potential for newfound discoveries was great! I know that I would! But have you ever thought about how much potential there is as you explore your own heart and mind? Don’t neglect the possibilities that can arise from within you as you take the time to train, explore and cultivate your inner life. You have tremendous potential, in many ways more exciting than any newfound area of the world could ever be!

Action Point:
Commit to taking the time to explore your inner life. This will require being quiet and allowing yourself to hear your thoughts and dreams. Read good material that will foster your inward growth, and then pursue the potential you find in your heart and mind!

Goals Get You Going

by Les Brown

Goals give you a purpose for taking life on. People who live without goals have no purpose and it is obvious even in their body language. They are on permanent idle, they slouch, they list from side to side. Their conversations dawdle. They telephone you: “Hey, I’m just calling. I wasn’t doing anything, so I thought I’d call you.” Well, don’t call ME. I’VE got things to do.

Many people just muddle through life. They don’t read informational material, they don’t even pay attention when they WATCH television. If you ask them what they are watching, they mumblemouth, “Nothin’, I’m just lookin’.”

What are your goals for your career? For your relationships? For your spiritual life? Develop a schedule for the next month, the next six months, the next year, five years and ten years. Write it all out.

Let’s take one of the most common goals: You want to make more money. If that is your goal, then take some practical steps toward realizing it.

First, determine specifically how much money you want to make. Then, double that amount and make THAT your goal. Even if you don’t reach the higher amount, you will probably still find yourself making more than your original goal.

Second, decide the amount of energy you are willing to expend to reach your goal. How many hours are you willing to work a day? How many jobs are you willing to hold down? What sort of work are you willing to do?

A third step in this process is to develop a practical plan of action and get started immediately. Chart out where you want to be in relation to your goal in the next month, six months, one year, five years and ten years. Get started today. Go apply for that second job NOW! Go enroll in that career training program NOW! Ask for that raise NOW!

And finally, make sure that you have all of this written down so that you can review it every morning and every night and envision yourself taking these steps, DOING THEM and SUCCEEDING!

—Les Brown

The Geography of Success

by Ron White

I will suggest to you that success has a lot to do with geography, although, perhaps not in the way you might think. I am not implying that success is a result of being in the right place at the right time. Rather, it is about the geography of who you surround yourself with. To illustrate my point, take a moment to reflect on the history of the United States of America. While I believe that it is not up for debate that today the United States is the world’s only superpower, but how it achieved that status is obvious and yet often over looked.

Geography has played a large part in the success of the United States. To the east and west are large oceans of protection. This cannot be overlooked as a major factor in the success of my country. What did the British have to do in order to fight the colonists for control of the New World? They had to sail from England across the Atlantic! What did the Japanese have to do in order to attack Pearl Harbor? They had to bridge the distance of the Pacific. But if our fleet was docked on the West Coast of the mainland, would the attack even have been possible?

There is no doubt about it – two mighty oceans of protection have served as barriers to forces hostile to the United States and acted as a buffer for the nation to grow and prosper unimpeded. To our north is Canada and to the south is Mexico. When the United States was in its infancy, Mexico was not considered an ally – yet today it definitely is. Therefore, the United States of America has walls of protection to its east and west in the form of massive bodies of water, and friendly neighbors to its north and south.

What do our neighbors to the north and south want for the United States? They want us to be militarily strong, economically prosperous and a symbol of strength in the world. Why do our neighbors want this for us? Make no mistake, it is not simply to see a friend prosper – these nations are very aware that the stronger we are, because of their proximity to us, the stronger they will be. In turn, it is in the national interests of the United States that Mexico and Canada are strong countries. Therefore, we will go out of our way to see that they are prosperous and safe from foreign attack.

Now, you see a couple of the reasons why the United States has prospered. We are surrounded by friendly neighbors and vast oceans. After you have examined the success of the United States, the next step is to look at the lives of those you know who are personally successful. I believe you will find the same marks of geography in their success.

What kind of people do you find around successful people? What kinds of people are surrounding you? Do they desire for you to succeed or fail?

Where do you spend your free time? This is a geography question again. The geography of oceans has helped enabled success for the United States. The geography of where you place yourself in your free time will also enable or disable your success. You must ensure that at least a portion of your geography is in an environment that enables learning. This can be done in a place to read or study.

You must ensure that at least a portion of your geography is in an environment that enables rest. This is any quiet and calm place where you can relax with your thoughts and recover for the work yet to come. A massage or a trip out into the country are great examples of this type of geographical resting.

You must ensure that at least a portion of your geography is in an environment that enables health, strength and physical stamina. This could be accomplished at the gym, local track or by simply jogging around your block. For your body to hold up to the test of success it must be in top shape.

Make no mistake, a nation that is surrounded by hostile neighbors constantly attacking or plotting its harm is going to be a nation that is constantly on the defensive and fighting simply to maintain the status quo. The nation that is surrounded by friendly geography has the potential to prosper beyond the wildest imagination of its founders. You are no different than that nation. To ensure your success, constantly monitor your personal geography.

—Ron White

I Believe

by Brian Tracy

I believe every person has within themselves inexhaustible reserves of potential they have never even come close to realizing.

I believe each person has far more intelligence than they have ever used.

I believe each person is more creative than he or she has ever imagined.

I believe the greatest achievements of your life lie ahead of you.

I believe the happiest moments of your life are yet to come.

I believe the greatest successes you will ever attain are still waiting for you on the road ahead.

And, I believe through learning and application of what you learn, you can solve any problem, overcome any obstacle and achieve any goal that you can set for yourself.

—Brian Tracy

Keeping Your Mind Tuned for Success

by Chris Widener

Absolutely no one can overestimate the power of the mind and its role in our success! It is imperative to keep our minds right and on the right track if we are to achieve balanced success in our career, finances, health, emotions, relationships and spiritual lives.

The analogy I would like to use here is one of a radio station. For example, there may be a “Success” station. But the only way you can hear a radio station is to be tuned into it. Even a little off and you can’t get the full effect.

The same is true with our mind and success. If our minds and our thoughts get sidetracked, our success will get sidetracked. As our minds stay tuned to “success” our bodies will then carry out our success and we will begin to experience abundance!

So here are some ways to keep tuned into success!

Use your innate ability to decide and choose. One of the things that separate us from the animals is that we live not by instinct, but by choice. Constantly flexing that muscle of choice builds it up and keeps us on track for success. It is like working out. The more we do, the stronger we get. The more “fit” we get. Want to keep your mind tuned for success? Keep it healthy by making good choices and decisions on a regular basis. For example, do you have a bad habit? Then flex your mind muscle and choose to change—today. If you choose to stay the same way (and those are the only two alternatives) you will have just chosen to tune your mind to a different station than “success.”

Put good stuff into your brain. There are lots of things that want to work their way into our minds (and eventually work themselves out again in our actions). There will be lots that we just get from walking around all day. But what about what we put in on purpose? We can choose to put good stuff in on a regular basis. Do you take time each day to put good things into your mind, to tune into success? Here are two things to consider when you are choosing what to put into your mind: First, is it positive? Will it build you up or tear you down? Will it make you a better person, or lesser? Will you grow from it or not? Will it tune you to success or not? Secondly, Will it move you toward your goals in the areas of your life that you want to see success and abundance in?

Keep the junk out. Like I mentioned above, there will always be junk floating around, like a fellow employee who gripes all the time. But what surprises me is how many people who want success, actually willfully choose to put junk into their minds and then expect to be tuned into success. Here are some thoughts on this: First, evaluate everything that you put into your mind. Evaluate what you read, listen to and watch. We live in a fast-paced world and we have little time. Why then would we spend our precious time putting junk into our minds? Does what you read, listen to and watch move you toward your goals or away from them? It is a simple question, really. At least most of the time. And here is my soapbox. Eleven years ago, my wife suggested we give away our television. I was shocked to say the least, but decided to give it a try. Now I am the anti-TV fanatic in our house! I have more time than anyone I know and I don’t have to spend a lot of energy filtering my mind to tune it to success. Just a thought. Just a thought.

Eat right and exercise. That’s right. The way we eat and the amount of exercise we get goes a long way toward our mind’s ability to tune into success. Put the right foods into your body and the brain responds. Exercise on a regular basis and the body releases chemicals that literally ignite your brain for success!

Hope these thoughts help you to get going and keep your mind tuned into success. Put them into practice and soon you’ll be dialed into success and abundance.

—Chris Widener

Achieving Success by Expecting Success

by Zig Ziglar

When you plan and prepare carefully, you can legitimately expect to have success in your efforts. When you recognize and develop the winning qualities that you were born with, the winner you were born to be emerges. When you plan and prepare to make a sale, for example, you can legitimately expect to make a sale. Although not all your expectations are going to come to pass, you give yourself an infinitely better chance of succeeding by taking the proper steps. Regardless of your goal—losing weight, making more sales, furthering your education, earning a promotion, saving money for a new home or an exotic vacation—you can expect to achieve your goal if you plan and prepare for it.

Also understand that the path from where you are to where you want to be is not always smooth and straight. The reason for the twists and bumps is simple, and it has nothing to do with you. It has more to do with the fact that not everyone is as interested in your success as you are. Some people may accidentally hinder your efforts; others who are in competition with you and have little or no integrity may try to sabotage your efforts.

Keep in mind, though, that when you hit those roadblocks your character, commitment and attitude are the determining factors in your success…. Carefully review your plan of action, seek wise counsel, and be particularly careful to feed your mind good information. An optimistic, positive mind is far more likely to come up with creative solutions than a mind that dwells on setbacks and difficulties.

Bottom line: expect success and you can achieve it!

Made for Success Quote and Commentary

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” —Pat Riley


Chris’s Commentary:
The best way to ensure that you will one day reach your goal of excellence in work and life is to make sure that you are day by day continuing to learn, grow and improve yourself. I once heard Zig Ziglar say that he has read for three hours a day for 25 years. The point is that he has taken control of his mind and his learning and it has transformed his life, his work, his family and his income. What about you? What can you do to improve yourself each and every day? The idea of continual self-improvement must be one that you diligently take by decision. You must decide that every day will see the successful completion of self-growth. While you may not be able to read for three hours a day, certainly you can do so for 15 minutes. And in what ways can you improve your skills? Look each day for a way to do what you do better, faster or smarter.

Action Point:
Starting today, make some improvement in your life each day for the next seven days. By then, you will see it forming into a habit!

Seeds of Greatness

by Denis Waitley
The Power of Habit (This excerpt was taken from Denis Waitley's book The Seeds of Greatness Treasury)

You may know me.
I’m your constant companion.
I’m your greatest helper; I’m your heaviest burden
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am at your command.
Half the tasks you do might as well be turned over to me. I’m able to do them quickly, and I’m able to do them the same every time,
If that’s what you want.

I’m easily managed; all you’ve got to do is be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want it done; after a few lessons I’ll do it automatically.
I am the servant of all great men and women; of course,
I’m the servant of all the failures as well.
I’ve made all the winners who have ever lived.
And, I’ve made all the losers too.

But I work with all the precision of a marvelous computer
With the intelligence of a human being.
You may run me for profit, or you may run me to ruin;
It makes no difference to me.

Take me. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.
Be firm with me, and I’ll put the world at your feet.
Who am I?

I’m Habit!

-- Denis Waitley

Procrastination Doesn't Make Perfect

by Denis Waitley

Perfectionists are often great procrastinators. Having stalled until the last minutes, they tear into a project with dust flying and complaints about insufficient time. Perfectionist-procrastinators are masters of the excuse that short notice kept them from doing the quality job they could have done.

But that’s hardly the only variety of procrastination—which is one of my own favorite hiding places when I try to blame external conditions instead of myself for some difficulty. Mine comes with a gnawing feeling of being fatigued, always behind. I try to tell myself that I’m taking it easy and gathering my energies for a big new push, but procrastination differs markedly from genuine relaxation—which is truly needed. And it saves me no time or energy. On the contrary, it drains both, leaving me with self-doubt on top of self-delusion.

We’re all very busy. Every day we seem to have a giant to-do list of people to see, projects to complete, e-mails to read, e-mails to write. We have calls to answer and calls to make, then more calls to people with whom we keep playing voice-mail tag.

Henri Nouwen’s classic book Making All Things New likens our lives to “overstuffed suitcases that are bursting at the seams.”

Feeling there is forever far too much to do, we say we’re really under the gun this week. But working hard or even heroically to solve a problem is little to our credit if we created the problem in the first place. When most people refer to themselves as being under the gun, they want to believe, or do believe, that the pressures and problems are not of their own making. In most cases, however, the gun appeared after failure to attend to business in good time. Instead of being proactive early, they procrastinated until the due date became a crisis deadline.

By the Inch Life’s a Cinch, by the Yard It’s Hard

One of the best escapes from the prison of procrastination is to take even the smallest steps toward your goals. People usually procrastinate because of fear and lack of self-confidence and, ironically, become even more afraid when under the gun. There are many ways to experiment and test new ground without risking the whole ball game on one play.

Experience has shown that when people go after one big goal at once, they invariably fail. If you had to swallow a 12-ounce steak all at once, you’d choke. You have to cut the steak into small pieces, eating one bite at a time. So it is with prioritizing. Proactive goal achievement means taking every project and cutting it up into bite-sized pieces. Each small task or requirement on the way to the ultimate goal becomes a mini-goal in itself. Using this method, the goal becomes manageable. When mini-mistakes are made, they are easy to correct. And with the achievement of each mini-goal, you receive reinforcement and motivation in the form of positive feedback. As basic as this sounds, much frustration and failure is caused when people try to “bite off more than they can chew” by taking on assignments with limited resources and impossible timeline expectations.

Two major fears that sire procrastination are fear of the unknown and fear of rejection or looking foolish. A third fear—of success—is often overlooked. Many people, even many executives, fear success because it carries added responsibility that can seem too heavy to bear, such as setting an example of excellence that calls for additional effort and willingness to take risks. Success, without adequate self-esteem or the belief that it is deserved, also can create feelings of guilt and the result is only temporary or fleeting high achievement. Playing it safe can seem more tempting than a need to step forward with determination to do it now and do it right.

In the next issue, I’ll give you 10 ideas to help you move from procrastination to proactivation!

-- Denis Waitley

Adaptability in Action

by Denis Waitley

In a way, human beings behave like bees. If you place several bees in an open-ended bottle and lay the bottle on its side with the base toward a light source, the bees will repeatedly fly to the bottle bottom toward the light. It never occurs to them to reverse gears and try another direction. This is a combination of genetic programming and learned behavior.

Put a bunch of flies in that bottle and turn the base toward a bright light. Within a few minutes, all the flies will have found their way out. They try all directions—up, down, toward the light, away from the light, often bumping into the glass—but sooner or later they flutter forth into the neck of the bottle and out the opening.

We often allow ourselves to become locked in our present circumstances—even if we are unhappy and really want to be reaching in a new direction. What we’re doing may make us miserable, but at least it’s familiar. One of the most important factors in achieving personal success is the willingness to try things out, to experiment, to test new ground. In fact, this is the only way to learn and progress: trial, error, feedback, knowledge, trial and success. It is a far better thing to try to succeed and fail, than to do nothing and succeed.

This week:

* Try it
* Change it
* Do it

Stop stewing and start doing!

-- Denis Waitley