Financial Independence

by Jim Rohn

Shortly after I met my mentor he asked me, "Mr. Rohn, how much money have you saved and invested over the last six years?" And I said, "None." He then asked, "Who sold you on that plan?"

It is better to be a lender than a spender.

To become financially independent you must turn part of your income into capital; turn capital into enterprise; turn enterprise into profit; turn profit into investment; and turn investment into financial independence.

Financial independence is the ability to live from the income of your own personal resources.

If you depend on your company to take care of your retirement, your future income will be divided by five. Take care of it yourself, and you can multiply your future income by five.

I remember saying to my mentor, "If I had more money, I would have a better plan." He quickly responded, "I would suggest that if you had a better plan, you would have more money." You see, it's not the amount that counts; it's the plan that counts.

If you were to show me your current financial plan, would I get so excited by it that I would go across the country and lecture on it? If the answer is no, then here's my question: "Why not"? Why wouldn't you have a superior financial plan that is taking you to the places you want to go?

I used to say, "Things cost too much." Then my teacher straightened me out on that by saying, "The problem isn't that things cost too much. The problem is that you can't afford it." That's when I finally understood that the problem wasn't "it" – the problem was "me."

The Bible says that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It doesn't say that it is impossible!

Thriving Through the Holidays

by Jim Rohn

The holidays are upon us; a time of celebration and joy. I love the last days of November through the beginning of the New Year. The pure magic of the holidays is something that I anticipate and enjoy each and every year.

For some though, the holidays have lost the joy and excitement they at other times have had. The pace of life has grown so fast - much faster than those first holidays I remember in my life - that some people don't enjoy the times they get to spend with their family and friends during what is supposed to be days filled with joy and peace.

Why is that? Probably a lot can be laid at the feet of how fast paced our times are, but that isn't all.

I believe our holiday times should be wonderful and filled with lasting and enjoyable moments and memories. So how can we ensure that we come out of the holidays in January with great memories of the past month? Here are six thoughts that will help you experience the holidays the way they were intended to be experienced:

1. Be Temperate.
Holidays can be days of excess for many -- too much food, too many cookies and treats. Too much chocolate, schedules that are too busy. One thing that will help you enjoy the holidays is to be temperate. Enjoy the food. Enjoy the treats. Enjoy the busy schedule of activities and parties. But also be disciplined enough to know when to hold back, when to say, "No". When we go overboard we regret it and loose the opportunity to fully experience that moment. But when we enjoy a little and refrain from going too far, then we can enjoy all that little piece of time has to offer.

2. Lower Your Expectations.
Much of the frustration people experience from the holidays is from setting their expectations too high. They expect too much from friends or family, and when they don't get what they want, they get frustrated. They expect presents to be perfect and when they aren't, they get frustrated or disappointed. Instead of having huge expectations this holiday season, just take it as it comes and enjoy what you can. And this brings me to my next point.

3. Enjoy What You Can and Ignore the Rest.
This holiday season, go with an attitude of knowing that things will be what they will be. You can't control other people or their actions. If a family member pushes the limits of your patience, ignore that and instead focus on how much you can enjoy the time you have with other family members. If things don't go perfectly - which they won't - then enjoy what you can and let the rest slide. You will feel a lot better about life if you can take all things a little easier.

4. Stay Out of Debt.
Debt is a killer. It will steal your enjoyment of life. Be sure to stay within your financial boundaries this holiday season. The last thing you want is to start the New Year with a deeper burden financially. Know where you are financially and stay within those limits. You don't have to impress anyone, just buy gifts that you can afford and express your heartfelt feeling in the giving of the gift.

5. Take Time for Yourself.
Be sure that no matter how busy you get, that you take time for yourself. Take time to read. Take a long bath if that relaxes you. Take a walk. Spend some time of quiet in front of a fire. Don't rush through the holidays and sap all of your energy. Your mind and body need to be reenergized, so be sure to take time to do so.

6. Focus on Your Spiritual Life.
Ultimately, no matter what tradition you come from, the holidays are historically days in which we focus on the spiritual. Men and women are created with a natural draw toward spiritual life. However, our culture today tends to stay away from a focus on the spiritual, and that has even crept into our holidays. Be sure to place an emphasis on building your spiritual life and growing in that area. This will help keep you grounded and able to deal with anything that may come your way.

Friends, we are coming to the end of another year. I have enjoyed this year immensely! This time of year is another chance to remember the important truths of life and to enjoy time with dear friends and family.

May you experience the very best this holiday season and move into January better than ever!

To Your Success, Joy and Peace,
Jim Rohn

How to Trigger Great Ideas

By Brian Tracy

A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions. There is something about a well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights.

Questions Stimulate Creative Thinking
Some of the best questions I've found for business problem solving are the following:

Clarify Your Desired Result
Question #1 "What are we trying to do?" Whenever you become frustrated with slow progress for any reason, step back and ask this again and again, "What are we trying to do?"

Analyze Your Current Methods
Question #2 "How are we trying to do it?" If you are experiencing resistance, perhaps your method is wrong. Be willing to objectively analyze your approach by asking, "How are we trying to do it?" Is this the right way? Could there be a better way? What if our method was completely wrong? How else could we approach it?

Could You Be Wrong? It requires courage to face the possibility that you may be wrong but it also leads to your seeing new possibilities. The rule is: Always decide what's right before worrying about who's right.

Question Your Assumptions
Another good question is, "What are our assumptions?" About the person, the product, the market, the business? What are our assumptions? Could we be assuming something that is incorrect? Someone once said that "Errant assumptions lie at the root of every failure".

What if your unspoken or implied assumptions were wrong? What would you have to do differently?

Put Past Decisions on Trial
Another form of focused questioning is what I call "Zero based thinking." This method requires that you put every past decision on trial for its life regularly by asking, "If I had not made this decision, knowing what I now know, would I make it?" If I had not hired this person or gotten involved in this project, knowing what I now know, would I do it over again?

If the answer is "NO" to one of these questions, then your aim should be to get out of the decision as fast as possible. Be willing to "cut your losses," and try something else.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to trigger more and better ideas.

First, be very clear about exactly what it is that you are trying to do. Write it down and describe it as if it were already achieved.

Second, question your assumptions continually. What if there were a better way? Be willing to try something completely different.

Dedicate Yourself to Idea Tithing

by Mark Victor Hansen

Just think what could happen if we all tithed ten percent of our ideas back to the world in ways that would help to create wealth and prosperity for everyone and everything. The possibilities would be extraordinary!

Because we are all unique thinking minds and spirits, each of us has unique capabilities that no one else has or can ever have. If we each decided to create ideas, concepts, plans and solutions, every person and every creature on this planet would benefit.

The great thing about idea tithing is that it's free. It costs us nothing. Once we begin to think of just one idea that would benefit the universe, more ideas will follow. Pretty soon each of us will have hundreds of ideas. And our individual ideas, when told to other individuals, will act as a springboard for their ideas. We will inspire each other.

Begin idea tithing today. An idea can take nothing and turn it into something.

The Myth of What We Manage

by Chris Widener
(excerpted from Week 22 of the Jim Rohn One Year Success Plan)

Perhaps it is merely semantics, but an underlying problem I find that people have as it relates to the success in their life lies in a proper understanding of what exactly it is they manage. Think about it. We have time management (in fact, I present a seminar on this very topic, some of which is excerpted below), and financial management, and relational management, weight management, career management and many, many more.

The fact is though, that we don't manage any of those things. What we do manage is ourselves, and how we relate to those things. We don't manage time. Time clicks by, second by second, whether we do anything or not. What we do is manage ourselves, and our activities, as the time passes. We make choices as to what we will do and be involved in. The problem as well as the solution lies not with time, but with us.

So as we live our lives and pursue success, one of the keys to grab onto is the idea that the most important thing we can manage isn't a thing at all - it is ourselves!

How then can we manage ourselves? Here are some thoughts.

Make sure that the above is firmly ingrained in your thinking: I only manage myself. I can choose how I will act and react in every situation. Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "The history of free men is not written by chance, but by choice, their choice."

Know your priorities. Do you know from top to bottom what your priorities are? Have you decided what the top ten things are that you want to spend your time on? How about with your money? Only after you know these things can you properly manage yourself into choosing to live in line with your priorities.

Learn to say "no" with a smile on your face. Here is where most of us fail. We do not choose to say "no" to those things that are not a matter of priority (the reason "why" is another article and probably a few counseling sessions at that!). Someone calls us up and asks us to do something for them (usually because they haven't managed themselves and would like our help picking up the pieces) and we say "Uh, I guess so." Then what? We usually kick ourselves for the rest of the day. "Why did I ever say yes?" Instead, practice this, "Gee, I am really sorry but I am not going to be able to be involved this time. I am sure you will be able to find somebody though." Go ahead and try it right now. Weird, isn't it? That is because we don't say it very often.

Schedule your priorities into your schedule, budget or whatever structure governs that particular area of your life. For example, do you have a financial budget that you yourself set? Then do you first and foremost allocate your money in that way, say, at the beginning of the month? If you do, you will eliminate even the opportunity to blow your money on impulse decisions and expenses because your money has already been committed to the priorities of your own choosing. The same principles apply to your management of time.

Remember, one of the greatest gifts God gave us is the ability to choose. And we can choose to manage ourselves appropriately according to our priorities. As we do, we will find ourselves feeling less and less of the personal pain and frustration we sometimes feel when we are out of control and not managing ourselves based on our priorities.

Chris Widener

Change/Choice/Decision

by Jim Rohn

One of the best places to start to turn your life around is by doing whatever appears on your mental "I should" list.

Indecision is the thief of opportunity.

Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

Decision making can sometimes seem like inner civil war.

I used to say, "I sure hope things will change." Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change.

Don't say, "If I could, I would." Say, "If I can, I will."

It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off! You cannot make progress without making decisions.

We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.

If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree.

Personal Development - The Plan

by Jim Rohn
(excerpted from the Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan)

All good things in life are upstream, but the natural flow of life is that downward, negative pull. To combat that downward pull, you need a plan, a map to help you reach your desired destination.

As we all know, our results are only as good as our plan. My mentor, Mr. Earl Schoaff, taught me that it's not what happens that determines the major part of our future, because what happens, happens to us all. Instead, he taught me that the key is what we do about it. If we start the process of change by developing a plan, doing something different in this next year than we did the previous year, it won't matter how small those efforts start. Start doing different things with the same set of circumstances - the ones we've always had and cannot change - and see what miracles occur. If we start the miracle process and change ourselves, then everything changes. And here's what is interesting, the difference between success and failure is so subtle. Let me explain by giving you my definitions of failure and success. Here it is: Failure is a few Errors in judgment repeated every day. The man says, "Well I didn't walk around the block today and it didn't kill me, so it must be okay." No, no, it is that kind of error in judgment that after six years has him out of breath and panting as he walks from his car to his office. You can't make those kinds of mistakes; it will end up costing you.

Now, here is my definition of success: A few simple Disciplines practiced every day. Do you see the distinction? A few disciplines... Here's a little phrase we've all heard, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." And my question to you is, "What if that's true?" How simple and easy is that plan?

The fact is, when you look at successful people, you will almost always discover a plan behind their success. They know what they want, they work out a plan that will get them where they want to go, and they work their plan. It is the foundation for success. We as humans have the unique ability to affect change in our lives; it is through our own conscious choice when we engage in the miracle process of personal development that we are able to transform our nature and our lives.

So, what are some good ideas on developing a plan that will work well and take you to the finish line powerfully and in style? Here are some major points to keep in mind:

Develop the Plan for You.

Some people are very detail-oriented and they will be able to follow an intricate plan closely. Others are a little more "free-wheeling" and not really "detail" people. That is okay too. In all the years of my speaking to audiences worldwide, people have asked the question, "what plan is the right plan?" And my answer, the plan that fits you. Your plan, the one you develop that is unique to you and for you. You see, each of us is unique and motivated by different factors and you've got to develop one that is right for you and fits you. Some plans will not be as intricate as others but we all must have a plan, along with goals in that plan, to move us along the program. If you are a free spirit type, don't tell yourself you are going to spend 2 hours a day with a book and tapes and journal. It probably won't happen and you will get discouraged! Whatever your personality, your strengths and your weaknesses, develop the plan around them! This is not a one-plan-fits-all proposition.

Establish Times to Spend Working on the Material.

It may be every Sunday night. It may be 20 minutes each morning. It may be in the car listening to the CDs every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Whatever it is, set the times and do it. In your step-by-step plan, put down points that you can accomplish every week. They should be specific and achievable. Develop the discipline and take those steps every day, which will move you closer to your goals and where you want to be.

Keep a Journal. Take notes.

It may be on paper, it may be on a micro-recorder. Mr. Schoaff taught me not to trust my memory, but to write it down, to find one place to gather the information that affects change. And that advice has served me well all these years. Record the ideas and inspiration that will carry you from where you are to where you want to be. Take notes on the ideas that impact you most. Put down your thoughts and ideas. Brainstorm with yourself on where you are going and what you want to do. Record your dreams and ambitions. Your journals are a gathering place for all the valuable information that you will find. If you are serious about becoming wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured, unique, if you come across something important write it down. Two people will listen to the same material and different ideas will come to each one. Use the information you gather and record it for further reflection, for future debate and for weighing the value that it is to you.

Reflect.

Create time for reflection -- a time to go back over, to study again the things you've learned and the things you've done each day. I call it "running the tapes again" so that the day locks firmly in your memory so that it serves as a tool. As you go through the material in this plan, you will want to spend time reflecting on its significance for you. Regularly set aside time - here are some good guidelines for times to reflect: At the end of the day. Take a few minutes at the end of each day and go back over the day - who'd you talk to, who'd you see, what did they say, what happened and how'd you feel, what went on. A day is the piece of the mosaic of your life. Next, take a few hours at the end of the week to reflect on the week's activities - I would suggest at least one half-hour. Also during that weekly time, take a few minutes to reflect on how this material should be applied to your life and circumstances. Take a half day at the end of the month and a weekend at the end of the year so that you've got it so that it never disappears, to ensure that the past is even more valuable and will serve your future well.

Set Goals.

Remember that your plan is the roadmap for how you are going to get to your goals, so you have to have them. Of all the things that changed my life for the better (and most quickly), it was learning how to set goals. Mastering this unique process can have a powerful affect on your life too. I remember shortly after I met Mr. Shoaff, he asked me if I had a list of my goals, and of course I didn't. He suggested to me that because I lacked a set of clearly defined goals that he could guess my bank balance within a few hundred dollars... and he did! Well, Mr. Shoaff immediately began helping me define my view of the future, my dreams. He taught me to set goals because it is the greatest influence on a person's future and the greatest force that will pull a person in the direction that they want to go. But the future must be planned, well designed to exert a force that pulls you towards the promise of what can be.

Act.

Act on your plan. What separates the successful from the unsuccessful so many times is that the successful simply do it. They take action, they aren't necessarily smarter than others; they just work the plan. And the time to act is when the emotion is strong. Because if you don't, here's what happens - it's called the law of diminishing intent. We intend to act when the idea strikes us, when the emotion is high, but if we delay and we don't translate that into action fairly soon, the intention starts to diminish, diminish and a month from now it's cold and a year from now it can't be found. So set up the discipline when the idea is strong, clear and powerful - that's the time to work the plan. Otherwise the emotion is wasted unless you capture the emotion and put it into disciplined activities and translate it into equity. And here's what is interesting: all disciplines affect each other; everything affects everything. That's why the smallest action is important -- because the value and benefits that you receive from that one little action will inspire you to do the next one and the next one... So step out and take action on your plan because if the plan is good, then the results can be miraculous.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Ten Steps To Goal Getting

by Zig Ziglar

These ten steps will help you achieve your goals in 2009.

1. Make the commitment to reach your goal. "One person with a commitment is worth a hundred who only have an interest." Mary Crowley.

2. Commit yourself to detailed accountability. Record your progress toward your goals every night, and list the six most important things you need to do the next day. Daily discipline is the key to reaching your goals.

3. Build your life on a sold foundation of honesty, character, integrity, trust, love, and loyalty. This foundation will give you an honest shot at reaching any goal you have set properly.

4. Break your intermediate and long-range goals into increments.

5. Be prepared to change. You can't control the weather, inflation, interest rates, Wall Street, etc. Change your decision to move toward a goal carefully--but be willing to change your direction to get there as conditions and circumstances demand.

6. Share your "give-up" goals (i.e., give up smoking, being rude, procrastinating, being late, eating too much, etc.) with many people. Chances are excellent they're going to encourage you.

7. Become a team player. Remember: You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.

8. See the reaching. In your imagination see yourself receiving that diploma, getting that job or promotion, making that speech, moving into the home of your dreams, achieving that weight-loss goal, etc.

9. Each time you reach a goal your confidence will grow so that you can do bigger and better things. After accomplishing any goal, record it in your journal, Weekly Planner or Palm Pilot.

10. Remember, what you get by reaching your destination isn't nearly as important as what you become by reaching your goals--what you will become is the winner you were born to be!

Made for Success Quote and Commentary

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

"Only great souls know the grandeur there is in charity." Jacques BéNigne Bossuet


Chris' Commentary:
I believe in hard work. I believe in responsibility. I also believe that most people choose the state they will have in life. But even the small percentage of people who are truly in need constitutes an extremely large number. These are the forgotten people. They are people who have suffered from seemingly nothing of their own doing. Perhaps it was at the hands of another, perhaps they are left behind because of situations that will forever remain a mystery and from things that humans have questioned the reasons for forever. Perhaps they suffer regrettably from mistakes they made, even what we would call foolish mistakes. It is in these cases that I believe in charity. We who would strive to attain the heights have the responsibility of humanity to reach back and give to those who are less fortunate than ourselves. And it is not only responsibility that gives us reason. It keeps us in touch with humanity. It keeps us real. And it will help us to become even more successful - successful people.

Action Point: Many people become charitable during the holidays, but what about taking some time to becoming charitable all year round. Find someone or some group who needs your money, energy, talents and gifts. Then commit yourself to being charitable. In this you will find your grandeur.

The Legacy We Leave in Our Relationships

by Chris Widener
(excerpted from Week 49 of the Jim Rohn One Year Success Plan)

I want to talk with you about the legacy we leave in our relationships. It seems especially important to consider at this time of year. Relationships are at the very core of our existence here and something we deal with every day of our lives and on every level of our lives. We have very superficial relationships with many people such as merchants we may meet as we go about our lives, and relationships that we consider intimate, such as the ones we experience with our immediate family and our mates.

Relationships provide us with both the most positive as well as the most negative experiences we have in our lives. There are those who, though they may never achieve fame or fortune in this world, will be remembered very highly by all who came in contact with them. Their funerals will overflow with people they have touched.

The pain and joy that can come as children remember their deceased parents is determined by the lives those parents lived and how well they maintained the relationships with their children.

And what it all comes down to is the ability to maintain healthy relationships.

I want to share with you the key components of establishing relationships that will allow you to leave a fantastic relational legacy.

Be Purposeful. People are busy and time flies. Put these two together and you have a recipe for disaster in the relationship department. Pretty soon you and your best friends have had months go by between times spent together. In order to have quality relationships we have to be purposeful.

This is especially true with couples and even more so for couples with small children. They need to be very purposeful in making sure they spend quality time together communicating and enjoying one another.

Be Proactive. This is the opposite of reactive. Reactive is when your spouse says, "We never spend any time together," and you respond by saying, "Okay, we will this week." It would be to sit down at the beginning of each month or week and schedule the time, or better yet have a weekly "date night." The key is to take control and schedule your relationships. Otherwise, they are going to get away from you.

Be Disciplined. Yes, it takes discipline to maintain healthy relationships. The discipline is to make investments regularly. This means the monthly lunch with a friend. It means the yearly hunting trip with friends from high school. It means cutting out of work early to go to your child's game. It means disciplining yourself to work harder during the day in order to leave at a set time so you can eat dinner with your family. All of these are acts of discipline. Just as we have to discipline ourselves in other areas of our lives - like exercising for health or investing for wealth - we have to discipline ourselves into actions that will produce strong and healthy relationships.

Value People above Possessions, Schedules and Achievements. The sooner we realize that we leave behind all of our stuff when we die, the sooner we will be able to focus on that which matters most--relationships. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that we shouldn't do our best to become successful financially or that we shouldn't enjoy material possessions. What I am saying is that should be secondary to healthy relationships. I can't imagine someone on their deathbed who says, "I wish I would have left an estate of ten million dollars instead of five million." No, people get to the ends of their lives and wish they would have invested more in their relationships.

Be Loving. I don't mean to be guided by emotional feelings of "love." Feelings come and go. This is what I mean when I say loving: to always act in such a way as to do what is best for the other person. Love is not feelings, but actions. When we say that we love someone, we mean that we are committed to their best interests. If we are lucky, those commitments are coupled with strong emotional bonds as well.

Be Forgiving. The fact is this: Where there are people, mistakes will be made. I don't care if you are the nicest guy on earth (or married to him), you will have some breakdowns in your relationship on occasion. That is the nature of being human. Other people will fail you and you will fail people.

And when this happens we must face a decision: Will we let the relationship remain broken or will we learn to forgive? An analogy might be in order. A relationship is like building a house. It has to have a strong foundation.

That is where you start. Then it must be built step by step until it is finished. During the building process there may be times when a beam falls or the two-by-fours break. The builder has a decision to make. Will he repair the building or let it go? If he chooses to let it go, the house will be weak and eventually fall into disrepair. Unfortunately, too many people let their relationships break and do not repair them by practicing forgiveness. People who leave successful relationships behind them practice the art of forgiveness.

Follow the Golden Rule. The golden rule of life is, "Do to others what you would want them to do to you." What is most interesting about this is that Christ was the first religious leader to say this in a positive way. Other leaders had said before to "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you." Relationships are about being proactive and doing for others.

When we wake up each day with the goal to follow the golden rule and do good in people's lives, we set ourselves on a course that will allow us to build a strong relational legacy.

Think of how you want to be remembered, and then live in such a way that you will be. If you want to be remembered as kind, then be kind. If you want to be remembered as strong, then be strong. If you want to be remembered as friendly, then be friendly. If you want to be remembered as forgiving and patient, then be forgiving and patient. What you do and how you act will add up to how you will be remembered.

It is possible to leave a wonderful relational legacy. If you follow the principles above, you will surely do so.

Chris Widener

Humor is Not Just Funny Business

by Harvey Mackay

The late Norman Cousins was a famous magazine editor and author when, at mid-life, he came down with what doctors believed was an incurable illness.

Cousins began an exhaustive study of the illness on his own and, in the process, proved to himself and others that laughter can be a major contributor to healing. This is because of the flow of endorphins from the adrenaline system every time you laugh or feel good.

To keep the endorphins flowing, Cousins watched every Marx Brothers movie he could put his hands on. He went to great lengths to maintain a positive frame of mind. It worked.

Cured miraculously, Cousins spent the last part of his life as a lecturer at the UCLA School of Medicine, working with medical students. He was fond of telling the students there that "the control center of your life is your attitude. Negative attitudes lead to illness, low self-esteem and depression. Positive attitudes lead to hope, love, caring, fun and endorphin flow from the adrenaline system."

Cousins proved that a big dose of positive thinking and laughter on a daily basis could contribute as much to your continued health and well being as a basket full of pills.

Laughter and humor are not only good for people, but they are healthy for companies. I've always thought that kidding around at work is a good thing, which is why I've encouraged it for years at our company. We don't start a sales meeting without a good, tasteful joke.

In recent years, a study done by a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher examined how humor affects the working environment.

Chris Robert, assistant professor of management in MU's College of Business, said that humor—particularly joking around about things associated with the job—actually has a positive impact in the workplace. Occasional humor among colleagues, he said, enhances creativity, department cohesiveness and overall performance.

"Humor is pretty important," said Robert. "It's not just clowning around and having fun. It has meaningful impact on cohesiveness in the workplace and communication quality among workers. The ability to appreciate humor, the ability to laugh and make other people laugh actually has physiological effects on the body that cause people to become more bonded."

I remember seeing a short article in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago that confirmed a belief I've held for years. I've always felt that humor is the unrecognized indicator of any business' true condition. The magazine pointed out how humor was the great, hidden metric for measuring a company's healthiness or lack thereof. It's seldom recognized or thought of when analyzing businesses.

In life in general, jokes are used to relieve anxiety, to mask hostility, to defuse potentially incendiary situations, and to expose truths that make people uneasy. That's why political jokes are a staple of late night comedy shows and standup comic routines. That's why the powerful are often lampooned in variety-show sketches and in newspaper editorial cartoons.

Everyone knows and can recognize the difference between humor that's affectionate and humor that's a dig. Every organization, every team, every group has malcontents and naysayers who drag down esprit de corps. It's a good idea, especially in business, to eliminate such people. Their negativity ultimately infects others and hurts morale, and, as a corollary, productivity.

Good managers monitor humor. You can learn plenty about your employees through company skits, cartoons posted on bulletin boards, jokes circulated via email, caustic remarks made in meetings, and nicknames assigned to managers. You have only to look at classic movies like "Mister Roberts," or "The Caine Mutiny" to see what devastating effects a bad boss can have on morale.

Managers who are remote never learn this lesson. They ignore company humor. They fail to circulate. They never walk through the plant, factory or office. When they shun close contact with employees, even those in the most basic positions, they cut themselves off from real knowledge: how the enterprise is doing in the hearts and minds of its most important constituents—the people working for it.

When you really get right down to it, fostering positive company-wide humor should be part of management's responsibility. Good managers pay attention to what their employees are saying, doing and feeling. A good sense of humor never hurts anyone.

The Qualities of Skillful Leadership

by Jim Rohn

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. I call leadership the great challenge of life.

What's important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here are some specifics:

1) Learn to be strong but not rude. It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It's not even a good substitute.

2) Learn to be kind but not weak. We must not mistake kindness for weakness. Kindness isn't weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell somebody the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.

3) Learn to be bold but not a bully. It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you've got to walk in front of your group. You've got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble.

4) You've got to learn to be humble, but not timid. You can't get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. Humility is almost a God-like word. A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit. An understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we're part of the stars. So humility is a virtue; but timidity is a disease. Timidity is an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem.

5) Be proud but not arrogant. It takes pride to win the day. It takes pride to build your ambition. It takes pride in community. It takes pride in cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is being proud without being arrogant. In fact, I believe the worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance. It's when you don't know that you don't know. Now that kind of arrogance is intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that's just too much to take.

6) Develop humor without folly. That's important for a leader. In leadership, we learn that it's okay to be witty, but not silly. It's okay to be fun, but not foolish.

Lastly, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony. Just accept life like it is. Life is unique. Some people call it tragic, but I'd like to think it's unique. The whole drama of life is unique. It's fascinating. And I've found that the skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. But the fundamental skills of leadership can be adapted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community, and at home.

Seven Self-Motivators

by Brian Tracy
(excerpted from the Success Mastery Academy)

Here are seven Self-Motivator reminders for you to review on a regular basis.

#1 - Get Serious.

Make a decision to go all the way to the top. Up to now you've thought about it. Up to now, it's passed your mind. Many of you made the decision, and you've made up your mind to go all the way to the top, and your lives have taken off. It's the most extraordinary thing. Your life is one, like in the shadow going up the dark side of the hill until the moment you decide that "By gum, I'm gong to be the best at what I do. I'm going to be in the top 10 percent." And suddenly you rose into the sunshine, and your life is forever after different - wonderful. Get serious. Don't fool around anymore.

#2 - Identify Your Limiting Step to Sales Success.

What's your limiting step? What's the one skill area that's holding you back? What's the skill? What's the quality? What's the action? Ask other people. Find out what you need to become good at. Sometimes it may be only one skill. If you became really, really good on the telephone, you could maybe double your prospecting effectiveness and double your sales. If you became very, very good at getting the order at the end from qualified prospects, you could double your sales. If you became very, very good at managing your time to really, really manage your time well, you may be able to double your face time and double your income. Find out what's holding you back. What is the critical limiting step that's determining your success today?

#3 - Get Around the Right People.

Who are the right people? The right people are the people in this room. Get around winners. Get around positive people. Get around people with goals and plans, people who are going somewhere with their lives and have high aspirations. Get around eagles. As Zig says, "You can't scratch with the turkeys if you want to fly with the eagles." And get away from negative people. Get away from toxic people that complain and whine and moan all the time. Who needs them? Life is too short.

#4 - Take Excellent Care of Your Health.

Take excellent care of your physical health. That means good diet, good exercise. Everybody knows they should eat better foods, get regular exercise and especially lots of rest. That's very important. If you're going to work hard 5 days a week, go to bed early 5 days a week. Get a good night's sleep. Be fully rested, and tonight get really rested. You don't have to watch the Letterman Show...

#5 - Positive Visualization.

See yourself as the very best in your field. Remember, all improvement in your life begins with an improvement in your mental pictures. Visualize yourself, see yourself as the best continually. You are the best. Isn't that right? So therefore, see yourself as the best.

#6 - Positive Self-Talk.

Talk to yourself positively all the time. Control your inner dialogue. And what do you say to yourself? Say, "I'm the best." Say it. Say I'm the best. I like myself. I can do it. I love my work. Yes, that's how you talk to yourself. And the more you say it to yourself...someone may say, "Well, what if you say those things to yourself and you don't believe them. Isn't that lying to yourself?" No, that's not lying to yourself. It's telling the truth in advance. Because it doesn't matter where you're coming from - all that matters is where you're going. Talk to yourself the way you want to be, not the way you just happen to be at this moment. Remember, you may have gotten where you are today largely by accident. But where you're going in the future is purely by design.

#7 - Positive Action.

Get going. Move fast. Develop a sense of urgency. A sense of urgency is the one thing that you can develop that will separate you from everyone else in your field. Develop a bias for action. When you get a good idea, do it now. Only 2% of people in our society have a bias for action. And if you're already in the top 10%, you can move yourself in the top 2% by resolving that whenever you have an idea or something, do it now. And the faster you move, the better you get. And the better you get, the more you like yourself. And the more you like yourself, the higher your self-esteem is. And the higher your self-esteem is, the greater your self-discipline. And the more you persist, then you ultimately become unstoppable.

Remember, You're the best!

Brian Tracy

Personal Development

by Jim Rohn

To attract attractive people, you must be attractive. To attract powerful people, you must be powerful. To attract committed people, you must be committed. Instead of going to work on them, you go to work on yourself. If you become, you can attract.

We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are.

The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit.

Pity the man who inherits a million dollars and who isn't a millionaire. Here's what would be pitiful: If your income grew and you didn't.

The most important question to ask on the job is not "What am I getting?" The most important question to ask on the job is "What am I becoming?"

It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal development.

After you become a millionaire, you can give all of your money away because what's important is not the million dollars; what's important is the person you have become in the process of becoming a millionaire.

Income seldom exceeds personal development.

What you become directly influences what you get.

Multiple Skills for the 21st Century

by Jim Rohn

I believe that in the 21st Century it is so important to have multiple skills. But what I also find is that if you are already in sales, network marketing or have an entrepreneurial business (or plan to in the future); you can gain the needed skills for the future while you create your income now.

Here's my short list for on the job training, so that you can learn while you earn.

1) SALES
I began my journey with sales, which of course dynamically changed my life back at age 25. The first year I multiplied my income by five. I was raised in farm country. I knew how to milk cows, but it didn't pay well. But sales altered the course of my life, learning to present a valid product in the marketplace, talk about its virtues and get somebody to say "yes." And then give them good service.

2) RECRUITING
Then came recruiting, how to expand my business, build an organization. We have all heard the question, is it better to have one person selling a $1000 or have 100 people selling $10? If you ask me, I'll take the 100 at $10. Recruiting, the ability to multiply your efforts, once mastered, is one of life and leadership's greatest time management resources.

3) ORGANIZING
Then I learned organizing. Keeping your own schedule can be difficult at times, but now you are having to balance multiple tasks and people to get maximum results. But you will find that the payoff is massive once you have tapped into the synergy and momentum of group dynamics and teamwork.

4) PROMOTION
Next is promotion. First it's the spring campaign and then the fall campaign, and then it's this month's objective's campaign. You never know when it's going to click for someone to want or need to buy from you or be a part of what you are doing, so having the offer or the special or the contest going when they're ready can make all the difference.

5) RECOGNITION
Then it's the recognition. Some people work harder for recognition than they do for money. It's the chance to belong. Getting people to do something that ordinarily on their own, they wouldn't think of doing. They could, but they don't think of it. You come along with a little promotion for this month or this quarter and everything changes for them, and I found that paid big money.

6) COMMUNICATION
Then I learned communication. How to do the training, how to do the teaching, and probably the greatest gift of all is learning how to inspire with words. Inspire people to see themselves better than they are; all of those gifts, all of those skills. Being the voice that tells them they have made a wise decision and here's why.

Now, I believe with just this little short list I've given you, you'll be equipped. We've all watched what has happened the last 15 years. The guy had one skill - the company downsizes. His division is eliminated and since he only had one skill, now he is vulnerable. He's wandering around saying, "Oh my, the last few years I should have taken some classes that would have taught me a couple of more things and I wouldn't be here in this vulnerable position."

So my admonition -- learn some multiple skills, or should we say, back-up skills for the 21st Century and no better place to learn them than in what your already doing now.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn