Decide Upon Your Major Definite Purpose

By Brian Tracy

Since you become what you think about most of the time, a major definite purpose gives you a focus for every walking moment. As Peter Drucker said, "Whenever you find something getting done, you fine a monomaniac with a mission." The more you think about your major definite purpose and how to achieve it, the more you activate the Law of Attraction in your life. Helping you to attract people, opportunities, ideas, and resources to move more rapidly toward your goal and move your goal more rapidly toward you.

Activate Your Reticular Cortex
Each person has within his or her brain a special organ called the "reticular cortex." This small, finger-like part of the brain functions in a way similar to a telephone switchboard in a large office building. Just as all phone calls are received by the central switchboard and then rerouted to the appropriate recipient, all incoming information to your senses is routed through your reticular cortex to the relevant part of your brain or your awareness.

A Red Sports Car
Imagine that you decided that you wanted a red sports car. You write this down as a goal. You begin to think about and visualize a red sports car. This process sends the message to your reticular cortex that a red sports car is now important to you. A picture of a red sports car immediately goes up onto your mental radar screen. From that moment onward, you will start to notice red sports cars wherever you go. You will see them parked in driveways and in showrooms. Everywhere you go, your world will seem to be full of red sports cars.

"Bring Wealth, Happiness, Prosperity, Joy and Love into your Life Over and Over Again!" Learn how to bring wealth, happiness, prosperity, joy and love into your life over and over again. In this exciting program, you will learn everything you need to start letting the Law of Attraction work for you! Click for more >>

Achieve Financial Independence
If you decide to become financially independent, you will suddenly begin to notice all kinds of opportunities and possibilities around you that have to do with achieving your financial goals. You will see stories in newspapers and recognize books on the subject everywhere you go. It will seem as though you are surrounded by ideas and information that can be helpful to you in achieving your financial goals. On the other hand, if you do not give clear instructions to your reticular cortex and your subconscious mind, you will go through life as though you were driving in a fog.

Your Major Definite Purpose
Your major definite purpose can be defined as the one goal that is most important to you at the moment. It is usually the one goal that will help you to achieve more of your other goals than anything else you can accomplish. It must be something that you personally really want. It must be clear and specific. Your goal must be measurable and quantifiable. Your major definite purpose must be in harmony with your other goals. If you use your reticular cortex and keep your goal in your mind you are bound to achieve it.

Action Exercise
Determine how you will measure progress and success of achieving your goal. Write it down.

找出熱情 堅持理想 - 劉揚銘

一個西裝筆挺的上班族，每天總是最早上班、最晚下班；有時候工作到汗流浹背，體力好像永無止盡；碰到困難時，更是不達目的絕不停止；還有，他似乎無時無刻都在想著工作的事……或許你會說，這樣的人根本就是「工作狂」。但是，如果為這個無名的上班族，股神（Warren Buffett）、Amazon創辦人（Jeff Bezos）、日本樂天市場創辦人三木谷浩史的名字，或許你會願意稱他為「成功的工作狂」。

工作狂總給人較偏負面的觀感，然而就好像你會想要跟喜愛的人在一起、吃你喜歡的食物，有些人就是喜歡、甚至熱愛工作。喜愛工作，未必會成功；但是，絕大多數的成功者，都是選擇了自己想熱情投入的事，所以總是比其他人更認真、更有毅力，很自然地成為一個「自得其樂的工作狂」，就像孩子認真玩耍的時候，永遠不覺得累。

有趣！所以總想做更多、做更好

巴菲特曾說：「我每天踩著輕快的舞步進辦公室，始終沒變，因為這份工作實在太有趣了。」亞馬遜書店（Amazon）創辦人傑夫•貝佐斯（Jeff Bezos）曾在訪談中被問道：「你為何持續不斷地工作？」貝佐斯愣了一會兒，反問說：「你要不要問我為何想『繼續活下去』呢？」在他們耳中，「為什麼那麼愛工作」根本是個無法理解的問題，因為他們早已選擇了最有趣、最有意義的事，自然不可能停下腳步。反觀大部分的工作者，總想著在贏得某些獎勵後，就可以悠閒地坐在海灘上休息。

日本樂天市場創辦人三木谷浩史坦承自己一天24小時都在想公司的事：「雖然可能會被批評是工作狂，但我很明白，這是最快樂的生活方式。」熱愛自己所做的事非常重要。「只有愛己所為，才能比隔壁同事做得更多、更好，如果你辦不到，很抱歉，老闆會另請高明。」對工作有熱情的人，永遠能超越漫不經心的工作者。

行動！願景是找出來的

熱情、理想、願景、心中的無聲吶喊……不論你怎麼稱呼，擁有熱情，是所有成功者的共同特徵。然而，熱情不是憑空而來，是需要被「尋找發現」的。所以，成功者都會激勵自己不斷試探，以找出熱情。成功的領導人，通常是察覺到某些需求，當他們滿足了這些需求，又會看到另一個需求，最後他們意識到，應當將這些需求一般化，並找出制度化的手段，來維持自己的努力。

堅持！挫折也不會動搖目標

實踐理想的途中，挫折難免，但擁有熱情，便能在面臨逆境時有所堅持、面臨取捨時有勇氣決定，這也是成功者毅力的泉源。堅守正確的理念，是不可動搖的習慣。每個成功的故事背後，都有許多不確定因子。然而，找出自己有熱情的路、堅持自己的價值觀，並且忠於自己認為有意義的事物，絕對有助於在邁向成功的路上，不斷地激勵著自己。

The Winner's Circle by Dr. Denis Waitley

Every four years we see those five brilliant, interlocking Olympic rings on flags and in television and billboard advertising globally. The Olympic Games are where the best in the world go for the gold and the few stand, listening to their national anthem, in the coveted winner’s circle. If the five Olympic rings were attitudes of champions in every profession, these five attitudes would be prominent in the mindset of the peak performer:

Paying the Price. Everyone wants to win, but few are willing to invest the time and effort. Paying the price means focusing on developing the skills and training regimen of champions—observation, imitation, repetition and the internalization of knowledge into habits; also, learning why and how to go the extra mile and seeing success as a marathon, not a dash. Champions view failures as temporary inconveniences and learning experiences.

The Olympian Within. Winners believe in their worth in advance of their performance. Most people base their worth on their current status or achievement level, which means that until they are judged successful by society’s standards, they have little to be proud of. Champions believe in their dreams when they have only a dream to hang on to, even in the face of criticism and superior achievements by others.

Non-situational Integrity. Authentic, lasting winners have an uncompromising attitude about self-honesty. They function according to an “integrity triangle,” consisting of three basic questions: (a) Are my beliefs based upon truth? (b) Do my words and actions correspond with truth and honesty? (c) Before I speak or act, do I honestly consider the impact of my decision on other people and the environment?

The “Coachability” Factor. Champions are always open to alternatives to improve their performance. Consistent winners are not the arrogant egotists who dominate the media spotlight. The most successful individuals in the game of life are often the most approachable, most gracious, least judgmental of others and most critical of their own performances, as well as most eager to learn and improve.

Being a Team Player. A team in harmony is synergy in motion, where the whole is greater than the sum of the individual talents. When all assignments are understood, when each takes 100 percent responsibility for the outcome, a quantum leap in performance takes place. Winners learn how to become interdependent—without sacrificing individuality—and how to stand out, while fitting in.

The Laws of Time Management

By Brian Tracy

Everything you are today and everything you become in the future will be determined by the way you think and the way you use your time. Your attitude toward time is a critical factor in all you do and everything you accomplish.

The Law of Clarity
The clearer you are about your goals and objectives, the more efficient and effective you will be in achieving them. Clarity accounts for probably 80 percent of success and happiness. People with clear, written goals accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.

The Law of Priorities
Your ability to set clear and accurate priorities on your time determines the entire quality of your life. To achieve great things, you must always be concentrating on the small number of activities that contribute the greatest value to your life and your work.

The Law of Posteriorities
Before you start something new, you must discontinue something old. You can gain control of your life only to the degree to which you stop doing things that are no longer as valuable or as important to you as other thing you could be doing.

"A Goal Without a Plan is Only a Dream…" If you dream of achieving great things in life, planning for making them a reality on paper is vital to your success. The Life Planning Process is a step-by-step manual to help you set and achieve your goals. Using this Action Workbook will guarantee that you stay on course, on time and on target. Learn more here >>

The Law of the Most Valuable Asset
Your most valuable asset is your earning ability. Your ability to earn money is the most valuable asset you have. Your earning ability is a depreciating asset, like a car or a piece of equipment. You must continually maintain and upgrade the quality of your earning ability to keep yourself at the same high level of productivity, performance and output.

The Law of Planning
Every minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in execution. The purpose of "personal strategic planning" is for you to increase your "return energy," and return on the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual capital you have invested in your life and career.

The Law of Rewards
Your rewards will always be determined by your results. You will always be paid in direct proportion to what you do, how well you do it, and the difficulty in replacing you. The fastest way to get paid more and promoted faster is for you to achieve a greater quality and quantity of results for your company and yourself.

The Law of Sequentiality
Time management enables you to control the sequence of events in your life. Your entire life today is the sum total result of the quality of your choices and decisions to this moment. If you are not happy with any part of your life, it is up to you to begin to make different choices and better decisions.

Action Exercise
Analyze the way you spend a typical day or a typical week. What are the things you need to do more of, sooner, in order to improve the quality and quantity of your output and results?

How Saying No Drives Great Careers - By Dan Coughlin

Great organizations are defined by what they say no to. The same is true for great individual careers.

A great career is one where the individual made the type of contribution he or she believed was the optimal use of his or her talents, passions, and values and generated the types of desired outcomes that he or she wanted. In other words, the person generated both the desired input and output.

Manifesting such a career requires saying yes to a few key opportunities and saying no to a huge number of good, and possibly great, opportunities.

Dedicate Yourself to a Proposition

There have been literally hundreds and hundreds of books written about Abraham Lincoln. Why did he have such a memorable career? He dedicated his professional life, his career, to two propositions: "United we stand, and divided we fall" and "All men are created equal." These two propositions guided his career choices and his decisions within his various jobs. In the end, I think that's what made his career so successful: he remained committed to two very clear, important propositions.

Before reading on, take out a sheet of paper. Decide on the proposition that you are willing to dedicate yourself to. Write it down. You may end up rewriting it many times over the months to come. With a clear proposition in hand, you can then decide where to place your time and where not to place your time. Your proposition will help you to choose which roles you will want to fill and which roles you will not want to fill.

Choose Your Opportunity Costs Carefully

As you go about building a great career always take the time to clarify your opportunity costs, the things you are choosing not to have. If you choose to work as an employee, then you are choosing not to be an entrepreneur. If you choose to be an entrepreneur, you are choosing not to work for someone else. Both choices can be good, but you can't have both simultaneously.

Fifteen years ago I was considering starting my own business. I was a full-time, tenured teacher at a very well known high school in St. Louis. I wrote down my opportunity costs if I left, which included the following: really wonderful students would no longer just show up for me to teach, I would not have colleagues to bond with between classes or at lunchtime, I would not have a guaranteed paycheck every month or a guaranteed job for life, I would not have three months off in the summer time, and I would not have my curriculum to teach handed to me. To me that was a lot of opportunity costs to give up. Only once I became comfortable with what I was giving up was I able to go out on my own. However, once I left I didn't go back and try to teach at the high school while trying to run my own business.

I know people who did just the opposite. They were entrepreneurs and chose to teach or to work for someone else. They had considered their own opportunity costs of not running their own businesses and they chose to work inside an organization. My point here is you have to choose what you think is the best route for your career. I'm just encouraging you to step back and clarify what you will do and why you will do it and what you won't do and why you won't do it.

You have to choose your opportunity costs as much as, and maybe more than, your opportunities. As you consider your next career move, take out a sheet of paper and write down all the things you are not going to get as a result of going in the direction you are considering to take. Make sure you are comfortable with what you are giving up BEFORE you get comfortable with what you are going after.

The Choices of Charlie Rose

Charlie Rose is my favorite interviewer. The proposition that Charlie Rose has dedicated his career to is, "wanting viewers to feel like they were eavesdropping on a conversation each night -- fully engaged if not actually participating." He honed his craft over a number of years until he got the opportunity to do The Charlie Rose Show on PBS Television in 1991.

He had walked away from a well-paying program called Personalities in 1990 because he wanted to do a more serious talk show. He also said no to a full-time anchor slot on Sixty Minutes II in 1996 that would have earned him a great deal more than he makes on his own show on PBS. He turned it down because he felt doing his own show was, as he said, "the chance to find your own reality -- for yourself, not for others, what no man can ever know. In the end I have not finished the journey."

In saying no to a variety of opportunities, Charlie Rose defined who he was and who he wanted to become. He wants to do serious interviews with people on important topics without any pretense whatsoever. And he does it very well.

Actively Accept Limitations and Consequences

At some point, and I happen to think this is as good a time as any other, you have to get comfortable with the ideas of limitations and consequences. You can spend your whole life trying to be everything in the world and keep chasing one career dream after another. Or you can say, "I've chosen this path for my career. Here is the general path where I believe I can make my greatest contribution." And then be ok operating within the limitations and consequences of the career you have chosen. Actually, there's real power in deciding on the limitations you are going to accept. It means you are willing to get seriously focused at work that you have chosen to pursue.

In studying hundreds of really successful people, I've noticed that the best of the best stick with their chosen path. What's Steven Spielberg doing these days? He is still making movies. What's Oprah doing now that she's made billions? Still interviewing people to find out what they have to offer her audiences. What's Steve Jobs up to? He's working on guiding Apple to make electronic technology incredibly useful for consumers. What is Charlie Rose at the age of 67 doing tonight? He's interviewing one of the world's movers and shakers. Now that Bruce Springsteen has turned 60, what's he doing? Putting on great concerts. What's my mom doing today at the age of 80? She's still being a great stay-at-home mom as she has been for the past 54 years and caring for other people.

Be ok with who you are and who you are not. Stop wasting time always wanting to be someone else and always wanting a different career path. To manifest a great career you have to stick to the path of your own choosing, and not feel bad about all the paths you have chosen not to pursue. In reality, the more you consciously say no to alternative paths, the more sincerely you say yes to your life's work.

** To comment on this article or to read comments about this article, go here.

About the Author:

Visit Dan at http://www.thecoughlincompany.com. Dan is a student and teacher of practical processes that improve business performance. His purpose is to work with executives and managers so they achieve great performances. He is a business keynote speaker, management consultant, executive coach, and author of three books on management performance, including his newest, The Management 500: A High-Octane Formula for Business Success (AMACOM 2009), which has been endorsed by Jason Jennings, Marshall Goldsmith, and Brian Tracy.

Dan's clients include Coca-Cola, Abbott, Toyota, Prudential, Shell, Boeing, Marriott, McDonald's, Denny's, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Catastrophe? Or Inconvenience? - By Monica A. Frank

Listening to the weather forecast one frigid day, I realized how much we are influenced by the catastrophic thinking of the media. The weatherman reported, "The weather has brought more misery to the St. Louis area." Certainly, the weather was causing problems that day. An ice storm caused car doors and locks to be frozen so that people had a great deal of trouble getting into their cars. However, I thought, unless someone was in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone and they were unable to open their car door because of the ice, this was not "misery." Instead, I would call it an "inconvenience." Most of us walked out to our cars to find that we couldn't open the door, went back inside a warm house or office, and found some solution to our problem.

As a cognitive therapist I am well aware of the influence our thinking has upon moods and behavior. Yet, I became fascinated with how much we are inundated by negative messages that can seriously affect how we perceive a situation and how we feel. Many people may believe that I might be overstating the consequences of such a simple word as "misery." However, try a simple experiment for yourself. The next time it is raining, tell your colleagues or family "It's just miserable and dreary out" and watch their reactions. Do they tend to respond with a negative comment? Especially pay attention to their nonverbals: do they appear happy? Do they appear alert? Do they commiserate with a frown? Do their shoulders sag? Do they sigh? Then try telling others "I find listening to the sound of the rain so relaxing." Is there a difference in the nonverbals? Are they more likely to respond with pleasant conversation?

Such a simple and fairly insignificant example. Yet, if you find that people respond differently in these two conditions, imagine this response multiplied by all the daily influences in our lives: other people, television, internet, newspapers, radio. In fact, don't just imagine but pay attention to the words that are used by the media. Take a news article and highlight the emotionally influential words. Listen to a talk show and write down the times they make negative comments. How do you feel when you listen to a show with many negative words and comments? Do you feel more angry or burdened? Or do you feel refreshed or energized?

So why is this a serious problem? Because of the psychological concept "self-fulfilling prophecy." A self-fulfilling prophecy refers to a belief that creates an outcome. For example, if an individual is walking into a social gathering and thinks "I have so much trouble talking to people. I'm probably going to end up sitting by myself," he is likely to have exactly the outcome predicted. The negative thought and prediction causes the person to project certain nonverbal messages such as not smiling or lacking eye contact with others which tends to make him less approachable. In addition, he may be less likely to initiate contact because of the belief. And therefore, the prediction comes true and he sits in a corner by himself.

On the other hand, a self-fulfilling prophecy can also have a positive prediction. For example, let's say the person thinks "I have so much trouble talking to people. But I know I can introduce myself and smile and listen to others well. So I'll be able join a group and not sit by myself." This person is much more likely to have the positive outcome predicted.

Many years ago I treated a woman with severe Social Phobia. Terrified to be around others, she did her grocery shopping in the middle of the night and never interacted with others unless it was unavoidable. As she made progress in therapy, one day she reported excitedly "Someone asked me for directions at the mall." At first I was confused by this innocuous situation. However, she explained "Even when I was out in public in the past, no one ever approached me or smiled at me." Her previous self-fulfilling prophecy that no one could possibly like her had changed to the belief that she was a likeable person. As a result, her nonverbals had changed and other people could now approach her. This led to her being able to make friends, take classes, and get promoted to a supervisory position at work.

Therefore, my proposition is that the words we use can have quite an impact upon how we feel about a situation. If we look at a situation as an inconvenience rather than a catastrophe we will approach it differently and not feel as overwhelmed. One day a couple years ago just as I finished a session with my last client of the day in which we discussed this very topic and walked out to my car I noticed I had a flat tire. I said to myself, "This is an opportunity to practice what you preach. A flat tire is really just an inconvenience." However, I was supposed to teach a cardio kickboxing class that evening and I probably wasn't going to make it. So, I called AAA to fix my tire and another cardio teacher to handle my class continuing to remind myself that this is just an inconvenience. Prior to the truck from AAA arriving I received a call about someone I knew personally who was making suicidal threats and I needed to assist. Throughout all this I remained calm and handled both situations. Later, I recognized that by not responding as if it was a catastrophe that a friend was suicidal while my car was broke down, I was less stressed by the situation and was better able to assist.

Now, I'm certainly not saying that nothing is catastrophic. However, we need to be careful how many events we tend to classify in that category. I think in general we over-classify events as catastrophes. Most situations are not catastrophes and we need to keep perspective. For instance, one time when I was viewing things in my life more negatively, my husband looked up from the paper and said, "Here's an article about some folks in Ethiopia who were crossing the country on foot to get to another country for food and they were eaten by lions." That immediately put things in perspective for me because that was a true catastrophe.

A client I had who was dying of cancer once said to me, "If a problem can be solved by throwing money at it, it's not really a problem." She meant that even if you didn't have the money, it was still a solvable problem. Whereas, it didn't matter how much money she threw at the cancer, it was unsolvable. She was going to die no matter what.

Yet, in a philosophical sense, we could take this premise even further and question whether death is even a catastrophe. Suffering and death are normal parts of life just as joy and happiness are. I'm not saying we should embrace suffering and look forward to death, but I am saying that we can choose to focus on the joy and happiness in life by not making inconveniences into catastrophes.

Copyright © 2009 by http://www.excelatlife.com.

** To comment on this article or to read comments about this article, go here.

About the Author:

Dr. Monica A. Frank is a clinical psychologist specializing in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of anxiety and stress-related disorders including OCD, Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, and PTSD. In addition, she furthered her education in Sport and Exercise Psychology with a focus in performance enhancement after obtaining her black belt in Kenpo Karate. She has a private practice in St. Louis, MO and can be contacted at 314-843-0080. Also, she teaches cardio-kickboxing and tai chi at the Martial Arts Center (http://www.kenpousa.com). Additional articles can be found at http://www.excelatlife.com.

Napoleon's Key to Victory

By: Brian Tracy

The only real measure of business leadership is results. This requires the ability to act boldly with no guarantees of success. The greatest obstacle to overcome is fear of the unknown.

The Key to Confidence
Most fear however, is rooted in ignorance. The more knowledge or skill you have in any area, the less fear it holds. Napoleon Bonaparte is considered by historians to be perhaps the greatest single military leader who ever lived. More than 100,000 books have been written about him since his death on St. Helena.

Pay Attention to Detail
Napoleon's courage was legendary but it was not vain or impetuous. Napoleon was famous for his fastidious attention to detail, for taking pains to study and thoroughly understand every military situation he ever faced. He led the French army in hundreds of minor and major engagements and lost only three, the last one being Waterloo. The more you know about what you face, the lower your level of ignorance, the more courage and confidence you will have naturally. The more time you take to think through a situation, the more capable you will be of dealing with it when it arises. Napoleon planned for every contingency.

"How to Build Rock Solid Self-Confidence and Achieve all of Your Goals" The most successful people have incredible levels of self-confidence. They've accomplished great levels of success and happiness in their lives and seem to be unstoppable in everything that they do. The fact is, that when you develop unshakable self-confidence your whole world will change for the better. Click for more >>

Think About the Possibilities
He carefully considered and followed through to its natural conclusion every setback or possibility of defeat he might encounter and then he prepared against it. To be caught unprepared for unexpected setbacks is a mark of weak leadership. Confidence comes from the constructive use of pessimism, thinking about what could go wrong long before it does.

Action Exercises
Here are two ways you can apply Napoleon's strategy to your situation.

First, become an expert in your field. Never stop learning and growing. The more you know, the more confidence you will have.

Second, get the facts. Double check everything. Be prepared for unexpected setbacks and reversals. The more prepared you are, the more confidence you will have.

Finding Opportunities in Any Economy

by Jack Canfield

Your own beliefs and behaviors are great predictors of your success than any fluctuation in the marketplace. Even when the newspapers splash the word recession across the front page, you can write your own success story.

Master the Art of “Inverse Paranoia”

Start by becoming an “Inverse Paranoid”. What I mean by this is, believe that every event in your life is the seed for your greater good; something meant to enrich you, empower you or advance your cause.

Imagine how much easier it would be to succeed in life if you were constantly expecting the world to support you and bring you opportunity.

You can easily verify this belief for yourself. Just think about the last time that a terrible event turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

A big blessing for me came during the 1970’s when I lost my job. I was working at the Job Corps Center in Clinton, Iowa, pioneering new ways to teach underachieving students. One day the word came down that the center was being relocated – and I was being laid off.

While attending a workshop at the W. Clement & Jesse V. Stone Foundation in Chicago, I shared my predicament with the presenter. He happened to be vice president of the foundation, and he immediately offered me a job working with inner-city black and Latino kids.

I accepted the offer, and what I got in return was a bigger salary, an unlimited budget, and a laboratory for learning the success principles that transformed my life and launched a new career path.

Ask Yourself: What Opportunity Exists Here?

Take the fast track to inspiration by constantly asking yourself: What’s the opportunity here? Make this a habit, and you’ll stay calm and centered during any event that seems like a setback.

The beauty of this question is that it triggers your mind to respond with positive suggestions. Compare these to the useless information you get by asking yourself the questions such as: Why did this happen to me? Or, Who’s to blame for this mess?

If you get passed over for a promotion or your retirement account takes a hit in the stock market, remember to ask: What’s the opportunity here? – or one of its inspiring variations:

• What can I learn from this event?
• What will I do differently from now on?
• Who can I turn to as a mentor or coach?
• What’s my next action?

Remember the Three Things You Control

In a way, the economy is just a vague and sometimes ambiguous idea. It refers in a general way to trillions of dollars of goods, services and products by billions of people across the planet. When you face a financial challenge, it is the vast, impersonal economy at work? Or is it your personal economy, which you can directly control?

You can’t always count on the economy, but you can always rely on yourself.

Remember, you have absolute control over three things in your life:

1. The thoughts you think
2. The images your visualize
3. The actions you take (including what you say to others)

Your life experience is simply the sum total of the choices you make in these three areas. And you can attract new results at any time by making new choices. Use the ideas and exercise found in this article to do just that!

© 2010 Jack Canfield

A Special Kind of Courage

By: Brian Tracy

There are several different aspects of courage. Perhaps the most important is the courage to endure, to persist, to "hang in there" in the face of doubt, uncertainty and criticism from others.

Practice Patience in Adversity
This is called "courageous patience," the willingness and the ability to "stay the course" in the face of uncertainty, doubt and often criticism from many quarters.

Stay the Course
In my experience, there is a critical time period between the launching of a new venture and the results that come from that venture. During this hiatus, this waiting period, many people lose their nerve. They cannot stand the suspense of not knowing, of possible failure. They break and run in battle, they quake and quit in business.

The True Leader
But the true leader is the person who can stand firm, who refuses to consider the possibility of failure. The turning points of many key moments in human history have been the resolution, or lack thereof, of one person. Courageous patience is the acid test of leadership.

To encourage others, to instill confidence in them, to help them to perform at their best requires first of all that you lead by example.

"Turn Any Problem into Your Success!" Problems come up all the time in business and in life. Do you know the best way to handle them? How you succeed in business and life depends not on what problems you get, but what YOU do about them. Click for more >>

Allow Honest Mistakes
The second thing you can do to help alleviate the fears of failure and rejection in others is to encourage them to take calculated risks and allow honest mistakes.

Build People Up
Give the people who look up to you regular praise and approval. Celebrate good tries as well as success, large and small. Create a psychological climate where people feel safe from censure, blame or criticism of any kind. Then do things that make people feel terrific about themselves.

Become Unstoppable
Courage comes from acting courageously on a day-to-day basis. Your personal development goal should be to practice the behaviors of a totally fearless person until you become, in your own mind, unstoppable.

Action Exercises
Here are two ways for you to develop courageous patience.

First, prepare yourself in advance for the inevitable disappointments and setbacks you will experience on the way to your goal. Don't be surprised when they occur.

Second, resolve in advance that you will bounce rather than break and continually encourage others to think and act the same way.

Eat for Health and High Energy

By Brian Tracy

The first rule for great health is that you should eat the right foods, and you should eat fewer of them. Your body is very much like a complex production process, and every bite you eat has a chemical effect on your health and well being. By eating excellent foods, and in the right proportions, you can dramatically increase the quality and length of your life.

The Keys to Greater Longevity
Fortunately, we know almost everything we need to know about the proper diet. The eating habits of the Hunza Tribe in Southern Russia, people live to be 110 to 120 years old. People who have been put on the Hunza diet in downtown London, England, have begun to almost immediately experience the same levels of health, energy and longevity as the Hunzas in the mountains of Russia.

Variety is Essential
The very best diet for high levels of fitness and long life consist of lean source proteins, fruits, vegetables and whole grain products, and lots of water. The diets they studied were extremely varied, and the sources of these foods came from many different areas, but they all contained very much the same ingredients.

Two Foods to Avoid
The two foodstuffs that seem to be associated with the most health problems are fats and carbohydrates. In moderation, they are a regular part of a normal diet. But in excess, they cause poor health, weight gain and obesity. Eating too many fats and carbohydrates decreases energy and causes a variety of physical ailments, including diabetes, heart attacks and strokes.

"Learn the secrets to being healthy and happy for life." Discover how to lose a pound a day--and keep it off. Studies show that health and weight loss are areas of our life we say we need the most improvement in. If what you're doing on your own isn't getting the results you're looking for, I will help you get there. Click for more >>

The Real Reason for Obesity
People who eat too many carbohydrates develop two common conditions. In men, they develop carbohydrate belly, of the huge stomach you see on men who eat too much of the wrong foods. On women, they develop carbohydrate thighs, or what some people call cellulite, which is another word for fat. In America today, fully 50 million people are officially characterized as obese. This means that they are 20% or more above their ideal bodily weight, according to height and weight charts. And the primary reason for obesity is too many fats and carbohydrates, and too few lean source proteins, fruits, vegetables and whole grain products.

The Three White Poisons
To be really healthy, and live a long happy life, you need to eliminate what I call the three white poisons as well. These three white poisons are salt, sugar and white flour products. Each of them is bad for you and none of them is necessary for optimal health.

You are Sweet Enough
Recent research says that sugar is the main culprit in weight gain and poor health. Sugar products make you fat, tire you out, rot your teeth, ruin your appetite for nutritious foods and shorten life. And the fact is that you actually require no sugar at all in your diet.

Eat to Live
The rule for long life is that you should eat to live rather than live to eat. The best health rule for health, fitness, and high levels of energy can be summarized in five words: "Eat less and exercise most."

Action Exercise
Write down everything you eat for a week, look at what you are eating and how much. You will probably be shocked to see everything you put in your body, and how a lot of the food is carbohydrates, sugar, and processed food.

How to Handle Any Objection

By Brian Tracy

There are no sales without objections. Objections indicate interest. Objections are signposts that lead you step-by-step toward closing the sale. The fact is, if there are no objections, there is no interest. If there is no interest, there will be no sale.

Use a Testimonial
As you already know, one of the most powerful ways to eliminate objections is to present testimonial letters from satisfied customers who shared the objection at one time. A sweetheart letter answering a customer's major concern is a potent way to demolish the objection forever.

Interpret It as a Question
Aside from using testimonials, another way to deal with objections is for you to take the objection and interpret it as a question. Treat it as a request for more information. Recognize that an objection is a natural customer response to any offering where there is some risk of purchasing. When the prospect says, "It costs too much," you can respond by saying. "That's a good question. Why does it cost more than you're expected to pay?" You then go on to answer the question you have posed.

Give a Good Reason
Another way to deal with an objection is to treat it as if the customer is asking you for a reason to eliminate the objection. If the customer says, "I can't afford it," you can imagine that the customer is really saying, "Show me how I can justify spending this amount of money."

"WARNING! - Offer Ends Tomorrow Discover The Secret to Increasing Sales This Year" Most people don't realize they can make more—with smaller effort. It's because they don't have a proven system that delivers new leads and clients each month and gets you closer to achieving your desired income. You could be easily making an additional $25,000 to $125,000 each month. It's the strategy we've used here at Brian Tracy to increase our sales. Discover the fastest way to work less and make more.

Make It Easy to Object
Above all, make it easy to object. Most customers do not want to get into an argument or a debate with you over your product or service. They will be reluctant to object for feat that you will become upset or adamant. For this reason you must make it easy for the customer to object by responding in a cheerful, friendly, constructive way when he does.

Listen Carefully
When you get an objection, hear it out completely. Don't assume that you know what the prospect is going to say. Often the prospect will begin with an objection you've heard before, but then will add her own particular concern or problem at the end. Be patient. Practice your listening skills. Pause before replying. Question for clarification.

Objection Versus Condition
Determine whether the customer's response is an objection or a condition. An objection is something that you can answer. It is a problem for which there is a solution. It is an obstacle than can be removed on the way to making the sale. A condition, however, is a genuine reason for not going ahead. If a person has no money, this is a condition that renders buying impossible.

Welcome Objections
Objections are a standard and predictable part of any sales conversation. We've all had previous experiences with products and services that were disappointing. We do not want to have those experiences again. Your job is to be patient, polite, and positive, asking good questions and listening intently to the answers. If you are courteous and persistent, eventually the prospect will tell you why he might be hesitating and give you an opportunity to answer his question and close the sale.

Action Exercise
Determine the one thing that a prospect might be convinced of to go ahead and buy your product or service, concentrate on finding and proving that he will get this key benefit.

Connectors Keep It SimpleBy John C. Maxwell

William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address of any U.S. President, taking two hours to plod through a whopping 8,445-word speech. Even though the speech was delivered outdoors on a frigid and rainy day, the President stubbornly refused to wear an overcoat or hat. As a result, he caught a cold that developed into pneumonia, and he died a month later. The leadership lesson: it pays to simplify.

Two Myths about Simplicity

Myth #1 Simplicity Lacks Depth

A few years ago, I was being interviewed on a television talk show. "John," the host said, "I've read several of your books, and they are all so simple." His mocking tone made it clear to the audience and to me that the comment was not intended as a compliment.

My response was direct: "That's true. The principles in my books are simple to understand, but they are not always simple to apply." The audience applauded, and the talk show host conceded that what I said was true.

We often associate simplicity with a lack of depth or shortage of intelligence. Conversely, we ascribe intelligence to people who communicate using big words or hard-to-grasp concepts. Somehow, we assume that anyone speaking in a dense, academic style must be smart.

The issues we face in life can be complex, with all sorts of intricacies. However, as leaders and communicators, our job is to bring clarity to a subject, reducing rather than adding to its complexity. The measure of a great teacher isn't what he knows; it's what his students know. Simplicity is a skill, and it's a necessary one if you want to connect with people when you communicate.

Myth #2 Simplicity Is Easy

When we encounter something simple, we assume it has been hastily thrown together or not fully thought out. To us, simplicity means taking shortcuts and denying the complex reality of life. However, in a society flooded with information, simplicity has never been more difficult to achieve. Nor has it ever been as important.

Perhaps nobody understands simplicity better than Apple, Inc. The company put its computers back on the map by touting their user-friendly interfaces. Then, Apple leapfrogged the competition by pioneering devices that simplified the way we access, store, and share information.

Despite his success in bringing about simplicity, Apple CEO Steve Jobs attests to the difficulty of doing so.

If you read the Apple's first brochure, the headline was "Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication." What we meant by that was that when you first attack a problem it seems really simple because you don't understand it. Then when you start to really understand it, you come up with these very complicated solutions because it's really hairy. Most people stop there. But a few people keep burning the midnight oil and finally understand the underlying principles of the problem and come up with an elegantly simple solution for it. But very few people go the distance to get there.

A leader's initial attempts to resolve a problem raise a host of questions that make the problem appear bigger than it did at first. However, as leaders persevere through the haze of complexity and wade through the maze of possible remedies, they often arrive at a simple solution. Once they have the solution, and can state it plainly, leaders are in position to connect with their customers.

Summary

It may seem counterintuitive, but if you want to take your communication to the next level, don't try to dazzle people with your intellect or overpower them with information. Give them clarity and simplicity. People will relate to you, and they'll want to invite you back to communicate with them again.

Also, don't expect simplicity to come easily. At first, your attempts to find clarity may seem to backfire. Nevertheless, press on and maintain focus. Eventually, you'll reduce your problems to a manageable size, and you'll uncover simple principles that will aid your ability to connect with those you serve.

About

John C. Maxwell is an internationally respected leadership expert, speaker, and author who has sold more than 18 million books. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP, a non-profit organization that has trained more than 5 million leaders in 126 countries worldwide. Each year he speaks to the leaders of diverse organizations, such as Fortune 500 companies, foreign governments, the National Football League, the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books that have sold more than a million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. His blog can be read at www.JohnMaxwellOnLeadership.com.

Making the Most of Today by Denis Waitley

What each of us is doing this minute is the most important event in history for us. We have decided to invest our resources in THIS opportunity rather than in any other.

It is helpful to remember this when we consider the passage of time. As the years pass, I am acutely aware that the bird of time is on the wing. At my high school reunion, I saw people who claimed to be my former classmates. We all had big name tags printed in capital letters so we wouldn't have to squint with our reading glasses on trying to associate the name with each well-traveled face. It was only yesterday that I was really enjoying high school. What had happened to the four decades in between? Where had they flown?

To the side of the bandstand, where the big-band sound of the late 1940s and 50s blared our favorite top-ten hits, there was a poster with a printed verse for all of us to see. I read the words aloud:

"There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

"One of these days is YESTERDAY, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed or erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone.

"The other day we should not worry about is TOMORROW, with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise, and its poor performance. Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.

"This leaves only one day, TODAY. Anyone can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities - Yesterday and Tomorrow - that we break down.

"It is not the experience of Today that drives us mad, it is remorse and bitterness for something which happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Let us therefore… Live this one full TODAY."

Malcolm Forbes believed the important thing is "never say die until you're dead," and he lived that example to the hilt. It is, as we realize when we suddenly attend our high school reunion, a short journey.

But it is difficult to be depressed and active at the same time. So get active! Live TODAY.

Practice the ABC Method

By: Brian Tracy

"The first law of success is concentration - to bend all the energies to one point, and to go directly to that point, looking neither to the right or to the left." --William Mathews

The more thought you invest in planning and setting priorities before you begin, the more important things you will do and the faster you will get them done once you get started.

The more important and valuable the task is to you, the more you will be motivated to overcome procrastination and launch yourself into the job.

A Simple and Powerful Technique
The ABC Method is a powerful priority setting technique that you can use every single day. This technique is so simple and effective that it can, all by itself, make you one of the most efficient and effective people in your field.

The power of this technique lies in its simplicity. Here's how it works: You start with a list of everything you have to do for the coming day. Think on paper. You then place an A, B, or C before each item on your list before you begin the first task.

Determine Your Top Priorities
An "A" item is defined as something that is very important. This is something that you must do. This is a task for which there can be serious consequences if you do it or fail to do it, like visiting a key customer or finishing a report for your boss that she needs for an upcoming board meeting. These are the frogs of your life.

If you have more than one "A" task, you prioritize these tasks by writing A-1, A-2, A-3, and so on in front of each item. Your A-1 task is your biggest, ugliest frog of all.

"How to get more done, faster and easier, and have more time off for your family and personal life" Do you feel like you have too much to do with too little time to do it? Let's face it-You're not the only one. It's easy for you to procrastinate and fall behind. Learn how to get control of your time—double your productivity and double your time off, right now! Learn more here >>

Decide on Your Secondary Tasks
A "B" item is defined as a task that you should do. But it only has mild consequences. These are the tadpoles of your work life. This means that someone may be unhappy or inconvenienced if you don't do it, but it is nowhere as important as an "A" task. Returning an unimportant telephone message or reviewing your email would be a "B" task. The rule is that you should never do a "B" task when there is an "A" task left undone. You should never be distracted by a tadpole when there is a big frog sitting there waiting to be eaten.

Analyze the Consequences of Doing It
A "C" task is defined as something that would be nice to do, but for which there are no consequences at all, whether you do it or not. "C" tasks include phoning a friend, having coffee or lunch with a coworker or completing some personal business during work hours. This sort of activity has no affect at all on your work life.

After you have applied the ABC Method to your list, you will now be completely organized and ready to get more important things done faster.

Start on Your A-1 Task
The key to making this ABC Method work is for you to now discipline yourself to start immediately on your "A-1" task and then stay at it until it is complete. Use your willpower to get going and stay going on this one job, the most important single task you could possibly be doing. Eat the whole frog and don't stop until its finished completely.

Your ability to think through, analyze your work list and determine your "A-1" task is the springboard to higher levels of accomplishment, and greater self-esteem, self-respect and personal pride.

When you develop the habit of concentrating on your "A-1," most important activity, you will start getting more done than any two or three people around you.

Action Exercises
Review you work list right now and put an A, B, or C next to each task or activity. Select your A-1 job or project and begin on it immediately. Discipline yourself to do nothing else until this one job is complete.

Practice this ABC Method every day and on every work or project list, before you begin work, for the next month. By that time, you will have developed the habit of setting and working on your highest priority tasks and your future will be assured!

The Keys to Personal Power

By Brian Tracy

Everyone wants to be popular with others. You want to be liked and respected among your friends, family, and associates. Above all, you want to like and respect yourself, and to feel yourself to be a valuable and important person. Fortunately, everything you do that makes other people feel good about themselves makes you feel good about yourself as well. You can actually improve the way you feel by making other people feel important. This is the key to great personal relationships.

The Easiest Way
The first need that each person has is for acceptance. Whenever you express unconditional acceptance of another person, his or her self-esteem goes up. The person feels valuable and important as a unique and special individual.

An Attitude of Gratitude
The need for appreciation is a deep subconscious desire of every person you meet. When you satisfy this need, you will become one of the most popular people in your world. And what is the key to expressing gratitude and appreciation? Simple. Just say, "thank you" on every occasion.

The Deepest Craving of All
Perhaps the deepest emotional need that people have is the desire for praise and approval. Each person is deeply affected by the quality and quantity of approval they get from others, especially others who they respect very much.

"Join Brian LIVE this Friday for a special FREE Webinar!" If you're not currently experiencing outrageous success, it might be because you are lacking in a key skill vital to the success of your business...do you want to find out what that key skill is? Along with 6 others to drive you to your first million? Join Brian Tracy live, THIS FRIDAY, at 11am PST, for a FREE webinar. Attendance is limited and lines are going to fill up fast! Reserve your spot now!

Looking Good
Another way to build self-esteem in others, and to make them feel important, is to express admiration on every occasion. Make it a policy to admire people for their accomplishments, behaviors, possessions, and personality traits.

Practice "White Magic"
This means practice listening closely to others when they are talking. It is one of the most powerful self-esteem building behaviors of all. Whenever you listen attentively to another, their heart rate speeds up. They feel happier and more valuable. They like and respect you more as a result. The more you listen closely to another person, the more that person feels that you are important and valuable as well.

Four Keys to Listening
The keys to effective listening are simple. First, listen attentively, without interrupting. Second, pause before replying. Don't rush in with whatever is on your mind. Third, questions for clarification by asking, "how do you mean?" Finally, feed it back in your own words.

The Great Design
As Aristotle said, "Man is a social animal." We live our lives within the context of our relationships with others. The more and better relationships we have, the happier and busier we are. The more you stay involved with other people, the longer you will live and the more enjoyable will be those years.

Action Exercise
Pick out the person that you like the least that you deal with on a day to day basis. Next time you see that person admire something about them. You can comment on their dress, grooming, work or even their possessions. You will be surprised how differently that person will react to you in the future.

Five Steps to Personal Power

By Brian Tracy

There is a five-step power process that you can use to keep yourself positive and to achieve your goals faster. This five-step process brings together several of the very best techniques ever discovered for permanent mind change. It contains and illustrates all of the key principles that you need to know to become a highly effective, positive "possibility thinker" in your own life.

Imagine Your Perfect Future
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to creating a wonderful life is "self-limiting beliefs." Everyone has them, and some people have so may of them that they are almost paralyzed when it comes to taking action. A self-limiting belief is an idea you have that you are limited in some way, in terms of time, talent, intelligence, money, ability, or opportunity. The way you free yourself from these negative brakes on your potential is to change your thinking about who you are and what is truly possible for you.

Show Me the Money
Start with your income. How much do you want to be earning, one, two, three, and five years from today? Look around you and ask, "Who else is earning the kind of money I want to earn, and what are they doing differently from me?" If you don't know or you aren't sure, go and ask them. Do your homework.

"AMAL—a film to warm your heart and change your life" Our friends at Spiritual Cinema Circle recently found a beautiful feature film entitled AMAL. It's a modern-day parable that tells the story of a man named Amal—a simple, humble auto-rickshaw driver in the colorful, bustling city of New Delhi, India, who lives to do "the right thing" in every situation. This riveting and surprising tale ultimately reveals that the poorest of men are sometimes the richest. For just a small shipping fee, you can receive a free DVD that includes AMAL plus three great short films. Simply click here!

Design Your Perfect Life
Imagine your perfect lifestyle. If you had no limitations at all, how would you like to live, day in and day out? If you were financially independent, what kind of home would you live in? What kind of car would you want to drive? What kind of life would you like to provide for your family? What sort of activities would you like to engage in throughout the week, month, and year?

Turn Your Ideal into Reality
When you sit down and design your ideal lifestyle, you can then compare it to what you are doing today and notice the differences. You can then start thinking about how you could bring your real or current lifestyle closer to your ideal. When you idealize your income and your lifestyle, you develop vision for your life. You begin to practice a key quality of personal leadership. You begin projecting into the future and making plans to turn your future dreams into a current reality.

The Person you Become
Create an ideal future self in terms of your personal and professional development. What kind of person do you want to be in the future? What additional knowledge and skills do you want to acquire? In what areas would you like to become absolutely excellent? What subjects would you like to master? What do you need to learn to move up in your field? What is your growth plan to get from where you are to where you want to go?

Action Exercise
Look for something good in every problem or difficulty. Practice being an inverse paranoid, convinced that there is a vast conspiracy to make you successful.

Getting Clear on Your Passions - By Bob Doyle

Passion - and knowing what yours is - is a big topic of conversation these days.

Since the Law of Attraction has come to more of a forefront in the past few years, and people are learning that they can create whatever kind of life they want, they are asking themselves, "Ok, what DO I want?"

The Law of Attraction truly works "automatically" in your favor when you are clear on your passions and are living them!

But what if you're NOT clear?

What if you're one of the many people I meet who feels completely disconnected from their sense of Passion? What if when asked to describe your "ideal life" or "vision", you don't even know where to begin?

First, you need to know that this "disconnect" from your sense of passion is simply another form of resistance.

Many times, we stop putting attention on our passions early in life when our more traditional system of education and upbringing tends to put a child down a path on which the child has no real input.

If what you have learned about your passions are that they are "okay for a hobby but not a way to make a real living" or something similar, then it is no wonder that have disconnected yourself from your feelings of passion. It would be too painful to live with a sense of yearning to do something you believe you cannot do, so you create a story that you "don't know what your passions are."

I'm not saying that you do this intentionally, because I don't believe you do. It's simply a kind of emotional defense mechanism. If you believe that you don't know your passions, then you don't have to take responsibility for not living them. "If only I knew my passions", you might say, "I could put this Law of Attraction stuff to work in my life and things could change." But in saying that, you affirm to yourself that you DON'T know your passions, and that story becomes more and more real to you until you truly believe that you don't have anything in your life that you're passionate about.

Instead of feeling "bad", you have chosen to feel "numb."

Clearly, there is no real power in feeling numb. You can't attract anything with numb, except more numb. And too many people are going through life numb to their sense of passion, robbing themselves and others of the gift that they are to the world.

This idea that you don't know your passion, while it feels real right now, is an idea that you need to be willing to give up if you want to move into a fully satisfying life. We're here to live our passions, so let's not waste another minute not doing that!

Here are a few things to think about to help you tap into a lost sense of passion:

1. What do you daydream about? When your mind "goes off", there's a reason it goes where it goes. Many times our daydreams are our subconscious giving us a taste of what could be.

2. What would you do all day if you could do ANYTHING and money were not an issue for you at all? This is a very common question used to help people tap into their passions, because if you can truly generate the feeling of being freed up financially, you clear the way for yourself to think about what you'd TRULY like to do. But if you think about all this in terms of "will it make me money", you are cheating yourself.

You must not judge your passions on your beliefs regarding their money-making potential. Walking The Path takes care of that as we'll discuss more in Part 2, "The Journey."

I'll note that the answer to this question for many people is "Nothing! I would just do nothing all day." And that is a totally fair answer, and I invite anyone with that response to do a lot of visualization around a day filled with doing nothing, and see how those visions naturally evolve. They'll lead you to your passion...

3. What or who inspires you? If you can't immediately access your own sense of Passion, or put a label on it, I invite you to think about what or who in the world inspires you...and why.

You can learn a lot about yourself by looking at how you interpret people and situations. If someone inspires you because of what they're up to in the world, could that tell you more than a little something about what YOU might want to be up to in the world?

If you're inspired by some kind of creative expression like art, music, film, or theater, what exactly about the experience is inspiring you? Just because you're inspired by art, for example, doesn't mean that you have a destiny as an artist, however.

Things that inspire us aren't always the thing we're supposed to be or do. However, anything that evokes inspiration in us, opens a portal to the essence of who we are.

Next time you feel inspired by anything or anyone, it may be an interesting exercise to ask yourself why you're inspired. What part of yourself is being activated in this moment? What action - however large or small - do you feel called to take?

There are entire courses available to help you discover your sense of passion, but I believe that these few questions - if honestly answered - will give you very deep insight into what you're about.

There is No "I Tried" in Success - By Lora Morrow

Those who say winning is not everything have probably never truly won anything because they do not know the true meaning of success. To recognize success, it is necessary first to define failure.

Failure is the refusal either to establish a plan or to work persistently toward its accomplishment, regardless of the challenges.

Most of us were never taught that failure is a matter of choice or that success is a matter of choice. Failure is not, as many believe, the result of lack of talent, money, time, or opportunity. Failure is simply the refusal to create opportunity and to establish goals or objectives in your life and to work toward their achievement. When talking to people who have neither goals nor motivation to succeed, you'll find that their lives have no excitement and no purpose. They feel like failures--and at that point they're justified in their feelings.

To succeed, you will constantly find yourself facing steep, foreboding cliffs and seemingly bottomless crevices. You will be doing things you have never done before. But if you want more from life than to get halfway up the mountain, you first will have to make the decision to go all the way. You may know neither exactly what is ahead nor how you are going to handle it. The only alternative, however, is not to go.

When striving to achieve your goals, there is no such thing as "trying."

That's right! We have all been told from the time we were children that it does not matter if we win or not, just as long as we try hard. This may be true in competition, such as an athletic contest. In that environment, we will run into people we could never beat, and the only satisfaction is that we gave it our all.

But in real life, where the objective is to achieve, that is one of the greatest lies you can tell yourself or anyone else. "Trying" is a word intended to rationalize failure. It is an excuse. In truth, when reaching for any objective, short term or long term, you either succeed or you don't. There is no in-between. "Trying," therefore, is not real.

Lack of immediate success, however, is not failure. It is nothing more than the feedback you may need to modify your target date and even your plan for reaching your goal. "I tried" is a quitter's statement. It means you have given up, that you have decided to continue your life having not reached your goals. This attitude is devastating to your personal effectiveness.

Drop the "I tried."

When you run head-on into a brick wall, find a way over it, around it, or through it. Get yourself back in the race with a new plan for winning.

Physical problems and conditions are great examples of "brick walls" because they occur and recur without warning. It is up to such a person to set a goal to keep going. No one, including doctors, can make such a decision for you. You must keep going until you find the right answer for yourself. Only you know what is right and what you can do.

The number of times you fall down does not determine whether you will eventually reach the top of the mountain. It is how many times you get up and get moving again. Implanting the word "try" in your mind is an acknowledgment that it is okay to give up instead of get up. Failure occurs only when you quit or make excuses for your inability to succeed. "Trying" is, therefore, lying to yourself about what you are really doing.

"I tried" is not an acceptable excuse. (But then, no excuses are acceptable alternatives to success.) Using the word "try" creates an illusion in your mind that your effort produced an "almost win" and stops you from moving on. Accepting failure as an alternative, consciously or unconsciously, diminishes the effectiveness and power to achieve your goals. Conversely, using the word "do" creates the opposite illusion in your mind that your effort produced a "finish until done" and helps you to move on.

I want to ask you a personal question. Five years from now, what will you be doing? Where, what will you be?

I've heard many persons say, "I want to get my problems under control, then I will go and do something." I'll let you in on a little secret: You may never get them fully "under control." What then? Are you going to waste your lifetime waiting for something to happen, or are you going to cause something to happen?

Fourteen years ago, I made a choice. I decided to graduate from college in the year of 1999. The doctors had provided me with little hope that I would ever overcome my epileptic seizures. Moreover, tests revealed that my problems impaired my cognitive abilities so much that my I.Q. would dip considerably when I was going through my worst times.

But I decided at that time that, come 1999, I would be having seizures with a degree or without one, so I might as well be having them with one.

In January 2000 I received my diploma: Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Yes, that was from my graduation ... in 1999. All during that ensuing four years, I suffered three types of seizures: tonic-clonic (grand mal), partial complex, and petite mal. Yet my diploma hangs on my wall ... just above my Master of Science certificate.

And I haven't had a tonic-clonic seizure in years. You see, that was a goal, too.

So where will you be? Five years from now is coming. There is nothing you can do about it. Are you going to wait until your circumstances are ideal before you begin your quest? If so, when the time comes to leave this world, you may very well still be waiting.

Okay, so you will "try." Okay, so you will fail. There is no reward in life for trying, only for doing! Set your goals, start on them now, and get them done!

Create Large Chunks of Time

By: Brian Tracy

This strategy requires a commitment from you to work at scheduled times on large tasks. Most of the really important work you do requires large chunks of unbroken time to complete. Your ability to create and carve out these blocks of high value, highly productive time, is central to your ability to make a significant contribution to your work and to your life.

Thoughtfulness may be defined as a careful concern for the secondary consequences of each decision and each action. This is the essence of strategic thinking.

Start Immediately on Number One
Successful salespeople set aside a specific time period each day to phone prospects. Rather than procrastinating or delaying on a task that they don't particularly like, they resolve that they will phone for one solid hour between 10 and 11 AM and they then discipline themselves to follow through on their resolutions.

Many business executives set aside a specific time each day to call customers directly to get feedback.

Create Specific Amounts of Time
Some people allocate specific 30-60 minute time periods each day for exercise. Many people read in the great books 15 minutes each night before retiring. In this way, over time, they eventually read dozens of the best books ever written.

The key to the success of this method of working in specific time segments is for you to plan your day in advance and specifically schedule a fixed time period for a particular activity or task.

You make work appointments with yourself and then discipline yourself to keep them. You set aside thirty, sixty and ninety minute time segments that you use to work on and complete important tasks.

Create Preplanned Periods
Many highly productive people schedule specific activities in preplanned time slots all day long. These people build their work lives around accomplishing key tasks one at a time. As a result, they become more and more productive and eventually produce two times, three times and five times as much as the average person.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, organize each day to create large chunks of time you can use for key task completion.

Second, make a written appointment with yourself to work on a key task at a specific time.