Stay motivated and follow through on my commitments

I have been so scattered lately in my thought processes. Only Taz (the cartoon tazmanian devil) could keep up with the whirl of ideas and changes in my life the past year.

The past 3 months I have slowed to a near snail’s pace here in the beautiful mountains of Montana. I needed to get centered and rethink what paths to take. The respite from the urban rat race has worked miracles.

gave me a sense of frantic urgency that I had to accomplish them all at once before it was too late. That caused me so much stress and a sense of failure.

Having stepped away from the negative forces surrounding me by moving to a much more tranquil place I am realizing there is time to have balance in my life. Life is good.

Everything I have done up to today has been done one step at a time not all at once.

I am learning to take time to enjoy the journey. :)

It is important to visualize what you wish to accomplish. It is also essential that you put that vision into action.
It’s great to know precisely where you plan to go. Yet for that plan to be of any real value, you must act on it with commitment and persistence.

Successful action is more than just a once-in-a-while effort. The actions that bring about the most value are the actions that are fully integrated into every moment of life.

Real success is more than a method or a technique. Real success comes from who and what you most consistently and authentically are.

Every corner of your world, every moment of your time, every person and pursuit and passion in your life all matter. The time you spend playing has just as much influence as the time you spend working, for it all affects the whole person you are.

Seek to integrate positive purpose into everything you are, and into all that you touch. Live as though everything matters, and you’ll bring magnificent achievements to life.

Ralph Marston

Give to yourself the highest of expectations. And all the while, be patient with yourself as well.

Know for certain that you are surely born to do great things. And know also that real value takes time and patience to fully develop.

You are always a work in progress. On some days you will make a little more progress than usual, and on other days a little less.

Yet every day has its purpose and its own special value. Even when, by all outward appearances, you are falling behind, on a deeper level you are always moving forward.

For every experience, whatever it may be, brings its own richness to your life. Learn to see that richness, to accept it, to make use of it, and you will find your most treasured dreams coming to life.

Be eager to make the effort, and patient about seeing the results. Something in each and every day will move you forward.

Ralph Marston

to the point where it hurts us is not a healthy response to life.

I have to remember to evaluate these commitments from time to time and make adjustments in my best interest from now on.

When average performers have had enough for the day and call it quits, champions are usually just getting started. Discipline is the watchword of great performers. Discipline makes the difference between the good and the great. The great ones will tell you discipline is more of a decision than it is an active skill. It’s the ability to stay the course and complete promises you’ve made. The fulfillment of these promises builds confidence and self-esteem, which eventually leads the champions to believe almost anything is possible. It is a habit and a self-fulfilling prophecy built into one. Discipline is a logic-based decision that performers adhere to, regardless of whether they feel like it or not. Discipline pushes performers past pain and punishment. As my late business partner and mentor Bill Gove always said, “It’s easier to act yourself into good thinking than it is to think yourself into good action.” This is the mindset of the champion. The great ones, like Bill Gove, don’t let feelings interfere with their performance. Instead, they harness the power of their emotional motivators to propel them past the competition. Average people see discipline as a painful chore to be avoided at all costs. The world class sees it as the ultimate power tool for performance.” Quoted from Steve Siebold

The reason setting goals in areas that we can control is so important is that we can than move forward as Mr. Siebold has pointed out here. You make promises to yourself first and then set about to fulfill those promises. Once you can answer to yourself you can make promises to others and with the appropriate discipline you have a good chance of success.

By: Brian Tracy

Everyone makes mistakes and the busier you are, the more mistakes you will make. The only question is “How well and how effectively do you deal with the inevitable ups and downs of life?”

In this newsletter, you learn the difference between a positive and negative worldview. You learn how to benefit from your mistakes and how to remain positive in the face of adversity.

Using Stumbling Blocks as Stepping Stones
There are two ways to look at the world: the benevolent way or the malevolent way. People with a malevolent or negative worldview take a victim stance, seeing life as a continuous succession of problems and a process of unfairness and oppression. They don’t expect a lot and they don’t get much. When things go wrong, they shrug their shoulders and passively accept that this is the way life is and there isn’t anything they can do to make it better.

On the other hand, people with a benevolent or positive worldview see the world around them as filled with opportunities and possibilities. They believe that everything happens as part of a great process designed to make them successful and happy. They approach their lives, their work, and their relationships with optimism, cheerfulness, and a general attitude of positive expectations. They expect a lot and they are seldom disappointed.

Flex Your Mental Muscles
When you develop the skill of learning from your mistakes, you become the kind of person who welcomes obstacles and setbacks as opportunities to flex your mental muscles and move ahead. You look at problems as rungs on the ladder of success that you grab onto as you pull your way higher.

Two of the most common ways to deal with mistakes are invariably fatal to high achievement. The first common but misguided way to handle a mistake is the failure to accept it when it occurs. According to statistics, 70 percent of all decisions we make will be wrong. That’s an average. This means that some people will fail more than 70 percent of the time, and some people will fail less. It is hard to believe that most of the decisions we make could turn out to be wrong in some way. In fact, if this is the case, how can our society continue to function at all?

Cut Your Losses
The fact is that our society, our families, our companies, and our relationships continue to survive and thrive because intelligent people tend to cut their losses and minimize their mistakes. It is only when people refuse to accept that they have made a bad choice or decision—and prolong the consequences by sticking to that bad choice or decision—that mistakes become extremely expensive and hurtful.

Learn From Your Mistakes
The second common approach that people take with regard to their mistakes, one that hurts innumerable lives and careers, is the failure to use your mistakes to better yourself and to improve the quality of your mind and your thinking.

Learning from your mistakes is an essential skill that enables you to develop the resilience to be a master of change rather than a victim of change. The person who recognizes that he has made a mistake and changes direction the fastest is the one who will win in an age of increasing information, technology and competition.

By remaining fast on your feet, you will be able to out-play and out-position your competition. You will become a creator of circumstances rather than a creature of circumstances.

Action Exercises
Now, here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, imagine that your biggest problem or challenge in life has been sent to you at this moment to help you, to teach you something valuable. What could it be?

Second, be willing to cut your losses and walk away if you have made a mistake or a bad choice. Accept that you are not perfect, you can’t be right all the time, and then get on with your life.

Third, learn from every mistake you make. Write down every lesson it contains. Use your mistakes in the present as stepping stones to great success in the future.

By Dr. John H. Sklare
Wednesday, November 15, 2006

A common question I often get asked is: How do I break bad habits? In behavioral terms, the elimination of a habit is called “extinction.” In a controlled environment, behaviorists extinguish behavior by withholding the “reward” until the undesired behavior ceases to be performed. Let me give you an example:

I remember doing this experiment in extinction in a psychology lab. We would train a rat to push a lever for food. This was done by rewarding the rat with a food pellet every time it got near the lever. Eventually, with the use of rewards, the rat was trained to push the lever for food. Whenever he wanted food he would push the lever. This is how you shape behavior in the lab and this is what eventually creates habits in us humans. To eliminate or “extinguish” the habit, in the lab, we would then simply withhold the reward which was food. Eventually, after receiving no reward, the rat would stop pushing the lever and the habit was broken. Or, in behavioral terms, the undesired behavior was extinguished.

Many of you have also developed a habit of eating during emotional times. Over time, food has also become a reward for you. The good news is that this same extinguishing procedure is applicable to you. If you can stop using food during emotional situations for a long enough period of time, you can eliminate that behavior as well. OK, I know it’s a lot easier said than done. It is, however, absolutely doable and you are definitely worth the effort!

When you have to take charge at the last minute, you discover that improvisation sharpens your skills. You may actually enjoy taking center stage, especially when you realize you’re pretty good at being there.

I have let little things throw me off of my game. Not the sign of a true champion. Realizing what was happening maybe a good starting point.

The one thing for all of us to remember is the game isn’t over for us until our very last breath.

By: Brian Tracy

In my conversations with hundreds of top salespeople over the years, I have found that they all have one thing in common. They have taken the time to sit down and create a clear blueprint for themselves and their future lives. Even if they started the process of goal setting and personal strategic planning with a little skepticism, every one of them has become a true believer.

Becoming a True Believer
Every one of them has been amazed at the incredible power of goal setting and strategic planning. Every one of them has accomplished far more than they ever believed possible in selling and they ascribe their success to the deliberate process of thinking through every aspect of their work and their lives, and then developing a detailed, written road map to get them to where they wanted to go.

The Definition of Happiness
Happiness has been defined as, “The progressive achievement of a worthy ideal, or goal.” When you are working progressively, step-by-step toward something that is important to you, you generate within yourself a continuous feeling of success and achievement.

You feel more positive and motivated. You feel more in control of your own life. You feel happier and more fulfilled. You feel like a winner, and you soon develop the psychological momentum that enables you to overcome obstacles and plough through adversity as you move toward achieving the goals that are most important to you.

Determine Your Values
Personal strategic planning begins with your determining what it is you believe in and stand for—your values. Your values lie at the very core of everything you are as a human being. Your values are the unifying principles and core beliefs of your personality and your character. The virtues and qualities that you stand for are what constitute the person you have become from the beginning of your life to this moment.

Your values, virtues and inner beliefs are the axle around which the wheel of your life turns. All improvement in your life begins with you clarifying your true values and then committing yourself to live consistent with them.

Fuzzy or Clear?
Successful people are successful because they are very clear about their values. Unsuccessful people are fuzzy or unsure. Complete failures have no real values at all.

Build Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem
Values clarification is the beginning exercise in building self-confidence, self-esteem and personal character. When you take the time to think through your fundamental values, and then commit yourself to living your life consistent with them, you feel a surge of mental strength and well-being. You feel stronger and more capable. You feel more centered in the universe and more competent of accomplishing the goals you set for yourself.

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

First, decide for yourself what makes you truly happy and then organize your life around it. Write down your goals and make plans to achieve them.

Second, begin with your values by deciding what it is you stand for and believe in. Commit yourself to live consistent with your inner most convictions — and you’ll never make another mistake.