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How Would YOU Like to Learn How To:
*Chart A New Course For Your Dream
*Develop A New Success Strategy
*Tap Into Your Purpose
*Cope With Tough Times
*Speak With Confidence And Power
*Bring Out The Leader In You
*Face Your Fears and Overcome Procrastination
*Create A New You (or)
*Bring Out The REAL YOU in YOU!
IT'S POSSIBLE!
IT'S POSSIBLE!
IT'S POSSIBLE!
*If you decide to develop what you do well and become a master of yourself; and...
*if you set goals and go after them with all the self determination you can muster...
YOUR Gifts (Those that You Already Have In You) will take you places that will amaze even you!
GOALS GET YOU GOING
Goals give you a purpose for taking life on. People who live without goals have no purpose and it is obvious even in their body language.
*They are on permanent idle;
*They slouch;
*They list from side to side;
*Their conversations dawdle; and...
*They telephone you to say:
"Hey, I'm just calling. I wasn't doing anything, so I thought I'd call you."
WELL, DON'T CALL ME. I HAVE THINGS TO DO!
Many people just muddle through life.
They don't read informational material; and...
they don't even pay attention when they WATCH television.
If you ask them what they are watching, they will look at you with mumblemouth and reply, "Nothin', I'm just lookin'."
What are YOUR Goals for your Career?
For YOUR Relationships?
For YOUR Spiritual Life?
Develop a schedule for the NEXT Month, the NEXT 6 Months, the NEXT Year, 5 Years and 10 Years.
Write it all out!
Let's take one of the most common goals:
You want to make more money. If that is your goal, then take some practical steps toward realizing it.
· First, determine specifically how much money you want to make. Then, double that amount and make THAT your goal. Even if you don't reach the higher amount, you will probably still find yourself making more than your original goal.
· Second, decide the amount of energy you are willing to expend to reach your goal. How many hours are you willing to work a day? How many jobs are you willing to hold down? What sort of work are you willing to do?
· A third step in this process is to develop a practical plan of action and get started immediately. Chart out where you want to be in relation to your goal in the next month, six months, one year, five years and ten years. Get started today. Go apply for that second job NOW! Go enroll in that career training program NOW!
ASK FOR THAT RAISE NOW!
· And finally, make sure that you have all of this written down so that you can review it every morning and every night and envision yourself taking these steps, DOING THEM and SUCCEEDING!
FOCUSING AND ACTING ON YOUR DREAM
Whatever dream you decide to go after, whether it is a family, or a career goal, you must consciously decide that it is your life's mission.
Benjamin Disraeli said, "The Secret of Success is Consistency to Purpose."
You must go at it obsessively and set high standards for yourself along the way. There is no room for compromise when you are charting a course for your life or your career.
I spoke to a group of sharp young people not long ago, and when I finished, some of the fellows came up and said they were interested in becoming professional speakers. They invited me to go out with them that evening to have a good time. These fellows looked as though they knew how to have a serious good time.
I had planned to work on my delivery that night by listening to my tape of my speech. I tape my speeches and listen to them later so I can study what works and what does not work with a particular audience.
In effect, I listen to the audience listening to me.
I was tempted to go with these fellows, and back when I was their age I probably would have given in to that temptation and gone. But I have become more disciplined and more committed to my craft. A friend of mine, Wes Smith, wrote a humor book called "WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD", and in it he offered advice to fresh high-school and college graduates. He had a line in the book that pertains to the situation I faced that night.
It said, "Having a drink with the boys after work every night is a bad idea. Notice that the boss doesn't do it. That is why he is the boss and they are still the boys."
Wes told me that he wrote that line with one particular group of hard-partying young businessmen in mind, and five years after the book came out, he ran into one of them. The guy volunteered that he'd read that line in Wes's book and decided never to go drinking after work again. It paid off, he said.
He had risen to a vice-presidency at a savings and loan.
In my drive to become a public speaker, I developed that kind of focus, too.
There is not a lot of time for hard partying if you are pursuing greatness.
It was not that these young fellows were not serious about their interest in professional speaking, but they were just as serious about having a good time. I don't believe they were focused on their goals. They were seeking a profession but they were not on a mission to make a dramatic difference in the world.
I AM!
YOU SHOULD BE TOO!
Rather than the party crowd, I prefer to seek out people with knowledge that might be useful. I like to find out what books successful and intelligent people are reading. I want access to the information that contributes to their success and intelligence.
PERSISTENCE
I believe there are THREE kinds of people.
1. There are WINNERS, who know what they want and understand their potential and the possibilities. They take life on.
2. Next are LOSERS, who don't have a clue as to who they are. They allow circumstances to shape their lives and their self-image.
3. I believe there is a third group as well. This consists of Potential Winners whose lives are just slightly out of alignment. I call them WAYWARD WINNERS. It may be that they just need to learn how to be real winners. Perhaps they've hit a bump or two that has knocked them off course and they are temporarily befuddled.
A failed relationship, a lost job, financial problems, unformed goals, a lack of parental support, illness, many things can send us off course temporarily.
Wayward winners are not lost souls; they just need some tweaking and coaching and nudging to get them back on course. A map might be nice. Many of these wayward winners are easily identifiable because they are always searching.
Right now, there are many wayward winners out there braving rain, sleet and snow because they too still believe that they have untapped talents. They attend motivational seminars and listen to inspirational tapes and they plunge onward, believing that sooner or later they will find their way again.
Other wayward winners have temporarily given up!
They are damaged and disoriented, their confidence badly eroded. They tend to drift through life numbly. The friends and relatives and loved ones of wayward winners see that they are out of sync and wonder why they can't be satisfied, why they don't settle down. They wonder how people who have such obvious abilities and great potential can be so disoriented and unsure.
It is difficult for others to understand the rawness of a broken heart or the aching emptiness of an unguided spirit. You and I know. We have been there.
Wayward winners know that there are possibilities out there, but too often they feel locked out from them. Some are afraid to risk any more because of what they have risked and lost already.
I know now that as difficult as it may be for you wayward winners to do, it is necessary to continue to test yourselves.
Even though you have been hurt before, it is the only way to grow. We all have the capacity to change, to lead meaningful and productive lives by awakening our consciousness.
You know there are going to be tough times as you go about changing your life, so brace yourself and you will be able to handle them.
When you get into your seat on an airplane, what is the first thing they tell you to do?
Fasten your seat belt.
Brace yourself for the turbulence.
When you decide to move your life to the next level of accomplishment, you must fasten your mental and spiritual seat belts because it is going to be a while before you reach that comfortable level again.
You will reach it, but you must endure the turbulence of change in order to grow.
Try this technique to help you through the difficult times of change and growth. Find four reasons why you cannot succumb to your fears and your troubles.
Find those deep sources of motivation that can lift you out of the turbulence and above the clouds. You must change your life because, for example:
· You have not yet tapped the talents given you.
· You want to leave something more for your children.
· You want to live life rather than letting life live you.
· You want to do what makes YOU happy.
It is in these rocky early moments of bringing change to your life that you discover who you are.
In the prosperous times, you build what is in your pocket.
In the tough times, you strengthen what is in your heart. And that is when you gain insight into yourself, insight that leads to self-mastery and an expansion of your consciousness as a life-force in both your personal and professional lives.
ACTING ON YOUR DREAM
I have not often admitted this, but I was inspired to become a public speaker by perhaps the worst motivational speaker I've ever heard in my life.
This fellow is still working, surprisingly, so I won't give his name.
He was the opening speaker in a seminar I attended early in my speaking career and he nearly closed the show early with his monotone, unenthusiastic presentation. As he spoke, the room grew as quiet as a graveyard between funerals.
I went to sleep to be awakened by what could only be called courtesy applause for his presentation. You could make more noise clapping with one hand. After the less-than-stirring speech, I leaned over to the guy sitting next to me and said, THAT was really boring." And he said, "You should be so boring for the kind of money he makes." The fellow told me this terrible speaker was making $5,000 for each terrible speech.
After hearing how much money a really bad speaker could make, I decided it was time for me to go after this dream.
A few days later, I caught a Greyhound bus from Miami to Orlando where I'd signed up for a seminar for beginners held by the National Speakers Association. It seemed like the bus ride took weeks. I know it took every last dollar I could scrape together. And so I was road-weary but eager to hear some inspiring, motivational, and dynamic speaking when I finally took a seat at the event.
But who should walk out to lead the first session but that same terrible $5,000-per-speech speaker?
I could not believe it!
All that time on a stinking bus, stopping in every one-horse town between Miami and Orlando, to hear this guy again?
I nearly got up and walked out.
By the time he'd gotten halfway through his speech, nearly half the audience had fled. But I stayed on until the bitter end and the speaker's parting shot, as it turned out, was worth the price of admission.
He obviously had noted the exodus of the audience and the drooping eyelids of those who remained because, as he built up to his anticlimax, he stopped suddenly, looked out at the remaining numbers of aspiring public speakers and said, "You know, the only reason that I am standing up here and you are sitting down there is that I represent the thoughts that you have rejected for yourself."
I don't know about the other dozen or so people in the audience, but Mr. Monotone hit me right between the eyes with that shot.
It was true.
He had acted upon something that I had only dreamt of doing.
I'd spent years dreaming of becoming a public speaker.
But dreaming was all I had done.
This guy may not have had any talent for it. He may have been the most undynamic public speaker in history. But he was up there while I was still dreaming. And so that is how I became motivated to start a new career by perhaps the worst motivational speaker I have ever heard.
SEEKING OUT QUALITY PEOPLE
It is important to align yourself with what I call OQP, Only Quality People.
You should endeavor to surround yourself only with people who will enrich and empower you, people who will enable you to transcend yourself and to grow.
This sort of support group, your pit crew for progress in your life, can strengthen you in moments of weakness and bring you up when you are down.
Surround yourself with people who share your vision and who also are willing to support you in pursuing that vision.
You cannot make it alone in this journey.
If you find relationships that are not mutually constructive; if someone brings you down rather than challenges and elevates you, then you must make a decision.
Can you transform this into a healthy relationship or do you need to sever it?
That does not mean of course that all of the people around you should be your yes-men.
You will never grow if you are surrounded by backslapping sycophants. Although I hate being criticized by friends, I do have some trusted critics.
These are people who tell me the things I need to hear.
I trust their judgment, and I trust their vision of me.
They challenge me and make me stretch mentally and intellectually, personally and spiritually.
I get feedback from them that I would not get anywhere else and even though it doesn't always feel good to hear their criticisms and challenges, I know they care about me and about my growth.
So I listen and learn.
We all need someone to coach us now and then. We cannot grow in a vacuum.
We have to be willing to seek out those with wisdom and say, "I don't know what to do; help me."
The fighter and philosopher, "Smokin' Joe" Frazier, said, "All of us are like the blind man at some point in our lives, standing on the corner, waiting for someone to lead us across."
You are not joined at the hip with your friends.
Be prepared to acknowledge when a relationship has soured and to go your separate way.
It does not have to be an angry parting.
Just say, "Look here, we are growing in different directions.
Our values have changed.
Our goals and objectives are different now.
Maybe we need to shake hands and say good-bye."
Being able to break away from toxic friendships can make the difference between living your dreams or living a nightmare!
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