The Best Gift to Give Yourself and Others by Jim Rohn

I’m often asked the question, “How can I best help my children, spouse, family member, staff member, friend, etc., improve/change?” In fact, that might be the most frequently asked question I receive, “How can I help change someone else?”

My answer often comes as a surprise and here it is. The key to helping others is to help yourself first. In other words, the best contribution I can make to someone else is my own personal development. If I become 10 times wiser, 10 times stronger, think of what that will do for my adventure as a father... as a grandfather... as a business colleague.

The best gift I can give to you, really, is my ongoing personal development. Getting better, getting stronger, becoming wiser. I think parents should pick this valuable philosophy up. If the parents are okay, the kids have an excellent chance of being okay. Work on your personal development as parents—that’s the best gift you can give to your children.

If you have ever ridden in an airplane, then you might have noticed the oxygen compartment located above every seat. There are explicit instructions that say, “In case of an emergency, first secure your own oxygen mask and then if you have children with you secure their masks.” Take care of yourself first... then assist your children. If we use that same philosophy throughout our whole parental life, it would be so valuable.

If I learn to create happiness for myself, my children now have an excellent chance to be happy. If I create a unique lifestyle for myself and my spouse, that will be a great example to serve my children.

Self-development enables you to serve, to be more valuable to those around you; for your child... your business... your colleague... your community... your church.

That’s why I teach development skills. If you keep refining all the parts of your character (yourself, your health, etc.) so that you become an attractive person to the marketplace, you’ll attract opportunity. Opportunity will then begin to seek you out. Your reputation will begin to precede you and people will want to do business with you. All of that possibility is created by working on the philosophy that success is something you attract by continually working on your own personal development.

The Movie-Rudy

When people say dreams don't come true, tell them about Rudy

Plot Outline: Rudy has always been told that he was too small to play college football. But he is determined to overcome the odds and fulfill his dream of playing for Notre Dame.

RUDY is the greatest football movie of all time. Wait, did I say 'football movie' I meant movie. Period. Between the gut-wrenching acting by Sean Astin, tear-jerking moments of the climax, the miraculous true story of a short man fighting to make his lifelong dreams come true, you'll be rooting for Rudy throughout the film. Rudy's dream is a selfless act of triumph that can do nothing but good for the entire human race. You can't help but ride right along with Rudy for the roller-coaster of emotions that ensues, leading up to the greatest moment of his life, a moment that will resonate in the very fiber of your being. This movie shows that dreams really can come true.

If you put your mind (and body) to it, and if you have a big enough heart, you too can accomplish anything!

After watching this movie, I was inspired to try just that much harder at everything I do, in hopes of one day becoming half the man that Rudy is. This movie is genuine, heart-felt emotion that will touch the inner depths of your soul. From the biggest person to the smallest, one and all will be reaching for the tissues after enjoying, nay, living, every moment of this film. Warning: don't watch the movie alone. You'll want the extra arms in the room for when you're hugging each other in celebration, and an extra voice erupting with cheers for the single greatest movie hero of all time: RUDY.

Give Bad Habits the Boot! by Chris Widener

Everybody has bad habits. Everybody. Now, granted, some people have less than others and some people’s bad habits are more grating than those of others, but we all have them. What is great is that we don’t have to! Imagine a life where you couldn’t change. What kind of life would that be? But we can, so let’s! see.

There are two kinds of bad habits: Those you know you have that others may or may not know about, and those you don’t know you have but everybody else knows you have! For the sake of everybody involved we ought to get rid of them all, right?

Well, Chris, how can I get rid of a bad habit if I don’t know I have it? Simple, but hard. Ask somebody to be brutally honest with you! You might think, “Yeah, but I’ll be embarrassed.” Would you rather everyone talk behind your back? Get up the courage and ask. Ask somebody who loves you and has your best interest in mind. Be gracious and don’t defend yourself. Just accept it and work on it.

What about the ones we know about (which are all of them once your good friend tells you the ones you were missing)? Those are the tough ones. How do I know they are tough? They must be tough if you know about them and yet you still have them! If they weren’t tough, they would be FORMER bad habits! Got me? Good!

So how do you break a bad habit? How do you give it the boot out of your life? Here are a few things that must be a part of the plan in order to see that stuff gone forever!

1. You must want them to go. That’s right; some people want them to stick around. I have seen dads choose alcohol over their grandchildren. I have seen smokers continue smoking while watching their parents die of emphysema. They don’t want them to go. The first thing is to go deep into the recesses of your heart and ask, “Do I really want to give this up?”

2. You do? Good. Step two: Make up a list of all of the reasons you want to quit your bad habits. Make them positive. Make the list long! Start with the really powerful and dramatic if you need to. Now memorize them. Put them in your mind. You are making connections between stopping the bad behavior with what good things you will get from doing so. If you want to lose weight, then picture yourself slim and looking good in those skinny-people clothes! If you want to stop smoking, picture your wife actually kissing you rather than sending you to the bathroom to brush your teeth!

3. Choose. That is right. Once you have the information, this comes down to one thing: It is an act of the will. Choose to do it. Say to yourself throughout the day, “I am choosing to….” Eisenhower rightly said, “The history of free men is written not by chance but by choice, their choice.” It is your choice. You can write your history.

4. Take action! Point four is tricky because there are two philosophies about this. One theory is that you must take massive action. You must go all or nothing. Using the weight loss example, this person would go spend $500 to join a gym, rework their schedule and hit the treadmill everyday for a year. They will get rid of all fat in the house. They go all out! That works for some. Others would burn out on that, feel like failures and be worse off than before. They should start out slow, taking baby steps, but working diligently toward a planned goal. This person would decide to start walking three days a week. They would decide to limit dessert to two nights a week, down from seven. See how this works? Either way is OK as long as you get to the goal eventually. Which one am I? The first two people to e-mail me with the correct guess will win a “Best Test” CD.

5. Tell somebody. This is your accountability partner. Tell them your goal and tell them your plan. Write it down for them and have them ask you at regular intervals about your progress. This will prove invaluable!

6. Recover from failure. Inevitably, most people will have setbacks. The key is to have them be setbacks and not turnbacks! Pick yourself up and get going again. Some people may want to lose 30 pounds and after losing 15 they eat a gallon of ice cream. Then they feel bad and give up. Don’t! Reset your goal for another two weeks and get going again. Chalk it up to experience! Say to yourself, “Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.”

7. Reward yourself. That’s right. You should regularly congratulate yourself by rewarding yourself with some gift to yourself. Start small with small victories and plan a big one when you are finally and for sure over the habit.

Is it that simple? Most of the time, no. Habits are hard to break. There are so many intangibles that it would be hard to cover them all. But this is a simple and workable plan that will help you make great strides if you apply the principles.

Get going! Give those bad habits the boot! Good luck!

The webcheck-www.ziglar.com

Zig Ziglar is the world's foremost authority on motivation. An internationally renowned speaker and authority on high-level performance, His I CAN course is taught in more than 3,000 schools; and hundreds of companies and businesses utilize his tapes, books, and videos to motivate and train their employees effectively. He has taught his values-based principles for becoming a more effective persuader and person to sales organizations, church groups, schools, and businesses. And he has reached thousands more through numerous television and radio appearances and through his popular audio and video training programs.
check this site for more......http://www.ziglar.com/

Four Steps to Success! by Jim Rohn

Let me pass on to you these four simple steps to success:

Number one is good ideas. Be a collector of good ideas. My mentor taught me to keep a journal when I was twenty five years old. I've been doing it now all these years. They will be passed on to my children and my grandchildren. If you hear a good health idea, capture it, write it down. Don't trust your memory. Then on a cold wintry evening, go back through your journal, the ideas that changed your life, the ideas that saved your marriage, the ideas that bailed you out of bankruptcy, the ideas that helped you become successful, the ideas that made you millions. What a good review. Going back over the collection of ideas that you gathered over the years. So be a collector of good ideas for your business, for your relationships, for your future.

The next step to success is to have good plans. A good plan for the day, a good plan for the future, a good health plan, a good plan for your marriage. Building anything is like building a house, you need to have a plan. Now here is a good time management question: When should you start the day? Answer: As soon as you have it finished. It is like building a house, building a life. What if you just started laying bricks and somebody asks, "What are you building?" And you say, "I have no idea." See they would come and take you away to a safe place. So, don't start the house until you finish it. Now, is it possible to finish the house before you start it? Yes, but it would be foolish to start before you had it finished. Not a bad time management idea. Don't start the day until it is pretty well finished -- at least the outline of the day. Leave some room to improvise. Leave some room for extra strategies, but finish it before you start it.

And here is the next piece that is a little more challenging: Do not start the week until you have it finished. Lay it out, structure it, then put it to work. Then the next one is a little tougher yet; do not start the month until you have it finished.

And finally the big one, don't start the year until it is finished on paper. It's not a bad idea, toward the end of the year, to sit down with your family for the family structure plans, sit down in your business for the business plans, sit down with your financial advisor for your investments and map out the year... properties to buy, properties to sell, places to go with your family, lay out the year. I finally learned to do that. It was also helpful for my family to show them where they appeared on my calendar. You know I used to have my business things on there and I used to have my lectures and my seminars all laid out on my calendar, and guess what the children said, "Where are we on the game plan, please show us our names on the game plan." So you need to do it for your children, for your spouse, for your friends.

Now, here is the third step to success, and it can be really challenging. Learning to handle the passing of time. It takes time to build a career, it takes time to make changes, so give your project time, give your people time. If you're working with people, give them time to learn, grow, change, develop, produce. And here is the big one, give yourself time. It takes time to master something new. It takes time to make altered changes and refinement in philosophy as well as activity. Give yourself time to learn, time to get it, time to start some momentum, time to finally achieve. It is easy to be impatient with yourself. I remember when I first tried to learn to tie my shoes. The shoe strings, it seemed like it would take me forever. Finally I got it and it didn't take forever, but it seemed like for a while I'd never learn, I'd get it backwards; the bow goes up and down instead of across. How do I straighten that out? Finally I got it, it just took time.

Mama taught me a little bit about playing the piano. "Here is the left hand scale", she'd say. I got that, it was easy. Then she said, "Here is the right hand scale." I got that, that was easy. Now she said, "We are going to play both hands at the same time." I said, "Well, how can you do that?" Now one at a time was easy... but at the same time? Looking at this hand and looking at that hand, finally I got it. Finally I got where I could play the scales with both hands. Then I remember the day she said, "Now we are going to read the music and play with both hands." I thought, "You can't do all that." But you know, sure enough I'm looking at the music, looking at each hand, a little confused at first, but finally I mastered it. It took a little time to read the music and play with both hands. Then I remember the day she said, "Now we are going to watch the audience, read the music and play with both hands. I thought, "Now that is going too far!" How could you possibly do that? But see adding them one at a time and giving myself time to master one before we went to the next one; sure enough I got to where I could watch the audience, read the music and play with both hands. So the lesson here is: Give yourself time, you can become a better pro, you can better master the art of parenting, you can better master the art of managing time, conserving resources, working together as a partner. Give yourself time.

And here's the last one; learning to solve problems. Business problems, family problems, financial problems, emotional problems, etc. -- challenges for us all. Here's the best way to treat a problem: As an opportunity to grow. Change if you have to, modify if you must, discard an old philosophy that wasn't working well for a new one. The best phrase my mentor ever gave me was when he said, "Mr. Rohn if you will change, everything will change for you." Wow, I took that to heart, and sure enough the more I changed the more everything changed for me.

So learn to master good ideas, have good plans, handle the passing of time and solve problems, and you will be on your way to more success than you could ever imagine!

The Practice of Discipline by Brain Tracy

Discipline yourself to do what you know you need to do to be the very best in your field. Perhaps the best definition of self discipline is this: "Self discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."

It is easy to do something when you feel like it. It's when you don't feel like it and you force yourself to do it anyway that you move your life and career onto the fast track.

What decisions do you need to make today in order to start moving toward the top of your field? Whatever it is, either to get in or get out, make a decision today and then get started. This single act alone can change the whole direction of your life.

Seven Steps to Success

There is a powerful seven step formula that you can use to set and achieve your goals for the rest of your life. Every single successful person uses this formula or some variation of this formula to achieve vastly more than the average person. And so can you. Here it is:

Decide What You Want

Step number one, decide exactly what it is you want in each part of your life. Become a "meaningful specific" rather than a "wandering generality."

Write it Down

Second, write it down, clearly and in detail. Always think on paper. A goal that is not in writing is not a goal at all. It is merely a wish and it has no energy behind it.

Set A Deadline

Third, set a deadline for your goal. A deadline acts as a "forcing system" in your subconscious mind. It motivates you to do the things necessary to make your goal come true. If it is a big enough goal, set sub-deadlines as well. Don't leave this to chance.

Make A List

Fourth, make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. When you think of new tasks and activities, write them on your list until your list is complete.

Organize Your List

Fifth, organize your list into a plan. Decide what you will have to do first and what you will have to do second. Decide what is more important and what is less important. And then write out your plan on paper, the same way you would develop a blueprint to build your dream house.

Take Action

The sixth step is for you to take action on your plan. Do something. Do anything. But get busy. Get going.

Do Something Every Day

Do something every single day that moves you in the direction of your most important goal at the moment. Develop the discipline of doing something 365 days each year that is moving you forward. You will be absolutely astonished at how much you accomplish when you utilize this formula in your life every single day.

Action Exercises

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

First, decide exactly what you want, write it down with a deadline, make a plan and take action - on at least one goal - today!

Second, determine the price you will have to pay to achieve this goal and then get busy paying that price - whatever it is.

The Shark and the Goldfish by Jon Gordon

An illustrated business fable that gives you the faith, courage and confidence to win in today's tough  world.

Fear and uncertainty are staples of daily life in today's struggling economy. As bad as things can be, economic downturns also lead to new opportunities. It's easy to worry, give up and let fear paralyze you. However, you have more control than you think you do and how you handle adversity is your choice-and the only choice that matters. In fact, study history and you'll find that a lot of people and organizations made a name for themselves and grew their businesses during recessions and downturns. These successful people and organizations all shared similar characteristics and took similar actions to thrive while others merely tried to survive. You can do the same.

In The Shark and the Goldfish, Jon Gordon shares an inspiring fable about Gordy, a pampered goldfish who gets swept out to sea. Desperate for food, Gordy meets a kind shark who teaches him the ultimate lesson-Goldfish wait to be fed. Sharks go find food. Gordy also learns that the difference between a full and empty stomach is our faith, beliefs and actions. In the face of adversity and lean times, this is a business fable that reinforces a proven truth: You can't control the events in your life. But you can control how you respond and in turn this determines the outcome.

1.A business fable that teaches valuable lessons on the importance of working hard, maintaining a locus of control and focusing on positive choices instead of negative voices,

2.Written by Jon Gordon, bestselling author of The Energy Bus and The No Complaining Rule

3.Reveals howchange is inevitable-but that you can make it your friend or foe.

4.Provides an action plan filled with tips and strategies to thrive during change and adversity

If you're facing tough  times, The Shark and the Goldfish will motivate you, inspire you, and give you the confidence you need to thrive during changing times.

Overcoming the Fear of Rejection by Denis Waitley

To conquer your fear of rejection, you need to handle the word "no" in a constructive way. When people turn you down after a presentation, you have to interpret the "no" as "no this is not right for me now." We also can interpret "no" as meaning, "I need to know more about this opportunity or the products before I can say yes."

I look at the service I offer to others as a gift that almost everyone desires. It's like a nutritious dessert. What if waiters or waitresses in a restaurant said to customers at their tables: "Would you like our special strawberry parfait for dessert? It's the best in the world!" And they were told "no" by their patrons, three out of five times.

Would they go to their manager, throw up their hands and quit, lamenting, "They don't like me or my strawberry parfait"? Of course they wouldn't. They'd go on about their business, thinking the patrons had missed out on something delicious.

That's why I treat products as a gift, much more nutritious and beneficial than a fruit dessert. But what is being rejected is the presentation, not the presentor. When I can separate my self-esteem from offering the products or business opportunity, I can live with rejection and look for ways to get a positive response more often.

When you are experiencing rejection, that's the time to network with mentors and role models. It's also the time to listen to upbeat music and read articles like this, to attend meetings and conference calls, and to hang around with optimists and winners.

There are basically four things we do in selling our products and services, and only four. We use the products and services ourselves, we talk to people about the products and services, we talk to people about the financial benefits we offer, and we coach them to refer us to others who do the same thing. First, we are coachable and willing to learn something new every day. Then, we become coaches. All you really need to move up to the next level is have faith in yourself.

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose your feelings is to risk revealing your true self. To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd, is to risk rejection. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing at all. People who will risk nothing --- do nothing, have nothing, and become nothing. They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or live. Chained by their certitudes, they are slaves. They have forfeited their freedom.

 Only a person who risks is truly free. And one last idea you can live and believe, is the more that you give ----- the more you'll receive.

Your Self Ideal By Brian Tracy

The first part of your self-concept is your self-ideal. This is the ideal image or picture you have of yourself, as if you were already the very best person you could possibly be.

Your self-ideal is made up of your wishes, hopes, dreams, goals, and fantasies about your perfect future life, combined with the qualities and virtues that you admire most in yourself and in other people.

Your self-ideal is a composite of the very best person you could imagine yourself being, living the very best life you could possibly live.

Develop Positive Role Models
In one study conducted some years ago, the researchers found many men and women who accomplished great things had--when they were young--been avid readers of the biographies and autobiographies of successful people.

It seems you have a natural tendency to identify with the hero or heroine in any story you read, watch, or hear. When you continuously immerse your mind in the stories of men and women who have accomplished wonderful things with their lives, you unconsciously identify with those characters and actually absorb their values, virtues, and qualities into your own personality.

Your Values Shape Your Personality
The values you choose to live by, and the way you define those values, shape and influence your personality and your achievements as much or more than any other single factor.

When you take the time to think through and develop absolute clarity about the key values and qualities you admire the most and wish the most to incorporate into yourself, you begin to shape and direct your whole personality and determine the results you achieve in the future.

How You See Yourself
The second part of your self-concept is your self-image. If you see yourself as positive, popular, productive, and successful on the inside, that is exactly how you will act on the outside.

The way you behave on the outside will largely determine the results you get. The results you get will reinforce your self-image, in either a positive or negative way, and will set you up to repeat the same behaviors in the next similar situation.

The Core of Your Personality
The third part of your self-concept is your self-esteem. This is the feeling or emotional component of your personality, the "reactor core" of your subconscious mind. Your level of self-esteem determines the vitality and energy of your personality and is the control valve on your performance.

Comparing: Your Behavior with Your Ideal
Your self-esteem is affected by many factors. One of the most important is the distance between your self-image, the way you see yourself in the moment, and your self-ideal, the way you would ideally like to be sometime in the future.

Whenever you feel your current performance and behavior is consistent with the best person that you can possibly be, your self esteem goes up. You feel happier and more exhilarated. You have more energy and enthusiasm. You are more positive and personable with others.

Action Exercise What are the values, qualities, and attributes of other people that you most admire? What actions could you take to incorporate those values into your personality?

The Law of Single Handling By Brian Tracy

The ability to start and complete your most important task determines your productivity more than any other skill. Maximum performance is possible only when you concentrate single-mindedly on the task—the most important task, and you stay at it until it is 100 percent complete.

Do the Most Important Task
You cannot do everything, but you can do one thing, the most important thing, and you can do it now. By setting goals and priorities, and then by selecting your most important task, you can dramatically increase your level of productivity and output.

Single Handling
Single handling is perhaps the most powerful of all time management techniques. It can increase your output by as much as 500 percent. It can reduce the amount of time you spend on a task by fully 80 percent—by the very act of launching into the task and disciplining yourself to stay with it until it is complete.

Refuse to Stop till Done
Picking up a task, putting it down and coming back to it several times, dramatically increases the amount of time necessary to complete the task. On the other hand, picking up the task and refusing to put it down until it is done enables you to accomplish vastly more in a shorter period of time than you thought possible. By disciplining yourself to concentrate single-mindedly on the most important thing you could possibly be doing, and then by completing that task, you increase the quantity, quality, and value of your output substantially.

Feel like a Winner
You can have all the talent and skill in the world. But if you cannot discipline yourself single-mindedly to complete your most important task, you will always have to work for someone else. You will always have to be supervised by someone who can make sure that you do what you should do, when you should do it. The good news is that every time you complete a major task, you experience a surge of energy, enthusiasm, and self-esteem. You feel terrific about yourself. You feel happy and elated. You feel like a winner.

Task Completion
By assigning yourself a large task and then by disciplining yourself to concentrate single-mindedly until the task is complete, you eventually develop the all-important habit of task completion. You program your subconscious mind in such a way that you look forward to major tasks because you know how good you are going to feel when you have completed them.

Action Exercise
Resolve today to develop the lifelong habit of task completion. You do this by selecting your most important task, getting yourself organized, and then working on it wholeheartedly until it is complete. Do this over and over until this habit of single handling is firmly entrenched.

Quality Questions Create a Quality Life By Anthony Robbins

Questions provide the key to unlocking our unlimited potential,” says Robbins. “Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”

It is in being honest with yourself and having an open internal dialogue that you will place yourself on the path to success. “You and I have that same power at our disposal every moment of the day,” says Robbins. “At the moment, the questions that we ask ourselves can shape our perception of who we are, what we're capable of, and what we're willing to do to achieve our dreams.”

How do you really want to live? What gets you most excited? When do you feel stuck? What kind of person will you have to become in order to achieve all that you want? These are some of the questions Robbins suggests you ask yourself and answer honestly. “The genuine quality of life comes from consistent, quality questions,” says Robbins. If you ask yourself a great question, your mind will automatically focus on finding better answers and solutions. Conversely, “If you ask a terrible question, you'll get a terrible answer,” he says. “Your mental computer is ever ready to serve you, and whatever question you give it, it will surely come up with an answer.”

Throughout his career, Robbins has been driven by a single question – what makes the difference in the quality of people’s lives? He has since come to realize that it is what we ask of ourselves and how well we look inside to find the answers that plays a key role. Not only does this help us understand our own internal motivations, but it also helps provide focus to our thoughts.

Every night before going to sleep, Robbins suggests asking yourself the following three questions:
What have I learned today?
What have I enjoyed today?
What have I improved or contributed today?

 Simple questions, yet with powerful effects. “Most people never feel secure because they are always worried that they will lose their job, lose the money they already have, lose their spouse, lose their health, and so on,” says Robbins. “The only true security in life comes from knowing that every single day you are improving yourself in some way, that you are increasing the caliber of who you are and that you are valuable to your company, your friends, and your family.” In asking yourself the above three questions, you can work on improving yourself each and every day.

Every individual has the right to live a life of fulfillment and questions are the key to opening that door. “The power was given to you at the moment you were born,” says Robbins. “Its source is unlimited. And when you seize it, you’ll have everything you need to create a life filled with more passion, excitement, confidence, and joy than you’ve ever dreamed. Isn't it time to unleash the power within and claim your extraordinary potential?”

How to Model the Success Strategies of the Successful - by Hyacinth Fraser

If you want to be successful it makes sense to model the strategies of the successful. The concept of modelling is as old as the hills, this is not a new concept and yet completely underused and sometimes misunderstood.

When I talk about modelling the success strategies of the successful I am really talking about modelling those strategies that you feel you want to integrate into who you are and make entirely your own. To that it extent it is a matter of personal choice what strategies you choose to master. A cautionary tale here; step outside of the confines of what you already believe you know to be success strategies and step into a world of possibilities that may not have been open to you before.

Take the risk to model something that might be even slightly outside of your comfort zone. Be prepared to do something you have not done before in order to get a result you have not had before. To paraphrase Einstein: a definition of insanity is to do something in the same way you have always done it in order to get a different result - the truth is that quite simply is not going to happen.

In using the six simple strategies of success modelling do work with your own definition of success. Success means different things to different people. I might decide some great models of success might include: Les Brown, Zig Ziglar, Jay Abraham, Iyanla Vanzant, Bill Gates, Reginald Lewis, Anthony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, Claude Bristol and Bob Johnson. For you though these might not come anywhere close to how you define success. The point is, choose who you wish to model and do it.

Success leaves clues.

Choose someone whom you admire and respect. Take a look at what it is you admire and respect about them. Is it the way they treat people respectfully? Perhaps the way they have built a highly profitable business from scratch? Is it their approach to philanthropy?

You can model anyone you wish - living or dead. It's worth getting more specific details about the person you wish to model. Check if they have an autobiography or biography. Speak to people that know or knew them. Read and if possible listen to their speeches. Undertake an internet search. If the person is alive, find out if you can meet the person you want to model. You could ask them to be your coach or mentor.


Modelling can take many forms; analyse the person's speech patterns this leaves many clues as to their mindset. You'll see instantly that individual very much has a ‘can do’ attitude. They will state a ‘problem’ - if they hold that concept in their head at all and REHEARSE REHEARSE REHEARSE the solutions .Take a look at their body language. It will be upright, self-assured and definite. They will usually surround themselves by people of a similar like.

They will likely have a pleasing personality, one where they understand that it's important to know people at every level within the organisation. It's equally likely that they get to know people's names very quickly recognising that names are important to people.

Six simple strategies for effective success modelling

It is a matter of personal choice what strategies you choose to master... so choose someone whom you admire and respect.

Below is a simple strategy to help you model success. In getting answers to these questions and using the responses you'll tap into the success strategies of the person you are modelling. The important thing here is to take action on what you learn - in a sense to do as they do and integrate those aspects of success into who you are.

1. Environmentally, what type of people does the individual surround themselves with, what type of mindset do these individuals have? How do they view and respond to the world around them?

2. How does this person you wish to model behave? How do they manage their emotional wellbeing? What is their skill set? How do they use that skill set to take them to the next level? How do they manage gaps in their skill set? Is their behaviour reactive to other people's moods and behaviours or do they stand in their own power and choose how they wish to behave in any given situation and the world more generally?

3. Is this person a forward thinker, a strategist? To what extent are they focused on continuous improvement? Is this person a keen listener and able to assess a range of views and be decisive?

4. Find out what the individuals belief and value system is. What is important to them and why? How and why do they do what they do?

5. Delving deeper into understanding the individual - what is this individual's purpose? What is this person's reason for being? What have they come here to be and do?

6. What is the ultimate for this person, however they define this for themselves?

Many successful people live a life of no limits. Their focus being the world is theirs to have and to hold as they wish.

"Some men (women) see things as they are, and say, Why? I dream of things that never were, and say Why not?" George Bernard Shaw.

Personal Power is the Ability to Take Action by Tony Robbins

 The path to success is to take massive, determined action,” says Robbins. “Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision…It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

Robbins believes that if you want to change your life, you need to avoid taking a passive approach and change it. Set your goals and begin to work towards them, now. Don’t wait for an opportunity to present itself, for if you’re not willing to act now, it never will.

“You are now at a crossroads,” says Robbins. “This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.”

According to Robbins, there is no such thing as failure, just results. “Consider the adage: Success is the result of good judgment, good judgment is the result of experience, and experience is often the result of bad judgment,” he says. Begin to set your goals and work towards them even knowing that failure is a possibility. “You might say, what if I screw up?” asks Robbins. “Then screw up big! Go for it! Do a big screwup!”

Without goals, without committed action, without mistakes, you will never make a change in your life. You will continue down the same path of mediocrity that you always have. And, while you might find security on that path, you will never achieve a life of fulfillment, believes Robbins. “Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird,” says Robbins. “Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.”

Robbins committed himself long ago to CANI – Constant And Never-ending Improvement, setting new goals at every step along the way. “The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately begin to create momentum,” he says. “The most important rules that I ever adopted to help me in achieving my goals were those I learned from a very successful man who taught me to first write down the goal, and then to never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment.”

In the end, it isn’t the number of goals that you set for yourself that will determine your success; it is only your actions that will decide your destiny. “A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided,” says Robbins. “You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.”

The Value of Mentors By Brian Tracy

Benjamin Franklin once said, "there are two ways to acquire wisdom; you can either buy it or borrow it." By buying it, you pay full price in terms of time and cost to learn the lessons you need to learn. By borrowing it, you go to those men and women who have already paid the price to learn the lessons and get their wisdom from them.

This is the essence of the mentor-protégé relationship. By going to people who are ahead of you in the personal or professional arena and opening yourself to their input, advice, and guidance, you can save yourself the many months (maybe even years) it would take and the thousands of dollars it would cost to learn what you need to learn all by yourself.

M.R. "Kop" Kopmeyer, a respected success authority, once told me that perhaps the fastest way to get ahead was to study the experts and to do what they do, rather than trying to learn it all by yourself. In fact, he mentioned that no one lives long enough to learn every¬thing he needs to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to help us learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.

The mentors you choose should be people you respect, admire, and want to be like. The advice you seek should be guidance regard¬ing your character and personality and specific ideas on how you can do your job better and faster. Remember, you can't figure it all out by yourself. You must have the help of others. You must find men and women who will guide you and advise you on the road of life, or you will take a long, long time getting anywhere.

There are two vital qualities to look for in a mentor. The first is character and the second is competence.

Character is by far the most important. Look for a mentor who has the kind of character you admire and respect. Look for a person who has high degrees of intelligence, integrity, judgment and wisdom. The more you associate with men and women who are advanced in the development of their character, the more you will tend to pattern them and to become like them.

The second quality you look for in a mentor is competence. This means that the person is extremely good at what he or she does. A good mentor in your career is one who has the knowledge, skills, and abilities to move ahead far more rapidly than his or her peers.

The impact of a mentor on your life is dependent on two addi¬tional factors. The first is your degree of openness to being influenced by another person. Openness is so important because many people, especially young people, are extremely impatient, always looking for shortcuts. When they get advice on something that another person has spent many years learning, they often try to add their own varia¬tions and improve on it without ever having mastered the original instruction.

Remember, when you open yourself up to guidance and input from another person, concentrate first on understanding and learning exactly what that person has to teach you. Afterward, you can modify and change that lesson to suit your changing circumstances.

The second factor that determines the influence of a mentor on your life is the willingness of the mentor to help you in every way possible to achieve your goals. We know that the more emotionally involved someone is in our lives, the more susceptible we are to being influenced by that person. When you seek out a mentor, you must look for someone who genuinely cares about you as a person and who really wants you to be successful in your endeavors.

So, for a good mentor-protégé relationship, you must be wide open to the influence and instruction of the other person, and at the same time, the mentor must be genuinely concerned about your well-being and your ultimate success. These are the two essentials.

Your ability to choose your mentors can be a crucial step toward achievement in all areas of your life.

 So here are 12 steps for building successful mentor-protégé relationships:
1) Set clear goals for yourself in every area of your life. Know exactly what you want to accomplish before you start thinking of the type of person who can help you accomplish it.

2) Determine the things you will have to do in order to achieve your goals, the obstacles you will have to overcome, and the roadblocks you will have to surmount.

3) Identify the areas of knowledge, skill, and expertise you will have to acquire in order to overcome the obstacles existing between you and your goals.

4) Look around for the most successful people in the areas in which you will need the most help.

5) Join the clubs, organizations, and business associations these people belong to.

6) Once you have joined these organizations, become actively involved and volunteer for responsibilities. This will bring you to the attention of the people you want to meet faster than anything else.

7) Work, study, and practice continually to get better and better at what you do. The very best mentors are interested in helping you only if they feel it is going to be worth their time. You will have no problem attracting people to you when you develop a reputation for being up-and-coming in your field.

8) When you find a potential mentor, don't make a nuisance of yourself. Instead, ask for 10 minutes of his or her time, in person, in private. Nothing more. Remember, most potential mentors are busy people, and they may be opposed to some¬one's trying to take up a lot of their time. It's not personal.

9) When you meet with a potential mentor, express your eager¬ness to be more successful in your field. Tell him or her that you would very much appreciate a little guidance and advice to help you move ahead. Ask for an answer to a specific question, for a specific book or audio program recommendation, or for a specific idea that has been helpful to him or her in the past.

10) After the initial meeting, send a thank-you note expressing your gratitude and appreciation for his or her time and guidance. Mention that you hope to meet again if you have another question.

11) Each month, drop your mentor a short note telling him or her about what you are doing and how you are progressing. Nothing makes a mentor more open to helping you further than your making it clear that the previous help has done you some good.

12) Arrange to meet with your mentor again, perhaps on a monthly basis, or even more often if you work closely together.

Over the course of your life, you will have many mentor-protégé relationships. As you grow and develop, you will seek out different mentors, the people who can give you the kind of advice that is most relevant to your current situation.

Successful people are very open to helping other people who want to be successful. This is especially true if they know you are willing to be a mentor to others who are younger and less experienced than you. The more open you are to helping others up the ladder of success, the more open others will be to helping you.

THE POWER OF ASKING

This article is about how "ASKING" can help you get whatever you want quicker - be it selling, promotionseeking for pay increase or whatever.

One main reason why people are not getting what they want is that, they don't ask enough.

ASKING is a psychological push-button! said M.R. Kopmeyer. It is the quickest way to get whatever you want. It is the fastest, easiest, surest way to get what you WANT! Why? Because, all people have been taught, trained and “attitude-conditioned” to do what they are ASKED. People have been "conditioned" throughout their upbringing to do what they are ASKED to do. You push the psychological button of ASKING and others respond by doing what you ASK!

But, how many PEOPLE have you asked to help you get whatever you want? Any? A few? A dozen? A hundred? How many? How often?

So, why not start now? ASK! ASK! ASK! You have a lot of ASKING to do to succeed!! The more you ASK, the more you will get! God has promised - "Ask and I shall give you!"

How to ASK Successfully?

To ask, you must:

• ASK courteously - ASK in an extremely courteous manner.

• ASK expectantly - in the voice and attitude that the other person will gladly do what you courteously and expectantly ASK.

• ASK reasonably - This applies to what you ASK and how you ASK.

• ASK persuasively. Never DEMAND! Never use the word: “DEMAND”. Never even “sound demanding”.

• ASK pleasantly - without pressure. Do not let your voice or manner imply pressure. Pressure creates resistance - and resistance is the exact opposite of what you want. What you should want is an agreement.

• ASK politely - Let your voice and manner, in every way, imply that, the other person will be agreeable and co-operative by gladly doing what you ASK.

• ASK firmly. This is the most difficult and probably the most important technique of ASKING successfully because you must give a firm impression that what you ASK is so reasonable, logical and just - that you shall pleasantly persist until you get it!

How to Deal with People Objections?

When a person replies "NO" to what you have "ASKED" it could mean one or a combination of several things. Usually, the only real reason why people do not instantly do what you ASK is that they are not sure that doing what you ASK is best for them. Most "NO" people are just like "MAY BE" people - only they are less timid and more direct. Some people say "NO" just to stall for time to think it over. They've been rushed into decisions before - which they later regretted and that they do not want to develop the habit - so they instantly say "NO" as self-defensive mechanism.

If the "NO" is genuine - ASK WHY? Your genuine surprise will cause the other person instinctively to wonder if perhaps he or she was wrong in saying NO. All you need to do is to assure them and re-assure them until they are sure. And, remember that you need to apply think win/win. Ensure that what you ASK is best for them.

Keep Asking to get what you want! Improve your ASKING methods and the results you get will seem miraculous. ASK MORE and More People. Always have an abundance of contacts. The LAW OF AVERAGE is based on the number of people you ASK. The more people you ASK, the more you will get of WHATEVER you want! And the closer you are toward getting whatever you want. By keep asking, you are making steps forward in achieving your goals.

Ask! ASK! ASK! Often!

Read the Book "Thoughts to build "-M.R.Kopmeyer for more details on the power of asking.

Learning From Your Mistakes By: Brian Tracy

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. As a result, people with a benevolent worldview are able to deal constructively and effectively with mistakes and temporary setbacks. When you develop the skill of learning from your mistakes, you are 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 yourway higher.

Two of the most common ways to handle 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?

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. In life, the quality of “intellectual honesty” is one of the most respected qualities possessed by individuals, especially leaders. When you are intellectually honest, you look at your world and deal with your circumstances as facts and realities, rather than hoping, wishing, and praying that they could be different. And the minute you begin to deal straightforwardly with life, you become a far more positive, creative, and constructive person. You become far more effective in overcoming your obstacles and achieving your goals. You became far more admired and respected by other people, and far more capable of achieving the critical results that are expected of you. On the other hand, the unwillingness to face the fact that you are not perfect, that you have made and will continue to make mistakes, is a major source of stress. One of the great teachings of history is the principle of non-resistance. Non-resistance means that when the wind blows, you bend like a willow tree rather than snap like a pine tree. You remain flexible, fluid, and open to new ideas, new information, and new inputs. You accept that, in a period of rapid change, nothing is written in stone.

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 they have 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.

Approach every mistake you make as a special learning experience, sent to teach you something valuable and necessary for your success in the future. Become an “inverse paranoid,” a person who is convinced that there is a vast conspiracy in the world to make you successful. Play with the idea that there are a series of guardian angels out there who are acting on your behalf. These angels are regularly planning “learning experiences” to enable you to grow as a person so that you can reach and achieve the great heights that are meant for you.

Whenever something happens of an adverse nature, immediately counteract your natural tendency toward disappointment and frustration by saying, “That's good!” Then, get busy looking into the situation to find out what is genuinely good about it. You must believe that difficulties come not to obstruct, but to instruct. If you look within any problem situation that you face, or any mistake that you have made, you will find that it contains the lessons and ideas that can be invaluable to you in the months and years ahead. In many cases, learning from mistakes with small costs and consequences will actually prepare you to avoid larger mistakes with huge costs and consequences.

Every day, all day long, you have problems in your work. In fact, if the problems did not exist, your job would not exist either. A powerful way to change your thinking is to realize that solving problems is what you are paid to do. Your job is to be a problem-solver, no matter what your title might be. All day long, you deal with problems and mistakes caused by you and others. The more of them you can spot and redirect before the consequences are felt, the more valuable you will become and the more you will be paid.

Whenever one of my children make a mistake of any kind, I stop them, get their attention, and ask, “What have you learned?” I have asked them this question since they were two or three years old. Now, whenever they make a mistake of any kind, they know I am going to ask the question so they are ready with the answer. I always tell my children that as long as they learn from a mistake, and establish a rule or guideline for future action, they are growing and becoming smarter as they move through life.

In both your personal and professional life, there are seven steps you can take to deal with almost any mistake you make.

The first step is to approach the mistake with a positive, constructive frame of mind, using the techniques outlined above.

The second step is to define the mistake clearly. Exactly what happened? Write it down. Think on paper. The more clearly you can write about it, the more clearly you will understand the mistake and its possible corrections.

The third step is to examine all the known causes of the mistake. How did it happen? Why did it happen? What were the critical variables that triggered the mistake? Any attempt to pass over a mistake without identifying how it occurred in the first place will leave the roots of that mistake in the ground, to grow up again in the future.

The fourth step is to identify all the possible ways of mitigating the mistake. What are all the different things that you could do to minimize the cost of the mistake, or to solve the problem that has arisen? The more ideas you have, the more likely it is that you will come up with the approach that will prove most effective.

The fifth step is for you to make a clear, unequivocal decision about how to handle the mistake. Decisiveness is a characteristic of high performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all. Even the most effective leaders make mistakes, but then they quickly make decisions to offset those.

The sixth step is to assign specific responsibility for taking the steps necessary to mitigate the mistake within a certain time frame. Who exactly is going to do what, and when, and how, and to whom will they report? The failure to assign or accept responsibility to achieve results before a specific deadline will leave the situation open-ended, and it will often get worse as a result.

Finally, the seventh step in dealing with mistakes is to take action. Intense action orientation is a characteristic of the top two percent of the population.

The only guarantee in life is that most of the decisions you make and conclusions you come to will eventually prove wrong. How you deal with these situations is the chief determinant of your success or failure.

Mistakes and problems are good. Without them there would be no opportunities for greatness. When you take every challenge that life throws at you, accepting it as an inevitable part of the growing experience, you can turn it to your advantage in every way possible. Almost every mistake you make contains a hidden treasure that you can apply to your life to forge a future that is extraordinary and worthwhile.

Seven Self-Motivators by Brian Tracy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE ANT PHILOSOPHY by Jim Rohn

Over the years I've been teaching kids about a simple but powerful concept - the ant philosophy. I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That's a good philosophy. If they're headed somewhere and you try to stop them,they'll look for another way. They'll climb over,they'll climb under, they'll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, tonever quit looking for a way to get where you're supposed to go.Second, ants think winter all summer. That's an important perspective.You can't be so naive as to think summer will last forever. So ants are gathering in their winter food in the middle of summer.An ancient story says, "Don't build your house on the sand in the summer." Why do we need that advice? Because it is important to be realistic. In the summer, you've got to think storm. You've got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun. Think ahead.

The third part of the ant philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, "This won't last long; we'll soon be out of here." And the first warm
day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they'll dive back down, but then they come out the first warm day. They can't wait to get out. And here's the last part of the ant philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter? All that he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the "all-that-you-possibly-can"philosophy.

Wow, what a great LESSON TO LEARN FROM the ant Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.

Jim Rohn on Personal Development to Greatness Part1& Part 2 Videos

Jim Rohn (September 25, 1930 - December 5, 2009) was an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker.His work has been influential in launching or furthering the careers of many others in the personal development industry, including Anthony Robbins, Mark Victor Hansen, Brian Tracy and Jack Canfield.

"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you"
- Jim Rohn -

Mr. JimRohn cannot be described nor defined. He must be experienced. Do it now!!



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Read All the Books by Jim Rohn

All of the books that we will ever need to make us as rich, as healthy, as happy, as powerful, as sophisticated and as successful as we want to be have already been written.

People from all walks of life, people with some of the most incredible life experiences, people that have gone from pennies to fortune and from failure to success have taken the time to write down their experiences so that we might share in their wealth of knowledge. They have offered their wisdom and experience so that we can be inspired by it and instructed by it, and so that we can amend our philosophy by it. Their contributions enable us to reset our sail based upon their experiences. They have handed us the gift of their insights so that we can change our plans, if need be, in order to avoid their errors. We can rearrange our lives based on their wise advice.

All of the insights that we might ever need have already been captured by others in books. The important question is this: In the last ninety days, with this treasure of information that could change our lives, our fortunes, our relationships, our health, our children and our careers for the better, how many books have we read?

Why do we neglect to read the books that can change our lives? Why do we complain but remain the same? Why do so many of us curse the effect but nourish the cause? How do we explain the fact that only a small percent of our entire national population uses the library card they possess - a card that would give us access to all of the answers to success and happiness we could ever want? Those who wish for the better life cannot permit themselves to miss the books that could have a major impact on how their lives turn out. The book they miss will not help!

And the issue is not that books are too expensive! If a person concludes that the price of buying the book is too great, wait until he must pay the price for not buying it. Wait until he receives the bill for continued and prolonged ignorance.

There is very little difference between someone who cannot read and someone who will not read. The result of either is ignorance. Those who are serious seekers of personal development must remove the self-imposed limitations they have placed on their reading skills and their reading habits. There is a multitude of classes being taught on how to be a good reader and there are thousands of books on the shelves of the public libraries just waiting to be read. Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. We must not permit anything to stand between us and the book that could change our lives.

A little reading each day will result in a wealth of valuable information in a very short period of time. But if we fail to set aside the time, if we fail to pick up the book, if we fail to exercise the discipline, then ignorance will quickly move in to fill the void.

Those who seek a better life must first become a better person. They must continually seek after self-mastery for the purpose of developing a balanced philosophy of life, and then live in accordance with the dictates of that philosophy. The habit of reading is a major stepping-stone in the development of a sound philosophical foundation. And in my opinion it is one of the fundamentals required for the attainment of success and happiness.

Where Do You Go for Your Intellectual Feast? by Jim Rohn

Pity the man who has a favorite restaurant, but not a favorite author. He's picked out a favorite place to feed his body, but he doesn't have a favorite place to feed his mind!

Why would this be? Have you heard about the accelerated learning curve? From birth, up until the time we are about eighteen, our learning curve is dramatic, and our capacity to learn during this period is just staggering. We learn a tremendous amount very fast. We learn language, culture, history, science, mathematics... everything!

For some people, the accelerated learning process will continue on. But for most, it levels off when they get their first job. If there are no more exams to take, if there's no demand to get out paper and pencil, why read any more books? Of course, you will learn some things through experience. Just getting out there – sometimes doing it wrong and sometimes doing it right - you will learn.

Can you imagine what would happen if you kept up an accelerated learning curve all the rest of your life? Can you imagine what you could learn to do, the skills you could develop, the capacities you could have? Here's what I'm asking you to do: be that unusual person who keeps up his learning curve and develops an appetite for always trying to find good ideas.

One way to feed your mind and educate your philosophy is through the writings of influential people. Maybe you can't meet the person, but you can read his or her books. Churchill is gone, but we still have his books. Aristotle is gone, but we still have his ideas. Search libraries for books and programs. Search magazines. Search documentaries. They are full of opportunities for intellectual feasting.

In addition to reading and listening, you also need a chance to do some talking and sharing. I have some people in my life who help me with important life questions, who assist me in refining my own philosophy, weighing my values and pondering questions about success and lifestyle.

We all need association with people of substance to provide influence concerning major issues such as society, money, enterprise, family, government, love, friendship, culture, taste, opportunity, and community. Philosophy is mostly influenced by ideas, ideas are mostly influenced by education, and education is mostly influenced by the people with whom we associate.

One of the great fortunes of my life was to be around Mr. Shoaff those five years. During that time he shared with me at dinner, during airline flights, at business conferences, in private conversations and in groups. He gave me many ideas that enabled me to make small daily adjustments in my philosophy and activities. Those daily changes, some very slight, but very important, soon added up to weighty sums.

A big part of the lesson was having Mr. Shoaff repeat the ideas over and over. You just can't hear the fundamentals of life philosophy too often. They are the greatest form of nutrition, the building blocks for a well-developed mind.

I'm asking that you feed your mind just as you do your body. Feed it with good ideas, wherever they can be found. Always be on the lookout for a good idea - a business idea, a product idea, a service idea, an idea for personal improvement. Every new idea will help to refine your philosophy. Your philosophy will guide your life, and your life will unfold with distinction and pleasure.

Evaluating Your Associations (Part I) by Jim Rohn

If you were to evaluate the major influences in your life that have shaped the kind of person you are, this has to be high on the list: the people and thoughts you choose to allow into your life.

Mr. Shoaff gave me a very important warning in those early days that I would like to share with you. He said, "Never underestimate the power of influence." Indeed, the influence of those around us is so powerful! Many times we don't even realize we're being strongly affected because influences generally develop over an extended period of time.

Peer pressure is an especially powerful force because it is so subtle. If you're around people who spend all they make, chances are excellent that you'll spend all you make. If you are around people who go to more ball games than concerts, chances are excellent that you'll do the same thing.

If you are around people who don't read, chances are excellent that you won't read. People can keep nudging us off course a little at a time until finally, we find ourselves asking, "How did I get here?" Those subtle influences need to be studied carefully if we really want our lives to turn out the way we've planned.

With regard to this important point, let me give you three key questions to ask yourself. They may help you to make better analysis of your current associations.

Here is the first question: "Who am I around?" Make a mental note of the people with whom you most often associate. You've got to evaluate everybody who is able to influence you in any way.

The second question is: "What are these associations doing to me?" That's a major question to ask. What have they got me doing? What have they got me listening to? What have they got me reading? Where have they got me going?

What do they have me thinking? How have they got me talking? How have they got me feeling? What have they got me saying? You've got to make a serious study of how others are influencing you, both negatively and positively.


Here's a final question: "Is that okay?" Maybe everyone you associate with has been a positive, energizing influence. Then again, maybe there are some bad apples in the bunch.


All I'm suggesting here is that you take a close and objective look. Everything is worth a second look, especially the power of influence. Both will take you somewhere, but only one will take you in the direction you need to go.

It's easy to just dismiss the things that influence our lives. One man say's, "I live here, but I don't think it matters. I'm around these people, but I don't think it hurts." I would take another look at that. Remember, everything matters! Sure, some things matter more than others, but everything amounts to something.

You've got to keep checking to find out whether your associations are tipping the scales toward the positive or toward the negative. Ignorance is never the best policy. Finding out is the best policy.

Perhaps you've heard the story of the little bird. He had his wing over his eye and he was crying. The owl said to the bird, "You are crying." "Yes," said the little bird, and he pulled his wing away from his eye. "Oh, I see," said the owl. "You're crying because the big bird pecked out your eye." And the little bird said, "No, I'm not crying because the big bird pecked out my eye. I'm crying because I let him."

It's easy to let influence shape our lives, to let associations determine our direction, to let pressures overwhelm us, and to let tides take us. The big question is, are we letting ourselves become what we wish to become?