The holidays are a time of giving. People scramble around, rushing from store to store, spending hours online, scouring newspaper ads—just to find the perfect gift for a loved one.
Be Quiet
Take 15 minutes a day to be quiet. Find a peaceful place where you can be alone. Turn off all electronics and just enjoy being with yourself. Listen to your inner voice and cultivate peace in your life. Bring a pad and pencil to jot down the ideas and thoughts that come to you. Then, jump back into life, refreshed, invigorated, and prepared to take on the day.
Be a Driver!
I saw a bumper sticker on an old car the other day. It said, “I go where I’m towed.”
Get Organized!
Get organized by creating a vision for your life, then arranging everything in your life to support and create that vision.
Cultivate Humility
Do you want to be among the most intelligent, charismatic people in the world? Do you want to be a top achiever and an effective leader, one who has the respect and admiration of peers? Cultivate humility.
Get Off the Energy Roller Coaster
It’s 3:00 in the afternoon, and you’re beginning to feel drowsy. Your mind is not as sharp as usual. Your head droops as you listen in on that conference call or read that report. So, you reach for a candy bar or cup of coffee to try to get you through the day. STOP!
Are You Smart Enough?
When you feel intellectually inferior, as we all do at times, change your focus to how you choose to apply and use your natural intelligence. Do you read and study, or do you waste time on mind numbing activities. Do you create or do you tear down? Do you take positive action, or do you over-analyze and thus paralyze your progress?
How to Get Out of a Slump
We all have times when our effectiveness increases and times when it fades This happens in every area of life, including sports, the arts, family or spiritual life, and in business.
Learn to Translate
The ability to translate is the most important skill you can develop in yourself, and teach to others, to facilitate personal development. Without it, you can read every book self improvement book, listen to hundreds of business CDs or watch each and every personal development seminar on DVD–and still get nothing out of it.
Bumps in the Road
Recently, I ran into an old friend at a neighborhood event. This woman has been plagued with numerous chronic health problems throughout her life, yet she continues to serve others with a positive, upbeat attitude.
Pay Attention
Pay attention! I heard this phrase a lot while in elementary school. I remember once hearing it just before a yardstick struck the desk next to me and broke into pieces.
Quit Now, Before You Get Fired!
If you want to hold on to your job, you should quit. That is, quit complaining, quit worrying, quit wasting time, quit spreading bad news, and quit holding back.
Visualize Your Plan
If you will take the next step and visualize exactly how it will look, and feel, when you reach your goals–if you will describe in detail, in writing, how it will look, perhaps even make a detailed drawing or find a picture that reminds you of your goal–you will have taken a major step toward achieving your goals.
Can I Really Change?
Self Improvement is all about changing–identifying things that we would like to be different in our lives, then taking action to effect the changes. But, if you’re like me, you’ve tried changing some things in the past and found yourself slipping back into old habits. It can make us wonder if lasting change is really possible. I’m here to assure you, it is!
Keep Running, No Matter What
A number of months ago, some family members and I decided to run a 5K. We knew that we’d never make it unless we trained and prepared.
Freedom to Fail, Freedom to Succeed
But, today I want to talk about the freedom to fail. What? Who would ever want to celebrate the freedom to fail? You and I should–because without the freedom to fail, we do not have the freedom to achieve real success.
Build a Relationship of Trust
Communication is critical to our success in every area of life. We often think of communicating simply as transferring information. But, it is so much more. Communication is also a transfer of feelings and emotion–a meeting of two souls. This is why two people can say the same sentence to you and have it mean two entirely different things. More than the words, what really transfers meaning is the nature of the relationship and the level of trust in that relationship.
You Can’t Fail
As a college student, I worked part-time under a wise sales manager, Mark Benson. He often made the statement: “You cannot fail in this business! You can quit, but you cannot fail.”
Blaze a Trail
Recently, I noticed a bumper sticker on a rickety old car. It said simply: “I go where I’m towed.
The First Lap is the Hardest
A couple of months ago, a friend and I decided to take up swimming. We decided that our initial goal would be to swim a mile.
Self Esteem Makes the Difference!
Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a world famous plastic surgeon, noticed that many people who don’t really need it would come to him for plastic surgery. Their real problem was not their outward physical appearance, but their inner, hidden self-image.
Work Will Win
In the world of athletics, there is a work ethic that has become all but extinct in the business community. Work means disciplining yourself to spend the time, focus your attention, exert all the effort you can, and stick with it. Those who do so will learn to love their work and to crave the satisfaction of a job well done.
How Audio Learning Can Change Your Life
As a sales trainer and motivational coach for over 20 years I have given away dozens of self-improvement and motivational books.
Stress Relief: How to Let Off Steam without Getting Burned
If enough heat is applied to water, it expands and becomes steam. In a closed container, the resulting steam builds up a great deal of pressure or force—enough force to power a locomotive or generate electricity.
Take Charge of Your Life
Today, millions of people walk around incarcerated in their own personal jails called addictions. These people are addicted to substances (such as alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, or even caffeine) or to behaviors (such as gambling, porn, overeating, or too much TV) which rob them of time, money, and control.
Replace Fear with Action
In today’s society, there are plenty of things to worry about. Will I lose my job? What if my daughter gets involved with drugs? Am I getting too fat? Can I keep this relationship going? Will I have enough money at retirement? What if a natural disaster hits my town? Will the economy recover? Worry, worry, worry.
5 Keys to Effective Customer Service
Statistics show that a happy customer will tell three other people. Unfortunately, an unhappy customer will tell over 10. Exceptional customer service can make the difference between surviving and thriving in this competitive marketplace. Now, learn five simple keys that can help you improve your customer service skills.
Looking for Greener Grass?
When things get difficult, we tend to look at other people or other companies and assume that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. When viewed from a distance, their opportunities often look richer, their problems seem fewer, and success looks easier. The temptation is to run here and there looking for better, easier opportunities. We sometimes wistfully look at other companies or industries and wish things were that easy for us. But, it is often an illusion.
Do You Risk Enough to Succeed?
Watching the recent Winter Olympics, I was struck over and over with the idea that those who won medals consistently pulled out all the stops and risked everything. On the other hand, those who gave “safe” performances ended up with mediocre results.
Don’t be an “Almost” Achiever
One of the saddest words in the English language is the word “almost.” I’m not speaking of someone who gives it their all but barely misses their goal. (That person is sure to double his or her efforts and demolish the goal the next time around.) I’m talking about the person who “almost” get’s started, or who “almost” sets a goal, or who “almost” gives it their best shot.
