Thinking Like a Farmer
Jim Rohn
One of the difficulties we face in our industrialized age is the fact we’ve lost our sense of seasons. Unlike the farmer whose priorities change with the seasons, we have become impervious to the natural rhythm of life. As a result, we have our priorities out of balance. Let me illustrate what I mean:
For a farmer, springtime is his most active time. It’s then when he must work around the clock, up before the sun and still toiling at the stroke of midnight. He must keep his equipment running at full capacity because he has but a small window of time for the planting of his crop. Eventually winter comes when there is less for him to do to keep him busy.
There is a lesson here. Learn to use the seasons of life. Decide when to pour it on and when to ease back, when to take advantage and when to let things ride. It’s easy to keep going from nine to five year in and year out and lose a natural sense of priorities and cycles. Don’t let one year blend into another in a seemingly endless parade of tasks and responsibilities. Keep your eye on your own seasons, lest you lose sight of value and substance.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
5 Myths about Goal Setting
Setting Goals and Objectives: 5 Myths
Brian Tracy
Only 3% of adults have clear, written, specific, measurable, time-bounded goals, and by every statistic, they accomplish ten times as much as people with no goals at all. Why is it then that most people have no goals?
Myth One: “I already have goals; I don’t need to set any.” People who say this also say that their goals are to be rich, thin, happy, successful, and live their dreams. Buy these are not goals, they are wishes and fantasies common to all mankind. A goal is like a beautiful home, carefully designed, revised continually, upgraded regularly, and worked on constantly. If it is not in writing, it is merely a dream or a wish, a vague objective with no energy behind it.
Myth Two: “I don’t need goals; I’m doing fine.” Living your life without goals and objectives is setting off across unknown territory with no road signs and no road map. You have no choice but to make it up as you go along, reacting and responding to whatever happens, and hoping for the best. If you are doing well today without written goals and plans, you could probably be doing many times better in the future if you had clear targets to aim at and the ability to measure your progress as you go along.
Myth Three: “I don’t need written goals; I have them all in my mind.” The average stream of consciousness includes about 1,500 thoughts a minute. If your goals are only in your mind, they are invariably jumbled up, vague, confused, contradictory and deficient in many ways. They offer no clarity and give you no motive power. You become like a ship without a rudder, drifting with the tides, crashing into the rocks inevitably and never really fulfilling your true potential.
Myth Four: “I don’t know how to set goals.” No wonder. You can take a Masters degree at a leading university and never receive a single hour of instruction on goal setting and achieving. Fortunately, setting a goal is a skill, like time management, teaching, selling, managing, or anything else that you need to become a highly productive and effective person. And all skills are learnable. You can learn the skill of goal-setting by practice and repetition until it becomes as easy and as automatic as breathing. And from the very first day that you begin setting goals, the progress you will make and the successes you will enjoy will astonish you.
Myth Five: “Goals don’t work; life is too unpredictable.” When a plane takes off for a distant city, it will be off course 99% of the time. The complexity of the avionics and the skill of the pilots are focused on continual course corrections. It is the same in life. But when you have a clear, long-term goal, with specific plans to achieve it, you may have to change course many times, but you will eventually arrive at your destination of health, wealth and great success.
One last point. Goal setting has been called the master skill of success. You have two choices in life: You can either work on your own goals, or you can work for someone else, and work on achieving their goals. When you learn the master skill, you take complete control of your life and jump to the front of the line in your potential for great achievement.
Brian Tracy
Only 3% of adults have clear, written, specific, measurable, time-bounded goals, and by every statistic, they accomplish ten times as much as people with no goals at all. Why is it then that most people have no goals?
Myth One: “I already have goals; I don’t need to set any.” People who say this also say that their goals are to be rich, thin, happy, successful, and live their dreams. Buy these are not goals, they are wishes and fantasies common to all mankind. A goal is like a beautiful home, carefully designed, revised continually, upgraded regularly, and worked on constantly. If it is not in writing, it is merely a dream or a wish, a vague objective with no energy behind it.
Myth Two: “I don’t need goals; I’m doing fine.” Living your life without goals and objectives is setting off across unknown territory with no road signs and no road map. You have no choice but to make it up as you go along, reacting and responding to whatever happens, and hoping for the best. If you are doing well today without written goals and plans, you could probably be doing many times better in the future if you had clear targets to aim at and the ability to measure your progress as you go along.
Myth Three: “I don’t need written goals; I have them all in my mind.” The average stream of consciousness includes about 1,500 thoughts a minute. If your goals are only in your mind, they are invariably jumbled up, vague, confused, contradictory and deficient in many ways. They offer no clarity and give you no motive power. You become like a ship without a rudder, drifting with the tides, crashing into the rocks inevitably and never really fulfilling your true potential.
Myth Four: “I don’t know how to set goals.” No wonder. You can take a Masters degree at a leading university and never receive a single hour of instruction on goal setting and achieving. Fortunately, setting a goal is a skill, like time management, teaching, selling, managing, or anything else that you need to become a highly productive and effective person. And all skills are learnable. You can learn the skill of goal-setting by practice and repetition until it becomes as easy and as automatic as breathing. And from the very first day that you begin setting goals, the progress you will make and the successes you will enjoy will astonish you.
Myth Five: “Goals don’t work; life is too unpredictable.” When a plane takes off for a distant city, it will be off course 99% of the time. The complexity of the avionics and the skill of the pilots are focused on continual course corrections. It is the same in life. But when you have a clear, long-term goal, with specific plans to achieve it, you may have to change course many times, but you will eventually arrive at your destination of health, wealth and great success.
One last point. Goal setting has been called the master skill of success. You have two choices in life: You can either work on your own goals, or you can work for someone else, and work on achieving their goals. When you learn the master skill, you take complete control of your life and jump to the front of the line in your potential for great achievement.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Top Ideas for Your Journal
What to Write in a Journal
By Darren Hardy
"If you're serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured and unique individual—keep a journal. Don't trust your memory. When you listen to something valuable, write it down." As such, a journal can be many things to many people. Here are a few ideas for how to use a journal:
1. Keep a tally of your daily 'wins' or accomplishments.
2. Keep notes on an ongoing problem you're facing.
3. Write down ideas. The Magic of Thinking Big author David J. Schwartz writes, "Every day, lots of good ideas are born only to die quickly because they aren't nailed to paper."
4. Maintain your lifelong goal file. Writing down your aspirations in a journal helps build a file so that you can review your ideas over and over.
5. Keep a to-do list for big projects. Day-to-day tasks can be scheduled in Outlook, but larger-scale projects are perfect for recording in a journal.
6. Jot down inspirational quotes and why they impact you.
7. Keep a dream journal bedside.
8. Handwrite important facts, statistics or phone numbers to help cement them in your mind.
9. Tear out a page and write a note to someone important in your life.
By Darren Hardy
"If you're serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured and unique individual—keep a journal. Don't trust your memory. When you listen to something valuable, write it down." As such, a journal can be many things to many people. Here are a few ideas for how to use a journal:
1. Keep a tally of your daily 'wins' or accomplishments.
2. Keep notes on an ongoing problem you're facing.
3. Write down ideas. The Magic of Thinking Big author David J. Schwartz writes, "Every day, lots of good ideas are born only to die quickly because they aren't nailed to paper."
4. Maintain your lifelong goal file. Writing down your aspirations in a journal helps build a file so that you can review your ideas over and over.
5. Keep a to-do list for big projects. Day-to-day tasks can be scheduled in Outlook, but larger-scale projects are perfect for recording in a journal.
6. Jot down inspirational quotes and why they impact you.
7. Keep a dream journal bedside.
8. Handwrite important facts, statistics or phone numbers to help cement them in your mind.
9. Tear out a page and write a note to someone important in your life.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Dealing with Fear!
Pauline Victoria
I was recently exploring the fear factor. Fear is inevitable. But, I realized there are different kinds of fears. Some fears paralyze us and some fears push us to our potential. In looking at my own fear, I discovered that the fears I had actually pushed me to reach my full potential in embracing life.
The fear of being left on the sidelines of life was bigger than my fear of stretching out of my comfort zone. Up until I was 12 years old, I spent the summer on the steps of a swimming pool as my friends played in the deep end. I had it. I was tired of being left in the shallow end. So I was faced with a choice: do I play it safe and stay on the side steps of the shallow end or do I risk drowning as I learn to swim? I was more afraid of not being able to participate fully than I was of drowning. And so that fear of not being able to be free pushed me toward taking the risks. Day after day, gulp after gulp, I forged ahead and finally figured out how to swim and become free to play fully.
People face their fear of the unknown in order to put to rest their other fears. People leave their house not knowing what could happen rather than be isolated, people fly in planes trusting strangers with multiple lives rather than not experience adventure, people drive not knowing whether or not they could get in an accident rather than not have the freedom to go when and where they please, people allow themselves to fall in love whether or not they know if their heart will be broken rather than be alone.
Congratulations on facing your fears!
In every situation when you are faced with being paralyzed or pushed, ask yourself which fear is stronger: the fear of playing it safe to merely survive or the fear of taking some risks to truly live?
You may wonder why I posted this article. Pauline was born with no arms and no legs. Check out your website… it is inspirational!
www.paulinevictoria.com
I was recently exploring the fear factor. Fear is inevitable. But, I realized there are different kinds of fears. Some fears paralyze us and some fears push us to our potential. In looking at my own fear, I discovered that the fears I had actually pushed me to reach my full potential in embracing life.
The fear of being left on the sidelines of life was bigger than my fear of stretching out of my comfort zone. Up until I was 12 years old, I spent the summer on the steps of a swimming pool as my friends played in the deep end. I had it. I was tired of being left in the shallow end. So I was faced with a choice: do I play it safe and stay on the side steps of the shallow end or do I risk drowning as I learn to swim? I was more afraid of not being able to participate fully than I was of drowning. And so that fear of not being able to be free pushed me toward taking the risks. Day after day, gulp after gulp, I forged ahead and finally figured out how to swim and become free to play fully.
People face their fear of the unknown in order to put to rest their other fears. People leave their house not knowing what could happen rather than be isolated, people fly in planes trusting strangers with multiple lives rather than not experience adventure, people drive not knowing whether or not they could get in an accident rather than not have the freedom to go when and where they please, people allow themselves to fall in love whether or not they know if their heart will be broken rather than be alone.
Congratulations on facing your fears!
In every situation when you are faced with being paralyzed or pushed, ask yourself which fear is stronger: the fear of playing it safe to merely survive or the fear of taking some risks to truly live?
You may wonder why I posted this article. Pauline was born with no arms and no legs. Check out your website… it is inspirational!
www.paulinevictoria.com
Friday, April 22, 2011
Connecting or Just Communicating?
I read this article by Darren Hardy
Are You Connecting or Just Communicating?
It seems the networking series really seemed to connect with many of you. To continue the discussion and to introduce you to our May issue of SUCCESS with the social network star Mark Zuckerberg on the cover, below is my Publisher’s Letter from the issue. They key point is, you don’t need 1,000 ‘friends’ or even 100–see how many below…
I communicate a lot—on my blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. I also process around 300-400 emails a day and who knows how many text messages.
But recently I spent some time sorting and categorizing my database of more than 10,000 “contacts,” and I had a startling realization. While I might be communicating with tens of thousands of people every day, outside of encounters with my immediate family and business team, I am not really connecting or fostering very many real relationships at all. I’m what’s called a mile wide and an inch deep, and that’s not how you strike oil! I’ve been mistaking communication for connection.
Since having this epiphany, I’ve noticed how many other people suffer from this same affliction, mistaking the time they spend transmitting and receiving information with time spent making meaningful connections. Don’t get me wrong—both communication and connection are essential today, but one simply does not equate to the other.
With the pace of business and life today, it’s so easy to fall victim to this way of thinking; we must move quickly and convey as much information as quickly as possible to stay competitive, or so we think. With all the opportunities technology provides—enabling us to work from just about anywhere and to expand our reach, quite literally, around the globe—it also has become a crutch in some ways.
I think true connection happens face to face, heart to heart, live and in person. Sharing the same physical space. Sharing an experience together. Even in a business context, I’m sure you’ve experienced the difference between having a meeting in person versus a conference call or the great limitations of communicating over email—not to mention the shallow experience of simply reading a Facebook update or a tweet.
A wise person once said: there are only a dozen or two relationships that will take you to any level of success you desire.
Think about that. Not 10,000, 1,000 or even 100. Ask Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Richard Branson or Oprah Winfrey, and each of them will tell you that no more than two dozen relationships contributed to their extraordinary achievements today.
But you can’t just communicate with people in those two dozen relationships; you have to connect with them. These connections can only result from your continued efforts to nurture deep and meaningful relationships.
Are You Connecting or Just Communicating?
It seems the networking series really seemed to connect with many of you. To continue the discussion and to introduce you to our May issue of SUCCESS with the social network star Mark Zuckerberg on the cover, below is my Publisher’s Letter from the issue. They key point is, you don’t need 1,000 ‘friends’ or even 100–see how many below…
I communicate a lot—on my blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. I also process around 300-400 emails a day and who knows how many text messages.
But recently I spent some time sorting and categorizing my database of more than 10,000 “contacts,” and I had a startling realization. While I might be communicating with tens of thousands of people every day, outside of encounters with my immediate family and business team, I am not really connecting or fostering very many real relationships at all. I’m what’s called a mile wide and an inch deep, and that’s not how you strike oil! I’ve been mistaking communication for connection.
Since having this epiphany, I’ve noticed how many other people suffer from this same affliction, mistaking the time they spend transmitting and receiving information with time spent making meaningful connections. Don’t get me wrong—both communication and connection are essential today, but one simply does not equate to the other.
With the pace of business and life today, it’s so easy to fall victim to this way of thinking; we must move quickly and convey as much information as quickly as possible to stay competitive, or so we think. With all the opportunities technology provides—enabling us to work from just about anywhere and to expand our reach, quite literally, around the globe—it also has become a crutch in some ways.
I think true connection happens face to face, heart to heart, live and in person. Sharing the same physical space. Sharing an experience together. Even in a business context, I’m sure you’ve experienced the difference between having a meeting in person versus a conference call or the great limitations of communicating over email—not to mention the shallow experience of simply reading a Facebook update or a tweet.
A wise person once said: there are only a dozen or two relationships that will take you to any level of success you desire.
Think about that. Not 10,000, 1,000 or even 100. Ask Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Richard Branson or Oprah Winfrey, and each of them will tell you that no more than two dozen relationships contributed to their extraordinary achievements today.
But you can’t just communicate with people in those two dozen relationships; you have to connect with them. These connections can only result from your continued efforts to nurture deep and meaningful relationships.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Employee Praise
Easy Ways to Give Employee or Co-Worker Recognition
Employees' happiness is often the most important non-financial vital sign for a small business to monitor, says Jennifer Openshaw, author of The Millionaire Zone and other books for entrepreneurs and investors. "If they're not happy, it's going to impact your bottom line."
While conducting formal employee surveys is one way to measure employee morale, less-formal surveillance can produce useful results. "Just look on their faces and body language."
To infuse more life into your company, here are some unique ways to give employee recognition:
* Use the corporate intranet as a way to spread praise.
* A low-tech way to reward others is writing on whiteboards with dry erase markers. Author Tim Sanders points to a "Recognition Whiteboard" he observed at the British Columbia Lottery System. Anyone could scribble notes of recognition for other team members. Introverted types found the whiteboard a great way to thank each other for contributions to a project's success.
* Recognize employees' work anniversaries as a way to let them know how they've made a difference in the company.
* When inquiring about completed projects, managers should ask their project managers, "Who else helped you accomplish this?" It's a great way to broaden praise beyond the "face" of the project.
Employees' happiness is often the most important non-financial vital sign for a small business to monitor, says Jennifer Openshaw, author of The Millionaire Zone and other books for entrepreneurs and investors. "If they're not happy, it's going to impact your bottom line."
While conducting formal employee surveys is one way to measure employee morale, less-formal surveillance can produce useful results. "Just look on their faces and body language."
To infuse more life into your company, here are some unique ways to give employee recognition:
* Use the corporate intranet as a way to spread praise.
* A low-tech way to reward others is writing on whiteboards with dry erase markers. Author Tim Sanders points to a "Recognition Whiteboard" he observed at the British Columbia Lottery System. Anyone could scribble notes of recognition for other team members. Introverted types found the whiteboard a great way to thank each other for contributions to a project's success.
* Recognize employees' work anniversaries as a way to let them know how they've made a difference in the company.
* When inquiring about completed projects, managers should ask their project managers, "Who else helped you accomplish this?" It's a great way to broaden praise beyond the "face" of the project.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Discover Your Strengths
Discover Your Strengths
Love it or loathe it, that's how author Marcus Buckingham suggests finding your strengths. To help you identify your best traits and weaknesses, Buckingham suggests taking a blank sheet of paper and drawing a line down the middle. Label one side "Love it!" and the other side "Loathe it!"
During a typical week, carry the paper around with you and separate your activities into the two categories. In the love column are things you look forward to doing, tasks that seem to make the time fly by or activities that make you feel fulfilled after you've completed them. Tasks that are difficult to concentrate on and things you hope you never have to do again belong in the loathe column.
At the end of the week, you'll have a clear picture of your strengths and where your passion lies. Specifically identifying the activities that strengthen you will help you purposely gravitate toward them, as well as help you neutralize the ones you hate. You'll be able to avoid some of the activities that weaken you. For those you can't, by having your week so filled with activities that invigorate you, you'll have the strength to power through those activities that drain you.
Love it or loathe it, that's how author Marcus Buckingham suggests finding your strengths. To help you identify your best traits and weaknesses, Buckingham suggests taking a blank sheet of paper and drawing a line down the middle. Label one side "Love it!" and the other side "Loathe it!"
During a typical week, carry the paper around with you and separate your activities into the two categories. In the love column are things you look forward to doing, tasks that seem to make the time fly by or activities that make you feel fulfilled after you've completed them. Tasks that are difficult to concentrate on and things you hope you never have to do again belong in the loathe column.
At the end of the week, you'll have a clear picture of your strengths and where your passion lies. Specifically identifying the activities that strengthen you will help you purposely gravitate toward them, as well as help you neutralize the ones you hate. You'll be able to avoid some of the activities that weaken you. For those you can't, by having your week so filled with activities that invigorate you, you'll have the strength to power through those activities that drain you.
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