Motivation

We must never allow a day to pass without finding the answers to a list of important questions: What is going on in our industry? What new challenges are currently facing our government? Our community? Our neighborhood? What are the new breakthroughs, the new opportunities, the new tools and techniques that have recently come to light? Who are the new personalities that are influencing world and local opinion? We must become good observers and astute evaluators of all that is going on around us. All events affect us, and what affects us leaves an imprint on what we will one day be and how we will one day live. One of the major reasons why people are not doing well is because they keep trying to get through the day.  A more worthy challenge is to try to get  from  the day.  We must become sensitive enough to observe and ponder what is happening around us. Be alert. Be awake. Let life and all of its subtle messages touch us. Often, the most extraordinary opportunities ...

Whatever dream you decide to go after, whether it is a family or a career goal, you must consciously decide that it is your life's mission. Benjamin Disraeli said,  “The secret of success is constancy to purpose.”  You must go at it obsessively and set high standards for yourself along the way. There is no room for compromise when you are charting a course for your life or your career. I once spoke to a group of sharp young people, and when I finished, some of the fellows came up and said they were interested in becoming professional speakers. They invited me to go out with them that evening to have a good time. And these fellows looked as though they knew how to have a serious good time. I had planned to work on my delivery that night by listening to the audio of my speech. I was tempted to go with these fellows, and back when I was their age I probably would have given in to that temptation and gone. But, since then, I have become more disciplined and more committed to my cr...

What does it take to become a master at your craft? Is genius innate, or can it be learned? In his book, " Mastery ," Robert Greene draws from the latest research, interviews modern masters, and examines the lives of former greats like Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Mozart to discover what it takes to achieve excellence.  He argues that success is within anyone's reach, if they have discipline, patience, and follow a number of important steps. With permission from Greene, we've excerpted the following tips for mastering anything  from his book : 1. Find your life's task. Many people have an intense feeling about what they're best at. Too often, they're driven away from it by other people. The first step is to trust yourself and aim your career path at what's unique about you. Leonardo da Vinci didn't come into his own as an artist alone, but when he followed his childhood curiosity about everything, he became an advisor and expert in subje...

Want to hear of an example of poor selling that I experienced just the other day? Well, I was out shopping at our local supermarket (I know, I know, I was dragged kicking and screaming by my wife Donna!) when I walked by a guy who was selling breakdown cover (the company name will remain nameless!) He was standing outside the entrance asking everyone who walked by the same question: "Want to buy some breakdown cover?" I tell a lie, on the way out of the store he asked me "Interested in some breakdown cover?" Well boo bloomin hoo! That was awful. I guess his days are very long ones! What's wrong with his opening statement then? Yes, it doesn't grab my attention nor create any interest and it certainly doesn't answer the question "What's in it for me?" I remember doing some work with a company a year or so ago that were selling credit cards in a similar fashion. They too were camped outside supermarkets, garden centres and in motorway service...

American mythology has us believe that the goal of life is to retire, or that financial freedom means you can now just travel around going from hotel to hotel, lie on beaches and play golf five days a week… …But that is NOT how achievers are wired. Let me share with you my own struggle and discovery with this reality: When I was 28 years old, I sold a company for a very significant sum. I thought I wanted to “retire” or at least take a couple years off. I moved to South Beach, Miami, bought a Harley, and drove up and down the beach every day and spent two or three hours in the gym. It wasn’t three months before I was going  stark raving mad . In fact I was in sheer spiritual, emotional and psychological pain. If I were the depressed kind, I would have been in a state of depression, no doubt. You see we  need  The Chase… The Chase is what gives us life, gives us juice. The Chase is our creative spirit getting a chance to be expressed, stretched and realized. The Chase is t...

Most negative emotions, such as a depressing thought, internal conflict, arguments, feeling hopeless, etc. all these things are due to a lack of understanding. You may think you understand, and that is why you see a thing as hopeless or negative or the other person as wrong, but you must fight your opinions and remember that it is because you do not understand it fully. No matter how clear and simple it may seem, the truth is, ironically, a lack of truth. Here we define truth as full and complete knowledge of the event, situation or thing. The three levels of certainty are very important to consider; knowledge, vision and truth of certainty. Knowledge is when you think you know a thing because you know something about it, but it does not take much to remember something you thought you understood and later found out you had no idea about the reality of it. Vision is a level deeper than knowledge, but still lacks true depth. For example, you may see a car and know that it mov...

Each of us has two distinct choices to make about what we will do with our lives. The first choice we can make is to be less than we have the capacity to be. To earn less. To have less. To read less and think less. To try less and discipline ourselves less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that, once made, lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation. And the second choice? To do it all! To become all that we can possibly be. To read every book that we possibly can. To earn as much as we possibly can. To give and share as much as we possibly can. To strive and produce and accomplish as much as we possibly can.  All of us have the choice. To do or not to do. To be or not to be. To be all or to be less or to be nothing at all. Like the tree, it would be a worthy challenge for us all to stretch upward and outward to the full measure of our capabilities. Why not do all that we can, every moment that we can, th...