How To Think Much, Much Bigger This Year

By Douglas R Kruger

YOU'RE the sort of person who doesn't set piddly little goals. No, no. You chase fat, behemoth, stonking great, mamma-of-all-megaladon goals.

When your goals go by, water reverberates in puddles. I like that about you. And I'd like to help you to take your ambition one step further.

Douglas R Kruger

It requires bravery and vision to decide that you want to add an extra zero to your income, or radically change your rankings in the industry in which you operate.

Or conquer the world in some shape or form.

But now that you've exhibited the bravery and made the decision, do you know what to do next? Sometimes we flounder with the practicality of these decisions.

We know we want to, but the first step feels a bit like trying to grab a fistful of mist. How do you start, gain a foothold, or begin to access this amorphous blob of an ambition?

Here are some practical starting points for you. Use the following mental nudges to get going:

1. Are you 'merely' emulating the best in your group?

Whether it's your peers, a support group, or some sort of professional society, groups of like-minded people are extremely good for you when you're starting out.

They teach you the norms, the ropes and the tricks of the trade. They shorten your learning curve.

But in your quest to go above and beyond, groups of this nature can actually be a hindrance. They provide a level of thinking; a sort of mental atmosphere; which can have a normalizing effect on your thinking.

As a salesperson, for instance, are you limiting your performance to the median average of your peers? Or merely trying to outdo them, rather than thinking much bigger?

As an entrepreneur, are you happy to do as well as your friends are doing?

Are you 'merely' emulating the best practitioners in your immediate group? That's dangerous.

You need to think in far more spectacular terms, or you will simply merge into the group and sink into its marshy momentum. Be grateful for what they've taught you. And then move beyond.

2. What does the international pinnacle actually look like?

In the same way that we tend to observe the group around us, and allow that to create our norm, we also observe the leading lights in our nation and hope to emulate them.

That's also a bad call. If the limits of your thinking are to copy the best locally, the most you can hope for is to become a pale imitation of, in a certain region.

To think much, much bigger, ask yourself what the daily norm of the world leaders in your sphere looks like? How big can this thing of yours really get?

At its utmost level on earth, among the highest performers of humanity; what do they do each day? Could you do the same? Or, better still, more? Bigger?

3. Are you both production and sales?

By way of an analogy, let's say that you are a humble bead-maker in a small village. I applaud your entrepreneurial mindset, and well done on being proactive enough to start a small business.

But are you personally selling your beads? If so, you have placed an absolute limit on how big you can ever become. What if you got someone else to sell your beads while you created them?

What if you got teams of people to do so? And what if you stopped making them yourself, and got teams of people to make them, so that other teams of people could sell them?

And why think so regionally? How about new teams in different nations?

Don't be the restaurant owner who also cooks in his own kitchen. Rather be the owner of a chain of restaurants. Think bigger than what your own individual time and energy can accomplish.

Scale up. Go huge.

4. How big are the very biggest numbers?

How big can this all get for you? Quite often, it is possible to discover what the real numbers are. For instance, you might be able to learn how many assignments the world's best are doing per annum.

Or what they're being paid. Or how much they are producing. Or how many hours of input they demand of themselves. Or how many employees they have, etc., etc.

Schwarzenegger famously found out how much weight, and how many reps and sets the world's top bodybuilders were putting in, in order to do more than them.

Can you discover the metrics for your goal?

There is a wonderful psychological advantage to discovering the actual numbers. They may be massive, but they are nevertheless finite.

It's like setting out to climb Mount Everest and learning that it will take x number of steps. The number may be preposterously high. But it's a number.

And once you know it, you can start wrapping your head around it. You can start to pursue a measurable known.

5. In the case of massive success, what resources will you need?

If you think on this sort of scale, and if you get up and chase after it each day, well, by golly, there's a good chance you might actually surprise your poor, dear mother, and succeed! So are you ready?

It's a useful exercise to ask yourself what that final picture looks like, and what resources you will need in order to live that way. Could you handle it right now?

Or would it mean that you would need a team of support staff? More space, more money, more equipment, better organisation?

You may even want to use this dynamic in reverse. Rather than getting there, and then organizing the resources, you may choose to start organizing the resources so that you can get there.

Audacity is the hallmark of the awesome individual. Here's hoping you will experience that magical day when you look back and say, "I can't believe I actually did it!" Scale up your thinking and go!

Douglas Kruger is a professional speaker and author who encourages people to think. He speaks on Expert Positioning and the misunderstood link between work and wealth.

He is a 5-times winner of the SA Championships for Public Speaking and the author of three books. See him in action or read more of his articles at http://www.douglaskruger.co.za.

Email him at kruger@compute.co.za. Follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter: @douglaskruger.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8234270

Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Posted by John Lee of YourBestYouEver.net

To wish you and your loved ones the compliments of the season. Hope you have a wonderful holiday! And that you enjoy the card. To receive the message, simply click on 'Play' within the picture.....




Copyright regards.com free ecards - click here to send this free e-card

Are You the Victim or the Villain?

By Dr Jaime Kulaga

DO you ever hear yourself saying, "It's not my fault."? This is the Victim playing its part. Or, do you ever hear yourself saying, "It's all your fault."? This is the Villain in action.

The more responsibility you take over your actions - even the ones you are not proud of - the more control over your own life and outcomes you will have.

Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler (2002) talk about the Victim and Villain roles in their book, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.

Depending on what context you are in, you may play different roles.

For example, in your marriage you may play the Villain role where you are consistently assuming that your partner has bad motives for their actions.

For instance, if you promised to pick up something after work and forgot and you get home and your spouse asks you for XYZ, if your reaction is "You never understand how busy I am!

"You don't care about what I do and how stressed out I am! You are so inconsiderate and not helpful," you have used the Villain role.

The reality is, you promised to pick up XYZ after work. I understand that you are stressed but you made a commitment.

If you didn't come through, fine, but you can't turn someone else into the problem because you didn't commit as promised.

Instead, acknowledge that you forgot, were wrong, etc., and then step back and assess how you can approach the fact that you need more support.

Also, as you step back instead of lashing out, take this time to assess your priorities and life roles.

Maybe there are areas that you need to cut back in life because of the choices you made, the boundaries you did not set, or the times you said "yes" to tasks that you know you shouldn't have taken on.

This may have nothing to do with your spouse. Take control of your life by avoiding using the Villain role.

Perhaps outside of the home you are the Victim.

According to Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler (2002), when you play the Victim role you are exaggerating your own innocence.

For example, in the workplace you come to find out that you were again passed up for a promotion.

You have been at this place of employment for three years and you feel you deserve it over Adam who just received a promotion after being with the company for only nine months.

However, in this deceiving Victim role you play so well, as you tell other people about your "tragedy," you leave out details that might discredit your Victim role.

For example, the fact that you are late at least two times per week, you dropped the ball on a major project that your boss gave you last month, and you are the office drama and gossip...

... not to mention that you use every sick day you have as soon as you earn it. It is obvious why you did not get the promotion.

But instead, you tell everyone only facts that support and highlight why you should have received the promotion and "forget" to tell everything else.

Instead of putting yourself in a helpless Victim role, take this time to complete an honest self-reflection and start looking at yourself through a different lens.

What can you improve on? What strengths do you have? How can you take responsibility and control over your life to start aligning more in a direction of fulfillment and better outcomes?

Take control of your life by avoiding using the Victim role.

The problem with the Victim and Villain roles is that you are taking personal control away from your life and passing it to someone else.

At the same time, you are also ruining relationships with spouses, family co-workers and bosses.

Instead of retreating from a situation to think about how you should approach a mistake you or someone else made, you are reacting first.

This shows lack of self-control as you are letting strong emotions control you. Remember the order of action when you are upset is to first Retreat, then Rethink and always last, React.

So, which are you, the Victim or the Villain? When are you the Victim? When are you the Villain?

This week take time to reflect on which roles you play most often and when. How can you take control back and kick both the Victim and the Villain to the curb?

Dr. Jaime Kulaga is the author of Type "Superwoman: Finding the LIFE in Work-Life Balance - A Self-Searching Book for Women". She is the inspirational founder of the SuperWoman Workshops.

Dr. Kulaga has been featured in Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, Glamour, Self and Prevention magazines as well as the show Daytime for her expertise in Work-Life Balance.

For more information, visit http://www.mindfulrehab.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8783681

Finding Paradise

By Darren Hardy of SUCCESS Magazine

DO you feel restless or dissatisfied with life?

Do you seek a certain paradise…

The life of your imagination, dreams and childhood fantasies?

Where's your own personal paradise?

Let me see if I can help you find your paradise.

Just the other day, I was talking to a friend of mine, Rachel. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you Rachel has the perfect life.

In her mid-forties she is as healthy and radiant as she’s ever been. She has a husband who adores her and three kids who multiply that love.

Yet lately she admitted, she’s been feeling… restless.

Like something was missing and she had this nagging urge to sneak off and find it.

As I listened to her talk, I recalled a story an old mentor of mine had told me in a time when I felt restless in my own life.

The story went something like…

Once, long ago, there was a man who was displeased with his life.

Yes, he had a wife who loved him and two children who adored him.

He liked his work and had friends he enjoyed, but still something nagged at him.

Daily, he found himself dreaming of an unseen place he heard about called Paradise.

One morning over a bowl of oatmeal, he stopped dreaming of Paradise and decided to go find it.

Without a word to his family, he walked out the front gate with the broken latch, away from the place he had called home and never looked back. He was a man bound for Paradise.

For three days he traveled. And each night, before falling asleep, the man removed his shoes and deliberately pointed them in the direction he had been traveling, toward Paradise.

Each morning he carefully stepped into his shoes and continued his quest.

Then, on the third night, the man accidentally kicked his unofficial compass 180 degrees.

When the first rays of morning fell, the man leapt to his feet, carefully stepped into his shoes and began traveling in the direction they told him to go - toward “Paradise”.

Exactly three days later, he arrived. “Paradise!” he cried from atop the hill. Though, as he stared at the village below, he thought it looked vaguely familiar… but wrote it off as coincidence.

He excitedly descended the hill and walked through the village of Paradise where strangers knew him by name. Of course they did! Why wouldn’t they? This was Paradise!

The man continued until he came to the end of the road where there was a gate with a broken latch.

He walked through, and as he did, he heard a melodious voice calling him in for dinner and could smell the aroma of his favorite meal.

As he opened the front door the man was greeted by two children who yelped “Daddy!” as they wrapped themselves around him and a woman who kissed him like she meant it.

Ah! Paradise he thought.

Now, every morning the man eats his bowl of oatmeal and revels in his new, wonderful life in Paradise.

I finished the story, and Rachel nodded just as I had when I heard it years ago.

I assured her that the desire for Paradise is not itself a crime.

Everyone desires Paradise.

The confusion of where to find Paradise is the problem.

Paradise is a choice.

It is a state of mind.

It comes from within.

Paradise doesn’t exist unless you create it and unless you choose it everyday.

We all seek significance (aka Paradise):

That we are important, that we matter, that our life matters.

The reality is, you already are.

You are significant, you matter, your life matters.

The only thing separating yourself from the knowing is your perspective.

Stopping, looking and realizing the profound impact you making in the worlds of everyone you meet, most particularly those you lead in your home and at the office.

For, my Paradise seeking-friends out there, the next time you feel dissatisfied, kick your shoes around. It may lead you to discovering the Paradise you’ve been living in all along.

Feel free to share this with any like-minded achieving friend, family member, or teammate that may need the wake up call because they are ready to pack up and search for their own paradise.

Article source: http://tiny.cc/244rpx

Living Life Quotes - How to Be Happy

By online author Annette H. Hill

ARE you tired of waiting around for happiness to find you? In your quiet moments, what do you think about?

How far you've come, or how far you have to go? Your strengths, or your weaknesses? The best that might happen, or the worst that might come to be?

Don't wait for it... be happy now!

In your quiet moments, pay attention to your thoughts.

Because maybe the only thing that needs to shift in order for you to experience more love, more happiness, and more vitality, is your way of thinking.

Happiness is what we all strive to find and keep, even when it's as elusive as ever. Nobody is jolly and elated all the time, but some individuals are definitely more fulfilled than others.

Here are 9 thought-provoking living life quotes that will help you adjust your way of thinking:

1. In life, if you don't risk anything, you risk everything.

2. You cannot change what you refuse to confront.

3. Making a hundred friends is not a miracle. The miracle is to make a single friend who will stand by your side even when hundreds are against you.

4. True love isn't about being inseparable; it's about two people being true to each other even when they are separated.

5. Anyone can come into your life and say how much they love you. It takes someone really special to stay in your life and show how much they love you.

6. If you expect the world to be fair with you because you are fair, you're fooling yourself. That's like expecting the lion not to eat you because you didn't eat him.

7. No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs.

8. Happiness is not determined by what's happening around you, but rather what's happening inside you. Most people depend on others to gain happiness, but the truth is, it always comes from within.

9. When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us.

Above are some of the great inspirational living life quotes for you to love, share and remember.

Life is full of beauty and wonder. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the smiling faces and the small child. Smell the rain, and feel the wind.

Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.

Share the best life quotations collection with inspirational and motivational Living Life Quotes on life, living, love, loving life.

If you are wonder about How to Be Happy, find out here, Confused Quotes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8590401

How successful people deal with adversity - with Mary Morrissey

By John Lee of YourBestYouEver.net

"In every adversity there is the seed of an equal or greater benefit. But like any seed it must be found, planted, nourished, grown and harvested." - Napolean Hill

WITH over 40 years helping people to make the most of themselves and their lives, life coach, speaker and author Mary Morrissey is one of the world's leading lights in personal development.

Best-selling author and speaker, Mary Morrissey

She's also someone who truly understands and appreciates the power of thought in bringing about positive change, once harnessing this power herself to overcome a disease that would usually prove fatal.

In this video interview with Mind Movies' Natalie Ledwell, the star of hit follow-up movie, 'Beyond The Secret' not only tells her own story but also examines how successful people process adversity differently.

Among the subjects she covers are:

* The impact of thoughts and emotions on our biology

* How people generally react to crises and difficult times

* The concept of emotional creativity

And

* Why, as Napolean Hill suggested, "Every adversity has the seed of an equal or greater benefit".

It really is excellent advice, explained in a characterisitically simple, practical and usable way.

To view the video, just click on the link below:

http://tiny.cc/zcbfpx

Surround Yourself With Positive People

By Robert Prentice

HAVE you ever noticed how it is so easy for we human beings to have our attitudes go straight into the pit of negativity?

It takes such a lot of hard work, diligence and tenacity to keep one's head on straight and attitude right.

I learned many years ago that if I wanted to have any kind of success in my life that I needed to surround myself with positive people.

Yes, there was a time in my life that I did not understand this powerful principle.

But now that I do, I want to encourage you to surround yourself with upbeat, positive, encouraging people, who call fill you up instead of drain you dry.

People who spread their energy and enthusiasm for life everywhere they go.

Oh, it is so much easier to keep your attitude where it needs to be when you are surrounded by such people, who have attitudes that are truly contagious and worth catching!

What a difference it makes in helping you to operate at your peak level of efficiency!

Be aware, though, that if your own attitudes are negative, while at the same time you are trying to attract more positive people to you, you will be disappointed.

Because positive people need to be around other positive people, they avoid negative people like the plague.

(The reverse is also true; negative people attract other negative people so they can feed off of each other's negativity. Yuck!)

One other side note: please understand I am not saying that surrounding yourself with positive people means you have to find people who have no negative situations and challenges in their lives and only hang around them.

On the contrary, your goal is to surround yourself with people who, even when they are in the midst of trying and difficult circumstances, are able to view those challenges and respond to them in a positive way.

Just in case you are not convinced, here are some of the benefits of surrounding yourself with positive people. Positive people will:

* Often times pick you up, when you've hit a brick wall.

* Encourage you with words and kind deeds.

* Have empathy because they understand challenging and difficult times.

* Check up on you to see how you are doing.

* Ask about your priorities and help to point you in the right direction.

* Take negatives and turn them into positives.

* Tell others about you and this can, and often does, lead to a positive impact on your financial situation.

I am truly blessed and so humbled because I have surrounded myself with hundreds, and possibly thousands, of some of the most positive people on this planet.

How about you? Will you make a commitment to be a positive person with the right kids of attitudes? This is a personal decision only you can make for yourself. How will you choose to live today?

Bob Prentice, Mr. Attitude - http://www.mrattitudespeaks.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7642846