Set Goals
Unless you shape your life, circumstances will shape it for you. You have to work, sacrifice, invest, and persist to get the results you want. Choose them well. You can’t start your planning until you know where you want to go.You are the sculptor of your own image. Have others already done what you want to do? Study them and do what they did. Start anywhere, at anytime, and persist. Stop worrying what others think about what you can or can’t do. Believe in yourself and your abilities. Have the self-confidence to challenge your current situation. This is your life to live; it’s day by day and step by step.
Write
down your goals. Only three percent of people have written goals and only
one
percent review those written goals daily. Be in that elite one percent. Vi s u
a l i z e
the
attainment of your goals often. Goals are dreams with dates attached. You will
only become as
great and as happy as the goals you choose.
Divide and Conquer
A
common denominator among the successful is that they are focused on
the
immediate accomplishment of specific objectives. Separate the important
from
the urgent and allow time for both. Break down any large task into a series
of
small tasks and start taking action. In the beginning, don’t be too concerned
with
how you will achieve your goals. With commitment, research and patience,
the
means will come. Answers materialize when the facts have been collected.
Your
goals will evolve into a set of action-oriented objectives, which will
become
a series of to-dos.
Now
prioritize. If you don’t prioritize your day’s activities, everything is of
equal
importance. Whether one thing gets done or not doesn’t matter. You want
your
activities to be important, to have had a clearly defined purpose. Write your
to-do
list every day. Prioritize it. Make at least one of your daily objectives a
challenge.
At the
end of each day, you’ll be able to relax and bask in that wonderful
feeling
of accomplishment.
Follow Through
Follow
through to make sure that you’ve done the job right. Follow through
to say
thank you and offer new ideas. Follow through to ask for more
business.
You earn respect by saying what you’re prepared to do
and
then doing exactly that. Follow through shows that you are
a
person of your word and someone who cares.
It
shows that
you are
accessible and that you want to keep the lines of
communication
open. You may make mistakes and follow
through
gives you the opportunity to correct and to learn
from
those mistakes. Personalize your follow-up with
handwritten
notes and phone calls. Small gifts,
tickets
and lunches may also be appropriate
follow-up
incentives. Check up on yourself
and
reap the rewards.
Follow
through amplifies your effectiveness.
Make Today Special
Many
people enjoy using the first few minutes of the day for their reflective
time.
How did yesterday go? What do you want to accomplish today? What will
be most
important? This, of course, becomes your prioritized to-do list. How will
today
vary from your usual routine? Can you think of any small things that you
can do?
Perhaps there is something that you’ve been avoiding, that, if you do it,
would
make you feel especially proud of yourself.
Give
each day a specific purpose. For unsuccessful, unhappy people, there is
often a
sameness to their days. Is it Monday or Thursday? Is it March or
November?
Is it 3 o'clock in the afternoon or 10 o'clock in the morning? They’re
in a
rut and it doesn't matter.
Everybody
has the same amount of time each day. How are you going to spend
your 24
hours? Plan in advance. Make lists. Lists are your road map to personal
accomplishment
and balanced living. Always carry paper and pen. What are
you
doing today to ensure a better tomorrow for yourself and your family?
Record Your Thoughts
Carry
index cards, a hand-held computer or a small notebook. Borrow napkins
to
write on. As you become an action-oriented person, positive thoughts
will
occur with increasing regularity. Write down your ideas. You will have good
ideas
because you will have many ideas. Review your notes before your quiet
time or
before bed.
You will
become your own best therapist. You will see the
ways to
solving your own problems, finding your own route to happiness and
realizing
your own dreams. Spend most of your time thinking about solutions
and not
problems. Get back to recording your thoughts.
Maintain A
Positive Mental Attitude
A
positive mental attitude results from a life dedicated to self-improvement
and
service. With a personal commitment to doing your best today, you don’t
have to
be overly concerned about tomorrow. You can be confident that good
things
will happen and be equally confident that if trouble comes you will have
the
strength and skills to cope, take control and then conquer. You are tough.
You
stay at it. You don’t allow your doubts to destroy your dreams.
Hope
does spring eternal.
You are
thankful to have the curiosity to keep learning. You are grateful to
see
opportunity knock so often. You are thankful to have the personality to keep
making
new friends. Your mind can only hold one thought at a time so make
that
one thought positive. Count your blessings. The way is clear. The world is
a
better place because you are in it.
Cause Change
The
status quo may be comforting, but for there to be growth, there must be
change.
Since you seek growth, you must seek change. You must see yourself
and
your environment not only as it is, but also as it could and should be. You
seek
the changes necessary to reach the better you so that you can play your
part in
making a better world.
First,
you change yourself. Can you change your day and spend more time
with
your family? Can you change your standard lunch routine and take a walk?
Can you
change your drive home and stop at a nursing home for twenty minutes
and see
someone who may have few visitors? Can you change your office
habits
and find the time to make five more phone calls? What are the possible
consequences
of not changing? Realize that many people don’t make plans
because
they don’t want to risk any change. Doing little with your life is much
easier
and safer than taking risks, but then you will be a small person.
Instead,
seek the changes which will allow you to be all that you can be.
Pass The Test
Life is
a test and the points on that test are earned by how much attention you
give to
improving yourself and helping others. When your test is graded, to what
will
you attribute your success: study, hard work, personality, talent, skill,
opportunity,
connections,
patronage or luck? No amount of material success earned
and
kept will be awarded credit. The greater your blessings, the greater your
obligation
to share your good fortune.
Use
your special talents to serve the common good. Let your actions be motivated
by a
commitment to excellence, service, charity and justice.
Be
compassionate, kind and considerate.
Free
yourself from your attachment to things.
Right
now is the time to consider your blessings. Start scoring points.
Spread Your Enthusiasm
Putting
the enthusiasm to work in your life will elevate your soul and
lift
your spirit. You will feel a zest for life. You will live full, enriched days.
This
will
happen because you will have taken the quiet time to think, organize and
prioritize
your days. You will love many things and these things will become part
of your
day. You will be in control. Every day you will do good things for yourself
and
others. Words like boring, bland and uneventful will rarely describe your
work or
your relationships .
Listen
to your favorite CD. Call a friend. Read a good book. Smile. Hear. See.
Feel.
Smell. Take a walk and look at all the wonders of your world. Let everyone
in your
life know that life is worth living.
Be
known as a motivator. Ask others about their goals and how you can help
them.
Make people feel part of a successful team. Solicit their input. Keep everyone
informed
and involved. Establish performance incentives. Look for opportunities
to
praise and reward. Enthusiasm is contagious.
Think Win-Win
Thinking
win-win is a frame of mind that seeks mutual
benefit
and is based on mutual respect and governing principles.
It is
about bargaining fairly, and being open-minded and reasonable to
all
parties. It is about compromise and a sincere desire to
find
agreements that occupy the middle ground.
Win –
win is not taking advantage when it is understood that you are
being trusted
to act with honor.
It’s
about thinking in terms of abundance. There is an
ever-expanding
‘pie,’ a cornucopia of opportunity, wealth,
and
resources, not scarcity and adversarial competition.
Control Conflict
Remain
calm and detached. Allow others to rage while you consider the
appropriate
response. Should you reason, agree, apologize, fight or leave? Which
is to
your benefit and to the benefit of those you must protect? Arguing often
makes
the other party become more defensive and determined to prevail. Let go
of your
anger. It only clouds the issue and draws you into a quick response .
Whenever
possible use kindness as your weapon against evil. Neutralize shouting
with
soft words. Answer threats with serene confidence. Speak plainly. Don’t
use
foul language or sarcasm. Breathe deeply with long exhalations. Let the
anger
wash over you. Maintain your presence. Don’t exaggerate. Don’t lie. Attack
the
argument and not the person.
Long
term relationships are almost always more important than short-term
problems.
Be an active peacemaker, building bridges of understanding.
Be the Warrior
The
warrior is tough in loyalty, intensity, determination, bearing, initiative,
endurance,
courage and strength of will. The warrior is soft in calmness, self-confidence
and
compassion. The warrior is frequently called upon to step forward
when
most gladly step back. Warriors exist on the battlefield and in daily life.
People
may react to you rudely, selfishly and with malice. Be courteous anyway.
Those
you help may whine and offer no thanks. Help them anyway.
Your
honest words may be challenged and ridiculed. Speak anyway.
Success
may involve many mistakes and disappointments. Succeed anyway.
Your
donations may seem too small to matter. Give anyway.
A warrior is a master, ever prepared to improve
and to be of service to others
Appreciate Your Customers
It is
people who are going to give you their time, help or money, so you can
have
everything that you ever wanted in your life for yourself and your family.
Those
people are colleagues and customers and clients and
patients
and teammates. Listen to them. Appreciate them. Support them. They
hold
the keys to your success. People who feel appreciated will remain loyal and
will
become your goodwill ambassadors as they recommend your work to others.
By
focusing on the needs of others, a wonderful thing happens. You get
everything
that you want. Customer service is important for the customer, but it
is
essential to your growth.
Have
the pride in making a qualitative difference to the lives of people you impact,
directly or indirectly.
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