David Allen Quotes

"Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do. It comes from not
finishing what they've started."

+ David Allen: 
Management consultant, trainer, and author +

Responsibility - Ability to Respond

 "Take 100% personal responsibility for all your own performance results in life"

In a nutshell, we are personally accountable for our performance outcomes; we are truly responsible for our executed actions & subsequent consequences, & own everything that takes place or shape in our work & in our lives.

"Don’t whine; don't justify; & don't lay blame";

 

The great Indian leader, Gandhi said this, "you must be the change you want to see in the world";

In reality, & also interestingly, change will happen with or without our personal inputs; so, we might as well exercise our power to choose the extent of change we wish to embrace; & to choose how we allow change to affect us;

"Those who don't change with the times find themselves left behind";

There is nothing permanent, except change. Change or be history.

Don't fight the forces of change; use them;

"The only failure in life is the failure to participate fully in your own life"

What we are personally responsible for is our full participation in the change process. After all, change is inevitable, but growth is optional. Growth is essentially a personal choice. We therefore can participate by the personal choices we make in our lives, & in consideration of the kind of world we serve to create in our living spaces.

"Removal of past mental & or emotional blocks - subconscious negative programing - is the first step to personal success";

As one success guru once said: "We are born to win; but conditioned to fail!"

Interestingly, the subconscious negative conditioning or programming can come from our parents, our teachers/guardians, our bosses, our colleagues, our friends, & sad to say, even our society in general, especially through the mass media

"Clarity is power"

In a nutshell, when we have clarity in our thoughts, we know precisely what matters. When we know precisely what matters, we know where to place our focus, energy & resources.

Getting clear in our minds & then staying that way takes diligent effort as well as personal courage.

"If it's possible in the world, then it's possible for me; it's only a question of strategy";

I have learned over the years, in whatever we do, strategy dictates our success or failure. With the right strategy, everything in life as well as in business is possible.

Start the New Year, with this book '7 Habits' from Stephen Covey and that is one good strategy to embrace in your life pursuits.

Benjamin Disraeli Quotes

"Nurture great thoughts, for you will
never go higher than your thoughts."

+ Benjamin Disraeli: 

Was a British prime minister, parliamentarian, and author +

Mark Zuckerberg Quotes

"By giving people the power to share, we're
making the world more transparent."

+ Mark Zuckerberg: 
Entrepreneur who co-founded Facebook +

Dr. Wayne Dyer Quotes

+ Dr. Wayne Dyer: 
Motivational author and speaker +

"When you judge another, 
you do not define them, you define yourself."
___________________


"A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than 
any physical force in the universe."

___________________


"Conflict cannot survive without your participation."

___________________


"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those
that you care for to be what they choose 
for themselves without any 
insistence that they satisfy you."

___________________

"Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life."

___________________

"Abundance is not something we acquire.
It is something we tune into."
___________________

"I will see it when I believe it."
___________________

"You are always a valuable, worthwhile human
being, not because anybody says so, not because
you're successful, not because you make a lot of money, but because you decide to believe it and for no other reason."

IF TOMORROW STARTS WITHOUT ME

I received this email recently from an acquaintance, Jacinta Benjamin which I felt that I needed to share with the world.

A few weeks ago a woman was killed in an auto
Accident. She was very well liked, so the office shut
Down for her funeral and it was on the news and so on.
On the day the workers came back to work, they found
This poem in their e-mail that the deceased woman had
Sent on Friday before she left for home.

If tomorrow starts without me,
And I'm not there to see,
If the sun should rise and find your eyes
All filled with tears for me;

I wish so much you wouldn't cry
The way you did today,
While thinking of the many things,
We didn't get to say.

I know how much you love me,
As much as I love you,
And each time that you think of me,
I know you'll miss me too;

But when tomorrow starts without me,
Please try to understand,
That an angel came and called my name,
And took me by the hand,

And said my place was ready,
In heaven far above,
And that I'd have to leave behind
All those I dearly love.

But as I turned to walk away,
A tear fell from my eye,
For all my life, I'd always thought,
I didn't want to die.

I had so much to live for,
So much left yet to do,
It seemed almost impossible,
That I was leaving you.
I thought of all the yesterdays,
The good ones and the bad,
I thought of all that we shared,
And all the fun we had.

If I could relive yesterday,
Just even for a while,
I'd say good-bye and kiss you
And maybe see you smile.

But then I fully realized,
That this could never be,
For emptiness and memories,
Would take the place of me.

And when I thought of worldly things,
I might miss some tomorrow,
I thought of you, and when I did,
My heart was filled with sorrow.

But when I walked through heaven's gates,
I felt so much at home.
When God looked down and smiled at me,
From His great golden throne,

He said, "This is eternity,
And all I've promised you."
Today your life on earth is past,
But here life starts anew.

I promise no tomorrow,
But today will always last,
And since each day is the same way,
There's no longing for the past.

So when tomorrow starts without me,
Don't think we're far apart,
For every time you think of me,
I'm right here, in your heart "

Jerry Gillies Quotes

"Wealth is not a material gain, 
but a state of mind."

+ Jerry Gillies: 
Former newsman, author, workshop leader +

W. Clement Stone Quotes

"You affect your subconscious mind by verbal repetition."

+W. Clement Stone: 
Businessman, author, and philanthropist+

One Degree of Separation !

Distinction between Success & Failure !

Rabbi Harold Kushner Quotes

The purpose of life is not to win. The purpose of life is to grow and to share. When you come to look back on all that you have done in life, you will get more satisfaction from the pleasure you have brought to other people's lives than you will from the times that you outdid and defeated them.

+ Rabbi Harold Kushner+

Born Mildred Norman Quotes

"If you realized how powerful your thoughts are,
you would never think a negative thought."

Peace Pilgrim: Born Mildred Norman, 

was a peace activist and spiritual leader

Denis Waitley Quotes

Denis Waitley: 
Motivational speaker and author

"Losers live in the past.
Winners learn from the past and enjoy
working in the present toward the future."

__________________

"Time and health are two precious assets that
we don't recognize and appreciate
until they have been depleted."

__________________
 

"There are two primary choices in life:
to accept conditions as they exist, or
accept the responsibility for changing them."

 

Use "Wasted" Time

Most of us waste time, me more than ever. This came about as I was not clear of my goals and objectives. We waste time standing in queues, waiting in traffic, chatting on-line, sms'ing, surfing the net aimlessly, etc........ I call all these time wasters, diversions or distractions. We fail to use all of our time productively or even pleasurably. We jump from one diversion to another without enjoying any of them. We get irritated about matters beyond our control. The cause, we fail to plan well, causing negative consequences that could be easily avoided, for example we could use our travelling time to read or listen to personal development materials rather sitting, standing around or just purely listening to music. I find reading in the toilet useful as I am in an alpha state where absorption of information is at its highest. :-)

You could use these questions at the end of the day to evaluate your strengths and weakness:

• When did I do my worst thinking today?
• When did I do my best thinking?
• What did I actually think about today?
• Did I figure out anything?
• Did I allow any negative thinking to frustrate me unnecessarily?
• If I had to repeat today, what would I do differently? Why?
• Did I do anything today to further my long-term goals?
• Did I do what I set out to do? Why or Why not?
• Did I act in accordance with my own expressed values?
• If I were to spend every day this way for 10 years, would I, at the end, have accomplished something worthy of at that time?

Source: Critical Thinking, Richard W. Paul & Linda Elder

Take a little time with each question and reflect. It would be useful, like a daily journal to record your observations so that you are forced to spell out the details and or bad habits. Be explicit in what you recognise. As time passes, you will be able to look back and search for patterns in your daily thinking, habits and in your observations and assessments of that thinking.

The Legacy you leave behind !

I received this email from my cousin Maria Crescentia, which will be worthwhile reading.

Randy Pausch, died of pancreatic cancer in 2008, but wrote a book ‘The last lecture” before then, one of the bestsellers in 2007. What a legacy to leave behind…
In a letter to his wife Jai and his children, Dylan, Logan , and Chloe, he wrote this beautiful "guide to a better life" for his wife and children to follow. May you be blessed by his insight.

Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

POINTS ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

Personality:
1. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
2. Don't have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment
3. Don't over do; keep your limits
4. Don't take yourself so seriously; no one else does
5. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip
6. Dream more while you are awake
7. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
8. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner of his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
9. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
10. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present
11. No one is in charge of your happiness except you
12. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
13. Smile and laugh more
14. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Community:
15. Call your family often
16. Each day give something good to others
17. Forgive everyone for everything
18. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6
19. Try to make at least three people smile each day
20. What other people think of you is none of your business
21. Your job will not take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
22. Put GOD first in anything and everything that you think, say and do.
23. GOD heals everything
24. Do the right things
25. However good or bad a situation is, it will change
26. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
27. The best is yet to come
28. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful
29. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it
30. If you know GOD you will always be happy. So, be happy.

While you practice all of the above, share this knowledge with the people you love, people you school with, people you play with, people you work with and people you live with. Not only will it enrich YOUR life, but also that of those around you.

Beliefs drives Results !

At a recent training which I conducted called "The Awakening" in June 2010 I reflected on this flip chart above. Our current results now and to come are driven from our behaviours, if you observe individuals, what they say and do are not congruent. Because what they say they intend to do was not from their thought through, thought process but rather what others want them do or from previously engrained beliefs. Our beliefs drive our thinking (mindsets) thereby driving our behaviours and getting the result that we do not want. Change your beliefs your results will change, so how do we form beliefs.

"We think within a variety of domains: sociological, philosophical, ethical, intellectual, anthropological, ideological, political, economical, historical, biological, theological and psychological. We ended up with our particular beliefs because we were influenced to do so in the following ways

Vocational: our minds are influenced by our work environment;

Sociological: our minds are influenced by the social groups to which we belong;

Philosophical: our minds are influenced by our personal philosophy;

Ethical: our minds are influenced by the extent to which we behave in accordance with our obligations and the way we define our obligations;

Intellectual: our minds are influenced by the ideas we hold, by the manner in which we reason and deal with abstractions and abstract systems;

Anthropological: our minds are influenced by cultural practices, mores and taboos;

Ideological and Political: our minds are influenced by the structure of power and its use by interest groups around us;

Economic: our minds are influenced by the economic conditions under which we live;

Historical: our minds are influenced by our history and they way we tell our history;

Biological: our minds are influenced by our biology and neurology;

Theological: our minds are influenced by our religious beliefs and attitudes;

Psychological: our minds are influenced by our personality and personal psychology;

Physiological: our minds are influenced by our physical condition, stature and weight;

Reflections such as these should awaken in us a sense of how little we really know about our own minds"

Source: Critical Thinking, by Richard W Paul and Linda Elder

When I read this and reflected I discovered how much of influence all the above has influenced my mind and why sometimes I do not get the desired results. Today I read and reflect on this following statement below;

"Critical Thinking -I will not identify with the content of any belief. I will identify only with the way I come to my beliefs. I am a critical thinker and, as such, am ready to abandon any belief that cannot be supported by evidence and rational considerations. I am ready to follow evidence and reason wherever they lead. My true identity is that of being a critical thinker, a lifelong learner, and a person always looking to improve my thinking by becoming more reasonable in my beliefs.

Source: Critical Thinking, by Richard W Paul and Linda Elder

Just remember, examine your current beliefs and replace them with new beliefs following the above process and without doubt you will achieve your desired results. As I have.

Taking Personal Responsibility

We are in the constant process of blaming others or justifying for our current condition or status and never look inside our selves for what we need to change. This was true for me till I went for a personal breakthrough programme in the year 1997. I walked out of the event with only one thing in my mind "For things to change first I must change". And the first thing to change is taking responsibility for everything that happens around me. I like this write up by Brian Tracy:

By: Brian Tracy

Did you ever stop to think that everything you are or ever will be is completely up to you? Just imagine! You are where you are because of who you are. Everything that exists in your life exists because of you, because of your behavior, words and actions. Because you have freedom of choice and because you have chosen each and every circumstance of your life, you are completely responsible for all of your success and failure, your happiness and unhappiness, your present and future.

That thought is like a parachute jump: It’s scary and exhilarating at the same time. It’s one of the biggest and most important ideas that can ever occur to you, or anyone else. The acceptance of personal responsibility is what separates the adult from the child. It’s the great leap forward into maturity. Responsibility is the hallmark of the fully integrated, fully functioning human being. Responsibility goes hand in hand with success, achievement, motivation, happiness and self-actualization. It’s the absolute minimum requirement for the accomplishment of everything you could ever really want in life. Accepting that you’re completely responsible for yourself and realizing that no one is coming to the rescue is the beginning of peak performance. There’s very little that you cannot do or have after you accept that If it’s to be, it’s up to me!

The opposite of accepting responsibility is making excuses and blaming people and things for what’s going on in your life. And since everything we do is a matter of habit, if people get into the habit of making excuses, they get into the habit of evading responsibility at the same time. If they set a goal or objective for themselves, they immediately create an excuse that they hold in reserve just in case the accomplishment of the goal is too difficult or requires more self-discipline and persistence than they had thought. As soon as things start to go poorly, irresponsible people trot out their excuse and let themselves off the hook. But that won’t get them anywhere in the long run.

A basic law of human life was first espoused by Socrates more than 400 years before Christ. It’s called the Law of Causality. We call it the Law of Cause and Effect. It states that for every effect in your life, there’s a cause. If there’s any effect that you desire, or desire more of, you can trace it back to the cause, and by duplicating the cause, you can have the effect.

For example, everyone wants to be healthy. If you set a high level of physical health and energy as your goal, or the desired effect, you can have it simply by finding out the cause, by finding out what other healthy and energetic people do with regard to diet, exercise and rest, and by doing the same thing. If you do, you’re likely to get the same result. This is no miracle. It sounds simple, but in many cases, it’s one of the hardest things in the world to do.

Unhappiness is an effect as well. If you wish to be happy, the first thing to do is to decide for yourself the kind of life situation in which you would feel wonderful. Think of the very best times of your life, and think of what you were doing, where you were doing it, and the people you were with at the time. Then write out, in complete detail, a description of your ideal lifestyle. Now you have defined the effect that you desire.

Next, look at your current life and ask yourself, What are all the things in my life that are inconsistent with the lifestyle that would make me happy? In other words, look at the causes of the effects that you don’t like. Then make a decision to begin alleviating or removing those causes, one by one, until what you have left is the kind of life you want to live.

Your thoughts are extremely powerful. They have the power to raise and lower your blood pressure, your pulse rate and your respiratory rate. They can affect your digestion. And if your thoughts are strong enough, they can even make you sick or healthy. Your thoughts tend to trigger images in your mind, and the feelings in your body are consistent with them. If you think or read happy, healthy thoughts, you will have happy, healthy pictures and experience happy, healthy emotions. As Deepak Chopra points out in his audiocassette program Magical Mind, Magical Body, every part of your mind is connected to every single part of your body in a complex web of messages and impulses that affect everything you feel, say and do.

Only you can think your thoughts, only you can decide what you’ll dwell upon, what you’ll read and listen to, who you’ll associate with and the conversations you’ll engage in; therefore, you are totally responsible for all the consequences of all those behaviors. It’s unavoidable.

Perhaps the most important part of the subject of self-responsibility involves your happiness and your peace of mind. There seems to be a direct relationship between responsibility and happiness on the one hand, and irresponsibility and unhappiness on the other hand. Let me explain.

First of all, the key to happiness is having a sense of control over what’s going on in your life. The more you feel that you’re in control, the happier you’ll be. Men and women who have risen to the top of their organizations tend to be far happier than people further down. This is because they feel far more in control of their destinies, far more capable of making decisions and taking action. The more responsibility you take in your company, the more power, authority and respect you’ll receive. One of the smartest things you can do is to take responsibility for the most important concerns of your boss. The more you accept responsibility for getting results in the areas that your boss considers most important, the more valuable and indispensable you’ll become in your organization. People who want more money and more respect often think that they can get it simply by asking for it or by politicking. The truth is that it will accrue to you rapidly as soon as you step up to the plate and undertake responsibility for results in your organization. The most respected people in any company are those who are the most capable of getting the most important jobs done on schedule.

The more responsibility you take, the more in control you are. And the freer you are, especially in your own mind, to make decisions and to do the things you want to do. So there’s a direct relationship between responsibility, control, freedom and happiness. The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their lives.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is irresponsibility, or the failure to accept responsibility. Each person is somewhere in between, moving toward a higher level of responsibility or irresponsibility with every word and every decision. In fact, a good definition of insanity is total irresponsibility, to the point of needing a straitjacket and a padded cell. Thomas Szasz, the great psychoanalyst, once wrote, There is no such thing as insanity. There are only varying levels of irresponsibility.

A person who is completely irresponsible is subject to anger, hostility, fear, resentment, doubt-all sorts of negative emotions. And here’s why. All negative emotions tend to be associated with blame. Fully 99 percent of all our problems exist only because we’re able to blame someone or something for them. The instant we stop blaming, our negative emotions begin disappearing.

What’s the antidote to blaming? It’s simple! Since your mind can hold only one thought at a time, either positive or negative, you can override the tendency to blame and become angry simply by saying, firmly, I am responsible! You can’t accept responsibility for a situation and be angry at the same time. You can’t accept responsibility and be unhappy or upset. The acceptance of responsibility negates negative emotions and short-circuits any tendencies toward unhappiness.

The very act of accepting responsibility calms your mind and clarifies your vision. It soothes your emotions and enables you to think more positively and constructively. In fact, the acceptance of responsibility often gives you insight into what you should do to resolve the situation.

Here’s an exercise: Look at the most common problems and difficulties that people have in life. Apply this simple remedy of accepting responsibility to each one, and see what happens.

People have problems with other people-their spouses, their children, their friends, their coworkers and their bosses. Someone once said that almost all of our problems in life have hair on top, come on two legs and talk back. So think of the people in your life who cause you any stress or anxiety and ask yourself who is responsible. Are they responsible for being in your life, or are you responsible for having them in your life?

According to the Law of Attraction, you’re a living magnet in that you invariably attract people into your life who harmonize with your dominant thoughts and emotions. The people in your life are there because you’ve attracted them by the person you are, by the thoughts you hold, by the emotions you experience. If you’re not happy with the people surrounding you, you’re responsible. You’re attracting them, and you’re keeping them there.

Let me give you an example. I have four beautiful children. For a long time, when my children were behaving in ways that I felt were inappropriate, I had a tendency to blame or criticize them. However, the more I studied child raising and learned about the subject, the more I found that children are almost totally reactive. Their behaviors are almost always responses to what is going on around them and to their relationships with their parents. So I began asking the question, What is it in me that is causing my child to act this way? As soon as I turned the question around, and looked to myself for the reason-in effect, accepted complete responsibility for my children’s behavior-I was able to see what I might be doing, or not doing, that my children were reacting to. Perhaps I wasn’t spending enough one-on-one time with them. Perhaps I wasn’t listening to them when they wanted to talk. Perhaps I was too quick to question their report cards.

I began to apply that simple principle to every other part of my life as well. I began asking, What is it in me that is causing this external situation? If the Law of Correspondence is true (and it is), and everything that is happening to you on the outside is due to something that is happening to you on the inside, then the first place to look is within. As soon as you do that, you begin to see things that you had completely missed when you were busy blaming others and making excuses. You begin to see that you’re responsible in large measure for the things that are happening to you.

If you’re in a bad relationship, who got you there? You likely weren’t marched into the relationship and kept there at gunpoint. So it’s largely a matter of free will and free choice on your part. If you’re not happy, it’s up to you to do something about it. As Henry Ford II once said, Never complain, never explain. If you’re not happy with the situation, do something about it. If you’re not willing to do something about it, then don’t complain.

There’s the story of the construction worker who opens up his lunch box at the noon break and unwraps his sandwich to find that it contains sardines. He gets really upset and complains loudly to everyone around him about how much he hates sardines. The next day, the same thing happens: a sardine sandwich. Again, the construction worker shouts and complains about how much he hates sardines for lunch. The third day it happens again. By this time, his fellow workers are getting fed up with his loud complaining. One of them leans over and says to him, If you hate sardines so much, why don’t you tell your wife to make you some other kind of sandwich? The construction worker turns to the fellow and says, Oh, I’m not married. I make my own lunches!

Many of us get into the same situation as the construction worker’s and complain about circumstances that are almost entirely of our own making. Is this true for you? Look over your relationships and ask where this might be true in your life.

Are you happy with your job? Are you happy with the amount of money you’re earning? Are you happy with your level of responsibility and your activities each day? If you’re not, you need to accept that you’re completely responsible for every aspect of your job and your career. Why? Because you chose it freely. You took the job, you assumed the responsibilities, and you accepted the wage. If you’re not happy with any of them, for any reason, then it’s up to you to do something different.

You’re earning today exactly what you’re worth-not a penny more, not a penny less. In life, we tend to get exactly what we deserve. If you’re not satisfied with the amount you’re getting, look around you, at people who are doing the kind of work you would like to do and earning the kind of money you would like to earn. Ask them what they’re doing differently from what you’re doing. What are the causes of the effects they’re getting? Once you know what they are, accept complete responsibility for your situation, apply your wonderful mind and abilities, back them with willpower and self-discipline, and get busy making the changes you need to make to enjoy the life you want to enjoy.

Your great aim in life is to develop character. Character is composed of self-esteem, self-discipline, the ability to delay gratification, and the willingness to accept full responsibility for your life and everything in it. The more you say to yourself, I am responsible, the stronger, better and finer a person you become. And every part of your life will improve at the same time.

Source: Brian Tracy is a leading authority on personal and business success. As Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, he is the best-selling author of 17 books and over 300 audio and video learning programs. Copyright 2001 Brian Tracy International. All Rights Reserved. http://www.briantracy.com

Critical Thinking

Ironically, humans are not simply the only “logical” animal, they are also the only “illogical” animal. They are the only animal that uses meanings – ideas, concepts, analogies, metaphors, models, theories and explanations – to make sense of things, to understand, predict, and control things. They are also the only animal that uses meanings to negate, contradict, and deceive itself, to misconceive, distort and stereotype, to become dogmatic, prejudiced and narrow-minded. Humans are the only animal whose thinking can be characterized in terms like clear, precise, accurate, relevant, consistent, profound, and fair: they are also the only animal whose thinking is often imprecise, vague, inaccurate, irrelevant, superficial, trivial, and biased.

Critical thinking makes sense in the light of this paradoxical dichotomy. Humans ought not simply trust their instincts. They ought not believe unquestioningly what spontaneously occurs to them. They ought not accept as true everything taught as true. They are not born with intellectually sound standards for belief, for truth, for validity. They need to cultivate habits and traits which integrate these standards into their lives.

In the last three decades, much has been discovered about animals and their thinking, including the fact that, seen from a certain light, they are very often quite “logical” in their orientation to the world. Still, Paul’s comments about the dichotomous nature of human thought and action are as relevant today as ever. How do we effectively deal with the fact that on the one hand we can be rational, reasonable creatures while on the other, irrational and unreasonable? One and the same person can be logical, open-minded and empathic in one setting while close-minded, selfish and unreasoning in another. This question has always been at the heart of the work of the Center and Foundation for Critical Thinking.

Source: In 1989, in the program for the Seventh International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, Richard Paul opened with these comments.

How do we Spend our $$$$$ !

People with Poor Thinking spend like the Rich!
VS
People with Rich Thinking spend in Richness!

Is the above statement true for you? For me it was, my rich dad that said our income will never exceed our self-image and we must have the self-image to handle wealth. I believe we are stewards of mother earth and its resources, how we manage and grow them is our collective responsibilities. But first are we responsible for our own personal wealth creation.

My story, I came across a substantial amount of wealth in the year 1995 after selling of my private property. I was a poor thinker spending like the rich. Bought a second hand car in cash to help a friend out who was having financial difficulties. I bought a home and renovated like the rich, personally selected Italian tiles for my home, bought designer lights from Europe which cost about $1’000 per piece. Bought even a marine coral fish tank, a self- sustaining system which was about $10’000. All for what, to impress the Joneses, living like the rich but thinking like the poor. Invested in a business, losing all my money made me realize what a fool I was. No financial literacy period. It has taken me awhile to learn these lessons and the first lesson is learn to think like the rich. The rich tracks and keeps records of their finances by way of an Income/Expenditure and Asset/Liability account while the poor only have an Income/Expenditure account. What I discovered is the poor spends money on consumer products, which we all love to do and probably it will end up in the trash. While the rich invests money in assets which produces income. Asset puts money in your pocket while Liability takes money out of your pocket.

This would be a good place to start a link to download and create your very own Income/Expenditure and Asset/Liability account. Please click here Rich Dad's Personal Financial Calculator. What’s the point in becoming rich if you do not know where your money is going? That’s what happened to me, I become temporarily rich and lost it all. Once a acquaintance said this; "The essential miracle is not walking through fire, or on water: it is waking up!" +Dilip Mukerjea+

So wake up! First you need to start thinking and acting like the rich before we can spend like the rich. Your first step to being rich is to start reading this book by Robert Kiyosaki, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” to change your thinking next start acting by creating your very own Income/Expenditure and Asset/Liability account. What’s the next step, coming soon in future blogs?

Duplicate don’t Complicate !

From the 26^th to the 28^th of March 2010, I was at a major e commerce seminar where we had successful millionaires sharing success principles with an audience of about 700 + would be millionaires. As I was taking notes a thought came to me “Duplicate don’t Complicate”. All through life we all wish to succeed but some of us don’t and some of us do, why? In my past 7 years of helping and mentoring individuals to succeed I have found that the reason why individuals fail is because we do not want to follow success principles to the letter.

We start and stop, start and stop, start and stop and then quit! While those who succeed stay on the course, stick to the letter of principles and figure out how to get these success principles work for them. We should duplicate success principles, why because it works, that’s why! Countless books have recorded success principles, they are even found in religious books and why are we discounting them. Maybe too much education has made us dumb and we can’t see the simplicity of becoming rich, so we complicate by questioning proven success principles. We start and when it does not work we question the success principle.

Lets use an example like the law of gravity, this principle works right. The earth is 93 million miles away from the sun; it’s exactly where it should be for life to flourish. If the earth is just a 100’000 miles in excess closer or further we either get burnt or frozen to death. Why don’t we question law of gravity because we have either taken it for granted or never questioned its very existence except Isaac Newton and its existence validated. I am sure Isaac Newton must have tested this theory, having done numerous experiments and validated its existence.

In this process of testing theories, success principles have been worked and tested to its existence and proves it works by individuals who have used its principles and share with us through their successes but what they have not shared is the many failures they had to go through and the many corrections they had to make to get the success principle to work.

Napoleon Hill took 20 years of his life to interview 500 + successful individuals and documented 17 success principles and the book is called “The Law of Success”. This book its like a bible of success, subsequently another book was published, which I highly recommend to read before your start to read the bible of success and that is “Think & Grow Rich” and it gives an intro to success principles. This book is a classic and I would recommend that you should re-read this book every year.

Duplicate its principles don’t complicate it, and make constant corrections to make the success principle work and in the process you will figure out what works and what doesn’t. And the answer to success lies in your hands!

Compass & Watch

I read a book sometime ago, and I cannot remember the title of this book. It indicates that in life we need to have a compass and a watch. The compass is to set the direction and destination for us and the watch to reach our destination within a given time. Sounds about right. But my recent discovery has been that our current compass is grossly misaligned. Our compass is what are our dreams, goals, desires and what we wish to achieve. But there seem to be a misalignment with these abovementioned with our value system.

The Greek philosopher Socrates said “Know Thyself”. Do we really know who we are! In my personal assessment we really do not know who we are. Yes, we think we know who we are and what we want but until one examines our core value system we are grossly in misalignment to what we want. Socrates also said “The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living”

“The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living” by Karl W. Palachuk

The hardest thing about examining your life is getting started.

I’m sure you’ve read this quote before: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates said that at his trial for heresy. He was on trial for encouraging his students to challenge the accepted beliefs of the time and think for themselves. The sentence was death but Socrates had the option of suggesting an alternative punishment. He could have chosen life in prison or exile, and would likely have avoided death.

But Socrates believed that these alternatives would rob him of the only thing that made life useful: Examining the world around him and discussing how to make the world a better place. Without his “examined life” there was no point in living. So he suggested that Athens reward him for his service to society. The result, of course, is that they had no alternative and were forced to vote for a punishment of death.

Luckily, we don’t have to choose between an examined life and death. But the sad thing is, most people avoid leading an examined life. It’s not that they don’t have time or make time. They actively avoid examining their lives.

People who do examine their lives, who think about where they’ve been, how they got here, and where they’re going, are much happier people. No one has all the answers. And no one’s life is free from trouble and strife. But those who have some sense of where they belong in the universe also have a context for understanding how all the elements of their life fit together.

If there are two people, one with a map and one without a map, who has the better chance of reaching her destination? The one with the map, of course.

When you set aside time to examine your life,

You get to choose your destination; You get to set the goals;

You get to determine the path; You get to decide how long it will take;

You get to decide whether you’re on the right path or the wrong path.

In other words, you begin to know your self and to take control of your life. You decide who you want to be and begin to become the person you want to be.

Examining your life brings tremendous freedom. You can take control of your life and all you have to do is set aside half an hour a day to get started. “

Karl W. Palachuk captured the essence of this quote from Socrates, my question was what do we examine. I believe we should examine our core values, as that is our main compass. Our values are formed thru traditional education, culture, religion, social networks, society and families. An example would be from young we are told to educate our selves to get a good degree and get a safe and secure job, settle down and start a family. Now someone tells you forget this path and begin on a new path of freedom and achieving whatever your heart desires. You want it and it rings true for you but when you embark on the journey of this new path you encounter challenges and easily you quit, WHY?

Because your present core values and what you wish for or want which is the new value system has a gross misalignment. Your old operating system in your brain does not allow for the new values to take root. You need to upgrade your operating system by challenging your current values. Questioning your beliefs, norms and values as Socrates encouraged his students to challenge the accepted beliefs of that time and think for themselves. This will take place when you encounter challenges on your new journey when you have new dreams and goals that you wish to achieve. As you question and challenge your accepted beliefs and values you start to acquire new thinking (upgraded operating system) and in the process acquire new habits. This formulae was taken from an unknown source:

Old Thinking + Old habits + Short Term Viewpoint = Predictable Consequences

Old Thinking + Old habits + Long Term Viewpoint = Potential Consequences

New Thinking + New Habits + Long Term Viewpoint = New Consequences

When we have old thinking and habits our consequences are always predictable.

When we want change and that is taking a long-term viewpoint and when we approach it with the same old thinking and habits we will only have potential consequences.

But when you approach a long-term viewpoint with new thinking and habits in other words you have questioned and challenged your current accepted beliefs and values, you acquire new thinking and habits and the consequences will definitely be new not potential or predictable.

In conclusion examine you life by constantly questioning and challenging accepted beliefs, values and norms. As Socrates says: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Success is a Function of Correction

I just finished reading this book which I would highly recommend for all who are on their journey to achieving their goals and dreams. Far too often when we begin or take action to start something we quit at the first sign of defeat or rejection. My personal experience has been that you need to have a plan and what are the current resources that you have to start with. Some of us never start as we make the assumption that we need to have all the resources and conditions right before we start taking action. That's pure procrastination. Some of us will take action and quit as the going becomes tough. I have come to the conclusion why people quit its because they do not wish to put their thinking cap and ask questions as to why the process or action taken is not working.



"Thinking is the hardest work there is that's why so few people engage in it" quote Albert Einstein. In my training experience one of the common characteristics that I find is that most participants refuse to or are just lazy to think or do not have the necessary tools or skills to solve a challenge when they are faced with it and prefer to seek advice or opinion of others which is convenient and can be disasterous. We prefer instant or quick fixes, probably because we live in a society of instant coffee, instant cash, instant noodles and instant answers.

This book gives you an insight and tools to help you succeed. An excerpt from the book; the three most important steps, discovered and rediscovered by virtually every successful person, are these:

• Decide exactly what you want, write it down, and make a plan to achieve it. Decide upon your destination.
• Take action. Launch toward your goal. Step out in faith. Take the first step with no guarantee of success. Take off on your journey.
• Be prepared to make continual course corrections every hour and every day of your life as you fly toward your destination. Expect an inevitable, unavoidable, and unbroken series of problems, difficulties, reversals, setbacks and crises every day and week of your life. Since you cannot avoid them, your aim must be to respond to them effectively.

The Law of Seeds

This is a good way to think if you want to be happy. Take a look at an apple tree. There might be five hundred apples on the tree, each with ten seeds. That's a lot of seeds! We might ask. Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more trees? Nature has something to teach us here. It's telling us: Most seeds never grow. So if you really want to make something happen, you had better try more than once.

This might mean:

You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job.

You'll interview forty people to find one good employee.

You'll talk to fifty people to sell one house, car, ideas, etc

And you might meet a hundred acquaintances to find one special friend.

When we understand the Law of the Seed, we don't get so disappointed.

We stop feeling like victims. Laws of nature are not things to take personally.

We just need to understand them and work with them.

IN A NUTSHELL

Successful people fail more often. They plant more seeds. When Things Are Beyond Your Control, Here's a recipe for permanent misery...

a) Decide how you think the world SHOULD be.

b) Make rules for how everyone SHOULD behave.

Then, when the world doesn't obey your rules, get angry! That's what miserable people do! Let's say you expect that:

Friends SHOULD return favours.

People SHOULD appreciate you.

Planes SHOULD arrive on time.

Everyone SHOULD be honest.

Your husband SHOULD remember your birthday.

These expectations may sound reasonable. But often, these things won't happen! So you end up frustrated and disappointed.

There's a better strategy. Have less demands. Instead, have preferences! For things that are beyond your control, tell yourself: I WOULD PREFER A, BUT IF B HAPPENS, IT'S OK TOO!

This is really a game that you play in your head. It is a shift in attitude, and it gives you more peace of mind. You prefer that people are polite ... but when they are rude, it doesn't ruin your day. You prefer sunshine ... but rain is ok!

To become happier, we either need to

a) Change the world, or

b) Change our thinking.

It is easier to change our thinking!

IN A NUTSHELL

It's not what happens to you that determines your happiness. It's how you think about what happens to you!

+Source Unknown+