Stop Making The Same Mistakes...Make New Ones

A friend of mine said to me the other day.  “I wish we would make new mistakes...instead of making the same mistakes.” I started to think about what he said and realized the lesson we could all learn from this statement.

Have you ever held back on doing something because you were afraid of failure?  Most people have!  Lets face it; no one likes to fail.  None of us likes to feel like were ineffective, weak or lacking in any way, and that ís exactly how failure makes us feel.

However, you may be surprised to know that failure doesn't exist until YOU say it does. In the dictionary, failure has several definitions:  

•  Failing to do or perform  
•  A state of inability to perform a normal function adequately 
•  Giving way under stress  
•  A lack of success.

Look carefully at those definitions and you'll probably realize they have one thing in common when it comes to goal achievement:  Failure is a PERCEPTION.

Think about this... we were not born with this perception. If we were...all of us would still be crawling because learning to walk means failing before we succeed.

The moment you decide to give up or stop working toward your goals, failure is born.

But what if you never do that?  What if you continue working toward your goals, one step at a time for as long as it takes?  There ís no failure then, is there?

This insight should be very encouraging if you’ve been working toward goals and not yet seeing positive results.  Simply keep going and you cannot fail!

Here are three tips to help you stay strong and focused on your goals:

1) Never give yourself an out.  

Most people do this without even realizing it.  They are willing to work hard on achieving their goals, until the going gets too rough or their motivation dwindles.  Don’t do that!  Commit to making your goals happen, no matter what!  Never quit, never contemplate admitting failure, and never lose your inner determination.

2) Don’t get hooked on a specific timeframe for completion.  

It ís okay to set a general timeline, but be aware that some circumstances will be beyond your control, so you can’t say for sure when your goal will be achieved.  If you do that, you are just setting yourself up for failure!  Instead, get a general idea of when you would like your goal to be completed, but then take it a day at a time and focus on making progress, not reaching the finish line in as little time as possible.

3) Finally, be sure that you don’t view obstacles and setbacks as failures.  

The two are completely different.  An obstacle, setback or delay means only one thing:  it ís not time for your goal to be completed yet.  That ís it!  It doesn’t mean you failed; it doesn’t mean you are weak; it does not mean you will never achieve your goals.  It simply means you are not done yet.  You have got to keep moving forward and find a way around or through the obstacle.

Failing happens when we fall into this trap:

• If you believe you have failed...then you have.  
• If you believe you do not have the ability to succeed...then you don’t.  
• If you believe you cant handle the pressure of achieving your goals...you cant.  
• If you believe you are not successful... you are not.  

Failure only exists in your own mind!  

“Do and Do Not”...”Can and Cannot” are choices...which one will you choose?

Change Your Mindset and Change Your Results,

Rich

How To Master 6 Areas of Personal Time Management

Personal time management is a major step you can take to improving your life. There are six areas of personal time management that can improve anyone's life.

The six areas are physical, intellectual, social, career, emotional and spiritual.

1. The physical part involves having a healthy body, less stress and more energy
2. The intellectual part involves learning and other mental growth actions.
3. The social part involves developing personal relations and being an active contributor to society.
4. The career part involves school and work.
5. The emotional part involves feelings and desires and manifesting them.
6. The spiritual part involves a personal search for meaning in your life.

Each area contributes to create the whole you. If you are ignoring one area then you are ignoring an essential piece of yourself.

Here are a few easy steps to take in learning time management and improving your personal life.

• Always decide which task is essential and which one’s are not necessary in achieving your goals and which activities are helping you to have a balanced life style.
• Learn to say..."No"
• Celebrate and recognize yourself when you get an effective time management result.
• Respect other people by practicing to “Treat others the way you want to be treated.”
• Use the 80/20 rule. Find 2 hours a day. Close your door and turn off all the electronics. You will be amazed at how productive you will be.
• Have a positive attitude and set yourself up for success. But be realistic in your approach in achieving your goals.
• Find time in your day to be grateful and meditate.

Change your Mindset and Change your Results,

Rich

How To See The Sunrise and Sunset Differntly

I have a friend out in San Diego that has a home in the mountains...his place is called “Sunrise Ranch.” As you would suspect, there is a reason this awesome place has this name. Every time I have been there, I grab a cup of coffee early in the morning and sit outside facing “east” waiting for the sun to rise over the mountains. 

In this moment of silence...I think of the possibilities. From a Native American perspective the “east” represents “new beginnings” the past is gone...tomorrow is not here but this moment brings..whatever I decide to do with it.

What are your thoughts for the new day? Do you tend to let your outer circumstances set the tone for each day?  Do you allow other people and events to trigger feelings of anger, frustration, impatience and more?  

When you do this, you are not using the power you have available to you!  By using the power of the “east”, you can turn every day into a great day.  One way to do that is by using intentions and visualization to create your day.

When you first wake up in the morning, spend 10 minutes or so thinking about the things you are grateful for having. Think about the types of things you would like to experience that day.  

• How would you like your workday to go? 
• What kind of people would you like to meet?  
• Would you like to receive some great opportunities to advance your career or financial situation? 
• How would you like to feel for the majority of your day?

Grab a blank journal or notebook and jot these details down!  Once you have gotten all the details written down, spend a few minutes vividly imagining each scenario in your mind, exactly as you would like it to happen.  Pretend you are watching a movie in your mind, play it in color, make it big, seeing it all play out exactly as you would like it to.

Most importantly, allow yourself to feel as if they were actually happening now.  Immerse yourself in feelings of excitement, joy, happiness and gratitude as you enjoy one great experience after another.  Use this same process for every experience you would like to have that day.

By the time you have finished you should be feeling fantastic; buzzing with good spirits and high expectations!

Then continue with your normal routine, taking special care not to be attached to any specific events or experiences, just simply staying open to whatever comes.  Keep affirming that great things are going to happen to you that day, and you feel great about all of the blessings and abundance in your life.

At the same time, avoid getting entangled in feelings of worry, anxiety, frustration, and anger as much as possible throughout the day because those feelings will interfere with the positive energy you have already put out.

As often as you can remember, call to mind images of the things you visualized earlier and allow good feelings to flow over you again.  Affirm and know that wonderful things are happening, even if you don not see them quite yet.

By using this process on a daily basis, you will eventually start to notice that good things are starting to happen.  You will find yourself being in the right place at the right time and generally enjoying greater opportunities and abundance.

Each evening sit facing the sunset and this is looking to the “west.” In a Native American way this is where it is time for introspection. Think about your day. If it did not turn out the way you wanted...replay the way you would have wanted. Do this and your life will never be the same.

Be the Difference!

Rich

The Best Plan is...Todays

Today...this moment...the now...is your only concern. You have no control over tomorrow or yesterday. Today you are going to get the most of your working day while working to improve your personal life. 

To do this you will need to set time plans and you must spend your time wisely. Learn to live for NOW, instead of tomorrow or yesterday. 

In your time management plans, make sure to include your daily activities, work, entertainment, relax time, family time and so on. 

As you write your plans, consider how you will deal with the world around you. 

If you are sweating the worlds every move, you see on the T.V. news, you are wasting time. Instead, focus on your world, where you can make a difference. 

At work, practice dealing with your fellow employees respectively and do the same with your personal life. When you learn to respect...it makes everyone’s life better. 

Each day you want to choose a 2 or 3 new strategies that helps you to improve your personal life. 

The more effort you put into building a positive you, the more you will get from your works. 

If you are working long hours, learn to manage your time.Overworking yourself is leading you nowhere but to poor health, poor relationships and in the end, you do not produce your best work. You need to take time out for you. 

At work, learn to deal with the complex problems first this will help to eliminate stressing your day. Once you get past the tough problems, you will get moving toward the simple tasks.  

Don’t put off what you can do today. Do it now, get it over with and you will feel better having accomplished the task. 

As you plan, set a time that works best for you. For instance, if you do your best job in the early morning, work hard then and relax throughout the day. 

Highly Successful and Highly Unsuccessful people have one thing in common...How they spend their time. Which group to you choose to be in?

Change your Mindset and Change your Results,

Rich

The 5 Things You Should Know About Leadership

There has been a lot written about leadership: rules, pointers, styles, and biographies of inspiring leaders. But there are five leadership ideas that we need to recognize and realize.

Here are the five things you should know about leadership.

1. Leaders are formal and informal.

There are many different types of leaders and you will probably come across more than one type in your lifetime.

Formal leaders are those we elect into positions or offices such as the senators, members of Congress, and presidents of the local clubs.

Informal leaders or those we look up to because of their wisdom and experience such as in the case of the elders of a tribe, or our grandparents; or by their expertise and contribution like Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo da Vinci in the field of the Arts.

Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles.

Here are the leadership styles as described by some of the experts:

Kurt Lewin describes three basic leadership styles authoritative, participative, and delegative.

Renis Likert believes in the leadership styles are; exploitive, authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative, and participative

Dr. Daniel Goleman talks about the six emotional leadership styles - visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding.

2. Leadership is life long learning.

Sometimes, it appears some people seem to be born with many of these leadership traits, but without the right environment and education, they will fail to develop their full potential.

So like learning how to ride a bicycle, you can also learn how to become a leader and develop your leadership abilities.

Knowledge on leadership and the skills you need can be learned by enrolling in leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences.

Daily interactions with people provide the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights, and thus furthering the cycle of learning.

You do not become a leader in one day and just stop.

Life-long learning is important in becoming a good leader for each day brings new experiences that put your knowledge, skills, and attitude to a test.

3. Leadership begins and ends with you.

The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life...Action speaks louder than words.

Leaders are always in the spotlight. Keep in mind that your credibility as a leader depends on your actions: your interaction with your family, friends, and coworkers; your way of managing your personal and organizational responsibilities; and even the way you talk with the waitstaff on your local restaurant.

Repeated actions become habits...Habits in turn form a persons character.

Steven Coveys book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People provides great insights on how you can achieve personal leadership.

4. Leadership is not about you...it is shared.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but it is a shared responsibility among members of a team.

Each member has responsibilities to do. Formal leadership positions are just added responsibilities as a member of the team.

Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team.

Thinking this way means, social interaction plays a major role in leadership. To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of the team.

Trust is built on actions and not by words. When mutual respect exists, trust is developed and confidence is built.

5. Leadership styles must be flexible depending on the situation.

When the staffs are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegative and moderate participative styles of leadership works. But, if the staff has a low competence in one area or they have low commitment, then a combination of high coaching, high supporting, and high directing behavior from organizational leaders is what works best.

The best thing you can do as a leader is to have someone who you trust to give you honest feedback. Many of the coaching clients I work with find this is the first time they were told something about themselves that needed to change.

Change your Mindset and Change your Results,

Rich

Are You Committed to Your Goals?

Dr. Peter Senge author of “The Fifth Discipline” describes the difference between “commitment” and “compliance.” To illustrate his point he uses the late President John Kennedy’s quote that the United States should set as a goal "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth" by the end of the decade.

We during that time as a nation, as businesses, as people were committed to meeting this goal. Okay I will date myself but I still remember watching “live” on TV, the first moon landing and retuning the astronauts safely to the earth.

Often when I work with organizations they falsely believe that their employees are committed to the company’s goals but in reality..they are just “compliant.” They are not “committed.” 

This is the same for individuals.We set our own personal goals but...are we committed?”...or...are we “compliant.”

Have you ever set a goal and not achieved it?  Most people have.  In fact, it is quite common for people to get stuck in an endless cycle of setting goals and then quitting them shortly afterwards and accomplishing nothing at all.

Why do people do this? 

One of the biggest reasons is a lack of commitment to their goal.  Without commitment a goal will gradually lose importance, and the temptation to quit will seem much more attractive, especially when obstacles cause setbacks and delays.

On the other hand, if you make a serious commitment and continually remind yourself of it, you are much more likely to stick with it and achieve the goal.

Here is how to commit to your goals:

1- First, you have to make sure that every goal you set is important to you.  

This can be tricky because we so often fool ourselves into thinking we want one thing when we want something entirely different.  Take some time with this part of the process, and be sure that you get to the heart of what you really want.  

• Why do you want it?  
• What will it do for you?  
• What positive things will it bring to your life?  
• How will it help you?  
• How will it make you feel when it is accomplished?

Write all of this down and keep it handy so you can refer to it, if you feel your commitment beginning to slip.  

Also ask yourself if your goal is worth the effort and sacrifice that will be needed to achieve it.  If you can honestly answer yes, you are on the way! If not and go back and make adjustments and then ask yourself again.

2- Think about what will happen if you do not follow through. 

Would nothing much happen if you do not achieve your goal? If not, then you need to raise the stakes!  You have to make your goal the most important thing in the world, and if you do not do it, you will deal with negative consequences.

3- Then, each and every day, renew your commitment.  

It is easy to be committed if your goal is new and your motivation is high, but you need to be able to STAY committed no matter what!  

Each morning, read through the goal you wrote down on the first day, and stress again how vitally important it is to you.  Promise yourself that you are going to do as much as you can to work on your goal that day, and every day until you achieve it.

When it comes right down to it, no one can achieve your goals for you.  

If you want to achieve them, you will have to find the determination necessary to keep going.  Inactivity and procrastination are usually nothing more than bad habits.  Turning those habits into something more positive and productive is as simple as taking it a day at a time and working your hardest to change your life.  The more committed and determined you are to making your goal happen, the more likely you will do just that.

Bottom Line: You have the information but it is up to you to take action..those that do will succeed.

Remember “When you change your mindset…You will change your results.”

Rich

Do You See a Half Full Glass or a Half Empty Glass?

"Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one sees the stars."- Frederick Langbridge, A Cluster of Quiet Thoughts 

In life, you are always filled with choices. You may choose to have a pessimists view and live a self-defeated life or you may decide to take the optimists route and take a challenging and fulfilling life.

Optimism has been linked to positive mood and good morale. It shows up in academic, athletic, military, occupational and political success; even in popularity, good health and helps to live a long life.

On the other hand, the rates of depression and pessimism have never been higher. It affects middle-aged adults the same way it hits younger people. The mean age has gone from 30 to 15. It is no longer a middle-aged disorder but also a teen-ager’s disorder as well.

Optimists expect the best and Pessimists do not.

The pessimists believe bad events, will last a long time and have an impact on everything they do and it is their own fault. The truth is optimists are confronted with the same hard knocks and the same events. 

What is different is the way they explain their misfortune...to themselves. 

It is the opposite way of a pessimist. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback, that its causes are not long term, it a single event. 

Optimists will focus on and plan for the “problem” they are facing now. They use positive interpretation. They most likely look at a negative experience in a way that helps them learn and grow. They know how to deal with a bad situation, they see it is a challenge and try harder.

The positive attitude of optimists also predict better reactions during transitions to new environments, sudden tragedies and unlikely turn of events. If they fall, they will stand up. They see opportunities instead of obstacles. 

People respond positively to optimists

Optimists are proactive and less dependent on others for their happiness. They find no need to control or manipulate people. They usually draw people towards them. Their optimistic view of the world can be contagious and influence those they are with. 

Those who share optimism are embraced instead of those who spread gloom, panic and hysteria who are treated unfavorably. 

In life, optimist often are sought out for advice. When the going gets tough, optimists get tougher 

Optimists typically maintain higher levels of subjective well-being during times of stress than do people who are less optimistic. In contrast, pessimists are likely to react to stressful events by denying that they exist or by avoiding dealing with problems. 

Pessimists are more likely to quit trying when difficulties arise.

Optimists persevere. They just don’t give up easily, they are also known for their patience. Inching their way a step closer to that goal or elusive dream.

Optimists are healthier and live longer

Medical research has justified that simple pleasures and a positive outlook can cause a measurable increase in the body's ability to fight disease.

Optimists health is unusually good. They age well, much freer than most people from the usual physical ills of middle age. And they get to outlive those prone to negative thoughts. 

So why not be an optimist today? And think positively towards a more fulfilled life.

So here is my question; Why not look forward to success in everything you do? 

We all are bound to hit lows sometimes but don’t just stay there. Don’t look at the mud, look to the stars. As Les Brown says “If you can see up ...You can get up”

Change your Mindset and Change your Results,

Rich