We’d like to have our relationships with our customers fit together as smoothly as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle just snap into place. But it’s easy to screw things up if we’re not careful. In the last two months I’ve had a chance to watch an air conditioner repair company make all of these mistakes. They showed me several ways this relationship can get really screwed up, take twice as long to get half as much done, and leave everyone really ticked off. Some people seem to have the sole purpose in life of serving as a bad example, (….)
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action,
learning,
persistence,
service
The con men that promise quick, easy, effortless solutions have left a lot of people convinced that visualization doesn’t work. And it doesn’t – their way. It does work, and you should use it. But it’s not magic, so it’s important to understand what it does, and why. Here’s some of the most common mistakes and how to use it right. Mistake #1: Creation By Visualization Many people think, because the con men told them, that they can just visualize stuff into existence. So they visualize with enthusiasm, day after day, and nothing happens. The object of their affection – (….)
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action,
attitude,
mind,
visualization
You’ve heard me say many times that you can’t build significant success by yourself. But we all try, don’t we? Many times we draw back from building relationships or asking for help because we don’t feel qualified. We’re embarrassed that we might be shown up as incompetent or as impostors. Well, here’s an approach that will work. You don’t build the relationships you need by asking for help. You build those relationships by helping others! Here’s 3 ways that you can support or encourage others. Get involved in groups or blogs related to what you do, or want to do. (….)
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action,
giving,
helpful,
service
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it – but all that had gone before.” Jacob Riis It can be hard to keep going when it feels like nothing is happening from all your efforts. You work and work on something, you give it your very best, and you feel like you’re going in (….)
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action,
discipline,
persistence,
success
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” Mark Twain Humans have always played games, and many of the sporting games are violent. In football, rugby and soccer, collisions, injuries and broken bones are common. But there are no shortages of testosterone-fueled young men and in some sports, young women, willing to put their bodies on the line in the name of winning. Why is it that people who are so willing to risk their bodies in sports can be so cowardly when moral courage is required? I have been (….)
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action,
compassion,
courage,
discipline,
fear
“If at first you do succeed, try something harder.” Ann Landers I think that our friendly advice columnist, Ann Landers, is on to something very helpful here. She’s given us two lessons for the price of one quote. That’s pretty good! The first lesson is in how we train ourselves to be successful. We start small. Take a little task, an easy task, and do that. Then do it again. We’re practicing doing new things and getting things done. As we do that, we build confidence. That’s important, because we’ll need it as we move on to bigger tasks. Some (….)
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action,
attitude,
habits,
learning
The world lost a unique genius with the passing of Steve Jobs this week. In his honor I’d like to reprint the commencement address he gave at Stanford University in June, 2005. In it he covers some of the important topics that we talk about in the Daily Gratitude newsletter and the courses that I offer on business and personal success, telling how he applied these ideas in his life. It’s inspiring, and he will be missed! ———————————————————- I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never (….)
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action,
learning,
passion,
persistence,
risk
“There is a great opportunity at this time for people who will create a vision and pursue it with determination and purpose.” Wallace Wattles One common error in thinking is the belief that in some way all the real opportunities are monopolized by others. We look at the very rare successes in high technology, like Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook, and cry because we can’t do that. What we ignore is the people who become rich by baking cookies, cleaning carpets, making ice cream and fixing cars. As Wattles says, since so few people in any industry operate in the (….)
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action,
motivation,
passion,
purpose,
success
“There is a science of getting rich and it’s an exact science. There are certain laws which govern the process.” Wallace Wattles One of the big mistakes that many people make about wealth is thinking that you have to be a particular kind of person, or be in the “right place” or have the right background. Nothing could be further from the truth! If it were true it would be a big surprise to well known success teachers like Jim Rohn, a country boy from rural Idaho in the western USA, or Bob Proctor, a Canadian high school dropout! We (….)
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discipline,
success,
thoughts,
vision
“I am responsible for my reactions to the events of my life, even though I may not have created them.” Howard Thurman One of the ways that we punish ourselves and others is with the false assertion that we have attracted or created everything that happens in our life. Do we have an influence on what shows up for us? Of course we do, but we live in a society of creative beings and we all interact. We have to live our lives in a world in which others are creating their lives, too. Sometimes their creations and our creations (….)
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action,
attitude,
compassion,
nonresistence
“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Peter Drucker If you’re like most people, you have more than one thing to do. You have a bunch of little, easy things and you have a couple of big, complicated things. It’s so easy to fall into the habit of doing the little things first. You can convince yourself that it’ll only take a short time and you can get those little things out of the way. And at the end of the day, what have you gotten done? A few little things, and no big things. Next (….)
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action,
discipline,
goals,
persistence
“The person who can drive themselves further once the effort gets painful is the person who will win.” Roger Bannister Big wins in our lives don’t usually come easily, or everyone would have them all the time. But that’s a mistake we all make when we see others score a victory. We see the victory but not the work that went into it. One thing that successful people have is discipline. That’s part of the hard work, making yourself work when you don’t feel like it. Bob Proctor wrote a book, “Born Rich,” which he later turned into a seminar (….)
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action,
discipline,
goals,
passion,
purpose
“As a single footstep will not make a pathway on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.” Henry David Thoreau Every day by the choices we make we create our life. When we make the same choices every day, we become a prisoner, a prisoner of habit. Although there are some parts of our habits that were suddenly created by events that had a lot of emotion or fear attached to them, by far the majority were created the way Thoreau describes (….)
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habits,
motivation,
persistence
“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.” Elizabeth Gilbert At first glance, it appears that our quote is telling us that we have to work hard to be happy. And we do, but not in the way that it might seem. Our hard work takes place in the mental realm first. We have to decide to be happy, no matter what our circumstances are, and train our thinking to agree. That’s Gratitude Principle #3, from the Gratitude ebook. We can be happy, but not satisfied. We seek to (….)
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action,
attitude,
happiness,
visualization
“Nothing ensures success like ensuring another’s success. And there is someone who is looking for your help and your support today.” Neale Donald Walsch None of us are in this life alone. We’re accompanied by a family of others, some of whom travel with us and some who just pass through our lives. We make our lives so much more difficult when we think we have to do everything ourselves. One of the ways we can make our life so much easier is to look around and see who we can help. Somebody needs a helping hand or a word (….)
Tagged as:
giving,
helpful,
service
“When we’re in complete inner alignment of thought, feeling, desire, intention, attitude, expectation, and so on, we move rapidly, even instantly, into the destiny that we’ve imagined for ourselves.” Jesse Jennings One of the hardest things for us to do is to get our inner and outer world into the kind of alignment that our quote suggests. You can simplify the list by using just three general areas to get into alignment. Those are thoughts, emotions (feelings) and actions. Starting with your thoughts, you need to be clear about what you want. Here’s a clue: you don’t want money or (….)
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goals,
purpose,
thoughts
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up” Thomas Alva Edison Do any of you like to work Sudoku puzzles? Both Sandy and I enjoy solving them, but since I have the competitive male ego, I like to work the more difficult ones. One thing I’ve noticed with the tough puzzles – you can get to the point where you’ve got little numbers written in everywhere and no pattern to be seen. In fact, it can look like you’ve totally screwed up and you have to start over. (….)
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persistence,
purpose
“Change is the natural order of things and not something that you benefit from resisting.” Neale Donald Walsch Have you ever had the experience of thinking you were close to figuring something out, and then change happened? Have you ever felt like standing in front of the train of progress and yelling, “Stop!”? Well, you’re not alone. I think we’ve all had that experience. But the flip side of every problem is opportunity. If you can train yourself to look for the opportunity in times of change, you’ll be ahead of the game. Philosopher Eric Hoffer has pointed out that (….)
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attitude,
learning,
nonresistence,
timing
“I am confirmed in my division of human energies. Ambitious people climb, but faithful people build.” Julia Ward Howe I’m convinced that there are three basic types of lives that people live in the world. The most common life is just existing. Going through the motions every day, just like the day before. The writer, Thoreau, referred to this as “living lives of quiet desperation.” Doesn’t sound very appealing, does it? Then there’s the people that live lives of ambition. They seek to become successful, to succeed in life in a great way, and their self image is built on (….)
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giving,
life,
motivation,
purpose,
service,
vision
“Before an idea can work in your life it must be accepted by the subconscious mind. When the idea is accepted by the subconscious it MUST work in your life. Knowledge that is only in the conscious mind can have no practical effect. It is when it is accepted in the deeper layers of the mind that it becomes dynamic.” Emmet Fox One of the key ideas that I learned from Bob Proctor was the importance of the subconscious mind. It is the most powerful part of the mind, using about 97% of our total capacity. But, since the conscious (….)
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mind,
persistence,
purpose,
subconscious