Tuesday's Tidbits: Energy

Courtesy of Timéa Szalay...

‎"Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus." - Oprah

Question...

Do you ever think about your energy? How you use it in your regular day to day?

I'm not talking about the energy that gets you up in the morning and off to work, but instead the energy you have/use when focusing on completing your to do list; your daily/weekly/monthly or yearly goals; The energy you use when working with others to partner in a common goal?

I always remind myself prior to every single meeting that my positive upbeat energy will encourage others to work with me vs against me...

Feel free to share your comment below...

~b2

Monday Morning's Motivation: Motivation

The aim of the motivational speech or reading is to get the audience acting or changing their behavior or beliefs in some way. To try to strengthen their commitment and at least get them to agree with your like-minded proposal, thoughts or beliefs.

For me, it's watching or reading inspirational speeches, presentation or trainings on how to better yourself, both personally & professionally, in this ridiculously competitive world in which we live.

People like Greg Provenzano, George Zalucki, Larry Raskin, Darren Hardy and others, seems to make a real and lasting connection with me personally.

My questions is...

What is it, or whom is it, that motivates you?

Please feel free to list what it is that gets you up and going in the positive, like-minded direction you've set for yourself...

~b2

Sunday's Spiritual (commitment): Father's

"A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society."
-- Billy Graham

A special message to all the Father's out there spending time with their children.

~b2

Thursday's Thoughts (become) Things: Happiness

Happiness. The pursuit of so many. In fact, we are known in North America as those who live for "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.'

But so many seem without happiness. Why is this? Is happiness truly elusive or do we simply not know how to take hold of it? It is my contention that happiness is yours for the taking. That is, anyone can be happy if the choose to be... and if they know how to get it.

So what does it take to bring us to a state of happiness? Here are a few thoughts to get you on your way:

Do not try to control circumstances.
One of the biggest "happiness busters" I see is in the frustration people experience (and wallow in) because circumstances have gone awry. This is because their mind-set, whether they know it or not, is that they should be somehow able to control circumstances. But let's get this straight: You can't! So the first thing you can do to give yourself happiness is to stop trying to control, or taking responsibility for circumstances that are outside of your control!

Understand that you can only control yourself.
There is only one thing you can control in this world and that is yourself. You can't control the weather, other drivers, your kids or spouse, or anything for that matter outside of your own beliefs, thoughts, attitudes and actions. Focus all of your attention on developing yourself and doing what is right - controlling yourself while letting what will happen, happen - and you will find happiness opening up within you.

Decide what it is that you want out of life and then stick to it relentlessly.
This is two parts: First, know what you want. Get real clear with yourself. Take a private retreat to be alone if you have to, but come to grips with what you want your life to look like. Secondly, devote yourself to that passion and do not be sidetracked. It is interesting to me how many options we have - good options - that if we pursue them they will actually crush our happiness because they will take us away from what will really make us happy.

Live for a legacy.
We cannot be self-absorbed and live only for ourselves. Yes, we only control ourselves, but we can live for the betterment of others. Live your life in such a way that others are touched and you will find yourself feeling happiness in ways that you could never imagine. For example, I get some of the most touching emails from people I have never met (and probably never will) who tell me how I have helped them. There is little else that brings me such happiness!

Settle your finances.
Whatever your financial goals are, get them! Having poor finances is one of the major causes of unhappiness. Now, some people are completely content on $30,000 a year. Others need $200,000 a year. That is okay. We all have different desires, needs, and goals. But the key is to know what you want your financial life to look like and then do what it takes to get there. Among the major things to do is to eliminate as much debt as possible, if not all!

Surround yourself with good friends.
Good friend are such a blessing! I have some of the most intelligent, capable, successful, and caring friends a person could have. I have three or four people in my life that I completely trust and admire. When friendships are clicking, there is almost nothing that provides more happiness. Take time to develop your friendships. Spend time with them, do fun things with them etc. Even as life gets more and more busy, make time with your friends a priority.

Develop your primary love relationship.
I spoke at a groom's dinner recently and one of the points I made was that marriage will show you both heaven and hell! Marriage, when it is going well will send you out the door each morning on cloud nine. When it isn't going well, it affects every area of your life negatively. Do whatever you can - work hard - at developing your primary love relationship. The rewards of happiness you reap will be tremendous!

Happiness is yours for the taking - and hope you will take the time to develop your life in such a way as to be able to experience all of the happiness you can handle!

Folks, if you truly think, visualize and believe that the above is already in your life AND take action towards them, they will appear - It's just a matter of time...

~b2

Wednesday's Words (of) Wisdom: Your Worth

Hello My Friendly (blog) Followers...

There's a well-known speaker who started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill.

In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started to go up...

He said, "I am going to give this $20 bill to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple up the $20 bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

Well, he replied, "What if I do this?"

He then dropped the $20 bill on the floor and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled AND dirty.

"Now, who wants it?" Still the hands went up in the air...

My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson...

No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and ground into the dirt because of the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless because of what "others" say.

But no matter what has happened, or will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who do love you.

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do, or who we know, but by "Who We Are" and "Whose We Are."

You are special and don't ever forget it...

You have made an incredible decision to commit to changing your life, and the lives of the people around you.

So, when your friends, family members or complete strangers try to crumple your enthusiasm, put your excitement down, or grind your goal of helping others into the floor...Remember, you are special, and you were put on this earth to be special...

Commit to a "Whatever It Takes" attitude and you will prevail...

~b2

Tuesday's Tidbit: 4 Steps to Success

Today's tidbit is a piece from the late Mr. Jim Rohn. The true master of leadership and personal development...

Four simple steps to success:

No. 1 is good ideas. Be a collector of good ideas. My mentor taught me to keep a journal when I was 25 years old. I’ve been doing it now all these years. They will be passed on to my children and my grandchildren. If you hear a good health idea, capture it, write it down. Don’t trust your memory. Then on a cold wintry evening, go back through your journal, the ideas that changed your life, the ideas that saved your marriage, the ideas that bailed you out of bankruptcy, the ideas that helped you become successful, the ideas that made you millions. What a good review. Go back over the collection of ideas that you gathered over the years. So be a collector of good ideas for your business, for your relationships, for your future.

The next step to success is to have good plans: a good plan for the day, a good plan for the future, a good health plan, a good plan for your marriage. Building anything is like building a house—you need to have a plan. Now here is a good time-management question: When should you start the day? Answer: As soon as you have it finished. It is like building a house, building a life. What if you just started laying bricks and somebody asks, “What are you building?” And you say, “I have no idea.” See, they would come and take you away to a safe place. So, don’t start the house until you finish it. Now, is it possible to finish the house before you start it? Yes, but it would be foolish to start before you had it finished. Not a bad time-management idea. Don’t start the day until it is pretty well finished—at least the outline of the day. Leave some room to improvise. Leave some room for extra strategies, but finish it before you start it.

And here is the next piece that is a little more challenging: Do not start the week until you have it finished. Lay it out, structure it, and then put it to work. Then the next one is a little tougher yet; do not start the month until you have it finished.

And finally the big one, don’t start the year until it is finished on paper. It’s not a bad idea, toward the end of the year, to sit down with your family for the family structure plans, sit down in your business for the business plans, sit down with your financial advisor for your investments and map out the year... properties to buy, properties to sell, places to go with your family, lay out the year. I finally learned to do that. It was also helpful for my family to show them where they appeared on my calendar. You know I used to have my business things on there and I used to have my lectures and my seminars all laid out on my calendar, and guess what the children said, “Where are we on the game plan? Please show us our names on the game plan.” So you need to do it for your children, for your spouse, for your friends.

Now, here is the third step to success, and it can be really challenging. Learn to handle the passing of time. It takes time to build a career, it takes time to make changes, so give your project time. Give your people time. If you’re working with people, give them time to learn, grow, change, develop, produce. And here is the big one, give yourself time. It takes time to master something new. It takes time to make altered changes and refinement in philosophy as well as activity. Give yourself time to learn, time to get it, time to start some momentum, time to finally achieve. It is easy to be impatient with yourself. I remember when I first tried to learn to tie my shoes. The shoestrings, it seemed like it would take me forever. Finally I got it and it didn’t take forever, but it seemed like for a while I’d never learn, I’d get it backward; the bow goes up and down instead of across. How do I straighten that out? Finally I got it, it just took time.

Mama taught me a little bit about playing the piano. “Here is the left hand scale,” she’d say. I got that, it was easy. Then she said, “Here is the right hand scale.” I got that. That was easy. Now, she said, “We are going to play both hands at the same time.” I said, “Well, how can you do that?” Now, one at a time was easy... but at the same time? Looking at this hand and looking at that hand, finally I got it. Finally I got where I could play the scales with both hands. Then I remember the day she said, “Now we are going to read the music and play with both hands.” I thought, “You can’t do all that.” But you know, sure enough I’m looking at the music, looking at each hand, a little confused at first, but finally I mastered it. It took a little time to read the music and play with both hands. Then I remember the day she said, “Now we are going to watch the audience, read the music and play with both hands.” I thought, “Now that is going too far!” How could you possibly do that? But, see, adding them one at a time and giving myself time to master one before we went to the next one, sure enough I got to where I could watch the audience, read the music and play with both hands. So the lesson here is: Give yourself time; you can become a better pro, you can better master the art of parenting, you can better master the art of managing time, conserving resources, working together as a partner. Give yourself time.

And here’s the last one: Learn to solve problems. Business problems, family problems, financial problems, emotional problems, etc.: challenges for us all. Here’s the best way to treat a problem: as an opportunity to grow. Change if you have to, modify if you must, discard an old philosophy that wasn’t working well for a new one. The best phrase my mentor ever gave me was when he said, “Mr. Rohn, if you will change, everything will change for you.” Wow, I took that to heart, and sure enough the more I changed the more everything changed for me.

So learn to master good ideas, have good plans, handle the passing of time and solve problems, and you will be on your way to more success than you could ever imagine!

~b2

Monday Morning's Motivation: Stand Up!

To become a leader you have a big challenge ahead of you...

You will encounter:

All this pressure to be average;

All this pressure to fit in;

All this pressure to sell out on how bad the world is;

All this pressure to (just) show up the same way as everybody else;

All this pressure to make money the same way as everybody else does;

All this pressure to "not" rock the boat...

Friends...THE BIG WIN IN LIFE is when you REFUSE TO SETTLE for average or mediocre.

If you're not being talked about you're probably not doing anything.

STAND UP and MAKE A DECISION to "not" be normal.

STAND UP and MAKE A DECISION to "not" follow the herd.

STAND UP and MAKE A DECISION to "help" someone else, so that you can both benefit...

~b2