Self Improvement

The importance of immediate, massive, daily action has been written about many times already but it is so important to emphasize this topic every now and again. The examples in this article come from the world of business but they could also apply to any other area in life.

Marketing is the life blood of any business or organization, but sometimes businessmen will wait until they have written the perfect advertisement or sales message before sending out even one ad. They also spend weeks making sure their website is beautifully designed with all the latest refinements.

Meanwhile, good sales and prospects are passing them by. Their product may even be out of date before they are happy with the advertisements. By the time they have everything perfect and ready to go, they may run out of capital and be forced to close down their business. One of the best lessons I learned was not to worry about creating a perfect website. Just get one up.

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire Mayor of New York, credits his success to getting going without spending too much time planning:

“We act from day one; others plan how to plan – for months.”

Here’s a motto of an average businessman and marketer by the name of Jack, who one of my mentors told me about. His motto was: “Doin’ it, Doin’it, Doin’it” i.e do something, anything every day towards achieving your marketing goals.”

He kept plugging away each day with his marketing, even when the format of his sales brochures and forms did not look very good. He would not wait for the format to be improved. He believed in ‘Doin’ it’ even if he was not quite ready to do it.

This philosophy and behavior made him a multi millionaire and a leader. Even though what he said was not profound and could at times be downright stupid, his action oriented words and behavior led many to trust him and to follow his suggestions.

He knew that to get a desired outcome, he had to actually DO something to get there.

Jack knew that if his audience would just do something – anything – every day toward their goals, they, too, would get there. He didn’t wait until he had enough money to start his business or until his advertising materials were perfect or until he had a stockpile of products to sell. He started with what he had and did something every day to achieve his goal.

You can’t dream or wish your way into riches, although this can help. You have to actually do something about it. What is worse than a sales ad? No sales ad. Don’t wait until you have a great website or enough money to start your business.

Get going now and do something every day towards achieving your goal. You may still have doubts and fears, but by doing something every day you will make progress and your confidence and power will increase.

Some people want to master a piece of software before they use it. The chances are that they will never use it!

The quickest way to learn how a software tool works is to start using it on a daily basis. We will make mistakes, of course, but we will also make progress in understanding the software.

If possible, find a mentor who can hold your hand while you try something new. However, mentors are not always easily available so trust yourself to have a go on your own and see what happens.

You will probably amaze yourself at what you can achieve on your own especially if you don’t give up at the first signs of trouble.

Preparation, thinking and planning are worth doing, but there comes a time when the most important thing is to actually start taking action even if this means you are running risks. Try it and see what happens.

Contributed by: Kris leon

Most people want to achieve great heights of success. At the same time, many people sit around for a long time wishing for luck to strike. The best example in this case is someone who wants to be rich but only tries the most ineffective method – playing the Lotto. There are chances of becoming rich over night, but how likely is it that this will actually happen? Creating a realistic plan in order to achieve the desired results is vital in any case, regardless of how high or low your goals are.

A great way to achieve your dream is to take successive steps that will gradually increase your chances of reaching your goal.

It might take days, weeks or years to prepare for the big “race,” depending on what your goals are. The main thing is to enter the race feeling confident in your own success and having all the skills that would allow you to win.

Remember Aesop’s fable of The Tortoise and The Hare? Both were in a race, and the hare dashed off to an incredible start. He became complacent, and even arrogant to the point where he took a nap, thinking that he could wake up and still beat the tortoise. When the hare woke up, he dashed as fast as he could to the finish line only to find the tortoise celebrating victory.

As an entrepreneur, you may feel a bit intimated by your competition when they seem to have an explosive start, just like the hare. However, my mentor told me that there is one principle anyone can follow if you want to win anything, including beating your competition who may have more experience and higher skill level than you. That principle is consistency.

There are many entrepreneurs who start off explosively. They seem to taste a lot of success early on and may sometimes brag about their accomplishments, which could frustrate their competitors who may not have had such a strong start. For whatever reason, however, they may lose their intensity and commitment after a while. Meanwhile, the other entrepreneurs, who may not have had a strong start, would start catching up and eventual overtake the guy who had the explosive start, just like how the tortoise overtook the hare. The main discipline they practiced was consistency.

Inconsistency is one major killer of dreams, and it’s perhaps the main reason why many people fail to achieve their goals.

The tendency of trying to please others is a nature that we humans are born with, grow with, live with and die with.

Most of us come to a point in our lives when we question why we are doing what we are doing, and many of us come to realize that we may be living our lives in an effort to make others happy.

I just realized that, and i think i will borrow a quote from Raymond Hull “He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away”.

This weekend I plan to please myself … do things for I and I alone.

Looking across business(es) today, I observed that all i think of doing is out there in the market?

A friend suggested this four steps which has really made my day.
Here it is:

find
(a) simple solutions
(b) to overlooked problems
(c) that actually need to be solved, and
(d) deliver them as informally as possible,
(e) starting with a very crude version 1, then
(f) iterating rapidly.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to observe the daily habits of highly successful people across different industries. Although there are several habits that successful people incorporate into their lives, there are three that stand out that they practice consistently.

One of the habits of highly successful people is being decisive and action oriented. They think very carefully, make decisions quickly, and discipline themselves to take action and carry out decisions. If they make a mistake, they correct themselves and try something else. Successful people try different ways of doing things, and eventually find the right way of doing things at the right time. Unsuccessful people are indecisive, and have no will power to make any decisions. They settle for far less than what is truly possible. However, when successful people are action oriented, they move a lot quicker and can get more things accomplished in the day. They tape into a higher source of energy, which propels them towards their goals much faster.

Another habit of successful people is they never allow failure as an option. Failure itself is not an obstacle to success, but rather the fear of failure. This may cause people to not take any action. Successful people see failure as a way to make them stronger and more determined. Unsuccessful people fear failure, and allow this fear to paralyze them or hold them back. Successful people take calculated risks in the direction of their goals to achieve greater rewards. When faced with a risky situation, they assess the worst possible scenario, and then they do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening. Successful people face this fear and take action. By facing fears, they become more courageous and feel they can conquer anything. So despite any problems or difficulties, successful people never allow failure as an option.

Finally, successful people are persistent and have a strong sense of determination. They program their subconscious mind for persistence in advance of experiencing setbacks and disappointments in their quest for success. They make this resolve to never give up no matter what. When successful people experience ups and downs, they are psychologically prepared for the downs in life because they have already programmed persistence into their subconscious mind. They have the will power to stay in the game for as long as possible until they achieve their goal. Successful people understand that life is a test, and they are constantly given pop quizzes through experiencing setbacks and difficulties. They learn how to ace that test through being persistent even when confronted with difficulty, setback or crisis in life. They respond to these situations in a positive manner, so they become stronger and will always find a way to get around their problems.

As key habits, successful people know to take action, overcome their fear of failure, and never give up. They never complain, and always do what it takes to achieve their goals.

Written by Kris de Leon

So what separates the winners from the losers? It’s having the winner’s edge. It’s the little difference that makes all the difference in the world and separates people from the rest of the pact. The winners take the potential they were born with and live up to that potential. The winners make things happen, while losers simply let things happen. The winner’s edge lies in your attitude. The sharpness of that edge will all depend on whether your attitude is positive or negative.

So what do the winners have that the rest of the field lack? First, the winners feel that they deserve to win in advance. They feel they have potential that is worth the investment. When they take that first step, they spend time in getting the necessary education and training in that area. Although they start off clumsy and awkward, winners don’t let that stop them because they have instilled the belief that they deserve to win.

The winners have laser-sharp focus on their goals, while losers don’t even set goals in the first place. They also expect the best, and are optimistic and have faith in the future. The power of expectation is so great, that whatever you expect in your mind, it will materialize. If you expect nothing but failure, you get failure. If you expect success, you get success. Optimism is an important ingredient in the winner. They expect the best and plan for the worst.

Winners also know they need to visualize in order to materialize. Imagination plus internalization equals realization. The mind is the most incredible motion picture ever invented. What you visualize inside your mind will be materialized on the outside. Olympic athletes often visualize their perfect race or competition even before it starts. The successful salesman visualizes his presentation even before it happens. The Oscar winner visualizes his or her acceptance speech even before performing in the movie.

Winners practice to perfection. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Rather, it’s only perfect practice that makes perfect. Rehearsal and training are important. You remember what you learned. You don’t try to do it, but you recall how to do it after endless training and preparation. Winners recall what they’ve done, and pre-call what they haven’t done yet. Imagination brings things from the past to the present. The mind can’t tell the difference from what you vividly imagine and what is reality. Everything you internalize over time becomes reality.

Finally, the winners persevere through rejection. Rejection to them means target correction, or learning experience. Failure is a detour, not a dead end. Unless they persevere, all the training in the world won’t help them unless they hang in there when the going gets tough. Successful people are comfortable with failure. Failure helps them understand that you win some and lose some.

Do you have the winner’s edge? It’s a competitive world out there, so check yourself against what the winner’s have, and soon you will separate yourself from the rest of the pact.

orignally written by kris de leon.

For any business to grow and be healthy, the founder has to trust in other people. Most successful business that we hear of such as the Dangote group, all put some faith in the people they do business with. Earlier on, i thought the way to get things done was to do it my self… far from it I have learnt that for me to grow expotentially which I dream of I must trust people to always do their own part.

Try trust people you walk with more and see the difference it makes.

Every time i think of something new to do, the thought of failing haunts me.
While most people certainly start a business with a big goal in mind, the true value or outcome of our actions can point us toward the path of failure, i have tried many ideas or would i say business(es), jumping from one to another at the slightest hint of failure in that venture.

The last day of the first half of 2010, still wondering what have i done right and what did i do wrong that made my ideas to be just dream.. i’m still worried about failing ..guess i will reach forth and re try all that seems not to work in the first half of this year.

Always remember that success comes with a significant amount of failure.

If you want to take that quantum leap towards achieving your goals, a great way to do so is to fuel your passion. Passion is what separates champions from the rest of the field, and can keep you going for the long term. Passion is what drives you to get you closer to your goals. If you’re about to undertake a major goal, make sure you follow these four things that will help fuel your passion.

1) Passion should be tied to ownership. If you’re going to achieve a goal, make sure it’s your own goal, and not somebody else’s. Otherwise, you won’t feel like doing whatever it takes to get to that goal. However, if it’s the goal you set for yourself, you will feel more compelled to reach your goals.

2) Passion is fuelled when you take accountability for reaching your goals. Shared goals take people further than goals that are unshared. Make sure you have a mentor who shares your goals. Your mentor will have your best interest in heart and will invest the time to hold you accountable to your goal. For a mastermind group, and brainstorm ideas on how you can get closer to your goal.

3) You will feel the driving passion if your goal is noble or significant. In other words, people will feel more passionate if their goal will affect other people in a positive way. In addition, they will feel more passionate if by achieving their goals, they will help others directly or indirectly reach their goals. These people will be driven by purpose.

4) Passion is fuelled by fun. People sometimes forget that it’s OK to have fun while reaching your goals. We often feel stressed and under pressure to reach and achieve goals. However, take the pressure off and enjoy the tasks at hand that will get you to your goal. Why do the work if you’re not having fun in the first place? It should be enjoyable, and if you’re having fun while you’re working, you’ll continue to fuel that passion and get closer to your goal.