"You don't have to be good to start, but you have to start to be good."
Jeff Herring
"I think that whenever soul is present, it’s because what you’re doing, whom you’re with, where you are, evokes love without your thinking about it. You are totally absorbed in the place or person or event, without ego and without judgment." -- Jean Shinoda Bolen
"Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments."
Samuel Johnson
"No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined."
~Harry E. Fosdick
Self-discipline and self-motivation are joined at the hip. Why is that? When you practice self-discipline you feel like you are in control of your life. You feel content and motivated because you're moving toward your goals.
Brian Tracy is one of America's leading authors on the development of human potential. He said this..."If I had to pick the #1 key to success, it would be...self-discipline. It is the difference in winning or losing; between greatness and mediocrity."
Today, I'd like to share Brian's introduction in The Power of Discipline...7 Ways It Can Change Your Life. Enjoy!
Introduction from The Power of Discipline
By Brian Tracy
The Power of Discipline
Why are some people more successful than others? Why do some people make more money, live happier lives and accomplish much more in the same number of years than the great majority?
I started out in life with few advantages. I did not graduate from high school. I worked at menial jobs. I had limited education, limited skills and a limited future.
And then I began asking, "Why are some people more successful than others?" This question changed my life.
Over the years, I have read thousands of books and articles on the subjects of success and achievement. It seems that the reasons for these accomplishments have been discussed and written about for more than two thousand years, in every conceivable way. One quality that most philosophers, teachers and experts agree on is the importance of self-discipline. As Al Tomsik summarized it years ago, "Success is tons of discipline."
Some years ago, I attended a conference in Washington. It was the lunch break and I was eating at a nearby food fair. The area was crowded and I sat down at the last open table by myself, even though it was a table for four.
A few minutes later, an older gentleman and a younger woman who was his assistant came along carrying trays of food, obviously looking for a place to sit.
With plenty of room at my table, I immediately arose and invited the older gentleman to join me. He was hesitant, but I insisted. Finally, thanking me as he sat down, we began to chat over lunch.
It turned out that his name was Kop Kopmeyer. As it happened, I immediately knew who he was. He was a legend in the field of success and achievement. Kop Kopmeyer had written four large books, each of which contained 250 success principles that he had derived from more than fifty years of research and study. I had read all four books from cover to cover, more than once.
After we had chatted for awhile, I asked him the question that many people in this situation would ask, "Of all the one thousand success principles that you have discovered, which do you think is the most important?"
He smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye, as if he had been asked this question many times, and replied, without hesitating, "The most important success principle of all was stated by Thomas Huxley many years ago. He said, "Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."
He went on to say, "There are 999 other success principles that I have found in my reading and experience, but without self-discipline, none of them work."
Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you, and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity.
In the pages ahead I will describe seven areas of your life where the practice of self-discipline will be key to your success. These areas include goals, character, time management, personal health, money, courage and responsibility. It is my hope that you'll find a few "nuggets" that will help make your dreams come true.
To learn more or look inside the book, just click here.
"You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don't have that kind of feeling for what it is you're doing, you'll stop at the first giant hurdle."
-- George Lucas
In this movie the Argentine, Verónica de Andrés explores the link between love, fear and success.
Why do we use fear? And what happens when fear meets love?
"As a holistic being you shatter the illusion of your separateness and reveal your connection to everything. This empowers you in a way that the ego-driven self could never contemplate."
-- Wayne Dyer
"Imagine a hot tub for the mind. That is what meditation is; it can bathe your mind in relaxing thoughts."
-- Eknath Easwaran
The Fence
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said “you have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.” You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. Make sure you control your temper the next time you are tempted to say something you will regret later.
- Author Unknown
"It's only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are without any self-deception or illusion, that a light will develop out of events by which the path to success may be recognized." I Ching
Naked, undiluted reality can be a harsh or even bitter foe in confronting the conditions and challenges of our everyday life. On a global level, wars, natural disasters, disease, famine, political turmoil and terrorism can "take a toll on our soul" as we search for meaning by asking "why" things have to be this way.
On a personal level, the economy, our financial circumstance, illness, moments of family trials and turmoil and even routine disappointments can cause us to seek an escape to a better "reality" through fantasy, distraction, or simple denial.
I've shucked and ducked "reality" more times than I care to share or admit, even to myself. It's a human reaction but it doesn't have to be our only mechanism for maintaining our mental sanity and emotional stability.
"Reality" can also be a joyous recognition and embodiment of the beauty that surrounds our everyday existence-love, kindness, caring, sharing, and the opportunity for growth and achievement. The chance to make the world and the reality in which we live a better place. The opportunity to pursue our passions and our personal bliss.
Both realities exists within us and within the world. Our ability to shift our attention to what we focus on is an important coping mechanism or even an element to change our perception of the reality of "what is."
But before we can find our way in the world that exists and create a true and lasting reality in our lives we want-we must first face "what is" before moving onto what could and can be.
Looking only at the "good" while ignoring the "bad" might be a formula for short-term pleasure and pacification. Lasting happiness and meaning, however, can only come through recognizing the full reality in which we are while moving toward what reality we'd rather have and accept.
Subjective reality allows us to make sense of and give meaning to what already exists or what's already happened. We can make up our mind to be happy, to be positive, and to focus only on the "good" we see in the world. However, a made up mind is often blind-that same "positive" subjectiveness can often confine us to tolerating things only as they "are" while ignoring other possibilities as to what they could be.
Ayn Rand is quoted as saying, "We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality."
Objective reality is the ability to observe not only what was, what is, and what will be if we're willing to shine "our light" on the path to success as we define it. It means we have the courage not to ignore that which we don't want to see or to face. It means we're open to other possibilities and perceptions about what's going on in the world, in our lives, and within ourselves.
"Transformation begins with a willingness to let go of who and what we were."
Spike Humer
We can only change ourselves and the world through impartial and unprejudiced thinking separating what "is" from what and how we'd like things to be. Seek out dissenting opinions and differing perspectives about reality as you see it. Challenge your assumptions and beliefs by searching for contrasting conversations and counterexamples.
Let's be clear-I'm not advocating we argue for our "limitations" and liabilities. On the contrary; I am encouraging everyone to be an advocate of their own potentials and possibilities through an unbiased eye seeing what we have to do different in order to be different and have different.
It takes courage to be a "realist" but it doesn't mean we can't be visionaries and creators of our future and new realities.
It simply begins with looking into our own eyes and heart and saying, "here's where I am, here's what exists, here's what I want instead, and here's what I'm willing to do to change it"- STARTING NOW
Author: Spike Humer ... He's been the "go-to" guy for scores of individuals and business-owners around the world. Thousands of companies, organizations, and people looking for new growth and profitability for their businesses and increases in their personal success have turned to Spike and his advice through his programs, group mentoring, and personal consultations. His proprietary systems for generating new profits and his results-proven advice have been sought after by success-seeking people in over thirty countries.
Blog: http://www.spikehumer.com/
Business:
http://www.smallbusinessbreakthroughs.com
http://www.the10dayturnaroundbook.com
Personal:
http://onlinebusinessbreakthroughs.com/
