YOUR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Your Personal Development is committed to helping members grow both
personally and professionally by consistently applying time proven
principles and ideas in areas such as time management, leadership,
communication, sales, investment, marketing and goal setting from
many of today's recognized authorities on success.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"Nothing is more powerful for your future than being a gatherer of good ideas and information. That's called doing your homework."
Jim Rohn
So learn to master good ideas, have good plans, handle the assing of time and solve problems, and you will be on your way to more success than you could ever imagine!
THE MIRACLE OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
One day Mr. Shoaff said, "Jim, if you want to be wealthy and happy, learn this lesson well: Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
Since that time I've been working on my own personal development. And I must admit that this has been the most challenging assignment of all. This business of personal development lasts a lifetime.
You see, what you become is far more important than what you get. The important question to ask on the job is not, "What am I getting?" Instead, you should ask, "What am I becoming?" Getting and becoming are like Siamese twins: What you become directly influences what you get. Think of it this way: Most of what you have today you have attracted by becoming the person you are today.
I've also found that income rarely exceeds personal development. Sometimes income takes a lucky jump, but unless you learn to handle the responsibilities that come with it, it will usually shrink back to the amount you can handle.
If someone hands you a million dollars, you'd better hurry up and become a millionaire. A very rich man once said, “If you took all the money in the world and divided it equally among everybody, it would soon be back in the same pockets it was before.”
It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal development. So here's the great axiom of life: ’To Have More Than You've Got, Become More Than You Are’
Until then, this is where you should focus most of your attention. Otherwise, you just might have to contend with the axiom of not changing, which is: ‘Unless You Change How You Are, You'll Always Have What You've Got’
OVERCOMING PROCRASTINATION
By Dr. Denis Waitley
The science of physics recognizes two kinds of inertia - both of which can be related to procrastination. The first law states, "Standing objects tend to remain stationary." The second law is the inverse: "Moving objects tend to stay in motion." Procrastination is stationary inertia. We aren't moving, and we therefore don't move!
Procrastination overcome, however, moves us into the arena where the law of motion takes over. We frequently find that once we've started a project or process, we stay with it until completion. One of my favorite sayings from my friend Dr. Robert Schuller is posted on my word processor: "Beginning is Half Done!" (I've modified it to say, "Beginning is Half Won!")
Here are seven techniques to overcome procrastination:
1. Take five minutes to identify what you are putting off. On a blank sheet of paper, note several important activities that you realize you are delaying or have put on hold.
2. Look at your list of tasks and do one of them right now. Put the energy you've been directing toward excuses into the activity you've been avoiding. You'll discover that action eliminates anxiety.
3. If getting started is the hard part for you, set a designated time slot in the day to work on the list. Set aside thirty minutes of your lunch hour for work specifically on one job, project, or personal goal that you've been avoiding or find difficult to start.
4. Don't worry about perfection. What counts is quality of effort, not perfect results. Don't let yourself get bogged down with a preoccupation for perfectionism.
5. If what you are putting off involves other people, consult with them. Your reasons for delaying action may be imaginary. Lack of communication often turns molehills into mountains.
6. If you fear the consequences associated with the action you've been avoiding, ask yourself, What's the worst thing that could happen If I did this today? The worst-case scenario most likely would be a minor inconvenience or a temporary setback.
7. Finally, Vividly picture how you'll feel once the task is done. Freedom from anxiety. Freedom from nagging pressures. Freedom from self-doubt. Accomplishing put-off tasks will give you a great boost of confidence and energy!
Ground breaking requires TNT. To blast your way out of apathy and overcoming procrastination. Remember what TNT means: Today! Not Tomorrow!
SKILLS MAKE LABOUR MORE VALUABLE
by Charlie Byrne
We need the skills to help build our family's dreams, the skills to stir up an enterprise and make it successful. We need skills to build equities for the future. We need skills of all kinds.
How about this - skillful language. If you just talk to your family you can hold them all together, but if you skillfully talk to your children you can help them build dreams for the future. You can't be lazy in language - it costs too much. What if you meant to say "what's troubling you?" and instead you said "what's wrong with you?". Wow, that's too big a mistake. And sure you could have made that mistake 10 years ago, but not now. You should have gotten much better by now in language and communication.
Skills multiply labor by two, by five, by ten, by fifty, by one hundred times. Hey, you can chop a tree down with a hammer but it takes about 30 days, called labor. But if you trade the hammer in for an ax, you can chop the tree down in about 30 minutes. What's the difference in 30 days and 30 minutes? Skills. Skills made the difference.
So do what you can - labor. But also do the best that you can do – improved skills. And you will find that the labor combined with skills will start producing miracles. Miracles with your money, miracles with your family and miracles in every part of your life.
Creating Opportunity
An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.
To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. It's to be skilled enough, confident enough, creative enough and disciplined enough to seize opportunities that present themselves...regardless of the economy.
A person with an enterprising attitude says, "Find out what you can before action is taken." Do your homework. Do the research. Be prepared. Be resourceful. Do all you can in preparation of what's to come.
Enterprising people always see the future in the present. Enterprising people always find a way to take advantage of a situation, not be burdened by it. And enterprising people aren't lazy. They don't wait for opportunities to come to them, they go after the opportunities. Enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working toward your ambition.
Enterprise is two things. The first is creativity. You need creativity to see what's out there and to shape it to your advantage. You need creativity to look at the world a little differently. You need creativity to take a different approach, to be different.
What goes hand-in-hand with the creativity of enterprise is the second requirement: the courage to be creative. You need courage to see things differently, courage to go against the crowd, courage to take a different approach, courage to stand alone if you have to, courage to choose activity over inactivity.
And lastly, being enterprising doesn't just relate to the ability to make money. Being enterprising also means feeling good enough about yourself, having enough self worth to want to seek advantages and opportunities that will make a difference in your future. And by doing so you will increase your confidence, your courage, your creativity and your self-worth – your enterprising nature.
Fellow CASU members, this is for your success
