Posted 5/28/2002 by Josh Hinds

Finding Your Niche in Life
By Suzanne Falter-Barns

Have you ever felt like the life you are living is not the one you originally had in mind? Back when you were a kid, there might have been other things you thought you were going to be, like a Broadway diva or a country doc. That was before so-called reality hit, back when the only voice you listened to was your own.

Fast forward to today. If you're like most of us, you lost track of those dreams and ideas some time ago. Other factors came into play, like earning a living, the impossibility of going back to school, or the queasy fear of looking stupid.

You might have even heard your parents in the background, quietly chanting. "Get a good job, honey. You need the security." "You expect too much from life!!" "Who said work was supposed to be fun?"

In her book, Losing Your Parents, Finding Your Self (Hyperion), Victoria Secunda interviewed 94 men and women who had lost at least one parent about the impact their parents' death had on their lives. What she found was that after that parent's death, 50% of the respondents changed their career -- and 69% of that group did so as a direct result of the death. The reason? Respondents no longer had to worry about pleasing or displeasing that parent. "The credit, or blame, for their success and failures fell almost entirely on their own shoulders," says Secunda.

When we begin to listen to our own voice, and throw off all those other helpful ones in our head, life really starts to make sense. Not only do the wheels of progress finally turn in the direction we want, but we begin to put more and more credence in that small, lesser known part of ourselves that is the seat of both our vulnerability and our power. This is the place where our creativity, our imagination, and our own unique 'I-ness' really lives. It's also the place we operate from when we're truly connecting with others.

Having the courage to live up to your own ideals is truly refreshing. When you move from thinking about it to actually doing it, you are amazed by the flow and the ease with which you can suddenly operate. You may also be struck by how long you waited to finally get on with the real joy in life. Getting there, however, can be the hard part, because it all begins with awareness. Often those voices in our heads,
whether they belong to parents, well-meaning friends, former bosses, spouses, or even nosy neighbors, may have been playing so long and so loudly we can't even hear them.

Emme, one of the world's top plus-size model, grew up listening to the abusive voice of the man her mother married when she was 5. At age 12, he instructed her to strip down to her underwear, then circled in indelible magic marker all the places on her body where she needed to lose weight. Even though she'd tried to scrub them off, her next trip to the local pool was a humiliating nightmare. "After that," she told an interviewer, "I didn't allow myself to feel ... Finally I went into therapy and said, 'I'm angry. I need to find out why.'" Emme's work with a therapist gave her a fuller understanding of the influences she'd been spending a lifetime silently wrestling with -- voices she has since moved beyond in her work as a model, and role model, for plus size women everywhere.

Ultimately, unplugging all those inner know-it-alls rests on nothing more than your desire to be who were you always intended to be in the first place. Are you willing to rise above everyone else's agenda for you, and carve out the niche that is rightfully yours? Are you willing to let go of what others will think, and honor your greater self instead? Are you willing to be known as the tremendous, quirky soul that you are?

Perhaps the best example of this is Roger the Jester, a wonderful, original performer based near Great Barrington, Massachusetts. After unsuccessful stabs at psychology and photojournalism, Roger landed on jesting by asking himself what he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing. "What I really liked was making people laugh, and goofing off. Once I got booked for a show and they told me, 'We'd just like you to carry on.' Well, that's what my mother used to yell at me -- 'Will you stop carrying on?' And now, here I was, carrying on and getting paid for it."

Take a moment right now to complete the following questions in a journal or notebook. They will help you clear the many voices in your head, so you and your niche can emerge...

I would complete my dream, except that my father
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When I think of my dream, I think of my mother
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Everyone keeps telling me
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I don't pursue my dreams because
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The truth about my dreams is that
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If I could truly do anything I wanted to in life, I would
__________________________________________________

Now write down a list of everyone in your life you truly does honor your own, unique spirit. This is your new list of voices -- be sure to ask for their support when the going gets rough. And then, of course, listen.
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Suzanne Falter-Barns is President of howmuchjoy.com, an inspiring resource for anyone with a dream to pursue. Suzanne is the author of How Much Joy Can You Stand? A Creative Guide To Facing Your Fears and Making Your Dreams Come True -- Visit her site at www.howmuchjoy.com

Posted 5/21/2002 by Josh Hinds

The Power In Praising People
by Chris Widener

One of the keys to success is to have successful relationships. We are not islands and we don't get to the top by ourselves. And one of the key ways to grow successful in our relationships is to be "life-giving" people to others. Every person we meet, we either give life to or take life from. You know what I mean. There are people who encourage you and when you are done being with them you feel built up. Then there are others who you feel torn down by. Successful people are people who have mastered the art of building others up.

One of the ways we build people up is to praise them. There is power in praising people! Something begins to happen in them, in you, and in your relationship when you praise someone. Remember a time when someone told you something about yourself in a praising manner? It was great, wasn't it? You probably liked that person more after they praised you, didn't you?

Now I am not talking about praising people for the sake of praising people. I am talking about honestly looking for and praising positive character traits and action of others around you. Don't lie to people. If they have done something wrong, correct it, but when they do something right, Praise it!

With that said, here are benefits of and ways to start praising people.

Benefits

Your relationship grows. Life is about relationships. Family relationships, friends, and co-workers. When we begin to praise people for their positive aspects, our relationships grow. It puts them, and us, on the fast track.

Your leadership and influence grows. Who is going to have greater leadership and influence capacity in the lives of their followers, the one who tears down or the one who builds up?

Stronger relationships and loyalty. When the person is appreciated and praised, they become fiercely loyal, because they know that you care for them, love them, and appreciate them. This will take you to success.

Happier, more fulfilled people. I truly believe it is our job to build others up and that they need it. It is a good thing, in and of itself to invest in the lives of others by praising and encouraging them. Even if we never get anything in return, it is the right thing to do to build up other people. Someone else will always come along to tear them down; the successful person will instill in them the power of praise!

Some ways to praise

Character traits. Is there someone you know who is joyful? Hard-working? Honest? Then let them know how much you appreciate that in them. You can do it with a word or a card, or a phone call. Say something like this, "You know Tom, I think it is great that you are such a hard-worker. It seems like you are always the first one here and the last one to leave. You really set a good example and I want you to know how much I appreciate that." Simple!

Action.

Same idea as above. "Sue, I don't know if anybody else has told you this, but your work on the Johnson account was excellent. You have a wonderful ability to communicate the vision of the project and that helps all of the rest of us out in our roles and tasks. Thanks for that. It is greatly appreciated."

Other ways you can show praise and appreciation is with a card, a gift, or time off from work.

Make it your goal to praise at least five people a day. If you can, praise ten people a day. Or perhaps you can try to praise everyone you come in contact with. It will take work but it is possible. It just takes discipline and a little work.

Any way you cut it though, there is power in praising people. First for them, then for you!
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Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of Made for Success, a company helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. Visit MadeForSuccess.com

Posted 5/12/2002 by Josh Hinds

Building Your Business, Protecting Your Business, & Leading Your Business
By Loral L. Langemeier

Building your own Business is the all American Dream. Small business owners are growing in number every day, every month, every year. Unfortunately, few are built to endure the economic impacts, marketing & sales challenges, staffing issues, growth cycles, and more.

In December of 2000 businesses were thriving and making unprecedented profits. January 2001 - What happened? Economic downturn of the stock market, the fall-out of the dot com industries, then 9/11 collapsed many businesses and finally the Enron scandal. Many businesses were not built to sustain the impacts of the past 15 months while others are making great profits.

What is the difference between the business that took significant losses or even went out of business versus those who are thriving? I am going to suggest that the following three components of business development are firmly in place for those businesses still producing profits:

* Vision and Leadership of the business
* Strategies and Systems of which the business was built
* Protection and Structure of the business

Vision & Leadership

In working with companies of all sizes we find those who have a compelling vision that is clearly communicated to the entire team are able to sustain change more effectively than those without a vision. A vision must include words that elicit emotions that paint a clear picture of your primary aim. This vision will pace your team, partners, vendors and those who interact with your business.

Action Step: Write down your Business Vision; clearly define what your business will be like 2 years from now. How many employees will it take to achieve your vision, what is the organizational chart, what is the gross revenues, net profits, and who is the wealth team of advisors that will support and hold you accountable.

Leadership is many times overlooked in business building. Even a sole proprietor who currently has no employees must provide leadership of the vision and strategies to all those they interact with on a regular basis. Leadership is a capacity issue; many people have a hard enough time leading themselves much less "future pacing" a team of people to "want" to work toward a common vision.

Leadership requires the desire to learn, self-manage and the capacity to move toward a clear vision.

Action Step: Do a self-critique of your leadership. What do you need to start doing, stop doing and continue doing? Then ask 6-8 people closest to you to provide you the same feedback. Set a leadership action plan in place - review the same process in 6 months - record your changes.

Strategies & Systems

Businesses with strategies that are focused on profitability and operational excellence will continue to thrive. Strategies aligned to meet current market needs i.e. our company did not do public seminars prior to January 2001 as we had so many private companies booking our financial & business educational programs.

Given the reduction in training budgets we shifted to public seminars to attract new clientele. Your business strategy must continually be updated and include marketing messages that appeal to your target markets given current conditions. The product or service can be the same yet the offering and the messaging must flex to stay on a cutting edge.

As important as strategies are - systems are equally critical for Building Your Business. No matter what size of company you have the following are some of the systems that must be in place for consistent growth of your company:

* Accounting & Finance Systems
* Client Management Systems
* Marketing Systems
* Sales Systems
* People Systems

As you build your business, the first systems to put into place are the accounting processes and the client management systems. Of the thousands of clients that we coached these are overlooked in start-ups for months.

Action Step: Write out clearly defined strategies that align to your vision. What are the systems that are in place currently? What systems do you need to implement to make you more effective?

Protecting Your Business

Appropriate protection of your business is an area overlooked by most businesses we work with on a daily basis. Corporate structures are designed for three primary purposes:

* Protection of Assets
* Minimize Taxes
* Maximize Privacy

Every business will benefit from entity structuring and each company is like a fingerprint in that it has unique features. The types of entities include: a) Limited Liability Companies b) Limited Partnerships c) Chapter S Corporations d) C Corporations. Additionally, the consideration of a Trust for overall protection of your assets is critical.

Many of our clients will put these entities in place and find that their current team of corporate professionals will not agree; for example upon incorporating our clients will find that their CPA is not agreeable and will challenge the tax strategies.

Action Step: Consult a professional about your current entity structure. Interview a minimum of three people about your business situation.
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Building your business, protecting your business and leading your business are key to success. If your business is a sole proprietorship (for now), or if you have team of 5 or a team of 100 - your capacity to grow and meet the economic demands year to year is essential. Loral Langemeier is the CEO and Founder of Choice Performance & Live Out Loud. She specializes in entrepreneurial development, finance and investment seminars, coaching and products. For more information or a FREE "Building Your Business" coaching session, please contact Loral at 1-888-262-2402 or email loral@choiceperformance.com or visit http://choiceperformance.com

Posted 5/11/2002 by Josh Hinds

Take Three Specific Actions
By Andrew Wood

I have made it a life-long habit to do at least three things every day [no matter how small each is] that move me forward. These are listed in the top right hand corner of my day planner. On this list are a group of simple actions or goals for the day that when completed will move me closer to my quest.

It might be sending out a thank-you letter, thereby building a relationship. It might be making a phone call to a specific client either to sell something or to develop rapport. It might be to design an ad, write two pages of a new book, or call the library to get information. The tasks change every day; the only thing that does not change is my resolve to accomplish at least three of them each and every day.

Every one of them is positive. Every one of them makes me feel good for having done it and it will make you feel good as well. Every one of them can be done in a relatively short amount of time. That means every week I cross at least 21 items off a to-do list. Now you know why I?m always in such a good mood! I even cross them off with a red pen, it?s a power color, and a powerful feeling.

And, if for any reason I do not get these three items done, and those days are rare indeed, then the ones I did not complete get added on to the next day?s total.

Winston Churchill once said, "There are plenty of good ideas if only they can be backed with the power of action." Although goals and strategies are very important, the greatest plans in the world won?t amount to a hill of beans without action. Virgil understood this many centuries ago when he said, "Fortune favors the bold."

No matter where you stand in your business, career or life [and no matter what challenges you now face] when you make the conscious decision to become a person of action [rather than being indecisive] you instantly turn the tide of life in your favor.

Often, if you are mentally ready for action, opportunities will present themselves in the most unusual ways, and you will find yourself involved in new and interesting endeavors. Action has a way of increasing opportunity, while procrastination and inaction always inhibit success. As Benjamin Disraeli said, "Action does not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action."
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The Millionaires Library author, Andrew Wood, is recognized worldwide as a business, marketing, leadership, and personal development expert. He is the author of The Millionaires Library, which delivers you the essence of knowledge from over 1000 business, sales, marketing, leadership, and personal development books in a single powerful set. Visit through the following link.

Posted 5/06/2002 by Josh Hinds

Jim Rohn 'LIVE' in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Miami!

Take advantage of this rare opportunity to see America's Foremost Business Philosopher "live" in New Orleans on May 7, Irvine or Los Angeles on May 8 or 9 and in Ft. Lauderdale or Miami on June 12 or 13.

For more information or to Order Tickets Online, click here and go to Seminar Schedule.

Posted 5/05/2002 by Josh Hinds

One Small Step To Greatness
By Andrew Wood

Astronaut Neil Armstrong took perhaps the most famous step in history in July of 1969, as he took his first slow and awkward step off the Lunar Module. In doing so he became the first man to walk on the surface of the moon. There he made his brief but immortal speech, "One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind".

That day the world’s attention was on Armstrong as he took those first faltering steps across the surface of the moon, but think for a moment about what steps went into getting him to that point.

From the time that President Kennedy announced the goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade, can you even begin to comprehend the number of steps that had to be taken? To take a man a half a million miles from the planet earth and safely back again? (And you thought you had a long commute!)


It may have only been a quarter of a million miles to get to the moon, but they probably took 90 million steps to go from the drawing board to the moon. And yet they did it. People just like you and me, working together, took enough small steps to actually put a man on the moon. If they could put a man on the moon, surely you can take a few simple steps to make your life all that you want it to be. (And if things go wrong, at least you won’t be stranded on the moon, where there is no AAA to help get you home.) No, your risks are smaller. But your rewards can be just as large!

With SMART goals in place, deadlines set, intermediate steps identified along the way, and your action plan complete. That leaves just one thing between you and victory. Action!

Where many people go wrong in trying to reach their goals is in constantly looking for the big hit, the home run, the magic answer that suddenly transforms their dreams into reality. The problem is that the big hit never comes without a great deal of little hits first. Success in most things comes not from some gigantic stroke of fate, but from simple, incremental progress.

You have to crawl before you walk, you have to walk before you run, you have to run before you ride a bike, you have to ride a bike before you drive a car. You get the idea. And if you’re Neil Armstrong, you have to fly a few planes before you get to land an Apollo spacecraft on the moon.

Now, for example, take the cure of any disease. One day some lab technician or scientist suddenly comes up with a cure for Polio; it’s heralded as an amazing breakthrough, a great discovery (which of course it is) but while the media make it sound like it all happened in the lab last night, we know instinctively that it didn’t.

Instead, a team of many dedicated people have spent months, years and perhaps even decades trying different combinations of drugs to find the one unique combination that works. (This is the only case where experimenting with drugs is considered a good thing.) Each combination that does not produce the desired result is viewed not so much as a failure, rather another way that has been found that need not be pursued. Eventually, after thousands of experiments [often with just tiny changes from one to the next] the goal is reached .

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m as excited as the next guy about finding some magic answer to my challenges. And in the same way that people win the lottery, I know that there is a chance that I might figure out some get-rich-quick plan. If I do, I promise I’ll let you know about it. But in the mean time, I’ve disciplined myself to spend no more than 20% of my energy on the big hit while the other 80% is directed on a simple, logical step-by-step plan for success.

The truth of the matter is that most of us know what we should be doing to make progress towards our goals. The real question is, are we doing it?
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The Millionaires Library author, Andrew Wood, is recognized worldwide as a business, marketing, leadership, and personal development expert. He is the author of The Millionaires Library, which delivers you the essence of knowledge from over 1000 business, sales, marketing, leadership, and personal development books in a single powerful set. Visit through the following link.

Posted 5/02/2002 by Josh Hinds

I mention a lot about the value of having a mentor, and the positive effects it can have both professionally and personally with regards to your achievement -- so when I ran across the following list of "Resources for Mentor Seekers" from Inc.com's e-zine, I wanted to share it here.. Hopefully you'll find it useful... Josh Hinds :-)

Posted 5/01/2002 by Josh Hinds

ONE OF LIFE'S GREAT LESSONS - LEARN TO BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE
by Jim Rohn (excerpted from the New Jim Rohn Weekend Event DVD/CD series)

Is thankfulness a survival skill? Perhaps most of you would respond with, "No, Jim, thankfulness is not key to survival," and I would tend to agree with you. Most of us have probably already solved the necessary problems of survival, gone beyond that and are now working to achieve our desires. But let me give you this key phrase, "Learn to be thankful for what you already have, while you pursue all that you want." I believe one of the greatest and perhaps one of the simplest lessons in life we can learn is to be thankful for what we have already received and accomplished.

Both the years and the experiences have brought me here to where I stand today, but it is the thankfulness that opened the windows of opportunities, of blessings, of unique experiences to flow my way. My gratitude starts with my parents who raised me, gave me an incredible foundation that has lasted me all of these years and continues with the mentors that I've met along the way who absolutely changed and revolutionized my life, my income, my bank account, my future. I am also very thankful for the people, the associations, for the ideas, for the chance to work and labor, and to produce results, all of that has brought me to this place, to this weekend. I'm grateful for it all.

What a unique opportunity each one of you here has, so many of us; representing different countries, nations and cultures, to appreciate the uniqueness of our own experiences that has brought us all here, together, for these three days to learn new skills and sharpen old ones. For the countries we represent; we have freedom and liberty. These are extraordinary times, about eleven years ago the walls came tumbling down, in Germany, and it started a wave of democracy and freedom like the world has never seen before. We as a country and as a world have so much to be thankful for. Always start with thanksgiving; be thankful for what you already have and see the miracles that come from this one simple act.

Now thankfulness is just the beginning; next, you've got to challenge yourself to produce. Produce more ideas than you need for yourself so you can share and give your ideas away. That is called fruitfulness and abundance. Here's what I think fruitfulness and abundance mean - to go to work on producing more than you need for yourself so you can begin blessing others, blessing your nation and blessing your enterprise. Once abundance starts to come, once someone becomes incredibly productive, it's amazing what the numbers turn out to be. But to begin this incredible process of blessing, it often starts with the act of thanksgiving and gratitude, being thankful for what you already have and for what you've already done. Begin the act of thanksgiving today and watch the miracles flow your way.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
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This article was submitted by Jim Rohn, America's Foremost Business Philosopher. Copyright © 1999, 2002 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved worldwide. To subscribe to the Free Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine click here!