April 2007

MARK'S DAILY THOUGHTS: April 2007

2007-04-01 - Seek Out New Challenges
People with passion will accomplish great things. However, how do they keep that passion alive? It is by seeking out new challenges that drives their passion to stay at high levels. If your passion is low, why not seek out some new challenges to keep your passion alive.

2007-04-02 - What is your Dominant Thought?
They say you are what you think about. So, if that is true, what is your dominant thought each day? To be successful in life, your dominant thought should be on your most important goals. Successful people's dominant thoughts are always on their most important goals (and not on anything else).

2007-04-03 - Reasons Come First, Answers Come Second
Whenever you make goals for yourself, always think of the reasons why you want to achieve those goals first; then think about the answers (on how to reach them). Powerful reasons will drive you to see the right answers.

2007-04-04 - Impress Upon, Not Just to Impress
There are many people who try to impress others with their talents and abilities, and usually are just trying to feed their egos. However, the people with real power set a goal to impress upon. They want to set a good example and be a great role model. Their goal is to impress upon others, versus just to impress.

2007-04-05 - Don't Suffer from Possibility Blindness
Some people wouldn't see a possibility if it was staring them in the face. They have possibility blindness. These people have such a negative attitude and mindset that possibilities and opportunities that come their way are never seen. Remember, a positive attitude prevents possibility blindness, and suddenly you see opportunities everywhere.

2007-04-06 - Performance = Potential - Interference
A great way to look at performance is that it is potential minus interference. We all have potential well beyond what we are currently achieving, and it is the interference (our own limiting beliefs and the circumstances that creates) that gets in our way. By changing your beliefs, you begin to create the circumstances for greater performance. You begin using your full potential as the interference just melts away.

2007-04-07 - Image is not a Constant
Your image to others is not a constant. Just like your opinions of your favourite restaurant or hotel changes with the service you get each time, so does your image to others. Your image to others is based upon how you interact with them and how you do what you said you would do. Always strive to put your very best image forward in everything you do.

2007-04-08 - Live by What You Believe vs What You Feel
Successful people start off each day believing that they will do well in whatever they do that day. They might not always feel their best (either physically or mentally), but that belief in their success is always there. Develop the belief in yourself and then live by it.

2007-04-09 - We Don't Ask for Enough
Most people don't get all they can out of life because they are constantly playing it safe. You know, you can never get what you don't ask for. So, if you want more, you have to ask for more. However, the more you ask for, the stronger your personal development needs to be in order to become the type of person who can get it.

2007-04-10 - Help Others Think Things Through
One of the best things a leader can do is to help his or her people think things through. When a leader helps their people see the answer in themselves, two things happen: 1) The people get the confidence that they can do it again - maybe by themselves next time, and 2) They know they have the support of the leader - who helped them think it through.

2007-04-11 - Apply & Share your Learnings
There are two ways to have what you learn become part of you (i.e. really understanding it well). One way is to think about how you could apply the learning to your own life. This links the learning right away to action. Another way is to share with others what you have learned. This helps you to understand the learning better as well. They say: When one teaches, two learns. Remember to both apply & share your learnings.

2007-04-12 - The Greatest Risk is to Play it Safe
People who take risks in their lives often look unstable to others. Others think that it is better to make safe choices and not take the risks. However, the risk takers are the ones who create their own success and become financially independent. Often, the greatest risk is to play it safe.

2007-04-13 - Do It
Emerson said, "Do the thing and you will have power." It's true. The power is in the doing. For something that you have been thinking about for a while, why not take an action today (however small that action may be). Real personal power comes from taking ACTION.

2007-04-14 - Are You willing to be Different?
Look at most successful people and all of them have broken away from the masses and tried something different. Often when people do this, they face many challenges early on. Unsuccessful people decide that these challenges are too difficult and stop. Successful people find ways to address the challenges and keep moving forward. Are you willing to be different?

2007-04-15 - Wake Up your Potential
Everyone has enormous potential inside them. Why do some choose to use it and others do not? The ones who use their potential develop a passion and focus that wakes up the potential inside them. What's your passion? Bring a focus to that passion and you will wake up the potential that is inside you.

2007-04-16 - As Good as the People Around You
Look at many of today's business or government leaders and you will notice something interesting. Very often these leaders are as good (effective) as the people around them. Great leaders all have one trait in common. They are great at picking people for their team.

2007-04-17 - The Language of Every Loser - "I'll Try"
The best way to spot a loser is to listen for the words "I'll Try". Think about it! "I'll Try" is never showing others a commitment, and nothing happens unless we make a commitment. Never give others the impression you are a loser and replace "I'll Try " with "I Will".

2007-04-18 - When You Get There, Act Like You Belong
Our beliefs are sometimes the only thing that stands in our way. We don't go after bigger challenges because "inside" we think we are not good enough. Starting thinking from today that you can do it, and when you get there; act like you belong.

2007-04-19 - Recognition Appeals to the Ego
You sometimes see this in people. Too much recognition early on in their success appeals too much to their ego. What happens is they stop doing the learning and preparation that brought them their success to begin with, and their performance slows down. Watch how you treat recognition.

2007-04-20 - Go Ask People How They Got There
A simple thing to do to increase your success is something most people never attempt. The truly successful people never did it on their own, and went to other successful people and asked how they go there. They found out the "habits" of success. Why not offer to buy lunch for successful people you know and ask them the key habits and actions that got them where they are today.

2007-04-21 - How much of You is in the Game?
A great question to ask yourself is "How much of me is in the game?" Too often we go through life as just going through the motions, without really being engaged in what we are doing. Basically, you get out of life what you put into it. The more of you in the game of life, the more the game goes your way.

2007-04-22 - Manage your Life, or your Life Manages You
Too many people today let their life manage them. They let others and circumstances drive what they feel and do in their lives, and usually because they do not have goals that could guide them to make the right choices on how they could use their time. Do you have goals that could help you make the right choices, or are you letting your life manage you?

2007-04-23 - Your Network Creates your Net Worth
Charlie "Tremendous" Jones always said that you will be the same 5 years from now except for two things: 1) the books you read and 2) the people you meet. The people you meet (your network) are the ones who will help you grow and point out the opportunities for your success. You could say that your Network will help grow your Net Worth. What is the quality of your network (i.e. the people you are meeting)?

2007-04-24 - All the Skills of Success are Learnable
What's interesting is the way unsuccessful people often think that successful people were just lucky. Success really didn't come from luck. It came from the discipline the successful people had that enabled them to learn all the skills of success. Build the discipline in you to learn those skills too.

2007-04-25 - The Challenge is in Doing, not Knowing
Today, the Internet can provide you information on just about anything. However, the value you bring to the world is not based on what you know, but what you do. When learning anything new, always ask yourself how you could put that knowledge to good use (into ACTION).

2007-04-26 - Is this the Simplest Way to Do it?
We all tend to make things more complicated than they need to be. A good question to ask ourselves in everything we do is: "Is this the simplest way to do it?" Resist the temptation to make things more sophisticated, as this usually means that you are making it more complex, but not with dramatically better results. Remind yourself to keep things simple.

2007-04-27 - A Strategy's Power: What You Say "No" To
There is a great way to understand how powerful your strategy is. It is not on what you say "yes" to, but what you say "no" to. A strategy's goal is to guide the choices of where a leader applies his or her resources. With opportunities hitting us every day, a strategy's power comes from saying "no" to the good in order to say "yes" to the best.

2007-04-28 - Reminding Ourselves of our Full Potential
We tend to focus on others and how they could use their full potential more, and often forget to remind ourselves of our own potential. A great definition of success is achieving a worthy goal that utilises our full potential. Remind yourself of your full potential and you will set goals and take action to make more use of it.

2007-04-29 - Balance of Urgency and Patience
The greatest balance in life is to manage the balance between urgency and patience. Most of the time a sense of urgency is best. However, there are times when having a little patience pays off in the long run. Remember, success comes from the right balance of urgency and patience.

2007-04-30 - If You only had Half the Time
There's a great concept to use in getting work done we don't like to do is to. Think "How would I do it if I only had half the time to do it in?" This helps us to get creative on how we can do the task faster and in a different way. When you get creative on doing the things you don't like to do, you gain more time for those things you really like to do.

March 2007 « » May 2007

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