It's Your Choice

One of the great equalizers in life is the fact that every person has one thing that everyone else has.  The power of choice. This ability to make choices is so powerful that it can make or break a person so great care must be exercised in using it. You can choose what kind of day that you are going to have, what kind of person you will be among other things. One thing everyone must be aware of is that we live or die by the choices we make. The ability to choose is what sets us apart from other living beings. The ability to choose is based on free will and the ability to think and decide for ourselves which is also a part of personal freedom.  When the freedom of choice is taken away or we perceive that it has we do not like that and we feel like our freedom has been taken away.  In order to achieve success and live the life you desire it is very important to become much better at making choices. 

1. Become More Informed
It is very important to become as informed as you can in the area that you must make a choice.  Whether that be deciding whom to marry, choosing between job offers, etc.  The more information you have the better equipped you in making the right choice. There are many ways to get the information needed such as books, the internet, etc.

2.  Seek Counsel
It is often very wise to seek counsel from people in your life whom you can trust and also have life experience.  They can help you see the situation from a different perspective that you may not have considered.  You can not speak to just anyone because they may not have your best interest at heart.  People that you seek counsel from not only need to have wisdom but they need to have a certain level of success in their lives as well.

3.  Learn How to Trust You Instincts
Your instincts, if used correctly, can take you a long way in making the most of the power of choice.  Many times we ignore what or instincts are telling us and we end up saying, "Something told me to."  Take the time to learn you inner voice by spending quiet time listening, in prayer or meditation. 

4.  Own Your Choices
When making choices you must own them.  In owning your choices you must take the good with the bad and most importantly you must learn from the mistakes of making the wrong choice. If making a particular choice comes with some negatives aspects but are out weighed by the positives learn to be satisfied and take the negatives in stride. 

The power of choice is one of the things all humans have in common and is a great equalizer.  In order to live the best life possible learning how to become better at making choices is the key to not only to success.  Unfortunately, we are not going to hit a home run with every choice we make but it is very crucial to learn from our mistakes and to own the choices we make. 

Right Place, Right Time

I have often wondered why certain people end up being successful and why others don't.  This has been a puzzle for me for the last few years.  I have seen people do everything that is required for success such as graduating from college and working hard but still not find success.  So if doing everything required doesn't guarantee success then what does?  After years of studying successful people I have found that they were in the right place at the right time to take advantage of an idea or opportunity.  Trying to do something at the wrong time in the wrong place often leads to the failure of achieving success.  Sometimes people experience failure at trying to start a business or some other venture at the wrong time or place to end up achieving success later down the road.  Failure is feedback and will help to propel you forward if you are willing to learn the lessons it provides.  What is interesting is that not only being in the right place at the right time a key ingredient to success but knowing how to recognize it when you are there.   There are many people who missed out on opportunities or being with their soul mates because they did not recognize the right place and right time.  In order to recognize the right place and right time for opportunities it is important to become in tune with your surroundings.  It is not enough to just be there but you must learn to pay attention to what is going on around you or to put it another way learn to gauge the atmosphere.  Intuition plays a big part in this.  My mother often said to me that it is important to pay attention to what your gut is telling you.  How often have you said to yourself, "Something told me...."  That is your gut.  Your intuition must be paired with your knowledge and experience in order for you to get the most impact.  I believe that everyone has the ability to this but it is often ignored because we either expect things to be easier than what they are.  Hard work is still very important.  I believe that learning to recognize opportunities is a spiritual concept. Learn how to quiet your mind and learning how to focus your thoughts or meditate.  Many people are focused on their outside influences that they never stop to look within and listen to their inner voice.  Then learn how your inner voice (gut) sounds and learn how to trust what it says.  Also prepare yourself for what ever your goal is because if the opportunity arises at the right place and time and you are not prepared it will not feel very good to see it pass you by.  Being in the right place at the right time is a very important key to success but you have to recognize when it is upon you.  Investing in yourself and learning how to follow your intuition will go a long way to getting you where to go.

Change What you Can, Your Perspective

There are many things in life that we do not have control over and just can not change.  Unfortunately, that is just a fact of life that we all have to come to grips with and although, there are many things out of our control we are empowered to change the things we do have control over.  There is one area that is probably the biggest thing you can change that will have a profound effect on your life which is your perspective. The beautiful thing about life is that everyone sees it from a different perspective and therefore interprets the same experience differently. This adds diversity to the world and this can be seen through art, music and other avenues of creativity.  There are times when we can see things in a negative light and it prevents us from finding a creative solution or recognizing the good in a situation.  When this happens progress can stall and if we dwell there long enough depression can set in.  Learning to see things different is a skill that takes time to learn but once you get a feel for it the same life that you live will become entirely new.  Here are some steps to changing your perspective:

1.  Think Positive:  The analogy of seeing the glass half full or seeing half empty is a great example of positivity.  Positive people tend to be more successful and attract more opportunities for success due to the fact that they are more open to it mentally.  In the case of negative people they look for reasons for things not to succeed and therefore attract failure.

2.  Speak Positively:  Be careful to use words that are positive more in your every day speaking.  This will not only have an effect on your life but on others as well.  Of course you do have to recognize when things are not going right or when you experience bad things bit the goal is not to stay there any longer than you have too.  Your words are a gateway into your thinking and will expose you as being a positive or negative thinker. 

3.   Embrace Problems:  We are conditioned to think that problems are a bad thing and so we go to any length to avoid them.  Problems in and of themselves are not a bad thing.  A problem that presents itself is showing that what you were doing is not working and that should cause you to think more creatively. 

Things do often happen that are out of our control but we can control how we see those events and how they affect our lives.  By learning how to change our perspective we can experience life in a totally different way and as a result attract more opportunities for success in all facets of our lives. 

Tame Your Mind and Release the Dragon

The other day I was helping my fifth grade son with his math homework and every time it looked like he understood the work whenever he tried the next problem it seemed like he never learned the mathematical concept.  What should have taken no more than thirty minutes to complete ended up taking four hours and a lot of frustration.  Fortunately for me, being an educator, I knew exactly how to show him what he needed to do and we got through it.  My son has always been very bright and has done well in school until recently.  It is not that he lacks intelligence or talent to become a successful student, but he has an uncontrolled mind.

"A man without an organized system of thought will always be at the mercy of a man who has one." — Edwin Louis Cole.

How many people  have big dreams to do wonderful and incredible things, but never manage to make those dreams become reality.  I believe one of the reasons most people never achieve their dreams are due to having an uncontrolled mind.  The key to achieving any kind of success is learning how to tame your mind. When your thinking process is brought under control you can then begin to create wonderful ideas and bring them to completion.  When a person creates and idea and is not thought through to completion the idea is not worth anything.  A fact that most people are not aware of is that thinking is a skill that is taught and not caught and so as a result there are many people who do not have control of their minds.  There are several ways to develop the ability to think in an organized fashion.  Some ways are reading books on a variety of subjects, playing an instrument, learning a technical skill such as how to build things for home improvement projects and games such as solitaire.  Once an uncontrolled mind is tamed it can then be released to be a creative and powerful force because we are not held back by others, but we are held back by our thinking.

Know What You Don't Like

Finding that place in your life where you are doing what you want to do and are successful at it can be tough.  Especially when you hear or read about someone who is successful and they just enjoy what they do so much.  Quite often people will live their lives in a reactive fashion and end up taking jobs out of necessity with the results being that they are miserable.  The key to avoiding this pitfall is to do what you are passionate about and as you may have heard when you do what you love it is not work.  But how do you find out what you love and are passionate about? 

A good place to start with is to find out what you do not like.  Doing this will help you to eliminate things you are not willing to do and help you to focus on finding your passion.  For example, if you are looking at working with children as a passion you can look at the age groups you know for sure that you do not want to work with.  You can also look at subjects, grade levels, setting and many other things to eliminate.  When you discover these non-negotiable things you know what to avoid because wouldn't it be such a waste of time to prepare for something you do not like?  Here is one thing to keep in mind.  Sometimes you might have to do what you do not like in order to do what you do like.  There are times when sacrifices have to be made in order to get to where you want to be.  It might mean going back to school even though you hate school to get the required credentials or you may be at the right company but have to work hours that you do not like until the right moment comes along.  This is where having a vision or a goal in place will keep you motivated in doing what you need to do.  At the end of the day in order to be happy and do what you love find out what you like and what you do not like.  Then focus on getting rid of what you do not like so you can focus on what you like. 

Managing a Negative Environment

We have all heard people say that it is important to surround yourself with the right people if you are looking at becoming successful.  This is absolutely true!  You must find people who are like minded, positive, and creative people who are either where you want to be or are going to where you want to be.  This would be a wonderful scenario if it were a perfect world.  The fact of the matter is that we have people in our lives that we cannot easily jettison because they may be siblings, a spouse, parent or even our boss.  The key is to learn how to navigate our path to success even with negative people in our lives.  Here are some tips on how to do this:

1.  Learn how to encourage yourself-   It is important to learn how to speak positively to yourself in spite of any negative influences.  You can to keep a daily journal where you can actually keep track of  your inner conversation.

2.  Stay focused on your vision-  By keeping your eye on the prize, your vision, this will help to keep you motivated.  Post your vision where you can see it constantly.

3.  Read, Read, Read-  By immersing yourself in books you will always find someone who can motivate you to achieve your dream. 

4.  Learn how to handle negative people-  The problem with negativity is that it is contagious.  It is important to know that people negative views are theirs and theirs alone unless you buy into it.  Listen but do not take ownership and do not try to change their view point.  Remember that negative people are people too and it is more to them than their negativity.

While it would be nice if we could distance ourselves from everyone that does not add to our lives in a positive way, in reality it is just not possible.  Negative people are people as well and are more than their negativity and in reality negativity is driving by some type of fear.  Love them anyways but remember that if you are going to reach for success you have to keep your eye on the prize.

The Reward for a Vision

If we all were willing to admit the issues of life can become overwhelming at times.  These experiences can make us want to give up at times or they can cause us to take our focus from our goals we are trying to accomplish and instead place it on the issue at hand.  The issues of life cannot be avoided because they can be compared to storms since sooner or latter a storm will come.  The key thing to remember is that storms do not last always!  Knowing this it is so important to keep your vision first and foremost so that you do not lose sight of what you are working towards.  A vision will motivate you and keep you encouraged even through difficult times.  The reward for the vision is seeing become reality.

Experiencing Growth Pain

As a parent it is always interesting to see your children grow and go through all of the stages of development.  Some of it is amusing to experience while some of it can be down right painful.  I remember experiencing growth pains in my legs as I grew taller.  It was not all that enjoyable because I did not understand the reason for the pain until my mother explained to me what was happening.  I can also remember the emotional growth pains I experienced wanting to be my own person and making my own decisions.  Although we are now adults we still experience growth pains.  Growth is a constant in life and if we ever stop growing we start to experience death and with growth there sometimes comes pain. This pain has a purpose and when we realize this we can begin to focus on the end result instead of the discomfort.  Many people often give up during the growth process because the pain and discomfort is too much to bear which is a travesty because many times the finished line was very close.  Learning how to endure to the end is key to allowing the growth process to work because life is a long distance race and not a sprint.  Focus on your vision and most of all never lose hope and keep the faith. 

Living Big: Vertical Living

Have you ever had the feeling that there was more to life than what it is?  If you are like me you have.  The feeling of dissatisfaction and knowing that you were meant for more.  Most people settle into the routine of living linear lives which is graduating from high school, maybe go to college, get a job, get married, have kids and retire.  For most living a linear life is reality and the measure of success but the problem with this mindset is that it is so easy to run into disappointment.  In order for the linear life to work everything has to go perfectly.  There have been so many who have faced disappointment due to unexpected things in life happening such as serious illness, death of a loved one, losing a job and many other things that can mess up the plan.  Linear living works for some and that is great but isn't there much more to life other than the predicable? 

On the other hand, living big opens the door to living a life of satisfaction.  Living big requires a different way of thinking which is vertical living which can provide a much more satisfied life.  The vertical life doesn't require you to meet certain goals in order to be successful and it also makes allowances for the unexpected things life.  Vertical living requires you to dream big, live by faith and take bold steps because the measure of success is you reaching your potential rather than completing general goals set for everyone.  The major difference between the linear life and the vertical life is that the linear life focuses on you alone.  The vertical life not only allows you to focus on you but it will also change other lives as well because in order for you to reach your potential you are helping someone else.    What is so amazing about fruit trees is that they do not exist just for themselves.  From one seed comes a tree that produces fruit for years and years and it provides food for the life in its habitat.  Vertical living will cause you to understand that everything you do is not just for you but also for others.  So your marriage, your career, and everything you do is also for others because our lives are interconnected.  So vertical living is about finding your purpose and in doing so you reach your potential.  Then what you have to offer others will add significantly to others lives and just like a fruit tree you are giving more than you take but you will always have more than what you need.

Character Key of the Day: Being Prepared

Many of us are looking for the right opportunity to come along hoping that it will bring success along with it.  Opportunities present themselves in life every day and we really do not have to look to hard to find them.  The key is knowing when to recognize opportunities and most importantly being prepared for them.  It really makes no sense to come across an opportunity for success and not be able to seize it because you were not prepared for it.  Preparing means that you have to invest in yourself through reading, taking courses, networking and whatever else is required.  In preparing for opportunities when they come you will be able to recognize them when you see them. 

It is Better to Give than to Receive

In our society we mostly look for what can benefit us or get us ahead because we think of that as a part of success.  What is it that actually gets us ahead in life?  It is actually a simple answer but a complicated thing to do.  The answer is giving.   Anyone who has become wealthy or has obtained any type of success is really due to what they have to give.  It really does not matter what arena you are in it is a matter of giving something that is worth something of value to someone else.  When you come to understand this and also understand the fact that we are all interconnected you can begin to find success.  The key then is to have something of value that adds to others lives where they benefit from it rather than you.  Success for you then becomes a natural by-product rather than the end goal.   The statement, "It is better to give than receive, " takes on a whole new meaning.  To give something of value that adds to others lives requires that you have to be invested in whatever it is that you give to others.  What you want for yourself  is going to be what you want for others.  Not giving because you want to do a good deed so that you can feel good about yourself or any other motivation.  That is when success becomes a by-product of what you offer rather than the goal.  This will be true whether you are in business or any other venture.  The law of reciprocity then takes effect in a totally different way because you begin to get for yourself what you wanted for others.  So remember it is always better to give than to receive.

Adjust Your Aim

When I went through Army Basic Training one of the major things we had to learn as recruits was how to fire a weapon.  We learned that your weapon is your number one tool as a soldier so we learned not only how to use it but also how to take of it.  I remember firing my weapon for the first time and not hitting the target so I had to adjust my aim. This meant that I had to adjust the sight and windage.  After doing that I was able to hit the target and go on to qualify as a marksman.  When we are not achieving the results we want in life or relationships sometimes all we have to do is adjust our aim.  Many times we want to start over but is that really necessary?  Adjusting your aim can mean adjusting your attitude.  Do you have a positive attitude or is there some negativity there? Adjusting your actions can mean you may have to do something different such as getting up earlier or whatever is required to get the results you are looking for.  Adjusting your expectations may mean you have to refine them by seeing if he ar realistic or if they need to be more specific.  This is especially true of relationships.  People will often have unrealistic expectations which leads to relationships going from good to bad.  Look to adjust your aim so that you can begin to hit what you are looking to achieve.

Character Key of the Day: Determination

When things seem like they are not going well it is very important to maintain your determination to succeed.  Keeping your eye on your vision is what will carry you though any difficulty that may be present.  Look at your vision for success, whatever it may be, as a marathon and stay in the race.

What You See Is What You Get

In order to get to where you are going in your life it is always important to see first what you want to become.  That is why,  "What you see is what you get."  This can be accomplished in several different ways and with the internet it is even easier.  Volunteering in areas of interest is always a great place to start.  This will put you in contact with people in that particular field or area of interest and you have the opportunity to get first hand experience.  Finding a mentor gives you the opportunity to ask questions and get advice on the steps you would need to take to get to where you want to be.  Having a mentor also gives you the chance to see a person who is successful in that field and they can also be a role model as well.  Using websites such as Youtube can give you some exposure in seeing what you would like to become.  As they say seeing is believing and seeing what you want to become modeled for you gives you to ability to really start to believe that you can accomplish your goal as well as achieve success because you have seen it done.  So what you see is what you get.

Character Key of the Day: Enjoy Life

It is very important that you learn to enjoy life.  To enjoy every moment of life whether it is the good,the bad and the ugly, enjoying every step of the way. It is so important to enjoy the entire ride because at the end of the day life is about the memories you make.  Trouble doesn't last always so it there is no reason to dwell on it.  Get the lessons that you can out of the difficulties and just enjoy the ride and remember that you will be able to look back on those times and laugh.  Enjoy!

Remove the Limits

What most people are not aware of is the fact that they allow others to create their world for them.  They live life based on goals that others set and what others say must be followed in order to have a happy and successful life.  The fact of the matter is that we are a copy cat society and will often follow after others blindly without really thinking about our own beliefs and values.  You will never become more than what you believe.  In order to find true success we must break through the limits that others have set and most importantly the limits we have set on ourselves.  Here are some key points to help break through the limits on your life:

1.  Change your perspective-  How you view your life, situation, etc. will determine just how successful you will go.  Begin to look for the possibilities instead of the roadblocks to your success.  Begin to train yourself to become optimistic and finding the good instead of looking for the worst thing to happen.  Learn to never go by what the situation looks like.

2.  Pour into yourself- We often pray and ask for opportunities to come our way but the key is to be ready for those opportunities.  So it is important to improve yourself through reading books, taking classes or whatever it takes for you to be prepared.  This is a sacrifice but pouring into yourself is the best investment that you can make.

3.  Develop a plan-  It is great to have a desire to be successful but without a plan you will go no where.  To develop a plan means that you have to put thought and effort into the success you desire.  This plan must be written done so that it goes from being just a thought to something achievable.

4.  Building your character-  Who you are is what you attract.  People often survive on personality which is who what want others to see.  The problem with this is sooner or later personality gives way to your character in challenging situations.  Your character is who you are when no one else is looking or more specifically it is you and what you think about.  When you have developed a strong and noble character others will see that regardless of the situation and you will begin to attract good things to you.

5.  Failure is not a bad thing-  Failure is a part of life and everyone at some point has dealt with some level of failure.  Failure is a tool that provides us with feedback on what we did.  Learn to look at failed situations and begin to look for useful information that you can use to have success.  Sometimes all you have to do is adjust your aim.

Character Key of the Day

What kind of people do you attract to you?  Who you are as a person is who you will attract to you daily in your interpersonal relationships.  Doing self inventory and working on your character flaws will change who you attract to you which also cause those in your life who negative to separate from you.

Character Key of the Day

Realize that you are not an employee but a business owner and you contract your services to the company to provide work they could not do themselves. Once you come to this realization you will discover just how important you are in what you do. Protect your brand, develop your product (you) and learn to negotiate how much you are paid for your services.

Character Key of the Day

To define their purpose for existence companies have a mission statement. To define your purpose consider developing a mission statement for yourself and for your family.

Success is Within You!

Everyone is born with everything they need to be successful in life.  We all do not have the same gifts and talents but we all have what we need to achieve and succeed.  Each person's unique experience will have a profound affect on which direction they choose to go as well as parental guidance and role models.  Our job as individuals is to locate the key to unlock the door of the hidden potential in our lives.  This requires deep soul searching into ourselves.   Many people do not invest a lot of time into getting to know themselves and discover who they really are.  In doing this is where we find the key and achieve success.  From there we must constantly invest in ourselves in order to reach our potential and fulfill our destiny.

Stop All the Worry

Worry can block you from achieving goals or breakthroughs in you life.  When you worry about things you are actually starting to believe that bad things that could possibly happen are true even though they have not happened.  Worry is based on fear which is the opposite of faith.  It is very important to train yourself to be as optimistic as possible and to also realize that even if the worst could happen it is not the end of the world.  Sprinters are trained to never look back during the race because it will cause them to slow down and lose the race.  The same is true in life.  Never look back at the things that worry you because it will cause you to lose focus and momentum.  Remember that faith is believing  that you goal or vision will become reality.

The Move to Life Satisfaction and Independence

Most people never become successful in life because they focus more on consuming things rather than creating things. We must learn how to create things of value that we can offer rather than just consuming the things others create and control.