Focus & Commitment

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” ~ Carlos Castaneda

The Anti-Hedge

The explorer Hernando Cortes landed on the shores of Veracruz, Mexico in 1519 with the intent of securing more land for Spain. Faced with the prospect of disease, a powerful and forbidding enemy, and resources which made the expedition look like a long shot ordered his officers to return to the beach and “Burn the Ships”... Confronting the overwhelming odds and the psyche of his men, he did the only logical thing possible, eliminate any alternative to victory. Retreat and a safe passage home was no longer an option.

Seneca the Younger, the Roman stoic philosopher said, “To Be Everywhere is to Be Nowhere”. In other

words, the mind and its incredible faculties won’t play ball at 99%, it knows 100% and will engage

accordingly.

You stuck at a plateau?

Burn the Ships

HOW MUCH IS YOUR TIME WORTH

Time is a fixed income and, as with any income, the real problem facing most of us is how to live successfully within our daily allotment. - Margaret B. Johnstone

We all know the old familiar phrase that "Time is money." Think about that for a minute (the time it will take you to read this) and consider how much money that minute may make you.

Whether you are a business owner, company manager, or entrepreneur, every minute of your day is spent performing either revenue producing activities or non-revenue producing activities.

A revenue producing activity is an activity that generates revenue from a fee charged for the sale of goods or services. A non-revenue producing activity is an activity that would be considered general and administrative.

Take an inventory of your day and you may be shocked to find how much potential income you are letting slip through the hourglass. There are many things you can do to leverage revenue producing activities and streamline non-revenue generating ones.

The first step is to identify all your daily activities, and assign them a degree of importance. There are many non-revenue producing activities that are essential, but that doesn't necessarily mean you need to be the one to do them. Or, that they can't be streamlined in some way.

Next, think outside the box. Brainstorm ways to increase your profitability by increasing the time spent on revenue producing activities in your day. Get perspective from your employees and a fresh set of eyes.

Third, implement a plan! To quote Henry Ford, "It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste time."

By the way, this doesn't apply to just business. Take the same inventory of your personal life and determine which activities are profiting you and your family and which ones are not. After all, no one at the end of his life, has ever wished they spent more time at work!

Wishing you an exponential return on your time in 2010!

The Things We See

"Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.” Meditations By Marcus Aurelius

We all know we are not supposed to be negative right? That if we are negative we’ll see negative. If we see the posItive, same thing. Blah, blah, blah. Yada, yada, yada.

Here’s the science behind why (and the reason so many self help gurus have a made a fortune) - Its just simple science, folks.

The Reticular Activating System or (RAS) is the part of the reticular formation in your brain-stem. The purpose of this little miracle is to filter out the trillions of messages, signals and stimuli we encounter each and every day. In short, it prevents sensory overload. Too much stimuli and we melt down. Too little and were bored. This keeps us in check and has much to do with what we focus on.

How about a little Reticular Activating System experiment?

Think about one of your knees and focus on the little fibers from your clothing touching your knee? Feel it? Were you aware of it before? Try it with your arms, shoulders.....an amazing amount of stimuli at play.

Focus on everything that’s BROWN in your room/wherever you are. Lots of brown, huh? Now try it with RED. Same result?

In short, we see (and respond physically and emotionally) to what we focus our attention on.

Challenge this Week: For 24 hours, focus exclusively on the positive....see what happens. Oh and here is the good news, the Reticular Activating System, yeah, it can be trained.

Here’s to science....... *raises coffee cup*

Alive Pt. 4

"Most people take the limits of their vision to be the limits of the world. A few do not. Join them." - Arthur Schopenhauer

Johann Wolfgang von Goeth, "Desire is the presentiment of our inner abilities, and the forerunner of our ultimate accomplishments."

The progressive killing of the soul, passion, desire, and the muting of the one thing you want to do with your existence first began with our obsession of “normal”, “accepted”, “conventional”, “safe”, “praised”, “popular”. For some its become so dominant that your desire, your passion, your individual giftedness is completely lost. Why do you think children dream so vividly and wildly?

What might have happened had the “greats” succumbed to convention?

Mozart chose to be a blacksmith

Einstein accepted his teachers’ description of “learning disabled”

Lincoln had not silenced the critics and became a farmer

Jesus chose not to confront the religious status quo

Martin Luther King accepted his lot and stayed in the pulpit

Ghandi did what was popular

Columbus listened to his critics

These individuals were all deemed either “crazy”, “insane”, “unreasonable”, “naive”, “unsafe”, “abnormal” and “unpopular” - They became known as geniuses only after they reached acclaim.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Envy is ignorance. Imitation is suicide.” & “A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.”

Ayn Rand, “Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven, but not those who lack the courage of their own greatness.”

Marcus Aurelius reminds us not to worry about the opinion of other people who don’t even have a good opinion of themselves! He tells us: “The approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him.” & “You should banish any thoughts of how you may appear to others.”

Seneca, “Away with the world’s opinion of you, it’s always unsettled and divided.”

Mark Twain, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

What might happen if you just ran your own race? Some do

Alive Pt. 3

"Most people take the limits of their vision to be the limits of the world. A few do not. Join them." - Arthur Schopenhauer

Bestselling author Robin Sharma once made a rockin’ observation, “Wear your passion on your sleeve. They might call you different or weird or even crazy. But please remember, every great leader (or visionary or brave thinker) was initially laughed at. Now they are revered.”

Dial down on what makes you come alive and ignore the naysayers (both the internal ones and external ones).

“Here’s to the Crazy Ones”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USn5t5nQWU8&feature=related

The following is the transcript of the video above.....

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Alive Pt. 2

"Don't Ask Yourself What the World Needs, Ask Yourself What Makes You Come Alive And Go Do That....Because

What The World Needs Are Men And Women Who Have Come ALIVE!" - John Eldredge

Abraham Maslow, the chap most of us pondered in college conducted some interesting research on the highest achievers in history (e.g., Albert Schweitzer Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt) in an attempt to determine the common characteristics that makes the “successful” exactly that...“Successful.”

From this work, Dr. Maslow went on to create his conception of “Self Actualization” in his now famous, “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”. He admonished his readers: “If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.”

In a similar work, a Dutch psychologist attempted to determine the difference between Chess Masters and Grand Chess Masters - so he conducted a battery of tests on them - IQ test, Spatial Reasoning. He found no testing difference between them. The only differentiator discovered was that Grand Chess Masters had a greater commitment and love for the game. PASSION IS EVERYTHING. The most significant predictor of success is a strong passion and heart for the work. Aptitude or ability is great, but it doesn’t hold a candle to a love and passion for what you do.

To repeat Maslow, “If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.”

Seems that one burning thing, desire, will never go away. Nor is advisable...

Alive

"Don't Ask Yourself What the World Needs, Ask Yourself What Makes You Come Alive And Go Do That....Because What The World Needs Are Men And Women Who Have Come ALIVE!" - John Eldredge

Charles Garfield, author of “Peak Performance”, documents ground breaking research on top performers. In his work, he studied N.A.S.A. astronauts, Olympic athletes in hopes of discovering what a makes a “GREAT PERFORMER” and the necessary prerequisites for success.

Garfield discovered the most significant predictor of success is a strong passion and heart for the work, their vocation. It is far more important than aptitude or ability.

Passion, enjoyment, and being ALIVE in your practice is a far better predictor of success than ability or experience.

What is it that you are passionate about and makes you come alive? Find a way to make a living doing that and according to our friend Charles Garfield, you may just dig the result.

Going into 2010, How Do You Make A Living Doing What You Love and Makes You Come Alive?