All About Success

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Are You Afraid Of Success?



















Seeing only problems – how do you use your focus? Do you constantly see only and all the problems involved? If you are this way inclined it is pointless trying to change overnight! However, you can use this mindset to your advantage while you strive in your personal development to acquire an opportunistic frame of mind instead.

“How can you use seeing only problems to my advantage?” you say. “Easily”, is my reply! Look at the problems and prepare a plan to deal with them. Every time you overcome one congratulate yourself. Use them as a gauge for your achievements.




Success Posters

Are You Living The Successful Life You Want?







1. Already A Success





If not, how can you be?



2. Blocking Change








3. Once A Body Is In Motion . . .

Science tells us it is likely to keep in motion.









4. Repeating Habits



















· Discover things you may not have even thought of yet.

· Fast track your growth progress.

· Less fear knowing others can and have already done it.


· Less time wasted on indecisiveness and confusion.

· What to visualize for yourself.

· Increase your self-awareness and motivation.

· Improve your positive attitude and self-confidence.



Existing successful people are your greatest resource for what you can and should be doing in order to live the success you desire.

Success Posters

Are You Positive or Negative?

Some years ago, I read a report which described the behavior of a football coach during a very tense finals game. The antics of the losing coach gave a very good insight into why his team did not win and in fact loses many close games.



The winning coach on the other hand “ … sat impassively in the stands. The sign he gave to his players with this emotionless posture was that if the players wanted to win, they had to do it themselves. And they did. Just.”

Both these coaches were very experienced and knowledgeable about the game. Both had got their teams to the finals. But why did one coach’s team always lose the close games and the other always win?

It all has to do with the positive or negative outlook we take and which can dramatically impact those around us. Often we are not aware of the messages we are sending through our actions. Psychologists call this a Locus of Control (first developed by Julian Rotter, 1966). Locus of Control refers to a person’s perception of the main causes of the events in their life.

For example, do you believe that your destiny is controlled by yourself (“I did it myself”) or by external forces such as fate or other people? (“It was their fault”) Put simply, if you believe that your behavior is guided by your personal decisions and efforts, then you are said to be more internally focused, i.e. you have an internal locus of control.

On the other hand, if you believe that your behavior is guided by fate, luck, or other external circumstances, then you are said to have an external locus of control.

Is one better than the other? That’s always the $64,000 question in psychology. But generally, people with an internal locus of control tend to have greater influence on their motivation, expectations, self-esteem, risk-taking behavior, and even on the actual outcome of their actions.

As you would expect, some studies also suggest that people with an internal locus of control tend to be more positive in their behavior and outlook.



The answer is an unequivocal, “Yes”. Many studies have shown that our locus of control is a learned behavior and as such, can be changed. My own experience in working as a coach to club, national and international rowing coaches, is that training coaches by getting them to change their behavior with their athletes, can improve the positive outlook they display within 12 months!


Finally, how does one change one’s locus of control and consequently one’s outlook? There are a number of training programs available that use effective behavioural change methods to help move people from a more external focus to a more internal focus.


For instance, getting rid of the word “don’t” from your vocabulary and replacing it with the positive image of what you are suggesting, starts to make you far more positive in your outlook.


• Don’t drop it.

• Don’t walk on the grass.

• In case of fire do not use lifts.

In the first statement, the only image that comes to mind is the picture of “dropping something” (and quite often the negative consequences of what we have just done and our previous negative experiences of dropping something, particularly when we were children).

The image that the second statement conjures up is of a person “walking on the grass”, not the footpath as the message intends (“footpath” is never mentioned!).

And in the third example, the only thing we can visualize is the “lift”. In fact, studies have shown that when there is a fire emergency and the vestibule or foyer starts to fill with smoke, the only word that people recognize in these types of signs, is “lift” and they immediately head straight for the lift and not the emergency exit as was intended.

As a result, some authorities have now changed their signage to read “In case of fire, use the emergency exit pictured in this diagram” (notice that in this new example the word “lift” is not used at all).

Start to get the picture? Each of the original statements immediately has both the speaker and the receiver visualizing and thinking of exactly the opposite (and negative) action that should be taken.

However, by eliminating the word “don’t” and replacing it with the positive action you intend as outlined below, the speaker starts to think (and behave) more positively and impacts his or her audience more positively, and thus becomes more internally focused.


Hold on to the glass very carefully.

Walk on the footpath.

• In case of fire use the fire exit described in the following diagram.


Can this technique work for you? I did some follow up interviews with the athletes of the rowing coaches I had been training 12 months after the start of their training. Without exception, the athletes all expressed the theme that “She has really changed over the last 12 months.


Is it easy to replace “don’t” with a positive image? In theory, yes. But in my own case, it took me about 12 months. Occasionally, I still find myself using a “don’t”, but when I do, an “alarm bell” goes off in my brain and I immediately rephrase my statement to the positive image I want to get across.

As a result, over the last few years, people have commented to me “Bob, you seem to be such a positive person. Even when you are faced with adversity or a real problem , you always seem to take a positive approach. I really enjoy working with you”.

Success Posters

Attracting Success





What are your dreams?
What are you hopes for the future?
Have you ever written them down?

















Voila ! Success!

Success Posters

Creating Greater Success Through Reflection


Would you be interested?

I’ll bet you would.


The tool is reflection.


In other words, they never really reflected on their work and results and so nothing seems to get better. They don’t seem to learn from their past experiences.


But I’m Too Busy





Other Reasons


We don’t think about it.
We don’t realize the importance of it.
We don’t value it.
We don’t think we know how to do it.



We all know how to reflect, consider . . .


And while some people playing the game don’t like to “over analyze it,” spending that time in conversation about what just happened will make us better card players in the future.





How to Reflect More Effectively



What worked? Why?
What didn’t work? Why?
What does this situation remind you of?
How can I use this experience?





Success Posters

Developing the “Both and” Mindset

Clients often share a situation or challenge with me and as their consultant they ask me to advise them on a course of action. Often during the conversation, the Client will identify two distinctly different courses of action – that may at first seem to be in opposition. The question is basically formatted as an “either or” question – “Should I do A or B?”

Often, my answer is “yes.” After getting a confused look, I explain that the answer lies not in one or the other of the alternatives, but in exploring and doing both. This is what I call “both and” thinking. Collins and Porras in their book Built to Last call it “avoiding the Tyranny of the OR, and embracing the Genius of AND.”

“Either or” thinking is pervasive in our world. Let’s take the example of the common phrase, “black or white.” When we think of black or white, we often try to balance by looking for the “shades of gray” – thinking that in balance or compromise we will find the right solution. This is seldom the most valuable approach. My suggestion is to consider black and white.

That “either or” solution inevitably leads to suboptimal solutions, and under satisfying compromises. Balance is not found in some murky middle ground, but rather by dedicating our focus to both ends of the spectrum.

Black and white.

We can take this concept beyond the philosophical and find specific ways to use “both and” thinking in all parts of our lives. Below is a list of 10 “both and” combinations that will make you a better leader of yourself and others.

Strengths and weaknesses. What we receive feedback, we typically focus on our weaknesses and work to improve in those areas. This is fine, but if all of our effort is focused here, and none is focused on valuing and strengthening our strengths, we are not investing our time and effort in the most effective way. Are there weaknesses to improve? Of course there are. But think too of your strengths and build those.

Timeless and new. New ideas are seductive, and we must be mindful of and willing to move forward with new ideas. But we can’t focus on the new without a bedrock of timeless principles to guide us. History does repeat itself, so when we find the timeless principles in the new ideas; we will gain even greater clarity and create greater progress.

Expert and novice. Have a problem to solve? Consider having an expert help you think it through. Consider also bringing someone in with no prior knowledge or preconceived ideas about the situation. Expert and novice. Both bring value to a problem solving challenge or innovation opportunity.

Inform and listen. Great communicators do more than inform. They also listen. Great communicators are not great because they can do one or the other of these exceptionally well, but because they can do both exceptionally well.

Demanding and supportive. As a leader of ourselves or others we need to be demanding and tough because clear expectations are important and motivating. Results are needed. However, if we drive for the results without supporting people and their feelings, ultimately people won’t reach their true potential.

Goals and serendipity. To succeed at the highest levels we must have a target in mind, a vision, a goal. The most successful people have clear goals and continue to listen for the knock of opportunity. They value the serendipitous moment and meeting, and recognize that in those moments their goals might be adjusted re-prioritized or otherwise change. Simply leaving our lives to serendipity will not create the greatest results. Conversely, remaining it rigidly goal focused, may preclude us from seeing many great opportunities.

Task and process. The work must be done – the task is important. However, thinking of the process, the flow, and how the work is done is equally important. If we solely focus on getting out the work we’ll miss opportunities to improve the process and make it easier, more productive and more enjoyable. On the other hand, if we spend all of our time planning the process, we will never get results. Maintain both a task and process focus.

Strategy and tactics. We must plan. Strategy is important. But we also must take action. Tactics are imperative. The most successful people and leaders value strategy in the context of actionable tactics that moved them towards those strategic ideals.

Customer focus and employee focus. Some organizations feel that the Customer is always right and all work should be done in service for the Customer. Others feel that if they treat their employees right, the Customers will ultimately be satisfied. These are not diametrically opposed ideas. Clearly, Customers and employees are the two most valuable assets any business holds. Focus on them both.

Individual and team. Individual talent, performance and productivity are critical; however individual success cannot trump synergistic collaboration. Work on building individual skills, and empower educate and support teams as well.

I could add to this list, but hopefully you already see the wisdom of “both and” thinking. Chances are, as you begin to value and create this mindset for yourself, you will find more and more of these combinations that you can apply.

The “both and” mindset will help you become more successful and paradoxically create greater clarity and balance in your life. Take the time to think about and nurture this mindset today.

Success Posters

Fake Your Destiny with Great Success


Step 1: Be a Sissy

Being a sissy has nothing to do with physical strength and everything to do with mental strength. I know you want to be successful but you’re too afraid to make a commitment to your dream. You’re scared to take chances. You’re scared to make choices. You want everything to be perfect before you can “take a risk”.

Yeah, right! That day will come when Hell and my mother’s famous spicy hot Sancocho soup freezes (author’s note: my money is on Hell freezing over first).

Nonetheless, don’t do anything until one of the following has occurred: All the stars in the constellation have aligned themselves perfectly, you’ve spotted a once extinct Dodo bird, or someone absolutely guarantees you that you will not fail. Until one of these things are in place, don’t do anything…be a sissy.

Step 2: Listen to Stupid People

Oh, this is one of my favorite. There are two types of people out there: successful and happy. By successful, I mean someone who has a career and is financially secure. By happy I mean someone who has found their “happy place” and enjoys where they’re at in life.

The latter has less do with money, and more do to with life style. Knowing this, here’s the key: never, I mean NEVER listen to successful or happy people. They’ll just make you nauseous with their ideas and strategies for getting what you want out of life.

Instead, listen to friends and family members who are either broke or unhappy. That way if you fail, and chances are that you will, you’ll at a minimum have them for company. And we know that misery loves company. Also if you fail using their advice, you can always blame it on them (See Rule 9 for more details).

Step 3: Wait for Divine Intervention

Yes, another strategy on how to lose your money and fake destiny is to simply wait for the ‘invisible hand’ of fate to pass over you and bless you with immense abundance. Yes, go ahead pray and ask God (whoever and whatever that is to you) to rain down upon you all that you deserve.

Sit back, do nothing and wait for something to great to happen. Yes, your needs far outweigh those of people in other countries who are dying from HIV, hunger, violence, etc. Don’t feel guilty. Make your demand on God and if you’re so inclined, you might want to give Him a deadline because you’re in a hurry.

But remember, don’t lift a finger to help yourself, you might offend Him by being so impatient.

Step 4: Develop a Need to Mimic

Desmond Morris wrote a fantastic book called “The Human Ape”. If you haven’t read it, you are depriving yourself of a primitive experience and pleasure. Morris talks about the need for humans to mimic in order to feel accepted or more worthy.

So, what I want you to do in order for you to lose your money and fake your destiny is look around you and buy whatever your friends or colleagues are buying. But the extravagant cars, the luxurious museum (I mean house), take all the trips you want to exotic places.

What about money? Who cares! The point here is that you want to mimic or copy what every one else is doing. Money and debt are nuisances you shouldn’t have to worry about. What about credit card companies? So what you owe them money, they’re crooks who already have too much money; they don’t need yours.

Step 5: Take Advantage of People

Here’s a great tip. Forget about being considerate and to hell with the “golden rule”. If you can use somebody, do it. If you can take advantage of a situation, do it. Consequences?! Bah! Why bother with such silly notions; they’re so inconvenient. For all you care, you’ll probably never have to deal with them again.

And if it’s in a work environment, all the better, screw them any way you can. They probably deserve it for being so dang naive. The basic premise is this, the next time you in a position to really abuse another fellow human being, don’t think twice, just do it!

Step 6: Invent Your Own Reality

Ooh, I like this one. To hell with reality, create your own. When someone says, “You’re not being realistic”, ignore them – they’re an idiot. When someone tries to warn you that your overspending and your debts are mounting, just go out and shop some more…you’ll feel better.

Remember also that money is the root of all evil and no one should have to really save or keep any around for a rainy day. And, even when everyone is telling you you’re wrong, ignore them because they ALL can’t be right! And more than likely, they simply don’t have the same bright, pink outlook on life you have. Dismiss those fools.

Step 7: Never Keep a Commitment Again

The next time you make a promise, just remember that it really isn’t a commitment. A promise is an agreement to do something but you reserve the right to change your mind without notifying the other party (aka The When it’s Convenient Rule). And yes, it’s OK to over-promise and under-deliver.

The Convenient Rule still applies. When you tell someone you’d show up to a meeting or an engagement, remember that it’s OK to change your mind, again, without the need to notify the other party. Commitments are so restrictive that you should allow yourself the flexibility to abide by or ignore them whenever you feel like it.

What if others complain? They’re just being insensitive to your ‘spontaneity’ and free spirit….envious bastards.

Step 8: Blame it on the ISM

The next time things don’t go your way or you missed out on some promotion or raise, blame it on an “ISM”. There are plenty to choose from. RacISM, SexISM, AgeISM, etc. Remember it’s never your responsibility to create wealth and opportunity.

Someone should always look out for you because you’ve been handicapped (i.e., with an ISM) by the unfairness of society. Someone should also make amends and remunerations for your inconvenience should be made to you. Don’t forget to always complain about how “the man” won’t let you succeed.

And always blame your failing on some corporate guy with a nice suit and tie. They’re always guilty of something. They’re all liars and cheats waiting to be exposed.

Bonus rule:

Step 9: It’s Never Your Problem

No matter how bad you perform or don’t perform at all, it isn’t your fault (Corollary to Rule 8). It’s never your problem. It’s always someone else’s deal. And if you can’t find a warm body to blame it on, use someone who’s dead.

Dead people are useful for blaming things on because they can’t dismiss the accusation and you feel better since it isn’t your fault. If you can’t find any dead people to blame it on, use the ultimate trump card, the Universe (or Cosmos). Either one is good enough when it comes to blame.

Just blame your misfortune on some ‘weird existential vibe’ thing that can’t be defined. And if someone doesn’t believe you they’re just being insensitive and ignorant of an existence of a ‘much higher level’ where you can’t be held responsible.

Follow these nine rules and I guarantee you that you will lose your money and fake your destiny with GREAT SUCCESS.

Success Posters

Gratitude & The Law Of Attraction

The Law of Attraction works in a very simple way. Whatever you place your attention on grows bigger. Put another way – you get more of what you focus on! Or, put another way – what your attention rests on expands! This is the very foundation upon which the Law of Attraction works.

In order to fully utilize this law and, thus create the life you want, you need to be very careful about where you are placing your attention. You need to be aware that all the negative or positive thoughts you are having are creative.

The Law makes no differentiation between positive and negative. If a thought, any thought, is maintained for a mere 60 seconds the Law of Attraction immediately begins the manifestation of that thought. Every single time!

So regardless of what it is you are thinking about, no matter what it is, it only takes 60 seconds to begin manifesting it. This sounds great to the beginner. Wow, 60 seconds to the life of your dreams.

All you have to do is sit quietly for 60 seconds, think about what you want and the Law of Attraction will bring it to you effortlessly. However, it gets a little more complicated than that!

When most people first learn about the Law of Attraction they think that they can visualize living in a mansion, driving a jaguar, owning a jet and marrying a model etc. and then just sit back and wait on the effortless results that will follow.

However, they fail to realize that every thought is creative – not just the good ones! If you visualize the life of your dreams for just 60 seconds you begin to manifest it. This is totally true. “Well”, you may say, “I have imagined living my dream life for a lot longer than 60 seconds.

In fact I have dreamt about it all my life sometimes spending hours lost in my fantasy and it still hasn’t come true”. To this I simply say – Every Thought Is Creative!

Spending time visualizing your ideal life is great but do you sustain those thoughts throughout the rest of your day. Or, do you go around complaining about how bad things are? My guess is, if you don’t have the life of your dreams, then you do the latter!


You are storing up great things for yourself but through your dominant negative thinking you are keeping them away from you!



So how do we do that?



So how do we do that?

Simple! You get into a place of gratitude for what you already have. What you focus on you get more of and what you place your attention on expands! By being grateful for what is in your life at the moment you put our attention on what you like and you get more of it.



If, on the other hand, you allow your attention and focus to center around the things that are not working in your life then they will expand and you will get more of what you don‘t want. Think about this seriously. Give it some real contemplation.

Can you identify areas in your life where this has happened or is continuing to happen now? The sayings in our everyday language sum up this Universal Law, “it never rains but it pours”, “when something goes wrong, everything goes wrong”, “Murphy’s law at work again” etc.

If you get jealous over another person’s good fortune then you are actually affirming that you don‘t have what they do and focusing your attention on your own lack! However, by having gratitude for what you do have and rejoicing in another’s good fortune you are actually focusing your attention on what you do want and ….. What you focus on you get more of and what you place your attention on expands!


If a thought is maintained for a mere 60 seconds the Law of Attraction immediately begins to manifest it. What you focus on you get more of and what your attention rests on expands!

Success Posters

How To Live The Success You Really Want

The things you have in mind for yourself, all those dreams, you’re living them – right.

Well since you’ve read all about what success is and how to get it, now you are a success, right.

OK, I know, you’re not yet living with all that you want, but you have read all about success, so you know everything about it, right.

So, if you know about success, what’s holding you back?

Why are you living with anxiety, depression and low self-esteem rather than happiness, joy, positive thinking and high self-esteem?

There seems to be a gap between knowing about something and your actual assimilation of it into your own life. Why is this?

Learning is an interesting thing. Most people think they learn a lot in school and from all the books they have read. This is not actually the case, particularly when it comes to developing your daily thinking and your behavior patterns.

Think about this; even if you went to collage, how much of what you needed for your first job did you really get from the college learning experience. Didn’t you still find that the real learning began on the job?

It’s always this way, real learning, what you use to form your predominant thoughts and the routine actions you take came from modeling others. When you started that first job, you copied and followed what others were doing, sure there was some explanation, but most of your knowledge and skills came from watching and following others.

Most employers know that you are in a training period for a while after you start, even if you have been in the field for a while. My personal experience from working in small companies which you may be able to relate to, was that there was very little formal training, it was almost all from modeling others and my own abilities to apply my past experience to the present situation.

As you developed in a trade or career, how did you continue to enhance your abilities? Mostly in two ways, you continued to pick up on more details, tricks, methods and processes from others, or you developed them yourself using the knowledge you had acquired up to that point.

Formal learning and books gives us background on a subject and possibly somewhat of an understanding of the topic, but the real learning comes from watching the example of others along with our own actual personal experience and integration.

Let’s look at how you learned as a child?

Again, you mainly copied those close to you, at first primarily from your parents and siblings.

As you get older you are more and more influenced by piers, school and activity mates, and then by people you admire.

This all goes on for the most part automatically without your awareness or control. Your mind is perfectly capable of copying language skills, behavior patters, mannerisms, attitudes and ways of perceiving things, all with out the need of your conscious thought.

This capacity to model others is the most powerful and automatic learning method humans have. You didn’t have to study, read or memorize anything to learn most of what guides your moment to moment thoughts and actions. You did it by following what others did.

The most powerful mode of learning is live human interaction. You actually watch what they do, with full human interaction, using all of your senses.

The next, almost as effective mode is hearing someone describing what and how they do what they do. With this you get the power of what comes through their voice, including all the emotional and attitudinal nuances that are reflected through their speech. Hearing directly from the person actually doing the thing is more affective than having it told by another.

The least effective method for learning thought patterns and behaviors, which can’t actually be termed as modeling, is to read about it. This method does not provide any connection to true real human interaction. You are relying totally on your interpretation of printed text and imagination to gain usable value. Reading is a good way to get a basic idea about something. But just like with your formal education, you need to be around others to effectively assimilate it for your own use.

Ask yourself this, looking at yourself, how many people have you modeled directly versus those you have read about?

The more of your senses that are involved the better your ability to assimilate the behavior into your life. You are touched by the whole person rather than by a description of them.

Find people who are successful in life to model the kind of thought and behavior that will support the life you want for yourself. Learning from modeling can really only be considered when done live or through voice communication, otherwise it’s just studying ‘about’ them.

You need to get the nuances and the essence of the feelings behind their thoughts and actions, if you hope to actually take on those attributes yourself. The power of communication is in the emotional undertones that are unknowingly transferred.

This is where you will understand the self-awareness level, the positive attitude and thinking, the self-confidence, and motivation behind what they do that you can use yourself to support your actions.

Look for more than what is seen as the surface communication, and you will find a powerful self-improvement resource for yourself.

Your dreams are readily possible when you support them with the right thoughts and actions.

Success Posters

Impossible is Just a Word

Everyone, at some point of his or her life, has dreamt of being somebody special, somebody big. Who hasn’t fantasized about being the one who hits the game-winning homer? Who hasn’t dreamt of being the homecoming queen? And how many times have we dreamt of being rich, or successful, or happy with our relationships?






Remember that scientists were baffled when they took a look at the humble bumblebee. Theoretically, they said, it was impossible for the bumblebee to fly. Unfortunately for the bumblebee no one has told it so. So fly it does.













Success Posters

Plan Your Success








One task a day devoted to your highest priority will give you renewed energy to keep on going! You will feel excitement coming your way and the Adrenalin will be flowing. Your project will become easier and more joyful each day as you complete a task.




Additional ideas to build business:
– The end of each week review each day’s accomplishment
– As the difficult tasks complete, incorporate the simpler ones
– Share your good news of accomplishments
– Vow to keep taking your business vitamins year after year


Success Posters

The Way You Think About Yourself

If you think you are a loser, you train or work like a loser i.e. sloppily and half-heartedly. If you think you are a winner you train like one i.e. with maximum focus, great expectations, excitement and consistent effort. This article takes a look at why people think like winners or losers and what they can do about it.

Steve Siebold describes in his recent book -“177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class” – how he wanted to be a tennis champion. He had all the talent and the desire necessary but at times he lacked the belief that he was a potential champion. He writes:

“When I believed I was a champion, I trained like a champion. When I believed I was washed up, I trained like a loser.”

When he was only ten years old, he defeated nearly everyone he played and, as a result, was thinking like a champion. He expected to win and so he trained and worked hard as winners should.

As he grew older his rankings started to drop and he no longer expected to win and so he started training like a loser instead of a winner.

He still had the desire to be a champion but so do lots of people. He believes that what made the difference was his belief in himself or his lack of it.

He lost some of his belief in himself through associating too much with what he calls the ‘middle class’ instead of the ‘world class’. The middle class are too easily satisfied with mediocre results. The world class are only content when they become champions in whatever they are doing whether it be playing tennis or making money.

When I went to school at the age of 11, I worked hard and did all the work set with full attention and the desire to do well. I did so well that the principal of the school suggested I move up a whole year.

This was a mistake. I now came under the influence of class mates who did not like the fact that I had jumped a year. Some of them called me a swat and a bighead. Maybe they were right but I don’t think so. Working hard was frowned on by this bunch.

They changed my thinking about myself so much that instead of thinking of myself as a champion student, I saw myself as some kind of a freak for working so hard. My effort dropped along with my self-image. Never underestimate the influence of those around you. I was lucky in the end to pass my exams and get to university.

It has taken me many years to regain belief in myself. I was helped by the great American positive thinkers like Norman Vincent Peale, Frank Bettger and William James.

One English writer who has also helped greatly in this is the multimillionaire Stuart Goldsmith. His book ‘The Midas Method’ explains how most of us are brainwashed at an early age into thinking there is an invisible ceiling to our progress which we will never break through.

Once we realize that this ceiling is only a figment of the imagination of ourselves and our so-called ‘friends’, we will be able to break through our limitations and achieve world class results which will astonish us.

We need to re-examine our beliefs about ourselves and to realize that many of them originated in the beliefs of people who thought that great results were only for the few and that our dreams were just ‘pie in the sky’.

Instead of listening to the middle class or the poverty class (those who are not even aware of the possibility that they could be champions), let’s start listening to the world class. Let’s replace negative beliefs about ourselves with empowering ones and then start working hard to achieve our dreams.

We don’t need a degree in psychology to do all this. A little bit of commonsense and observation can show us the way. It also helps to read the books of people like Steve Siebold and Stuart Goldsmith and – if I dare say it without being called a bighead – myself!

You may or may not have access to world class neighbours or friends but you do have easy access to world class writers and thinkers through the media of books, audios and video tapes. The internet has, of course, widened that access exponentially.

It is high time you and I joined the world class and made the most of the championship potential which is there in all of us.

Success Posters

The Nasty Ten: 10 Ways To Disrupt Your Success

From time to time, we are all guilty of behaviors that hinder our own success. If you commit the following blunders, you will be undermining your own success.

1. Forget your goals and visions, or not having them at all. What do you want to achieve in your business, in the short and long term? What do you visualize enjoying after you have achieved these goals – financial security, better life styles, a new home or car, a holiday? Set specific goals and the activities you will need to undertake in order to achieve these goals. If you do not set down specific goals, or if you forget about them during your journey towards success, then you are sabotaging your success.

2. Lose confidence in yourself. You have the goals, but most importantly you will need the confidence that you can do it!

3. Lack of knowledge or stop learning. You do not need to physically go back to college to learn. There are now various channels through which you can learn. Often, what you need to succeed personally or financially is not learnt in a university degree! Search for personal and financial development training programs, and equip yourself with the knowledge and tools you will need to become successful. Successful people never stop learning; in fact they tend to have an insatiable desire for knowledge. Search the internet, find the best learning programs, read books – just learn, learn and learn. Invest a little in educating yourself as this will help you achieve your goals.

4. Think that you can become successful without any investment. This is a common reason why people fail to become successful. Everyone wants something for nothing! Well, if it is something that will make you a millionaire, then you must be prepared to invest some money and effort into it. No genuine long term business can thrive without initial capital outlay and consistent investment, whether they are an on- or off-line business. There are some genuine businesses which you can start and run with minimal capital outlay, but they do still need some money to grow them. Being cheap is not recommended, and it will not get you anywhere near your goals of becoming wealthy and successful.

5. Fear of failure. This is the toxic failing that keeps a lot of people away from their dreams of becoming successful. I like the quote which says “Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure”. If you face a temporary setback on your quest towards success; learn from it, pick yourself up and soldier on towards your dreams. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success”.

6. Procrastination. Yet another nasty one! Taking action TODAY is the foundational key to all success. By procrastinating, you are missing chances to be the best you can be; to make money, and to be successful. Get rid of all the bad habits that waste your time, break down your tasks to small manageable bits, visualize the end result of your project – do all that you can to fight this deadly habit that can keep you away from your goals.

7. Lack of focus. You can have clearly laid out goals on the success you want to achieve, but if you do not have focus, you will soon sabotage your success. There are a lot of ‘business opportunities’ that will arrive in your inbox daily – most of which are scams, no matter how genuine and promising they sound. When you are starting your online business, you can also easily become overloaded with information. Well, in some cases the information overload can simply stop you from taking any action! The trick is to be focused. Have a list of your things to do everyday. Everyday, do something towards building your business.

8. Be easily discouraged. This is a common one. Your family or friends may not believe that you will succeed. Do not let this discourage you. It is recommended that you have a good network of positive people who can support and encourage you as you work towards your success. People will say discouraging words, discouraging things will happen around you; but it is only you who can let that get to your mind and affect you.

9. Dislike constant change. In order to be successful, you must be constantly improving yourself, your business, and your products. If you have an online business – this is even more important since the internet is very dynamic. Stay on top of recent developments and be constantly learning new ways of running and growing your business.

10. Lack of dedication. This is the vital one. If you want something badly enough, it will be yours. A lot of people fail because they do not have the necessary desire to become successful.

In conclusion, I will share with you these quotes on success:

“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire”.




Go get it, and be successful!

Success Posters

The root cause for procrastination

Why is it that we as human beings often behave in ways that we don’t really want to? How often have you said or done something only to cringe at the thought of it afterwards? The truth is that your behaviour is mostly driven by your unconscious mind, especially behaviours that is hard to explain from an intellectual point of view.

Procrastination is knowing what to do, having the ability and desire to do it, but still you don’t do it. Although there are many apparent causes for procrastination, the root cause for this illogical behavior resides in your unconscious mind.


What you need to do is to change your automatic behavior which resides in your unconscious mind, that part of you that controls all the vital function of your mind and body. You can try and overcome procrastination by using willpower but it will usually be a short term change.


Your nervous system is designed to preserve you and when fear presents itself your nervous system, through the working of your sub-conscious, will “kick in” to “protect you. The ironic thing is that we train ourselves, unconsciously, to fear certain things by making false associations about the meaning.

Nothing in life has any meaning but the meaning you give it. You literally create neurological links to experiences that gets “stored” in your nervous system so that you can act quickly and accordingly next time. Whenever something happens to you, you assign a meaning to it by the way you communicate the experience to yourself.


The challenge is that when associations are reinforced you build up beliefs that will greatly influence your behavior and is often the cause for procrastination.


At some level your unconscious mind combines and searches it’s “files” to come up with a “link” that associates the action to a painful experience. This can range from something which is mildly uncomfortable to something physically painful.





The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of “discomfort” you can comfortably deal with. Procrastination can also shed some light on the goals that you value most, as your concern over procrastinating on it shows that some part of you care enough to be concerned.


Like the engraved pattern on a record your behavior will “play the same tune” every time. Your associations to pain and pleasure play an important part in your habitual behavior in that it determines what you will or will not do. By repetition you form habitual patterns of thinking that will cause you to automatically act or retract in certain ways when your habit pattern gets triggered.



Success Posters

What Makes People Successful?

What do successful people do that others don’t?

What motivates them to keep going?

Can anyone be successful?

What makes them different from others?


Successful people are confident, honest and driven.

These are attitudes, not skill.



But your goals need to be SMART goals:

Specific – know exactly what you want
Measurable – be able to follow the progress
Achievable – be within your capabilities
Realistic – be possible to do
Time – you must make the time to do it


Seeing Things As They Are


Why is this?





Forget Failure


Children always look on the bright side:

Kids are curious – Adults are cynical
Kids love puddles – Adults hate rain



What else stops you from achieving our goals?







You need to question your beliefs and where they come from.


If you believe you’ll win, then you will.


Things You Can Do Right Now

Always ask yourself:

What did I do well today?
What did I learn today?
What am I going to do differently tomorrow?

Never avoid failure.
Stride for success.
Keep trying different strategies.






Therefore, never forget:

If you think you can’t achieve something, then you wont.


Success Posters

Why Are You Not Achieving Your Goals

Is your goal setting making you unhappy?
Have you ever created a goal and got frustrated because of it?
Are you trapping yourself with your goal setting strategies?

Now is the time to learn better strategies that will take you straight to success while having fun during the process of getting there because when you apply this advice you will get there!

A goal is something you want to have or something you want to change in your life. It is basically a project you can manage in a smart way so that in the end you’ll find yourself where you wanted to be when you stated your goal, and began to take steps towards making it happen.

But first it starts out in your mind and adopting better thinking strategies followed by powerful action actually will ensure your success, which is what you want… do you not?

Many if not most of the people make New Year’s resolutions and set up goals to quit shortly after that because they feel unhappy and frustrated. The reason is, they constantly compare their actual unsatisfying situation with the ideal goal they want to reach and the only thing they can see is the wide gap between the two places.

You feel unhappy and you end up spending lots of energy to keep you constantly motivated when you don’t feel like doing anything because it is impossible to be motivated all the time. And before long you quit!

In other words, if you delay any kind of gratification or feelings of satisfaction until the ideal goal is completely achieved, you are actually making sure you will not accomplish your goal. Some goals can’t be achieved over night so the more you delay the good feelings you think you’ll have when you achieve your final goal, the more difficult it will become to achieve. It is that simple!

There is another aspect of unsuccessful goal setting, watch out! If you decide you are a success only and only if you shed off these 30 pounds or when you are a millionaire, perhaps when you buy that Mercedes and have it standing in your drive way, then you are trapped in a place where there is not escape, as you will be denying yourself any good feelings to keep going… unless you do it the way I am about to share with you.

If you wanted to cross over a river, you would use a bridge to walk on until you reach the other side and if you wanted to grab something that sits on a high shelf you would use a ladder, so why would accomplishing a goal be any different?

Now, what can you do differently and in the present moment to ensure your goals will be successfully accomplished and with fun?

Pick a goal: what do you want?
It can be anything but let’s take the example of a weight loss goal.

Solution 1: make a power decision. What is the first thing you will notice when heading towards your goal? What is the first success?
You want to shed off 20 pounds so if you notice that you shed 2 pounds on your way, congratulate yourself and keep going. Do more of the things you notice bring about success.

Build a bridge between where you were when you started and your final goal. You simply make smaller steps and these little goals will be easy to achieve. The result will surprise you because it will lead you straight to your wished big goal. Keep going and keep rewarding yourself and feeling good about what you’ve already achieved while feeling certain that sooner or later you will be at your final destination!

Solution 2: keep a journal of your progress and successive successes on the way to your goal. People tend to forget what they have already achieved and where they were when they started their journey towards a goal, so by keeping it all written down you can go back any time and see how far you’ve come already and that will keep you on track and highly motivated. It makes the whole project fun and worth going for.

These two important strategies will show you that you are a success and that you don’t have to wait for any final result to feel good about it or about yourself. In fact whatever feelings you think or believe you will have when your goal has manifested in the real world, start on your way by having them right now and build your bridge to success from then on.

What you’ve learned so far to achieve a goal with success is this: it is very helpful to have a concrete and easy way to track your progress. Find a way to make your goal as concrete as possible and break it down to smaller steps you can accomplish with success.

And to make your goal achievement even easier and more of a success follow these steps:
Choose a goal
Check whether the goal is good for you and will enrich your life
Find the resources that will help you achieve your goal: information, people to help you, advice…
Prioritize your goal so you keep hitting your target until you hit it finally
Track your goal, the progress and success journal will help you with that
The freedom to change or even discard your goal if you don’t want it anymore or if it no longer suits you

What now? If you have goals that you’ve already started working on, make them easy to track and start your progress and success journal. Walk the bridge step by successful step, all the way to your final success!

Success Posters

Why People Fail

Some people don’t really know what it is they want. Many define what they want by stating what they don’t want. The result, they get exactly what they don’t want. Why because instead of focusing on what they do want they are focused on what they don’t want.

I recently discovered this while having a disciplinary discussion with our eleven year old daughter. The discussion was about her behavior and why it is wrong. What’s funny about this is we had this exact same discussion less than sixty days prior.

During this discussion I realized that my daughter did not think she was doing anything wrong, she believed she was acting according to what was acceptable for an eleven year old.

I had to think about this for a bit because she did not understand that it is not OK to misbehave. I got the idea to use an example and ask her what she thought about it.

I said, “A person robs a bank, is caught and goes to jail. As soon as that person gets out they rob another bank is caught and goes to jail again. Gets out robs yet another bank and goes to jail. What do you think about this?” “There’s a problem,” was her answer.

Then I said to her, “You are the person robbing the bank”. The look on her face was utter devastation. I then explained to her that when she misbehaves it’s like the person robbing the bank. The robber did not want to go to jail but that is what he/she got, exactly what they didn’t want. That’s what you get every time you misbehave; you get everything that you don’t want. The logic was inescapable.

If you focus on the things you don’t want, you are going to get what you focus on. Now that might seem like it’s backwards but in reality that is exactly what many people do and they don’t understand why they continually get the results they get.

Your mind attracts to you that which is the center of your focus. If your focus is on what you don’t want you will get that which you focus on. While the above example is a bit extreme the point is you attract to you what you think about. My daughter said she was always thinking about not getting into trouble, what did she get?

It is extremely important to be specific about what you want as well. It is not enough to say you want more money; you must be specific about the amount of more money you want. If you make $40,000 a year, your subconscious mind thinks that $40,001 is more money which it is and therefore you have reached your goal.

Your efforts to get more fail because you’re now thinking I don’t want $40,001 I want more. If you want to lose weight, loosing 1 pound to your subconscious mind is achieving your goal, you lost weight.

Now you might be thinking “I want to make more money and in the back of your mind more money means $50,000 a year, but all you say is more money. See the difference?

You must be specific and say next year I want to make $50,000 or I want to lose 20 pounds in three months. You must know exactly what it is you want or you will fail to get it.

How to make your dreams a reality.

You must know exactly what it is you want.

You must know every detail, how having what you want will make you feel. What having what you want will do for you, give you more status, more prestige, raise your standard of living. You must know every detail or you will stumble along the way and feel like a failure.

You must have a time frame in mind.

You need to set a date by which you expect to have gained the object of your focus. If you desire to fit those designer jeans by springtime and you need to lose 15 pounds, set a date by which you expect to have lost the weight. Then using a series of smaller goals, affirm to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week by mapping out a diet to cut out 500 calories a day.

Your desire must be measurable.

First start out with the end result clearly in mind. You should start out with a series of smaller obtainable goals. Success with these smaller goals fuels your confidence towards achieving a larger goal. Then have something to Gage your success by.

Starting with the end result, work backwards in detail until you get to the starting point where you will set out to achieve you goal. This gives you the exact steps you need to take to achieve your goal. Each step should lead you closer to obtaining your desired result. This becomes your ruler, check to see if you are on course.

Always write out your goals.

Writing your goals out is another way to check if you have strayed from the course. It gives you something to follow. Write your goals out and read them daily. We have billions of thoughts per day and a goal is just another thought.

Writing it down helps to keep that thought in mind instead of it being replaced by one of the other billions of thoughts. It also helps with your commitment to your goal. Seeing it daily reaffirms it in your mind.

Get a success partner.

One way to insure success with obtaining any goal is to have a partner. Someone who will encourage you and help you stay on course. It’s important to have someone who will stand by you and not someone who will try to discourage you.

Evaluate your progress.

Are you making headway? If not, why not? Adjust your plan to meet your long-term goal. Are you meeting your weekly or monthly weight loss goals? If not, determine what might be the problem. Add another half hour of walking each week or cut out second helpings.

Challenge yourself through adversity.

That means work hard, push yourself and feel a little discomfort if it means helping you reach your goals. Understand and acknowledge that change is not easy. If it were, you would have already achieved your goal. We tend to revert to previous behaviors when change gets difficult. Now is the time to develop new life behaviors.

You have a choice in what you get or don’t get. You choose to have success or you choose to have failure. There is nothing in between the two except you. What you choose to think about will be what you get. Focus on failure and no amount of effort will bring you the success you desire. The thing to do is focus your mind on success.

Success Posters

Power Of Concentration









So real concentration may be broken down into just 2 parts:








Every effort of the mind, whether it’s to…

• Perceive something

• Recollect something

• Associate something

• Imagine something

• Even to judge something



Another important fact to note is that as you develop the power to select objects for the concentration of all your attention, you also develop (at the same time) other mind power processes &#8722; you will improve the ability to memorize and recall much more, to fine tune and manage better your time and effort.

And also the power to control your future thoughts and actions…


The 2 TOP Keys Of Concentration

For every one of us, concentration will always mean,



These are the two main steps towards developing strong concentration… recognizing the essential… and leaving out the non-essential.

Success Posters

Your Success: Obtainable or Sustainable?

The desire to consistently improve your life is one of your most fundamental needs. That feeling that comes from knowing that everyday you are becoming more is part of your nature. Knowing that you are affecting and improving your environment through your own influence is immensely satisfying.

It is a key ingredient in living a happy and fulfilled life. At some level we are all pursuing success of some sort. We are constantly looking for ways to have more, to be more and to gain more, thinking that once we “have it all” we will be happy and life will be perfect. Then, we can take it easy and relax and just enjoy life.

This way of thinking, this mindset, acts like a virus that can “kill” you. If not emotionally then spiritually. Our modern culture is filled with numerous examples of top achievers who seemingly have everything but they are deeply unhappy and constantly have to battle with the challenges within their own character.

They fail to grasp the true purpose of success. From it’s Latin origin, the word success actually means “to advance” or “to progress” which implies that success is not “something” you get at the end but a process that has very little to do with the end result.

From this point of view success is what will improve your life as it is what moves you forward to a better experience of life.

In their pursuit of a greater quality of life most people lose sight of the real reason why they actually want to be successful in the first place. It is never the “things” but rather the way you believe these things will make you feel once you’ve got them.

Your success will be either obtainable or sustainable. Most of your desires will be obtainable within your lifetime but this no guarantee that you will be happy and fulfilled. When you strive for collecting and accumulating “things” you will experience very little fulfillment as you will always rely on something external to give you the feelings that you want to experience inside you; feelings that you believe will come from having what you pursue.

The real purpose of a goal is never to obtain something of material value but rather the qualities that you will gain as a person in your pursuit of the goal. For you to have success that is sustainable you must develop a new mindset; a mindset that focuses not on what you must do to get what you want, but on what you must become to attract that which you want.

What you become is what you get to keep. When you shift your focus to developing your character, you can start to use goals and success as a means to an end instead of it being the end-all and be-all of life. You start to distance yourself from the need to have “stuff” in order to feel that sense of joy and fulfillment.

Knowing that you can be successful is not enough. You want the experience of success. You that feeling of success as a part of who you are as a person; as part of your character. When your success is obtainable, when you are able to collect the things, then your experience of success rarely lasts very long.

There is no consistency in the experience. So often we see amazing success stories of young achievers that reach all their goals in a short period of time, only to break down emotionally soon after. The reason is that they haven’t learned the key to lasting success which is the ability to create success in your life that is sustainable.

Sustainable success is inexhaustible. It is consistent and takes care of itself. With the qualities and attributes that you learned through the experience of pursuing your goal you are able to re-create any achievement as you are the source.

The concept of obtainable and sustainable success is best illustrated with Aesop’s fable of the Goose and the Golden Egg. The goose as the source of the gold could consistently produce the gold, but the farmer out of his impatience and ignorance wanted it all and he wanted it now.

So, he cut open the goose only to find out that there is nothing. The moral of the story is that you should nurture and develop yourself in order to sustain your happiness and success. If your focus is just on obtaining goals you will not get any more “golden eggs” as the real value is in what you become and how that makes you feel.

You can either obtain success or you can become it. The objective is the same but the mindset is very different. You can either get the “things” that will make you feel successful or you can become the source of your own success and fulfillment.

You want lasting results and this will only come from your ability to create and re-create, on demand, that what you wish to experience during your time on earth. Adopting the mentality of creating lasting success, of becoming sustainable, starts with realizing that true success comes from giving and not getting.

In the giving lies the “getting” in that what you give away is what you get to experience and your experience is what you get to keep forever. Ultimately, to sustain anything you must give and receive for this is the very nature of growth and life itself.

Success is a feeling and in making that feeling part of who you are, you will never be without success and you will never be left wanting anything outside of you.

Let go of your need to obtain “stuff” and focus on the experience of life and the emotional content of your life. Improve yourself by pursuing goals that will make of you the kind of person that manifest that which you want most.

That which you obtain will eventually disappear and lose its value. That which you sustain will grow and expand and continue to increase the quality of your magnificent life. Obtainable success is static and like anything in nature that does not grow it will eventually die.

Success Posters