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Welcome to Your Achievement Ezine
Issue 347 - January 23, 2008
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"I will love the light for it shows me the way,
yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars." Og Mandino
Today's issue includes:
1. Your Achievement Article - Persistence by Bob Proctor
2. Your Achievement Quotes - Referability, Reflection and Relationships
3. Your Achievement Tips - Embracing Adversity for Achievement by Chris Widener
4. YSS Reminder
5. More Information
1. Your Achievement Article
Persistence by Bob Proctor
If you were to choose just one part of your personality to develop that would virtually guarantee your success, I'd like to suggest that you place persistence at the top of your list.
Napoleon Hill, in his classic Think and Grow Rich felt so strongly about this subject, he devoted an entire chapter to it. Hill suggested, "There may be no heroic connotation to the word persistence but the quality is to your character what carbon is to steel."
Think about it. If you took a quick mental walk down memory lane and reviewed some of your accomplishments in the past – large and small – you would have to agree that persistence played an important role in your success.
Napoleon Hill studied many of the world's most successful people. He pointed out the only quality he could find in Henry Ford, Thomas Edison or a host of other notable greats, that he could not find in everyone else was persistence. What I found even more intriguing was the fact that Hill made comment of the fact that these individuals were often misunderstood to be ruthless or cold-blooded and that this misconception grew out of their habit of following through in all of their plans with persistence.
It's both interesting and sadly amusing to me that, as a society, we would be quick to criticize people for realizing they had an unshakeable power within them and were capable of overcoming any obstacle outside of them. This power would ultimately move them toward a greater chance of achieving any goal they set for themselves!
Milt Campbell is a good friend of mine. He and I have shared many hours together discussing the very topic of persistence. Milt was a Decathlete in the Olympic Games held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. His goal was to capture gold for the US. Unfortunately, another fierce competitor who had taken home the gold four years previous in London wasn't satisfied with one gold, Bob Mathias wanted two; Milt had to settle for silver. That did not deter Milt one bit. He had formed the habit of persistence and four years later in Melbourne, Australia, Milt won the gold medal, earning him the title of the greatest athlete in the world.
On numerous occasions Milt has said, "There were many guys in school who were far better athletes than me, but they quit." I can recount story after story about individuals who overcame obstacles so great, but only did so because they dared persist. These individuals are no different than you and I.
Ultimately persistence becomes a way of life, but that is not where it begins. To develop the mental strength – persistence - you must first want something. You have to WANT something so much that it becomes a heated desire... a passion in your belly. You must fall in love with that idea. Yes, literally fall in love with the idea and magnetize yourself to every part of the idea. At that point, persistence will be virtually automatic.
Persistence is a subject I have studied all of my adult life and I can tell you one thing I know for certain: very few people ever, mentally or verbally, say to themselves... this is what I really want and I am prepared to give my life for it, and thus, they never develop the persistence to achieve it.
Persistence is a unique mental strength; a strength that is essential to combat the fierce power of the repeated rejections and numerous other obstacles that sit in waiting and are all part of winning in a fast-moving, ever-changing world. As Napoleon Hill found out, there are hundreds of highly successful men and women who have cut a path for others to follow, while leaving their mark on the scrolls of history… and every one of these great individuals was persistent. In many cases it was the only quality that separated them from everyone else.
It is generally believed that a lack of persistence is a consequence of a weak willpower. That is not true. A person could have a highly evolved willpower and still lack the persistence required to keep moving forward in life. In more cases than not, if a person lacks persistence, they do not have a goal that is worthy of them, a desirable goal that excites them to their very core.
Though willpower is important in moving a person toward their goal, if there is ever a war between the will and the imagination, the imagination will win every time. What that means is: you're powered by desire and fuelled by the dream you hold. Once you start to use your imagination to help you build a bigger picture of your dream, to define and refine it until you get it just right in your mind, the emotion that is triggered by that desire far outweighs any force that may be caused by sheer will alone. I am not suggesting the will does not have to be developed, it does. It must become highly developed in order to direct you toward the image with which you are emotionally involved.
Your intellectual factors hold the potential for enormous good when they are properly employed. However, you must remember that everything has an opposite and any of your intellectual factors can turn, without warning, into destructive lethal enemies when they are directed toward results that are not wanted. It is easy to find individuals who are persistently doing what they don't want to do and achieving results that they do not want. A lack of persistence is not their problem; that person is persisting to their own detriment. Ignorance and paradigms are the enemy that we must defeat. Everyone is persistent. Our objective must be to put persistence to work for us rather than against us.
Vision and desire have to be the focus of your attention if you're going to develop persistence into the great ally it can become.
Another excellent example of persistence was demonstrated when, in 1953, a beekeeper from Auckland, N.Z., Edmund Hillary and his native guide, Tenzing Norguay, became the first two people to climb Mt. Everest and return, after having tried and failed the two previous years.
Hillary had two obvious character strengths that took him to the very top —- vision and desire. Even despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges, he had no trouble persisting with the strenuous acts that were required because every act was hooked into the image of him standing on top of the mountain. They were expressed because of his persistence, but he was persistent because he was emotionally involved with the image. Without persistence, all his skills would have meant nothing.
Persistence is an expression of the mental strength that is essential in almost every profession, where repeated rejection and obstacles are part of a daily routine.
In closing, let me give you four relatively simple steps that will help you to turn persistence into a habit. These steps can be followed by virtually anyone.
1. Have a clearly defined goal. The goal must be something you are emotionally involved with, something you want very much. (In the beginning, you may not even believe that you can accomplish it—the belief will come.)
2. Have a clearly established plan that you can begin working on immediately. (Your plan will very likely only cover the first and possibly the second stage of the journey to your goal. As you begin executing your plan, other steps required to complete your journey will be revealed at the right time.)
3. Make an irrevocable decision to reject any and all negative suggestions that come from friends, relatives or neighbors. Do not give any conscious attention to conditions or circumstances that appear to indicate the goal cannot be accomplished.
4. Establish a mastermind group of one or more people who will encourage, support and assist you wherever possible.
What do you dream of doing with your life? Do it. Begin right now and never quit. There is greatness in you. Let it out. Be persistent.
Bob Proctor
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"Life is part positive and part negative.
Suppose you went to hear a symphony orchestra and all they played were the
little, happy, high notes? Would you leave soon? Let me hear the rumble of
the bass, the crash of the cymbals, and the minor keys." Jim Rohn
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"If we had no winter, the spring would not
be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would
not be so welcome."
Anne Bradstreet
2. Your Achievement Quotes
REFERABILITY
"Call people back immediately. One of the biggest challenges most salespeople have is that they don't want to pick up messages and call people back. Return calls now. It's the only way you can build up a solid clientele." -- Tom Hopkins
"Don't concentrate on making a lot of money, but rather on becoming the type of person people want to do business with." -- Patricia Fripp
"Does he or she know you, like you, and trust you? Does he want to see you succeed? Does she want to help you find new business? If so, then you have yourself a 'Personal Walking Ambassador.'" -- Bob Burg
"Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them." -- W. Edwards Deming
REFLECTION
"We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed! What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired?" -- Marcus Annaeus Seneca
"At the end of each day, you should play back the tapes of your performance. The results should either applaud you or prod you." -- Jim Rohn
"Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around us in awareness." -- Leland Val Vandewall
"Evaluation of the past is the first step toward vision for the future." -- Chris Widener
RELATIONSHIPS
"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart." -- Eleanor Roosevelt
"All marriages are happy; it's the living together afterwards that causes all the problems." -- Denis Waitley
"Every time you say ‘thank you´ to another person, they feel better and so do you." -- Brian Tracy
"My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake." -- Aristotle
"To acquire balance means to achieve that happy medium between the minimum and the maximum that represents your optimum. The minimum is the least you can get by with. The maximum is the most you're capable of. The optimum is the amount or degree of anything that is most favorable toward the ends you desire." Nido Qubein
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"Live a balanced life-learn some and think
some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day
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3. Your Achievement Tips
Embracing Adversity for Achievement by Chris Widener
"Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity." -- Lou Holtz
Success in life depends upon being strong people with clear goals and indomitable spirits. Unfortunately most of us aren't born that way. We grow that way. And that growth can either come from us entering willfully into situations that will cause us to grow, like subscribing to Made for Success, or from the way we react when circumstances come upon us without our consent. The latter is what we call adversity.
Most of us spend our lives trying to avoid adversity, and I guess that is just as well. We shouldn't pursue adversity, but when she arrives, we should welcome her as a foe who, through our interaction with her, will make us into better people. Every contact we have with adversity gives us again the opportunity to grow personally and professionally and to forge our character into one that will achieve much later on.
With that in mind, here are some thoughts on adversity, and how it can help you to succeed in every area of your life and achieve your dreams.
Adversity brings out our resources. Horace said "Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it." When everything is going well, we coast. There isn't a lot of stress, and we don't have to draw too much on the resources that reside within us. But when adversity comes we begin to draw upon each and every resource that we have in order to conquer the circumstances at hand. Adversity then, keeps us sharp. It keeps us using our personal muscle, if you will. That is a good thing because we grow through the use of our resources.
Adversity brings us together with others. Sure a team can have their problems with each other, but when they step on the court, when they experience the adversity of facing another obstacle, they pull together. One for all and all for one, as they say. The next time you experience adversity of some kind, keep your eyes open for how it can bring you together with your family, your co-workers or your team. Then when you are through it, you will find a bond that was created that wasn't there before.
Adversity makes us better people with stronger characters. Never underestimate the power of adversity to shape us inwardly. How will courage, discipline and perseverance ever flourish if we are never tested? After adversity, we come out stronger people and able then to use our character and influence in an even greater way to lead those around us and to improve their lives as well as our own.
Adversity makes life interesting. John Amatt said, "Without adversity, without change, life is boring." How true. Have you noticed that while we are in the middle of adversity we only long to get out of it, but we then spend a lifetime recounting it to anyone who will listen? This is because it spices life up a little. Imagine how boring life would be if everything always went well, when there was never a mountain to be climbed.
Question - If you are in the middle of some adversity right now, what resources are you drawing on? Who are you drawing closer to and working with? What part of your character is being tested, and built up? What can you do to view this adversity as one who will be better for it on the other side?
Remember the words of Napoleon Hill - "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." Believe it, it is true!
Chris Widener is an internationally recognized speaker, author and radio host. Chris is the author of eight books and audio series as well as over 400 success articles. To learn more or to order Chris' products, including his newest book Live the Life You've Always Dreamed Of, The Image or Twelve Pillars co-authored with Jim Rohn, or his newest CD series, Twelve Pillars - The Skills You Need to Succeed, or Winning with Influence, The Extraordinary Leaders Seminar go to
http://theimage.yoursuccessstore.com or call 877-929-0439.
"Through the years I have found it wonderful
to acquire, but it is also wonderful to divest. It's rather like exhaling." Helen Hayes
4. YSS Reminder
Take your first step to an amazing future! THE POWER TO HAVE IT ALL contains the formula that will empower you to create a dynamic, successful, abundant life based exclusively on what YOU have always dreamed of having.
The secret to Bob Proctor's program is the Prosperity Formula, which tells you in a clear, easy-to-follow plan, exactly what you need to do to create a dream and then turn it into reality.
Take advantage of Special Pricing for the very first 100 to order! Go to:
http://www.yoursuccessstore.com/power
"The seasons do not push one another;
neither do clouds race the wind across the sky. All things happen in their
own good time."
Dan Millman
5. More Information
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"Be prepared to ride the cycles and trends of life; success is never permanent and failure is never final." Brian Tracy
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