Home Alone at Christmas

I contacted some girlfriends of mine just recently to send Christmas Greetings and some of the replies I got reminded me about what it felt like to be 'home alone' at Christmas. I've been there and tried to do what some people are doing which is to try to ignore the hype completely and get on with doing some ordinary things till the day passes. But no matter how much you try to ignore it, if you are not connected with significant others in a real way, a kind of loneliness can creep and sit there on your shoulder.

And you know its not just about not being with other people. Its more about a kind of compounding of every aching emptiness you've ever felt when bells are jingling and families are slicing turkeys together but you're feeling completely out of it. 

What's this got to do about success? Not a lot really- just me responding to the thoughts and feelings of others I know, and thinking about my own blessings that at least I have the choice of spending time with my significant others. I chose last year to make that time a time of quiet peacefulness by myself. And it was good.

But I think now of those people who ache inside at this time of the year and I wish them peace too.

On an entirely different note, I have been thinking more about me blog and how I can make it even better next year. I came across this information I wanted to share about successful blogging. And here it is.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Blessings for Today

1. I am thankful for the people I now choose to spend my time with this Christmas and that I have a choice at all.

2. To the woman at the cinema today who simply gave me 2 complimentary tickets to see the film for no good reason I can think of. I want to say again Thank You. I am grateful for the entertainment that is now available to me.

3. To be able to give and receive gifts is a blessing indeed.

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The Will to Succeed

What the mind of man can conceive it can achieve. That's a pretty bold statement, wouldn't you say? And whether or not we believe it, we can't deny that we are capable to so much more when we put our minds to it. And isn't it incredible what we've been able to achieve using only a small fraction of the mind. Imagine if we could use another 10%!! What yet to be imagined creative and destructive realms would await us. Its incredible to think of the depth and breathe of the human mind. Everything we are and have, has come from a thought in someone's head. That's awesome.

As we grew from infancy there was much to learn, to absorb. Many things we were taught as children but as we grew older we became responsible for our own learning. What we choose to learn will have a major impact on our success in life, wouldn't you say? So you can see how critical it is to continue to learn and develop our minds.

There are people for whom striving to grow intellectually stops when they walk out of the school gates for the last time. But imagine now, OK, what would happen if you just kept on accelerating your learning. What could you do, be, have, if you were committing to a process of continual growth. That's what being a part of Success University has contributed to my life. At the click of a mouse, there online are numerous personal development courses available to me that allows me to keep on opening my mind.

Our will is but one part of the mind that remains forever fascinating. There is a boy of my acquaintance whose will to succeed constantly astonishes me.

He is only 15 years old but he puts me to shame with his almost unshakeable willpower. . determination and will power. That's my boy.

What is the Will? Free Will. Will Power. Weak willed. Strong willed. I've heard it described as the strength of our determination. I know pretty much all of us have struggled with it on many occasions. But its kind of hard to say what it really is.

Another helping of pie? Struggle struggle.

Cold outside and you need to do your exercises? Struggle struggle.

Read a book rather than watch idiot TV? Struggle struggle.

You know the sort of thing I mean! It is where our resolve lies and the choices we make. You can exercise your body. Can you exercise your will? Can you strengthen and develop it? I believe we can. But we have to exercise it regularly as we would our bodies if we hoped to gain physical strength. And when we do, it will powerfully support our success.

Another piece of pie? ARRRR....NO THANK YOU. Just this once.

Then try it out again tomorrow. And again the next day and so on until.....

What's been your will in the past? What's it like now? Has it changed? Have you had some tough choices to make? Do you think they have made you stronger? Do you find that in some areas of your life its easier than in others to exert your will?

Consider now the things you have been putting off doing or the decisions you haven't wanted to make and start exercising your will by doing or deciding now. Start small and build yourself up. Go to bed now or stay up another 2 hours? Then when it comes to major choices of will power, you're much more ready to go.

Blessings for today

1. My house guests made dinner and washed up. How cool was that for me? Heaps. I am grateful to them for this gesture on their part.

2. My sister remains very ill. I am struggling to find a gratitude to express about her situation. I guess that she is in somewhat less pain than before is a blessing.

3.In the bitter cold outside, I have had the means to keep myself warm inside and I have so much gratitude for the comforts of my life.

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Reasons to Succeed

Lets face it. There are not many people for whom life's all plain sailing now are there. Some people are sailing more close to the wind its true, but we all face challenges on many kinds. That's life. 

And when it gets rough out there, what's going to help you keep your head above water? How badly do you want to succeed in many areas of your life? As we approach the New year, many of us will be setting some new goals. But how big is your WHY?

I'll admit to having watched a bit of The X Factor last night. Boy how hungry were those contestants for the ultimate success!. They were all winners as far as I was concerned. And it seemed to me that they pretty much all had a very big WHY. A big enough reason to succeed. My heart went out to Leon who won and as a mother of a teenage son who has set himself a stupendous goal he wants to succeed in, I got quite motional for him.

What's my why? What are yours? Would answering some of these questions help you to discover your WHYs?

What do you want to achieve in you lifetime? 

What makes you ....  happy and excited?

What areas of your life do you want to grow in?

What gets you really worked up socially and politically?

What areas of personal growth mean the most to you?

What are you most afraid of?

If you could help others transform their lives in some truely meaningful way, what would that mean to you?

What does family and friendship mean to you?

Are there people in your life for whom you would do pretty much anything?

You tell me you want to lose weight. What's your WHY?

You say you want to make money. Is your reason strong enough to get you out of bed in time in the morning?

You want to run a marathon. What will achieving that do for you?

So many dreams. So many desires. So many goals. How are you going to get there? How powerful are your reasons?

What gives your life worth and meaning? Your WHY has such immense power. That's one of the major things that's going to motivate you to get off your butt and take action to succeed at the things you say you want. That's your carrot. That's what drives you.

Now, here's the thing. I don't recommend you keep this in your head. There is power in the written word. So grab a paper and pen. Or better still, something more permanent like a lovely hard-backed journal. Reason's to be cheerful. Part One. Go on. Start with one reason why you must succeed. Make it real. Ten expand on it as much as you can.

'For my mum' may be a good enough motivator for you but allow yourself to think of as many reasons as you can why it should be for your mum. Keep going. And then some more. Aim for at least 3 good reasons in each area for which you have a goal. You;ll know when you hit the peak. When it hits you in the eye -'So that's why I've got to do it.'

When you've written them down, do you know you will be one of only about 7-3% of people who ever bother? And that will make you one of the small % of people likely to succeed. Way to go! Now imagine looking back at your journal in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years or 10 years time and tracking your success. How good does that feel? And that imagining and feeling will greatly contribute to attracting that success to you.

My Reasons to Succeed

1. For my sister whose life is rapidly ebbing away as I write this, my son who has bigger dreams and takes action in a way I would never have dreamt of at his age, for my husband who deserves to kick back in his life a bit more now and for me because I deserve the feeling of achievement I would surely get.

2. The children around the world whose lives I have the capacity to transform by sponsorships and for paying for life changing surgeries.

3. For the future of the earth if I can make whatever contributions I can to preserving it and creating gardens of peacefulness and relaxation.

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30 Ways to Fail, 30 Ways to Succeed

I was talking today to the Apple Mac technician Syed to sort a problem I was having and I was so impressed by his patience and courtesy as well as his problem solving skills and it just connected with one of the ways Napoleon Hill talks about in a chapter from his book Think and Grow Rich called How to Overcome Failure and achieve Success. 

After speaking to Syed I definitely felt warmer towards his company and I hope it reflects how they select and train all their technicians. Of course people are going to want to use this company if they have got the right ingredients for success, and for me a key pointer is treating their customers right, with courtesy and patience in my case.

So what's holding you back from being the success you would like to be? From the thousands of people Napoleon Hill studied back there in the 1930s an impressive 98% could not be classed as successful. OK there was The Depression, but could things be very much different today? Yes I know that depends on how you define Success but I rather suspect still a huge percentage of us would struggle to class ourselves as 'successful'.

Check this out. Where would you stand on Hill's list of the 30 major causes of failure (and therefore the keys to success)? He based his list on 25 years of careful analysis of the methods of both successful and unsuccessful men in America. Try this out with someone who knows you well as we mostly can't see ourselves as others see us.

1. Unfavorable hereditary background. Here he's talking about people with a 'deficiency in brainpower' and is the only one thing on his list that can't be corrected. OK. Once you've decided that's not you, move on.

2. Lack of well defined purpose. What are you about? Do you have definite goals? 98 out of 100 of us have no such thing. Got your goals sorted out for the coming year and written down??

3. Lack of ambition to rise above mediocrity. This is people who don't want to get ahead in life or lack the motivation to put the work necessary in.

4. Insufficient education. We're not talking college degree here but self education or becoming self made, and the ability to APPLY what you know.

5. Lack of self discipline - not having self control or self mastery ca be one of the hardest things to do.

6. Ill Health mostly caused by eating unhealthily, negative thinking, lack of proper exercise, fresh air and poor breathing

7. Poor childhood influences leading to criminal tendencies

8. Procrastination . One of the most common causes of failure. Most of us are living in wait for the right time to start something. There's not usually a right time. Just start and develop as you go.

9. Lack of persistence -starting and never finishing and then giving up at the first sign of defeat.

10. Negative personality. Success can't come if your negativity repels others but from applying power through cooperation with others.

11. Lack of controlled sexual urge. What? I hear you say! This most powerful of human urges needs to be converted into other channels.

12. Uncontrolled desire for something for nothing - a gambling instinct that leads millions to failure.

13. Poor decision making. Finding it hard to make decisions then frequent changing of mind. Indecision and Procrastination are twin brothers.

14. Having one or more of the basic 6 fears (that's for another chapter)

15. Selecting the wrong marriage partner leading to misery, unhappiness and loss of ambition.

16. Over-caution - not willing to take risks. Life is filled with chances.

17. Selecting the wrong people to associate with. We end to copy those we mix with. Who are you associating with?

18. Superstition and Prejudice leads to fear and ignorance. Keep open minded.

19. Selecting the wrong vocation. You've got to like what you do that you can be wholeheartedly involved in.

20. Not concentrating your efforts - having a jack of all trades mentality so you don't concentrate on one definite aim.

21. Indiscriminate spending leads to an eternal fear of poverty. Develop the habit of saving a percentage of your income systematically.

22. lack of enthusiasm - its contagious.

23. Intolerance especially around religious, racial and political differences. You need to develop open mindedness and be ready to learn new things.

24. Intemperance - overindulgence in drink, sex, food .

25. Not cooperating with others that can lose you big opportunities in life.

26. Possessing power not achieved through your own efforts. "Power in the hands of one who did not acquire it gradually, is often fatal to success. Quick riches are more dangerous than poverty."

27. Intentional dishonesty will sooner or later erode your reputation and maybe even your freedom.

28. Egotism and Vanity will flash like warning lights for others to avoid you.

29. Guessing instead of thinking. You need to take time to get the facts so you can make accurate judgements.

30. Lack of capital. (Thinks... Are there not people we know, or know of, who are now successful but had practically nothing or were even in debt to start with?). He says its especially hard for first timers to absorb the shock of their mistakes to tide them over till they've built their reputations.

Well there you have it. How did you score in the success/failure stakes? Did Hill get it right? Have things moved on from his days? Just something to consider and I for one will definitely keep good goal setting along with persistence and self discipline at the forefront.

Blessings for today

1.I am thankful that I have been able to maintain my focus and discipline today despite low energy from lack of adequate sleep.

2. I give thanks for my family relationships that support and encourage.

3. I am grateful for the labour of the Women of Columbia whose craft was given to me as a gift. Their labour of many hours to produce a scarf of great beauty is a testimony to their resourcefulness and hard work and I wish them divine blessings in their work. I take inspiration from their work.

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More on Creating Goals from Vic Johnson

Coincidentally - well not that surprising really at this time of the year! - I just came across a little video from Vic Johnson about setting goals. Its very good but it stops short of the really impactful bit I was looking forward to which was taking you through a process of reprogramming your thoughts so you can get beyond self limiting beliefs and achieve greater success in your goals.

And we all have them, don't we? No matter how 'sorted' we are. There's usually a little tape we play over and over inside our heads of all kinds of negative stuff. You know the one that goes something like "the reason you can't have an intimate relationships is because you're..fat/ugly/ignorant"...You fill in the blanks. Or how about "you can't possibly do that. You haven't been educated" Oh there are so many. What's your favourite?

Well here's the thing. How we hold ourselves from getting where we want to because we keep feeding a lot of negative self limiting stuff to ourselves. Yes we have to be honest with ourselves, but is that honesty? Are there people who are fat and loved to bits by their partners? Are there people who acquired wealth who didn't have a college degree? If we keep telling ourselves the reason we don't achieve is because of some deficit, we may just be short changing ourselves. Heck, there are enough people out there who may want to knock you off your perch, why do it to yourself?

Vic says making goals is a process like making a cake. There are ingredients to get and steps to follow. And what happens if we don't, is that the cake won't turn out as we expected or hoped. The good thing is that you can expect good results if you follow the recipe.

I like his analogy too of travelling along the road to get from A toB. You're lucky if the road is clear and you can just whizz on by. But all too often there are roadworks, obstacles, detours, traffic lights to stop at, hedgehogs crossing the road. So what are you going to do? Give up and go home, right? Heck no. You might have to stop a little, find another route or something. You just need to be flexible.

He talks about the 5 step process to getting what you want and I recommend you have a look at his video on http://www.Goals-2-Go.com It may not take you the whole way but its a good start.

Blessings for Today

1. When my husband accidentally burnt my son's school tie tonight, a neighbour came to the rescue with his son's old school tie. Thank heavens for neighbour you can call on in a time of need

2. I'm glad I stumbled across Vic's video. It was very timely. I guess I manifested it and I am grateful to the universal energy that drew me there.

3. Its pretty cold outside and I wouldn't like to be the one huddled up in some doorway trying to fend off the cold. Am I lucky or am I lucky that I have shelter from the storm? I am grateful.

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Making 2008 Your Best Year Ever

OK. So moving on from yesterday, I'd like to tell you more about some of the tips from Eric Edmeades for making 2008 your Best Year Ever. Remember - dream big but plan smart, tackle your limiting beliefs, uphold your promises to yourself like they were the promises you would make to your children if your life depended on it and would uphold whatever happened, write down your goals so you really know what you are aiming for. Needless to say, this starts to make them more concrete.

This comes from a man who spent many years turning his life around from near financial ruin, divorce, stress, being alone in a new country to financial freedom, a loving relationship and international leadership. Can you and I do it? Or is this for 'special' people? I know this for sure, if we always do what we always did, we'll always get what we always got. So what're you going to change, to create a different future?

Quite simply, and make no mistake, knowing what you want, is the way to get going. I had so much to write in this next exercise where we dated our 'journal' exactly one year from now and just started writing about all the things we had experienced during the year 2008. Beginning with .....

"Wow! What a year!..." Write about the beautiful things you now owned, the wonderful things you did, the amazing relationships you made, the places you'd visited, the way you took care of your physical health and your spiritual needs, about eliminating your debts, your rise in self confidence and self esteem, the friends you've made along the way. Wait, you've not done yet. How about.....

The learnings you've done, reaching your ideal weight, feeling fitter, younger, blessed, the car you acquired, the business growth you've made, the contributions you've made in the world, the love you've expressed and accepted, the way you've fostered relationships in your family, the things you can now do that you couldn't do a year ago, the income opportunities that came your way, the career shifts, the courses you've done, the activities you've enjoyed . Then add some more. Keep going. Here's your chance to really go for it in all areas of your life.

Talk about how great its been and all the other fantastic emotions that have blown you away during the year. Fill it with pride and joy and peacefulness and appreciations. Add some love and wonderment and surprise. Write about the difference you make in other people's lives and the fulfillment you've had.

Then when you've done that, find some quiet and uninterrupted place where you can allow yourself to close your eyes, and drift down into a beautiful place of total relaxation in your mind and as though in a dream, take yourself one year forward and looking back at your life, 'seeing' all those things you wrote about to come floating into your mind, already achieved.

Imagine you are already driving that car, recieving that cheque, meeting that special person, living in that amazing house, playing that alto saxophone (my dream folks!), floating that business on the stock market... Whatever floats your boat. This is the start of manifesting these things into your life, embedding them in your unconscious mind. Your unconscious mind doesn't know the difference between fantasy and reality. However, as you might guess, there's more to do than dreaming. This is just the start.

He had us do this exercise where we identified 5 areas for consideration -

1. Perfect Intimate Relationships
2. Physical Health
3. Experiential/learning
4. Contribution
5. Financial

In each area we would then start some detailed mapping of exactly what we wanted to achieve. For example in Physical Health it might be;

• exercise for at least 3 times per week for a half hour each time
• drink at least 4 glasses of water daily
• join a walking club and go walking with others at least once a month/fortnight
• spend ten minutes per day in deep breathing
• meditate at least twice per week for about 10 minutes
• radically reduce your refined sugar and saturated fats by at least a half
• get that health check you've been meaning to get by the end of the month
• get to sleep a half hour earlier than usual
• eat a set portion of fruit and vegetable daily
• always take the stairs rather than the elevator
• join that football club
• etc. etc.

You begin to see how that dream of a fitter healthier more physically robust you gets broken down into specific and manageable small steps that you can begin to put into practice without too much difficulty.

Each area can be given a similar treatment and what you are going to end up with is a dream that's broken down into specific goals within which you can start to take small steps towards its achievement.

Taking small action steps is important. You are chunking down into manageable bite siized pieces (How do you eat an elephant? One bit at a time!) From all the smaller steps you wrote down, go ahead and select 2 or 3 from each area that you really could do. No sweat.

Remember where I wrote about making promises to yourself? Now's the time to bring that into play. However if you can now also find yourself a partner, or better still a group of people with whom you can share your goals who can challenge, support, brainstorm with you and encourage, you are going to accelerate your success in achieving what you set out to do at a much much faster rate. People who will hold you accountable and be your mastermind group.

I must say that when we got together at the seminar with others this didn't really work so well for me. There was no time to get acquainted with the others or really understand or be understood about what we were trying to achieve but the idea was there of how we could develop using a mastermind group to achieve success.

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable." Christopher Reeves 1996

Blessings for today

1. I want to thank the members of the group at the seminar that I was in for their contributions to my success. If only one germ of an idea was valid, that has a potential for enormous growth.

2. I enjoyed my dinner tonight. I am grateful for the food I eat and that it is so easily accessible to me.

3.For sharing warmth and love with my son and my husband when I walked through the door on returning from work today. I felt the caring and I wouldn't want to take it for granted for it is special in my life.



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2008 - Your Best Year Ever

Listen up. If it seems to you that you've got bags of time to start thinking about your goals for the 2008, think again. At least Eric Edmeades wouldn't let you get away with that kind of thinking. He's all for getting started right now and right away. I know because I've just been attending today a one day training with him where he's been sharing his best guide for making the coming year your best ever.

Eric is now an international speaker in such areas as wealth, communication, business building and team building. Today he's been looking at creating clear goals that have a practical follow- up element, turning those deep desires we all have to create a better life experience for ourselves into attainable goals. It was one inspirational day.

For Eric dedicated planning is one of the keys to success. How many of us can get our focus around this at this time of the year? Well, a hell of a lot of people today by the look of it. It seems too many of us are sick of more of the same and we want to make a difference in our lives. And we want to do it now. But how to do it?

Eric said "I planned holidays and adventures, I planned charity and contribution, I planned for learning and I planned for success." He must have done something right for by all accounts he's doing pretty well in the world. Is it for us mere mortals? You betcha! If you don't know where you're going, how on earth will you know when you get there?

People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. - Earl Nightingale

What it takes is smart planning.

You miss 100% of the shots you do not take. - Wayne Gretsky

So let me offer one or two tips from the day that anyone can use.

1. Be aware of limiting beliefs when creating your goals. These are things like "I can't possibly aim that high.", "Its too much to shoot that far." Dream big goals - why not? Just be aware of that little voice inside that's getting back at you. If you try to set massive goals but know you screw up with your promises to yourself or you like a long lie-in in the mornings, that little voice is going to tell you no, you won't be able to reach them. How do you change that? What if you could find a more productive way to interrupt the negative thought patterns you have? He had us doing an NLP pattern interrupt exercise within small groups. Thats more involving to describe here but this next thing is well within all our capacity to do.

Create a Pattern Interrupt card. Use your computer to create a little card like a drivers licence with your picture on it. Create your own mission statement. Have 5-6 goals you want to achieve for the year. Laminate it. Stick it in your wallet. Now every time you are tempted to break your goal (e.g. you reach for that packet of biscuits you said you would never touch again), you bring out the card and read it. You may find you carry on eating the biscuits anyway but you still look at the card, still reminding your conscious mind and your subconscious what it is you are aiming for. Eventually the message will most likely get through.

Here's an exercise from the day. How about writing down what would be your perfect day if you could create it. But First! Consider, what would a messed-up day look like? Negative thinking, hitting the snooze button once again, procrastinating, drinking, smoking too much, having arguements with others, watching the news, being in a bad mood or others being so towards you. The list goes on. Now you'll know what you don't want. That's the stuff you're chucking out

Then come the real fun bit. This bit starts to give you clues about what you might want to be aiming for in your life. Describe your perfect day. Notice if it contains positive attitudes, spiritual enhancement, exercise, being in control of what you do, telling others you love them, keeping your word, doing something for someone else, play, fun, expressing gratitude, balancing work and play, dreaming and doing, drinking more water. What? What? Couldn't you just get totally blown away writing such a day?

2. Consider what happens when you give your word but don't follow through. Not to yourself or to other people. This bit's important because you're going to have to not only say you're going to take some action, but actually do them. Your currency to yourself or others have limited value if you don't.

I've a friend who I just say 'yea, yea' to now without the least conviction because repeatedly, she's failed to follow through with me and promises have been broken. After a while not only do others stop believing in you, but you don't even believe in yourself either. What does that do to your self esteem? How far down the road to success will you travel? Don't promise you will do something unless you know you will get things done. Shades of New year's resolutions here. And its far harder to keep those promises to yourself, isn't it?Who's going to check up on you? So during the day there was a lot of earnest promising both to ourselves and to our 'mastermind' groups about the steps towards achieving our goals we said we would take.

Wait. There's more. But I'm saving that for tomorrow.

Blessings for today

1. I had a wonderful and totally free opportunity today to revisit where I want to get to in my life in the next year. And I felt totally free to dream big and plan small practical steps. I'm excited by the future and totally committed to getting there. I am grateful to Triumphant Events and to Eric Edmeades for making this day possible that I and others may grow.

2. I am grateful to the people I met and connected with and especially with Naz and Christianna. Great company and conversations. And if at times I felt a little lost, it was good to have them near me and to to share our experiences.

3. One of the terrific things about living in London - so many wonderful experiences and opportunities to enhance my life right here on my doorstep. I feel lucky and appreciate them hugely.

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Turning Failure into Success

Guess what I’ve been reading? Napoleon Hill’s How to Overcome Failure and Achieve Success. It particularly struck a chord for me especially after the weekend meeting with my mastermind group and I wanted to share some of the core ideas he wrote about like masterminding and not quitting.

Haven’t we all got a desire to do, be or have something? Even something a vague as ‘to be a success’. We embellish this in our imagination and then if our desire if great enough, before long, we’ll find a way to start turning these imaginings into concrete plans for how we will achieve that desire. What Hill now describes is something of a blueprint for moving desire forward into success

This guy's an original creator for success through following ‘the mastermind principle’. Its about forming an alliance with like-minded people with whom you can relate in harmony, and that requires you to be able to contribute to other’s success as well as gaining from their experience, knowledge and skills. It comes down to more heads being better than one.

My mastermind group meets, like most I know of, about once per month but in fact, he suggests meeting at least twice a week if your plan is around making money. It turns out from his observation of people who became wealthy, everyone who had acquired wealth have got there through the combined education, native ability, experience and ability of other people. Although you can create your own plans, it works best to submit them for scrutiny to others to test that they are workable and practical. Of course this requires a good deal of trust and I’m finding from my own experience that that takes a while to grow.

And, oh yes, lets not forget perseverance. Guess what stops most people from succeeding? Yup! Lack of perseverance. The problem is, sometimes it just seems so darn hard to carry on especially if you’ve been trying and not getting anywhere fast. Imagine ‘failing’ ten thousand times like Edison did in trying to create the electric light bulb! Hey, at what point would most of us have packed up and gone home? Could I have stood his pace? Who has that degree of dogged determination and sheer persistence? For him, he just learnt 9,999 times how not to create the light bulb and he saw no reason not to continue until ‘bingo!’, there was light. What an inspiration! Okay, I just needed to remind myself about that.

We tend to think that successful people must have superior minds – or immense good luck. Hill says more likely what they have is a sound plan of action. And then they keep at it. Think about this -failure is built largely on quitting in the face of temporary defeats. Lets face it, it’s the old adage isn’t I?. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.

I was at a StartupsLive business network meeting the other night listening to several very successful people testify to their success and without fail, every one had a story of temporary defeat. And the bottom line is, it didn’t stop them. Hill says that when defeat comes, accept it as a signal to do something differently with a sound plan

“A quitter never wins – and a winner never quits”

Here’s something else. Try, as he suggests, writing this out and placing it where you will see it every morning and every night. Its sure worth keeping in mind when we are tempted to buckle in the face of apparent failure. And then go consider the plan again, preferably in the company of your mastermind group.

Blessings for today

1. I am grateful for the frankness and support in my mastermind group. For some it was an emotional experience, but boy did it move us on a notch.

2. I got a bit morose for a couple of days. It may have been because I hadn’t been counting my blessings. But several sources have been hitting my face that have said never quit, keep on going. And today I acknowledge the universal spirit that shows me the way.

3. I’ve had a major presentation to prepare for which has consumed much of my time for several days. I am so thankful and relieved that it is over and that moreover, it was very successful.

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