Better Than Your Best

Previous Issues of the "Better Than Your Best" Newsletter. Thank you for your interest!

October 15, 2009  You're no doubt familiar with the story of Pygmalion, who fell in love with his own reflection. From time to time ask yourself in what ways you've become enamored with your own approach to living. These are your self-expectations – what you expect to experience if you're going to be happy. However, they are more often the points of blockage that prevent you from experiencing even greater satisfaction and fulfillment in your life. The same is true of what you expect from others. Following is a synopsis of the work of Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, entitled Pygmalion in the Classroom, published in 1968, on the impact on students of their of teachers' unspoken, preset expectations.   Self-fulfilling prophecies are powerful – particularly within social institutions. Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson demonstrated the power of self-fulfilling prophecies in a school setting. The two researchers had spent much of their careers in education and had become increasingly concerned that teachers' expectations of lower-class minority children were contributing to the high rates of failure among these students. Such ideas were not without support. In the early 1950s sociologist Howard Becker had found that teachers in slum schools used different teaching techniques and expected less from their students than did teachers in middle-class schools. Rosenthal and Jacobson's experiment took place in a public elementary school in a predominantly lower-class but not impoverished community. At the beginning of the school year, the researchers gave the students an intelligence test they called "The Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition." They told the teachers that not only did this test determine intelligence quotients (IQs), but it could also identify those students who would make rapid, above-average intellectual progress in the coming year, whether or not they were currently 'good' students. Before the next school year began, teachers received the names of those students who, on the basis of the the test, could be expected to perform well. In actuality, Rosenthal and Jacobson had randomly picked these names from the class list. The test did not identify 'academic spurters' as the teachers had been led to believe. In short, any differences between these children and the rest of the class existed only in the heads of the teachers. A second intelligence test was administers at the end of the year. Those students who had been identified as 'academic spurters' showed, on average, an increase of more than 12 points on their IQ scores, compared to an increase of 8 points among the rest of the students. The differences were even larger in the early grades, with almost half of the first- and second-grade spurters showing an IQ increase of 20 points or more. Teachers' subjective assessments, such as reading grades, showed similar differences. The teachers also indicated that these 'special' students were better behaved, were more intellectually curious, had greater chances for future success, and were friendlier than their non-special counterparts. Rosenthal and Jacobson concluded that a self-fulfilling prophecy was at work. The teachers had subtly and unconsciously encouraged the performance they expected to see. Not only did they spend more time with these students, they were also more enthusiastic about teaching them and unintentionally showed more warmth to them than to the other students. As a result, the special students felt more capable and intelligent. And they performed accordingly."  

_______________________________________________________________________ September 28, 2009 Your Journey Toward Empathy Empathy is identification with others. More than understanding another’s feelings and difficulties, empathy is a desire to help another in need. Although most people will feel compassion or sympathy towards other people at various times, true empathy does not occur without intentional effort. If the person is like you, possessing external characteristics that are immediately evident and compatible with your own, we tend to empathize with them. But if the person is really distinct, demonstrating obvious differences from you, such identification becomes more difficult to achieve. How do you help someone you can’t empathize with? You can’t, except superficially and temporarily. Without genuine empathy, real altruism seldom occurs. At least a degree of empathy is needed for aspects of your better Self to emerge. Empathy can be encouraged and stimulated by developing a personal board of advisers. Start right now to identify five people you trust. They could already be in your life or not yet in your life. Get their contact information – especially phone numbers. When you call, briefly tell them your plans to become more empathetic and helpful to others. Note how much of their time you’re asking for. For example, “I need your advice on how to deal with difficult people twice a month for five minutes each time over the next three months. That’s a total of thirty minutes in three months on the phone discussing this issue. Can you help me?” You’ll find that nearly everyone will say “yes.” We all want to be helpful, especially if we’re asked for it in a sincere manner. To make the phone meetings more productive, if you are going to ask specific questions regarding the topic at hand, inform them at least an hour ahead of the scheduled phone call. During the call, write down comments and ideas that will help you get beyond yourself and into a truly helpful relationship with other people. In every conversation, your helper should ask you what you did with the information and ideas gained during the previous session. Make sure you’ve tried something – anything – to implement them. When you do, you’ll discover that your better Self thrives on finding innovative ways to be helpful to other people. Empathy opens the door to your better Self. Genuine empathy emerges from genuine helpfulness. __________________________________________________ Learn more about how to become your better Self and do better than your best by ordering Ken’s latest book, “Your Better Self: A Simple Guide to Where You Want to Be.” You can get your copy from any of the online booksellers. Click here to order the eBook version and receive amazing bonuses! Learn more about how Ken can help you and your organization perform better than your best: Click here now. __________________________________________________ Ready to retreat to Belize? The first ever “Your Better Self Retreat” will be held in Belize, Central America in March, 2010. Details are being worked out now. Stay tuned to learn more soon. __________________________________________________________________________ November 26, 2008 Contents: • A Step in the Right Direction • Contemplate This! • What Others Are Saying • Helpful Links • Announcements ________________________________ A Step in the Right Direction This section of the newsletter will provide a single step you can take today to go beyond the self-imposed limitations you currently have. Taking this step will help you immediately do better than what you think you can do. ____________________________________ Change and Progress: Seven Components to Consider by Ken Wallace Over the next three issues, we'll be dealing with the following aspects of change, or what I like to call, transition management: 1. A Basic Human Need 2. There Are Two Kinds of Change 3. How to Take Charge of Change 4. The Three Phases of Change 5. Transition and Organizational Progress: What is the difference between change and transition? 6. Transition and Enterprise Integration: The Three Areas and Four Components of Organizational Structure 7. The Strategic Plan and Implementation Blueprint: No Doubt Contracting This issue will deal with the first three aspects. _______________________________________ Alfred North Whitehead wrote, "The art of progress is to preserve order amidst change and to preserve change amidst order." 1. A Basic Human Need Change is a fact of life! The only thing that doesn't change is change. Consequently, it is also a fact of life that human beings are always dealing with change in some form at every stage of their lives. Change, in fact, is a basic human need. Change is really nothing more than movement from one state of being to another. Without movement – physical, physiological, biological, mental, spiritual, emotional – human beings would simply stop functioning and human existence, as we experience it, would cease. Change is the natural means to both improvement and deterioration. To a large extent, human beings have a choice in what the results of change will be. 2. There are two kinds of change: Natural Change: change that occurs without cognitive human intervention and that takes place in a natural way, such as weather and the changing of the seasons. Designed Change: change that occurs as a result of cognitive human intervention and that takes place as a result of changing the environment to reflect human thought; this kind of change is governed by human intention and perceived need rather than by natural conditions. The human experience of change is exactly the same in both natural and designed change. The reason is that all change in the environment provokes the same kinds of emotions about one's ability to adapt to and survive in the altered conditions. The initial human reaction to change is fear – fear of loss of something and the fear that what is lost will not be replaced by something of a greater value that will increase predictability and sustain life. 3. How to Take Charge of Change Regardless of the type of change that occurs, there exists a basic human need to experience the change process as being well-ordered and safe rather than chaotic and dangerous. Without this experience of ordered and safe change before, during and after any transition the human element of the organization cannot fully participate in productive contribution to positive change. It is imperative to identify and remove existing and potential risks that can inhibit the successful execution of any strategic change initiative. Like it or not, change happens continually in your life and in your organization. As Whitehead's comment indicates, the only way to make change work in your favor is to take charge of the change process. When you do this, you use the change process as a means to design the future you intend rather than passively allow the changing environment to present you with limited options and narrowed choices for meaningful action. How can you "take charge of change" so as to make it happen in your favor and to make it "ordered?" There are several points to be considered in answering this question: – Change is conceived as an event (something which happens at a particular moment in time and at a specific place or places). – Change is experienced as a process; this process is called "transition." – Because transition is a process, it can be managed. How well the transition is managed will determine if change is remembered as a positive or negative experience. The remembrance of previous changes is the basis of motivation for or the resistance against future changes. Assessing the level of "change readiness" is a critical first step in determining the level of support and interest in changing from the current state of affairs. How has change been experienced in the past by those who will be responsible for and who will be affected by changes in the present? The answer to this question will help you determine if some "pre-work" on "stage-setting" is needed to prepare the organization for a successful transition. This step is a part of an overall "Transition Risk Analysis" that will help you determine what the transition facilitators and inhibitors are within your organization. Effective change implementation management skills are necessary for all managers in any organization. These skills are essential to the strategic achievement of an organization's mission and goals. These skills can be learned and continually refined. The better these skills are learned, refined and implemented on a proactive basis, the more the process of change becomes a competitive advantage for the organization. Next issue will continue with our exploration of effective Transition Management. ____________________________________ Contemplate This! "Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing." Oscar Wilde "Not in his goals but in his transitions is man great." Ralph Waldo Emerson "Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit" Ralph Waldo Emerson "Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we want is for things to remain the same but get better. Sydney Harris "Most bold change is the result of a hundred thousand tiny changes that culminate in a bold product or procedure or structure." Tom Peters "Maturity is the ability to live in peace with that which we cannot change." Ann Landers _____________________________________ What Others Are Saying This section offers helpful content from other sources. This content will help further your goal of performing better than your current best at everything you do. __________________________________________ Change vs. Transition Change is what brings on transition, but the transition is how we deal with the change. This is where "the fear of the unknown" kicks in–where change meets transition. There are three phases in transitioning that we go through psychologically: 1. Letting Go 2. Neutralizing 3. Launching a New Beginning William Bridges describes "letting go" as dealing with your losses in his article, "Managing Transitions: Making The Most Of Change." In each transition one thing will pass in order for the new thing to take its place (a new job, marriage, higher education, etc.). This is a necessary phase in transitioning from the old to the new–letting go of the old so that the new can take root. Anxiety and self-doubt generally arise in the neutralizing phase, when passing from the old and into the new leaves us with an empty feeling. This is because the "new" isn't fully operational, which makes us cling to negative feelings (self-doubt, anxiety, etc.) as a descriptor of the current situation, when in actuality it is just a natural part of neutralization. Finally, we will launch our new beginning! We find our way through the neutralization process successfully by managing it with positive expectations and begin to take on the new. It becomes a part of our daily lives and is natural and comfortable to us. And then, when the next change comes, we can remember how we used the three phases to our advantage as a reminder that we can do it again. http://www.wmbridges.com/resources/books-mt_chpt_2.html http://www.fcg.gov/documents/managing_transitions.pdf _____________________________________ Helpful Links Check out some good information for helping students manage their transition into High School: http://www.jstor.org/pss/2112340 Take the "Change Resiliency" Quiz to see how well you can manage change: http://www.workingresources.com/changeresiliency/ Here's twelve principles for managing change: http://www.lynco.com/12prin.html _____________________________________ Announcements This section will keep you up to date on Ken's latest undertakings, products and other important information from a variety of sources. _____________________________________ Sign up for our free Better Than Your Best Tip of the Week by clicking here: http://www.betterthanyourbest.com/public/department27.cfm _____________________________________ Learn the benefits of enrolling in our Better Than Your Best Mastermind Membership by clicking here: http://www.betterthanyourbest.com/public/main.cfm _____________________________________ NEW! Get your copy of Ken's book, "Traits of Success: What You Really Need to Succeed (Not as Much as You Think!)." Don't forget to sign up for his FREE "Success Traits Training" series! It's all here: www.TraitsOfSuccess.com ! __________________________________________________________________________ Wednesday, Oct 22, 2008 Contents: • A Step in the Right Direction • Contemplate This! • What Others Are Saying • Helpful Links • Announcements ________________________________ A Step in the Right Direction This section of the newsletter will provide a single step you can take today to go beyond the self-imposed limitations you currently have. Taking this step will help you immediately do better than what you think you can do. ____________________________________ 4 -7 of the Seven Great Ways to Improve Your Attitude by Ken Wallace If you don't like what's being disclosed to the world regarding your inner self; if you're dissatisfied with the truth about you; if you'd rather have different results in your life; if you don't like where you are and where you're going, then how can you change what's transporting you there — your attitudes? There are seven ways. I shared the first three in the last newsletter; here are the rest of them! 4. To change your attitude you need to change not just your thinking habits but also your giving habits. Give more than you're giving right now. Give to more people that you're giving right now. Not just money, but your time, your talents, your counsel, your hopes and dreams. Share your story with more people. Share more of your story with people. Give them more of your energy, not just more of your knowledge. Give them more than they expect or feel they deserve. Make them better receivers by becoming a better giver. Give them a valuable interaction that exceeds ordinary experience. Leave them with a better self-image and a greater hope for their future. 5. When criticized, admonished or reprimanded, don't be defensive, seeking to merely preserve the mental self-portrait that you happen to think was well painted. Be open to the many colors and hues that others' have on their palettes of life that could help fill out and beautify the picture you have of yourself. You can help them see their own need for "beautification" by letting them help you become the vibrant and colorful person you were created to be. Openness with the expectation of learning something new and different about yourself is an attitude that leads to becoming a bigger, better and "newer" human being. 6. Don't try to be perfect! An attitude of perfection causes imperfection to reign supreme. Seek excellence and improvement rather than a static position in your life that you define as "perfect." Life is always changing and so should your attitude about what makes it worth living! 7. There are persons and processes that influence your life and attitudes. Those who have contributed positively to your life have also helped shape your attitudes about what is possible for you to achieve and to have in life. You need to increase the positive influences and influencers by getting more of those people into your life. Ask them who their positive influencers are and request that they introduce you to them. Just as there are positive influencers there are positive processes, like the effective management of time and energy flow in your life that serve as a basis for attitude. If you feel you aren't in control of your time and that your energy is misspent or misdirected, your attitude toward your future will be on the bleak side. Seek to acquire and fine-tune processes and systems that will make your life easier and more efficient. When you gain control over your life by means of positive processes and systems, your attitude will be one of confidence and "assertive anticipation" for a brighter future. Next issue will deal with the area of Transition Management, commonly referred to as "change." ____________________________________ Contemplate This! "The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something" (Randy Pausch during his 'Last Lecture'). "While we are focusing on fear, worry, or hate, it is not possible for us to be experiencing happiness, enthusiasm or love" (Bo Bennett). "In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer" (Albert Camus). "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company …a church …a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past …we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude …I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our attitudes" (Charles Swindoll). _____________________________________ What Others Are Saying This section offers helpful content from other sources. This content will help further your goal of performing better than your current best at everything you do. __________________________________________ The Last Lecture Even if you did not know of Randy Pausch before he died this July (2008), his name is as common today as John McCain, Barack Obama or Sarah Palin. Before Pausch died from pancreatic cancer, he delivered his "last lecture" at Carnegie Mellon University. This lecture, considered "so uplifting, so funny, so inspirational…" by ABC news, has been viewed worldwide by over ten million people. What's so special about this last lecture? His attitude. "You just have to decide if you're a Tigger or an Eeyore," Pausch said in his lecture. Life boils down not to the cards you are dealt, but how you deal with them. Life can be as easy or as difficult as you make it, according to Pausch: "I'm dying and I'm having fun." With only a few months left to live during this speech, Pausch wanted to talk about life and his attitude toward it. In varying degrees we have all felt the highs and lows of life. What do you rely on to help you through those low times? How can you trust that you'll ever see the highs again? You got it–your attitude. Your attitude can literally get you up off the couch and outside for some exercise to keep yourself healthy, it can help you pick up the phone and call a long lost friend or relative, but most importantly, your attitude will shape your entire life–a life that's waiting to be lived to its fullest. You can view the lecture at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo. Other sources: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=4614281 _____________________________________ Helpful Links http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LastLecture/ http://www.webmd.com/content/article/1/1707_50315.htm http://www.femhealth.com/BenefitsPositiveAttitude.html http://www.psychtests.com/tests/personality/self_esteem_r_access.html _____________________________________ Announcements This section will keep you up to date on Ken's latest undertakings, products and other important information from a variety of sources. _____________________________________ Sign up for our free Better Than Your Best Tip of the Week by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/department27.cfm _____________________________________ Learn the benefits of enrolling in our Better Than Your Best Mastermind Membership by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/main.cfm _____________________________________ Check out Ken's latest eBooks, Custom Apparel and Original Music by Clicking Here • Order Ken's "Horizonless Halls," an eclectic collection of original music! Click here for further information Click here to listen to the entire title song, "Horizonless Halls." _____________________________________ NEW! Get your copy of Ken's book, "Traits of Success: What You Really Need to Succeed (Not as Much as You Think!)." Don't forget to sign up for his FREE "Success Traits Training" series! It's all here: www.TraitsOfSuccess.com ! _______________________________________________________________ Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 Contents: • A Step in the Right Direction • Contemplate This! • What Others Are Saying • Helpful Links • Announcements ________________________________ A Step in the Right Direction This section of the newsletter will provide a single step you can take today to go beyond the self-imposed limitations you currently have. Taking this step will help you immediately do better than what you think you can do. ____________________________________ 1 – 3 of the Seven Great Ways to Improve Your Attitude by Ken Wallace If you don't like what's being disclosed to the world regarding your inner self; if you're dissatisfied with the truth about you; if you'd rather have different results in your life; if you don't like where you are and where you're going, then how can you change what's transporting you there — your attitudes? There are seven ways. Following are the first three (the rest will come in the next Newsletter!). 1. Begin with examining your current attitudes toward yourself and other people. This is not as difficult as it might at first appear to be. Simply ask yourself, "What is destructive about the way I'm thinking about myself and others?" In other words, what's causing pain and displeasure; what's resulting in my feeling unsatisfied with, or perhaps even ashamed of my behavior and what I have in my life? If you'll spend just a few minutes in honest, reflective thought about these issues, you'll soon discover that at the root of your lack of fulfillment is a habit of thinking that is based on incomplete and/or inaccurate information. The story you're telling yourself about yourself and others will soon be revealed to have been constructed on a partial foundation of facts, many of the bricks being missing and the mortar holding it all together being mere prejudice and opinion masquerading as facts. When you uncover the "facts of your attitudes," you'll also discover what is good and helpful in those attitudes. Keep what's working to get you what you want in life and get rid of what's not. Make a list — a simple "T" chart — with what's working on the left side and what's not working on the right. Then set goals to increase the size of the list on the left while reducing the size on the right. 2. Listen to what you say to yourself about others. Listen to what they are saying about you. Your thoughts are composed of the language you use to tell the story about your truth to yourself and others. That same language is used in the stories they tell regarding what they experience to be the truth about you. What you hear when you truly listen will provide additional facts that you will need to incorporate into your new and improved story about the truth about you. 3. Your thinking determines your pathways to living. James Allen wisely wrote, "Thought in the mind hath made us. What we are by thought was wrought and built. If a man's mind hath evil thought, pain comes on him as comes the wheel the ox behind. If one endure in purity of thought, joy follows him as his own shadow — sure." "As you think, you travel; just as you love, you attract. You are today where your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. You cannot escape the results of your thoughts. But you can endure and learn; you can accept and be glad. For you will realize the vision of your heart, be it base or beautiful. You will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts. Cherish your vision, your ideal. For you will become as small as your controlling desire or as great as your dominant aspiration." Read that last sentence again. This is where attitudes are born. If you accede to your uncontrolled desires of the moment, the results that occur will not be fulfilling in the long term. In fact, they very often will be the source of regret and sorrow over wasted time and misdirected energy that gradually can dissipate one's life. Regret is an attitude that shapes the expectation of future experience. You wind up feeling insignificant, irrelevant, insufficient and inadequate for the life you have. On the other hand, if you give rein to your dominant aspirations and follow your dreams your attitude is one of hope and cheerfulness that can endure all sorts of hardships, disappointments and setbacks. You feel like you can do anything because you have the focused energy to do what you know you need to do in order to live out the truth about yourself. Anticipation and positive expectation are attitudes that shape the kinds of experiences you'll have in the future. Next issue will deal with 4-7 of the Seven Great Ways to Improve Your Attitude. ____________________________________ Contemplate This! Much thought has at its root a dissatisfaction with what is. Wanting is the urge for the next moment to contain what this moment does not. When there is wanting in the mind, that moment feels incomplete. Wanting is seeing elsewhere. Completeness is being right here. -Stephen Levine When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. -Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning physicist It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. -Charles Darwin Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us. -Earl Nightingale You cannot tailor make the situations in life, but you can tailor make the attitudes to fit those situations before they arise. -Zig Ziglar _____________________________________ What Others Are Saying This section offers helpful content from other sources. This content will help further your goal of performing better than your current best at everything you do. __________________________________________ Develop Your Positive Attitude Take a minute and be honest with yourself–do you truly have a positive attitude? Although it's the best possible route for us to take in life because of its emotional and physical healing abilities, it's easy to get caught up in negativity. Why is this? Only you can answer this question, but once you recognize a negative force in your life and realize you are the cause of it, know that you can turn it into something positive! You don't have to live a defeatist's life! There are many ways to develop a more positive attitude, and the most important one is within you. Choosing your thoughts and emotions about a particular struggle you have is the most powerful because it is then, and only then, that you will see your personal, positive power begin to energize your life! You don't have to wait for "something better" to come along to be happy or positive, because happiness and positivity are available to you now. Only you can choose to believe and exercise that. When you do, you will understand the power of a positive attitude and how you will joyfully unwrap your life in a new light. Source: http://www.benefitstrust.org/positiveattitude.htm _____________________________________ Helpful Links http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/tc/mental-health-problems-and-mind-body-wellness-positive-thinking http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20030722/positive-attitude-fights-common-cold http://makingsalesmakingmoney.com/blog/2007/10/17/choose-your-attitude-choose-your-success/ _____________________________________ Announcements This section will keep you up to date on Ken's latest undertakings, products and other important information from a variety of sources. _____________________________________ Sign up for our free Better Than Your Best Tip of the Week by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/department27.cfm _____________________________________ Learn the benefits of enrolling in our Better Than Your Best Mastermind Membership by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/main.cfm _____________________________________ NEW! Get your copy of Ken's book, "Traits of Success: What You Really Need to Succeed (Not as Much as You Think!)." Don't forget to sign up for his FREE "Success Traits Training" series! It's all here: www.TraitsOfSuccess.com ! __________________________________________________________________ Friday, Jul 11, 2008 Contents: • A Step in the Right Direction • Contemplate This! • What Others Are Saying • Helpful Links • Announcements ________________________________ A Step in the Right Direction This section of the newsletter will provide a single step you can take today to go beyond the self-imposed limitations you currently have. Taking this step will help you immediately do better than what you think you can do. ____________________________________ What is Attitude? by Ken Wallace Quite simply, attitude is a point of view, an outlook on life that directs your inner energy toward outer manifestation and results. Attitude acts like a gyroscope that sets the orientation of your energy flow. Specifically, your attitude is your tendency of moving toward one thing among all things, in one direction to the exclusion of all other possible directions. It sets your course and predicts where you'll soon be in your life. As children, whenever it would snow, my friends and I liked to play, "who can walk the straightest line?" We'd set a brief course from a starting point to a destination across the yard. Most of my friends would make their respective treks by looking at their feet and measuring the straightness of their path by looking back at the steps they'd just made. When they finally reached the end, their journey could be measured by anything but a straight line. There were little, sometimes gross, deviations all along the way. I learned early on that, to walk the straightest line, I'd have to look ahead toward where I wanted to go, not back to where I had been. As long as I kept my head up and my eyes looking outward toward the destination, I could easily and confidently move in the direction of my goal along the shortest (that is, the straightest) route. Attitudes are formed by means of experience. All experience occurs with concomitant emotions. Depending on the degree and bearing (positive or negative) of those emotions, your subsequent attitude toward similar future experiences will be shaped. The first time I performed in public is a good example. It was for a talent show in college. I played the banjo and sang a couple of songs. I almost didn't make it to the platform because stage fright had gripped me to the point I could barely move. I was quite nervous throughout my performance and, after it was over, felt I hadn't done very well at all. To my amazement, however, I won the competition! I don't recall the prize I received, but I clearly remember the way I felt. The sense of exhilaration and confidence that embraced me was reward enough. From that point on, I've performed in public without stage fright because my attitude toward performing was shaped in a positive manner by my attending emotions from that experience. After attitudes are formed they serve to direct your mental focus and physical movement toward getting you where you're already going. Your thought process, just like anything of a material nature, is set in motion by experience and emotion along a line of judgment that tends to continue along that line unless something alters its direction. Try this experiment: take a clean sheet of paper and rub a marble just a few times gently along a straight line anywhere on the page. Place the marble at one end of this line. Gently tap it in the direction of the line and see what happens. That invisible and imperceptible line in the paper, formed by very little repetitious effort, becomes the pathway along which the marble moves. It directs the action of the marble and determines where it will go out of all the multiple possible ways it could go. Attitudes are habits of thinking that shape your behavior which, in turn, produce certain kinds of results in your life. We make our habits by our thinking and then those habits either make or break us. Another way of putting it is that attitudes are the vehicles that drive you along a road of your own making (by thought) to the destination toward which you're already headed. They create and sustain the life you experience on a daily basis. Repetitious thought produces a trajectory that spans both the visible and invisible universe. Attitude moves your mind in thought to ideas and imaginings, hopes and dreams that move your body toward making these invisible energies visible in your life. Although subsequent to thought initially, attitude forms out of repetitious thought and seeks to manifest its secret existence. This is why your attitudes cannot be long disguised or hidden. They comprise your "second face" to the world, the face that cannot fail to eventually disclose the truth about the inner you. Next issue will deal with some specific ways you can change your attitude so you can do better than your best. ____________________________________ Contemplate This! "Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity" (Dupree Jordan). "Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way" (Dr. Seuss). "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference" (Winston Churchill). "Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives" (William James). Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. (Anthony J. D'Angelo) _____________________________________ What Others Are Saying This section offers helpful content from other sources. This content will help further your goal of performing better than your current best at everything you do. __________________________________________ Attitudes Rub Off Your attitude rubs off on people! It may appear that their attitude rubs off on you and that "they need to change their bad attitude," but did you know you have the power to help them be positive by becoming more positive in your own life? Refusing to give into defeatist words ("I can't," or "I'm not experienced enough…") and replacing them with edefying words ("I can," and "My experience is always increasing…") can be the simplest steps you take. It may not be as easy as you think, but consistency is key. If you'll believe the bad things you or others may tell you, why not believe the good ones, too? Getting involved in groups, talking with friends about your new change or even writing down your goals are ways to keep you on track to maintain your more positive attitude. This week make an effort per day to be a positive influence on yourself. And don't forget–this will rub off too! Source: http://ezinearticles.com/index.php?How-to-Have-a-Positive-Attitude&id=992730 _____________________________________ Helpful Links Here's a the link to a number of terrific quotes on attitude: http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/attitude A video about simple truths: http://www.powerofattitudemovie.com What impact does attitude have on your health and your ability to return to it after it's been compromised? Read about it here: http://www.recoverymedicine.com/developing_a_positive_attitude.htm _____________________________________ Announcements This section will keep you up to date on Ken's latest undertakings, products and other important information from a variety of sources. _____________________________________ Sign up for our free Better Than Your Best Tip of the Week by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/department27.cfm _____________________________________ Learn the benefits of enrolling in our Better Than Your Best Mastermind Membership by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/main.cfm _____________________________________ NEW! Get your copy of Ken's book, "Traits of Success: What You Really Need to Succeed (Not as Much as You Think!)." Don't forget to sign up for his FREE "Success Traits Training" series! It's all here: www.TraitsOfSuccess.com ! ______________________________________________________________ Monday, Jan 21, 2008 Contents: • A Step in the Right Direction • Contemplate This! • What Others Are Saying • Helpful Links • Announcements ________________________________ A Step in the Right Direction This section of the newsletter will provide a single step you can take today to go beyond the self-imposed limitations you currently have. Taking this step will help you immediately do better than what you think you can do. Today's Step: Start Fresh Every Day! Each week, especially Mondays, brings with it a slew of emotions accumulated from all the weeks and Mondays in the past. Mondays are usually greeted, if not with a sense of downright dread, then with a less than enthusiastic attitude and a low-grade anxiety. It's like going through a briar patch – as you travel through it, more and more burrs from the branches stick to your clothing. As you accumulate more "attachments" (physical, mental and emotional) as you go through life, the spiritual speed with which you travel decreases and the goals you set for yourself begin to loom loftier and soon appear to be bigger than your ability – and now your desire – to achieve them. In order to grow inside, often you must shrink the outside, the accumulations and attachments and stuff that wind up cluttering up your mind and soul. The things you possess eventually possess you because you worry about their safety, care and cost and develop anxiety over the possibility (or expectation, if you're really paranoid) of losing them. The growth of a person into a fuller, more fulfilled and joyous human being is more a matter of letting go than of adding on. If you can let go of your attachments to past possessions and attitudes you can move forward faster to accomplishing your worthy and worthwhile goals of becoming the person you can be so that you can do what you need to do in order to have what you really need to have – and nothing more. You won't want anything more because you have all you need because you are the person you've always wanted to be. You've given up trying to add anything else because you don't need anything else. You've grown so big on the inside that nothing on the outside can add to your growth as a person. The only source of growth from external things for you now is to let them go so they can flow through you to those whose need of them is greater than yours. This is a great place in which to be, emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically. What do you need to let go of instead of trying to add more of? Final question: If you didn't know it was Monday, how would you know how to act and feel? It starts with your mind and your thinking . . . Growth occurs only from the inside out, not the other way around. ____________________________________ Contemplate This! "Good ideas will only work if you do." — Maya Angelou "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." – George Bernard Shaw "Instead of valuing one style, an organization should respect and value the adaptive and innovative styles of creativity. Individuals within an organization can work more effectively together by capitalizing on each others' strengths, rather than punishing each other because of individual differences. If an atmosphere of openness and trust prevails in the organization, then the adaptors and innovators will be able to join their creative talents to propel the organization to success. … Individuals will manifest their creativity in different ways, and both styles of creativity are valuable." -Gerard J. Puccio "If you want to change the fruits you will first have to change the roots. If you want to change the visible you must first change the invisible." –T. Harv Eker _____________________________________ What Others Are Saying This section offers helpful content from other sources. This content will help further your goal of performing better than your current best at everything you do. Investigating Mind Sets: A Brief Look at T. Harv Eker's Message From His Book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind What does it take for people to get what they want or live the life they've always dreamed of? In order to live a financially comfortable lifestyle, one must remove the link of motivation to make money from anger, fear, and need to prove yourself and install new links to purpose, contribution and joy. Rich people believe they are bigger than their problems. Poor people wish to avoid or shrink away from their problems. Rich people play the money game to win, poor people play the money game not to lose. You will be paid in direct proportion to the value you deliver to the marketplace. The fact is that your character, your thinking, and your beliefs are a critical part of what determine your level of success. Source: Eker, Harv T.. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Harper Business, 2005. How Negative Thinking Blocks Creative Problem Solving Take a moment to reflect on how you feel. Are you content, frustrated or tired? The key to reaching a feeling of contentment is to use your tools each day to face the problems that block you from having what you want. Is the A/C on your car broken causing unnecessary discomfort on a daily basis? Many times a negative attitude can be a bigger roadblock than the problem itself. Creativity is a tool that many people underestimate. Here is an exercise that will allow you to put your creativity to the test. Try to spend half an hour each day journaling and mind mapping; scattered thoughts that whirl around in your brain come to your attention and become tangible once written down. List all of the problems that are surrounding you, then the steps it takes to solve each problem. This triggers a creative problem solving mentality, allowing you to prioritize tasks, and provides clarity of action. Therefore you are suited to continue on the road to getting what you want. You can also determine your goals and ambitions by journaling and mind mapping. View Source: http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook1.htm _____________________________________ Helpful Links Take the work burnout test Click here: http://www.mindtools.com/stress/Brn/BurnoutSelfTest.htm This site breaks down the importance of understanding how creativity works: http://www.buffalostate.edu/centers/creativity/General/Why_study.html Check out this interesting article about how aging affects your memory and techniques to improve your memory: View Source: http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/markus.htm _____________________________________ Announcements This section will keep you up to date on Ken's latest undertakings, products and other important information from a variety of sources. Sign up for our free Better Than Your Best Tip of the Week by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/department27.cfm ____________________________ Learn the benefits of enrolling in our Better Than Your Best Mastermind Membership by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/main.cfm _________________________________________________________________ Sunday, Dec 23, 2007 Contents: • A Step in the Right Direction • Contemplate This! • What Others Are Saying • Helpful Links • Announcements ________________________________ A Step in the Right Direction This section of the newsletter will provide a single step you can take today to go beyond the self-imposed limitations you currently have. Taking this step will help you immediately do better than what you think you can do. This week's step: The Three Ways to Change I find the following three words helpful when thinking about changing anything about myself: stay, stop, start. Getting what you want sometimes is a matter of staying with what you're thinking and doing now, perhaps to a greater or lesser degree of intensity and/or frequency. It could also mean stopping what you're doing and thinking now that pose real or imagined barriers to receiving what you want. Finally, getting what you want could mean starting a new way of thinking that will lead to new behaviors that invite your desire to manifest itself in your life as an everyday reality. Changing yourself for the better begins at the end. Visualizing yourself as the person who exhibits those characteristics and traits you desire and possessing the things you want establishes in your mind the foundation upon which you will construct your "better life." Getting clear on what you need to continue doing, stop doing and start doing is the primary exercise to help you form, fine-tune and finish the vision of your better Self. ____________________________________ Contemplate This! "Teachers open the door but you must walk through it yourself." – Chinese Proverb "Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed." – Tom Clancy "If you enjoy what you do, you'll never work another day in your life." — Confucius _____________________________________ What Others Are Saying This section offers helpful content from other sources. This content will help further your goal of performing better than your current best at everything you do. What the Mind Beholds As promised by the excerpt that guided you to this newsletter, Ken would like to take you through a brief understanding of your personal limits, how they are set and how they are overcome. According to a series of articles written by George Helou, your belief system is 80% completely intact by the age of seven. Therefore, everything that you witness and experience regarding your family, school, friends and society shapes what you believe to be truth. However, reality provides boundless opportunities and choices. You perceive only a fraction of reality based on your beliefs. It is vital to your growth and success to challenge what you have always believed and to verify it as the utmost truth. Without exploring alternative beliefs, the mind stays trapped. "Your intelligence will increase with your ability to learn and grasp new concepts rather than be enslaved to the outdated neuronets that keep us from breaking free from our unwanted situations," says Helou. Helou challenges readers to exercise their ability to focus by meditating up to an hour for one day each week. Quiet the mind by sitting in a dark place with calming music and a candle to focus on and count slowly down from 20 until you are in a state of trans, which means that the theta waves in your mind are dominant. Take a preconceived list of goals and tasks that will get you to where you want to be and focus on each goal for a few minutes while meditating. New ideas of how to accomplish these goals will fill your mind placing you one step closer to these goals becoming a reality. Once you have a perception of how to get to where you want to be, you are more likely to actually take the steps to get there. A final tip proposed by Helou is to listen to some Baroque music which apparently "produces exactly the right frequency and sound to harmonize the functioning of the brain and produces a state of calm relaxed alertness." View source: http://www.quantumevolver.com/Beautiful_Mind_1st_Edition.html Helpful Links Would you like to test the work ethic that you uphold? Take the Employability Skills Assessment. Click here. http://www.coe.uga.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/~rhill/new_owei/esa.pl Research shows that some stress can be a good thing. Read more… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15818153/ _____________________________________ Announcements This section will keep you up to date on Ken's latest undertakings, products and other important information from a variety of sources. Sign up for our free Better Than Your Best Tip of the Week by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/department27.cfm ____________________________ Learn the benefits of enrolling in our Better Than Your Best Mastermind Membership by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/main.cfm ___________________________________________________________ Tuesday, Nov 06, 2007 Contents: • A Step in the Right Direction • Contemplate This! • What Others Are Saying • Helpful Links • Announcements ________________________________ A Step in the Right Direction This section of the newsletter will provide a single step you can take today to go beyond the self-imposed limitations you currently have. Taking this step will help you immediately do better than what you think you can do. This week's step: The Quality of Desire and Effective Change It is a truth of human existence that you receive in proportion to the strength and duration of your desire. On a scale of 1 to 10, if your desire for something is below a nine and you haven't experienced it for very long it is unlikely that you will think and do what it takes to bring it into your life. You see, we have habits of thinking, called attitudes, which cause us to do and not do certain actions on a consistent basis. These habits of behavior keep us in a zone of psychological comfort that, in turn, limits our performance and life to a narrow range of possibilities. To get something we want we must often confront our comfort and challenge our habits. This means entertaining the possibility that we might need to change what we think and do that we find natural, comfortable and comforting. We must have a strong and enduring desire to do what works to get what we want even if this means changing how we currently think and behave. The desire to be the kind of person who does and has certain things necessarily results in continuous change. Life is the process of constant transition from one state of being to another. The axiom is true: "change is inevitable, growth is optional." The desires to have and to do must be linked with the desire and activity to continually change yourself for the better. ____________________________________ Contemplate This! "As you think, so shall you become." — The Bible, Charles Allen and many, many others throughout history "If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you will never change the outcome." – Michael Jordan "Supposing is good, but finding out is better." — Mark Twain _____________________________________ What Others Are Saying This section offers helpful content from other sources. This content will help further your goal of performing better than your current best at everything you do. Understanding Communication in Groups Edith Seashore and her husband Charlie have been mastering the process of effective organizational communication since the early 70's through their work with the National Training Laboratory. They have found that successful modern-day businesses are getting away from a bureaucracy structure, which overall replaced the natural communication process with TPS reports and memos, to the most effective method of "making it happen" in a dynamic, technologically advanced market with fierce global competition: the small group. Mastering the art of collective understanding and direction within a group leads to achieving "authentic relationships in the contemporary workplace." The core purpose of everything they teach is to "create enough managerial agility to enable people throughout the organization to keep learning so they can adapt to an unpredictable environment through group work." It is a method of creating democracy within the work place. Everyone is allowed the opportunity to participate in the decision making process, which creates a sense of power and belonging in the organization. Even up until today, the Seashores (now in their late 70's and still passionate about their work) sit in with groups such as Navy officers from around the nation to allow conflicts, fears, and resentments that individuals hold about the diverse workforce to surface and allow for the process of resolution. "Productivity and creativity in the workplace occur when members of a group or team wade together into a muck of confusion and unspoken assumptions in order to surface concerns and conflicts that get glossed over in the rush of daily life," says Edith Seashore. Douglas McGregor, who had been consulting for Standard Oil inspired Edith's work with his quote about leadership: "I listen and I listen and I listen and then I come up with one good idea that impacts the organization and make me worth every penny they pay me." This concept of one good idea is the core of what group work should deduce. Everyone gets on the same page and aims for the same goal. http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/06499?gko=4182f-1876-20701529 Rules for Being Human You Will Receive a Body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around. You Will Learn Lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them stupid. There Are No Mistakes, Only Lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation and trial and error. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the ones that ultimately "work". A Lesson Is Repeated Until Learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson. Learning Lessons Does Not End. There is no part of life that does not contain a lesson. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned. "There" Is No Better Than "Here". When your "there" has become "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that will, again, look better than "here". Others Are Merely Mirrors of You. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself. What You Make of Your Life Is Up To You. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours. Your Answers Lie Inside You. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust yourself. Source: Anonymous Links http://www.funatwork.co.uk/ : This is a fun site brimming with great ideas to make work a rewarding and complete experience that employees will not want to miss out on. Here is a striking poem about persistence and integrity: http://www.livingif.com/ _____________________________________ Announcements This section will keep you up to date on Ken's latest undertakings, products and other important information from a variety of sources. Sign up for our free Better Than Your Best Tip of the Week by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/department27.cfm ____________________________ Learn the benefits of enrolling in our Better Than Your Best Mastermind Membership by clicking here: http://74.200.209.91/public/main.cfm ______________________________________________________________________________ Sunday, Sep 30, 2007 Contents: – A Step in the Right Direction, by Ken Wallace – Contemplate This! – What Others Are Saying – Helpful Links – Announcements ________________________________ A Step in the Right Direction, by Ken Wallace This section of the newsletter will provide a single step you can take today to go beyond the self-imposed limitations you currently have. Taking this step will help you immediately do better than what you think you can do. This week's step: "The Three Types of Desire" How do you get to be the kind of person who acts in the ways necessary to get what you want? It all begins with desire. This is not the desire to have nor is it the desire to do. These two types of desire are always secondary to and dependent upon the primary desire to be the kind of person who possesses appropriate and realistic desires to have and to do. You may desire to have something that is incommensurate and inconsistent with the kind of person you are right now. This means that you want something you cannot have because you are personally unprepared to do what is necessary to get it. If, however, by some stroke of good fortune you do obtain it you will not be able to hold onto it for very long. You cannot perform for very long beyond the level of competence and worthiness you have mentally set for yourself; nor can you retain for long that which you have obtained in a manner you believe to be beyond your competence and worthiness. You will unconsciously seek ways to sabotage enjoyment and beneficial use of your "ill-gotten" gains. If you want to have something you must also want to do what it takes to get it. We all have had desires to be rich and famous but many of us are neither because we haven't become the kind of person who overcomes natural laziness and self-doubt to be able to act consistently and persistently in ways that will turn these desires into realities in our lives. Who do you want to become? If you were to answer, "I want to be a person who is rich," or "a person who is respected by all," what you would be saying is that you want to be a person who has acted and continues to act in certain ways throughout his/her life that results in the manifestation of personal wealth and universal respect. Our role models set the bar for our personal aspirations and "be goals" but they don't always help us understand what we need to do to become that kind of person. How did they get to be the kind of person we want to be? Our "do goals" must arise out of and be aligned with our "be goals" if we are to become the person who has everything he/she wants in life. To paraphrase a popular phrase ("if it is to be it is up to me"): "if I am to be (the person I want to be) it is up to me (to do what it takes)." A "do goal" that doesn't help you accomplish your "be goals" will not long hold your desire to accomplish it. In fact, such "do goals" serve only to hinder and frustrate your efforts to discover and fulfill your personal purpose in life. This kind of "do goal" is the epitome of activity without accomplishment: much movement in multiple directions but never getting very far from where you started. These non-aligned "do goals" drain you of the energy needed to accomplish worthy and worthwhile goals — the ones that will get you what you want. If you are to be the kind of person you want — the kind of person who makes dreams and desires come true — then it is up to you to align your "do" and "be" goals. Think of this endeavor as being the Sinatra Step: set and pursue "do-be, do-be, do-be" goals for the rest of your life. Next Issue: "The Quality of Desire and Effective Change" ____________________________________ Contemplate This! "Remember there is plenty of room at the top – but not enough to sit down." Zig Ziglar I CAN WIN! I Concentrate Action oN What's Important Now ! The Serenity Prayer (abbreviated): "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." "You must become a lifelong learner and leader. To be a follower is to fall hopelessly behind in the pace of progress." Denis Waitley _____________________________________ Links http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/16/magazines/fortune/Secrets_greatness_McNerney_Boeing.fortune/index.htm http://www.deniswaitley.com/articles.asp. ______________________________________ What Others Are Saying This section offers helpful content from other sources. This content will help further your goal of performing better than your current best at everything you do. Make the most of each day A bank credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance to tomorrow. Every evening you lose the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!!!! Each of us has such a bank. It's called TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off what you have failed to invest. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. Invest it so as to improve get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of life today. To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade. To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet. To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train. To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident. To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask a person who won a silver medal in the Olympics. Treasure every moment you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special enough to spend time with. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present! – Source Unknown Communication is Key According to a study performed by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, companies whose managers communicate often and sincerely with their employees have lower turnover rates and higher financial performance. Many managers only feel it is necessary to communicate with employees upon hiring and firing their workforce. However, when employees are informed of the major decisions in regards to the strategy and direction of the company they become more engaged in the work they perform, instilled with a sense of loyalty to their employer. This open communication allows for a clear understanding of the goals and objectives to be achieved by all. "Sharing business plans and goals with employees provides a clear vision and connection, fosters process improvement, facilitates change, and drives business results by influencing employee behavior." Source: Communicate With Employees Early & Often. Credit Union Executive Newsletter; 10/9/2006, Vol. 32 Issue 17, p4-4, 1p _________________________________________________________________________________ Friday, Aug 31, 2007 Contents: – A Step in the Right Direction, by Ken Wallace – Contemplate This! – What Others Are Saying – Helpful Links – Announcements ________________________________ A Step in the Right Direction, by Ken Wallace This section of the newsletter will provide a single step you can take today to go beyond the self-imposed limitations you currently have. Taking this step will help you immediately do better than what you think you can do. This week's step: "Fire Up Your Desire" I learned a long time ago that if you're ever going to accomplish anything in your life, "you gotta wanna!" If you really don't want to accomplish something you will not think about it enough and, since your thoughts lead to your actions, you'll not do what is necessary to make it happen. Therefore, the first step in doing better than your best is to get clear on how much you really want what you say you want. It appears that many folks aren't very clear as to what they truly want in their lives. Many, if not most of what they say they want are merely a mimicking of others' stated desires. Have you taken your cues regarding what you want from your parents or other significant others in your life? Have you taken them from the media, movies, television, radio, magazines, newspapers? I'm not saying that if you did that this would necessarily be a bad thing. I'm saying that if you haven't consciously decided to make these desires your own without reservation and with full commitment to doing what it takes to turn them into reality, then you most likely experience persistent mental and emotional confusion and torpor. This occurs because your mind and heart are filled with multiple ill-defined and often conflicting desires none of which are strong enough to direct your thinking and channel your behavior toward a definite destination. Think of the process of magnetizing a nail. A nail, like every other physical object, consists of numerous molecules each pointing in multiple directions. Stroking this nail with another nail in the same direction, not in a back and forth motion, will eventually cause all of the molecules to line up pointing in the same direction. This is what gives it the pulling power that attracts other similar objects to itself. It's the same with your thoughts. When they are scattered in all directions, they have very little "pulling power" to attract the content of the thoughts into your life. Intense desire strokes your thinking such that your thoughts line up and focus on achieving the object of your desire. Your thoughts, aligned and concentrated toward a single goal, now begin to attract that which will help achieve that goal. The strength and duration of your desire over time will cause your thoughts to line up and point in the direction of your desire. This focusing of your thoughts will cause you to become acutely aware of the many possibilities that are present throughout each day of your life that, if acted upon, will turn your desire into reality. Keep Growing to Keep Going, Ken Next issue: The three types of desire and how to use them to get what you want in life. ____________________________________ Contemplate This! "I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." – Helen Keller "Most people achieved their greatest success one step beyond what looked like their greatest failure." – Brian Tracy, International Business Consultant "Those who do most, dream most." – Stephen Leacock _____________________________________ Links www.motivation123.com. This is a site that contains many good articles, practical tips, tools and other valuable resources on motivation. Check it out and let me know what you think. ______________________________________ What Others Are Saying This section offers helpful content from other sources. This content will help further your goal of performing better than your current best at everything you do. The Happy Work Harder The right balance between strain and boredom in the workplace is the recipe for a happy worker. A recent study performed by Gallup Polls explored the correlation between employees' quality of life and how it affects performance in the workforce. According to the article, an optimal working environment exists when individuals are able to seek out interesting meaningful and challenging tasks. Also, "when demand matches or slightly exceeds resources individuals experience positive emotional states and perceive themselves as growing, engaged, and productive." Companies benefit through greater customer loyalty, higher profitability, higher productivity, and lower turnover when employees are satisfied with their place of employment. The top four emotions expressed by employees in the highest performing business units surveyed include joy, interest, contentment, and love toward their workplace. ___________________________________ The Human Performance Institution revealed that after surveying 75,000 working adults over a three-year period of time that those who were most satisfied with their jobs had similar common attributes in their lifestyles. "These satisfied individuals seem to be able to harness their own sources of physical energy and motivation." People with high self confidence, those who exercise, get plenty of sleep, take a sufficient amount of constructive diversions throughout the work day, and finally observe proper nutritional intake have the greatest levels of satisfaction toward their jobs. However, the most important factor differentiating those with high and low job satisfaction was the management of their spiritual energy. The measure of the spiritual aspect of people's lives was through attributes including commitment, passion, self-confidence, vision and purpose.

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