The Profile of a Creative Person

REACH FOR IDEAS

The creative person realizes that his mind is an inexhaustible storehouse. It can provide anything he earnestly wants in life. But in order to draw from this storehouse, he must constantly augment its stock of information, thoughts, and wisdom. He reaches out for ideas. He respects the mind of others — gives credit to their mental abilities. Everyone has ideas — they're free — and many of them are excellent. By first listening to ideas and then thinking them through before judging them, the creative person avoids prejudice and close-mindedness. This is the way he maintains a creative "climate" around himself.

Ideas are like slippery fish. They seem to have a peculiar knack of getting away from us. Because of this, the creative person always has a pad and a pencil handy. When he gets an idea, he writes it down. He knows that many people have found their whole lives changed by a single great thought. By capturing ideas immediately, he doesn't risk forgetting them. [Note: a great way to save ideas easily is to Text-Message them from your cell phone to your main email account. You are rarely without your cell phone, and this allows you to record your idea for later review and action.]

Having a sincere interest in people, our creative person listens carefully when someone else is talking. He's intensely observant, absorbing everything he sees and hears. He behaves as if everyone he meets wears a sign that reads, "My ideas and interest may offer the hidden key to your next success." Thus, he makes it a point always to talk with other people's interest in mind. And it pays off in a flood of new ideas and information that would otherwise be lost to him forever.

Widening his circle of friends and broadening his base of knowledge are two more very effective techniques of the creative person.

ANTICIPATE ACHIEVEMENT

The creative person anticipates achievement. She expects to win. And the above-average production engendered by this kind of attitude affects those around her in a positive way. She's a plus-factor for all who know her.

Problems are challenges to creative minds. Without problems, there would be little reason to think at all. She knows it's a waste of time merely to worry about problems, so she wisely invests the same time and energy in solving problems.

When the creative person gets an idea, she puts it through a series of steps designed to improve it. She thinks in new directions. She builds big ideas from little ones and new ideas from old ones: associating ideas, combining them, adapting, substituting, magnifying, minifying, rearranging and reversing ideas.

BE CREATIVE FOR YOURSELF

Creative and productive people are not creative and productive for the benefit of others. It's because they're driven by the need to be creative and productive. They'd be creative and productive if they lived on a deserted island with no one benefiting or even aware of what they were doing. They experience the joy of producing something. That others benefit from it is fine, but only secondary.

This is a story of the painters who were before their time. Renoir was laughed at and rejected not only by the public but by his own fellow artists, yet he went right on painting. Even Manet said to Monet, "Renoir has no talent at all. You who are his friend should tell him kindly to give up painting."

A group of artists who were rejected by the establishment of their time formed their own association in self-defense. Do you know who was in that group? They were Degas, Pissaro, Monet, Cezanne, and Renoir. Five of the greatest artists of all time, all doing what they believed in, in the face of total rejection.

Renoir, in his later life, suffered terribly from rheumatism, especially in his hands. He lived in constant pain. And when Matisse visited the aging painter, he saw that every stroke was causing renewed pain, and he asked, "Why do you still have to work? Why continue to torture yourself?" And then Renoir answered, "The pain passes, but the pleasure, the creation of beauty, remains." One day when he was 78, finally quite famous and successful, he remarked, "I'm still making progress." The next day he died.

This is the mark of the creative person ... still making progress, still learning, still producing as long as he or she lives, despite pain or problems of all kinds. Not producing for the joy or satisfaction of others, but because he or she must. Because it brings pleasure and satisfaction.

The Great Problem-Solving Tool

All creatures on earth are supplied at birth with everything they need for successful survival. All creatures except one are supplied with a set of instincts that will do the job for them. And because of that, most creatures don't need much of a brain. In the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Archibald MacLeish's play The Secret of Freedom, a character says, "The only thing about a man that is man is his mind. Everything else you can find in a pig or a horse." That's uncomfortably true.

Take the magnificent bald eagle for example. To see one of them swooping down and pluck a live and sizeable fish from the water on a single pass is astonishing. More astonishing still is the eagle's eyesight. And because of its need to see small rodents moving in the grass from high altitudes or a fish just inches under the surface of the water, its incredible eyes take up just about all the space in its head. For the eagle, its eyes are the most important thing, and everything else works in unison with them. Its brain is tiny and rudimentary. It doesn't think or plan or remember; it simply acts in accordance with stimuli.

And it's the same with most other living creatures. Even the beautiful porpoise, with a much larger brain, and the chimpanzee are easily tamed and taught. Only one living creature takes 20 years to mature and has dominion over all the rest on the earth itself, and has today the power to destroy all life on earth in a couple of hours. Only one is given the godlike power to fashion its own life according to the images it holds in its remarkable mind.

The human mind is the one thing that separates us from the rest of the creatures on earth. Everything that means anything to us comes to us through our minds, our love of our families, our beliefs, all of our talents, knowledge, abilities. Everything is reflected through our minds. Anything that comes to us in the future will almost certainly come to us as a result of the extent to which we use our minds.

And yet, it's the last place on earth the average person will turn to for help. You know why? You know why people don't automatically turn their own vast mental resources on when faced with a problem? It's because they never learned how to think. Most people will go to any length to avoid thinking when they're faced with a problem. They will ask advice from the most illogical people, usually people who don't know any more than they do: next-door neighbors, members of their families, and friends stuck in the same mental traps that they are. Very few of them use the muscles of their mind to solve their problems.

Yet living successfully, getting the things we want from life, is a matter of solving the problems that stand between where we are now and the point we wish to reach. No one is without problems. They're part of living. But let me show you how much time we waste in worrying about the wrong problems. Here's a reliable estimate of the things people worry about: Things that never happen: 40%. Things over and past that can never be changed by all the worry in the world: 30%. Needless worries about our health: 12%. Petty miscellaneous worries: 10%. Real legitimate worries: 8%.

In short, 92% of the average person's worries take up valuable time, cause painful stress, even mental anguish, and are absolutely unnecessary. And of the real legitimate worries, there are two kinds. There are the problems we can solve, and there are the problems beyond our ability to personally solve. But most of our real problems usually fall into the first group, the ones we can solve, if we'll learn how.

The average working person has at his or her disposal an enormous amount of free time. In fact, you'll see this if you'll total the hours in a year and subtract the sleeping hours: If we sleep 8 hours every night, we have about 6,000 waking hours, of which less than 2,000 are spent on the job. Now this leaves 4,000 hours a year when a person is neither working nor sleeping. These can be called discretionary hours with which that person can do pretty much as he or she pleases.

So that you can see the amazing results in your own life, I want to recommend that you take just one hour a day, five days a week, and devote this hour to exercising your mind. You don't even have to do it on weekends. Pick one hour a day on which you can fairly regularly count. The best time for me is an hour before the others are up in the morning. The mind's clear, the house is quiet, and, if you like, with a fresh cup of coffee, this is the time to start the mind going.

During this hour every day take a completely blank sheet of paper. At the top of the page write your present primary goal clearly, simply. Then, since our future depends on the way in which we handle our work, write down as many ideas as you can for improving that which you now do. Try to think of 20 possible ways in which the activity that fills your day can be improved. You won't always get 20, but even one idea is good.

Now remember two important points with regard to this. One, this is not particularly easy, and, two, most of your ideas won't be any good. When I say it's not easy, I mean it's like starting any new habit. At first you'll find your mind a little reluctant to be hauled up out of that old familiar bed. But as you think about your work and ways in which it might be improved, write down every idea that pops into your head, no matter how absurd it might seem.

The most important thing that this extra hour accomplishes is that it deeply embeds your goal into your subconscious mind, starts the whole vital machine reworking the first thing every morning. And 20 ideas a day, if you can come up with that many, total 100 a week, even skipping weekends.

An hour a day, five days a week, totals 260 hours a year and still leaves you 3,740 hours of free leisure time. Now this means you'll be thinking about your goal and ways of improving your performance, increasing your service six full extra working weeks a year, 6½ 40-hour weeks devoted to thinking and planning. Can you see how easy it is to rise above that so-called competition? And it'll still leave you with seven hours a day to spend as you please.

Starting each day thinking, you'll find that your mind will continue to work all day long. And you'll find that at odd moments, when you least expect it, really great ideas will begin to bubble up from your subconscious. When they do, write them down as soon as you can. Just one great idea can completely revolutionize your work and, as a result, your life.

Each time you write your goal at the top of the sheet of paper, don't worry or become concerned about it. Think of it as only waiting to be reached, a problem only waiting to be solved. Face it with faith and bend all the great powers of your mind toward solving it. And believe me, solve it you will. This puts each of us in the driver's seat.

Each of us has a tendency to underestimate his or her own abilities. We should realize that we have deep within ourselves deep reservoirs of great ability, even genius that can be tapped if we'll just dig deep enough. It's the miracle of your mind.

Everything fashioned by human beings is a result of goal setting. We reach our goals. That's how we know that the diseases that plague us will be conquered. We've set goals to eradicate every disease that plagues us and eradicate them we will, one by one. We have never set a goal that we have not reached or are now in the process of reaching.

Self-confidence goes hand in hand with winning, with self-esteem, with the success and happiness in everything you do. The more self-confidence you have, the more things you'll try and, by the law of averages, the more things you're likely to achieve. The more self-confidence you have, the less you'll be affected by temporary setbacks and disappointments. The more self-confidence you have, the more likely it is that you will have a long, exciting life full of riches, rewards, and self-satisfaction.

One of the starting points of self-confidence is for you to recognize that you have tremendous strengths of ability and character that you can bring to bear to accomplish almost anything you want. You are extraordinary. The odds are more than 50 billion to 1 against there ever being anyone with the unique combination of talents, skills, and abilities that you bring to your life and to your world. And the incredible things that you can do and be no one knows, not even you. But the one thing we do know is that virtually everything noteworthy that you will ever achieve will come from your ability to identify your areas of greatest strength and then to capitalize on them in every situation.

Each person has one or more areas of excellence that if properly exploited would enable the person to be and have and do almost anything he or she could possibly want. Each person, as the result of years of education and experience, has developed possibilities that make him or her different from all other people. And the men and women who are achieving the most in every field are invariably those who have taken the time to identify their areas of greatest strength and then to capitalize on them continuously.

Life is the study of attention. Where your attention goes, there will your heart be also. The people, things, and events that hold your attention are indicative of your entire mental makeup. The things you are interested in are an indication of what you should be doing more of. In one longitudinal study examining 1,500 men and women who started out eager and ambitious at the beginning of their careers, the examiners found that only 83 of them over the course of 20 years became millionaires.

When they went back and studied the attitudes and decisions of these people as they had evolved over the 20 years, they found that every millionaire had one thing in common. Every one of them had chosen a field he or she enjoyed. They had all gone to work in an area of endeavor in which they were extremely interested and which held their entire attention. They had been throwing their whole hearts into becoming very good, developing the strength necessary to succeed in that area, and then capitalized on those strengths by becoming better and better progressively over time.

The conclusion of the study was that success, wealth, and happiness seemed to occur when a person was completely preoccupied doing something else. The wealthy people in this study never set out to make a lot of money. Instead they set out to find a field that they really enjoyed, and then they devoted themselves to it. The money came as an afterthought.

The flip side of this equation is that you will never really be happy or satisfied until you have found a way to apply your unique human capabilities to your life and to your work. I call this the feeling of divine discontent. It's a feeling of uneasiness and dissatisfaction that arises whenever you're not fully challenged by what you're doing.

To enjoy high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem, you must be working at the outer edge of your envelope. You must be stretching your capabilities continually. You must have the feeling that you are growing day by day with the challenges that your work is putting on you. Without that feeling of challenge and growth, you'll experience discontent, and this is a good sign. Discontent and dissatisfaction almost always precede a constructive change that puts you onto the fast track and starts you growing once more.

Values are important to your self-confidence. Men and women with clear values who are living their lives consistent with their highest aspirations are those who have a deep sense of self-confidence and well-being. The most important value you can have is the value of integrity. Integrity is the value that guarantees all the others. Having integrity means that you will not compromise on what you believe to be right in any area.

Integrity is absolutely essential if you want to capitalize on your strengths. It means, more than anything, looking at yourself honestly and making your decisions based on the fact that you are an extraordinary human being. Your feelings are very valuable clues to your choices and behavior. Your peace of mind and personal satisfaction are perhaps the most accurate guide you will ever have to doing what is right for you.

In addition to integrity, courage is the most important single quality you can have if you want to be happy and self-confident. If integrity means being honest with yourself, then courage means having the ability to follow where your heart leads you. It means having the ability to push aside all other considerations in order to remain true to the very best that is in you.

“You have the need and the right to spend part of your life caring for your soul. It is not easy...To be a soulful person means to go against all the pervasive, prove-yourself values of our culture and instead treasure what is unique and internal and valuable in yourself and your own personal evolution.”

—Jean Shinoda Bolen; psychiatrist, author

"Be generous with your colleagues and your competitors. When
people learn that they do well whenever they work with you,
they will be more willing to come to you with opportunities."
— Michael Masterson: Entrepreneur and bestselling business author

The promise of the future by Jim Rohn

The promise of the future is an awesome force. We look back for experience, but we have to look forward for inspiration. And what gives us inspiration to get up in the morning and do our job, learn skills, develop all that we can possibly be, is the promise of the future. It can be so powerful that it can overwhelm any adversary you might have and any difficulties you might have.
Here's a key phrase: "Reasons make the difference in who your life works out." Reasons make the difference in your appetite and zest for taking on the challenge, doing the job, becoming successful.
I was once told, "If you have enough reasons, you can do the most incredible things. You can get through the most difficult day. You can overcome the most unbelievable challenges if you have enough reasons. If you haven't got a list of your goals, Mr. Rohn, it's probably because you don't have enough reasons. Looking into the future, developing reasons."
We are primarily affected by five things. Number one is the environment. The political environment, the social environment, the physical environment. Whatever surrounds us affects us. The city, the country, the countryside, the village, the office, the people. We're constantly affected and shaped by our reaction and decision making. A lot of it depends on the environment.
And for the physical environment, we all need to pay attention to that, make every contribution you can. It's one little, small planet. Remember those first pictures from space, looking back on earth? It looked so fragile; it looked so small. We thought, Wow, so many people live there. How can that be? We must take care of it. Right now it's the only planet we've got. Do everything we can. So first we're affected by the environment.
Next, we're affected by events. Some events affect us all. Some affect the world regionally, nationally, or by the state or by the community. But some events affect us all.
Now here's the next one: We're affected by what we know. What you know, what you don't know. The accumulation of knowledge or the lack of knowledge affects your dreams, your future, your income, your bank account, your associations; it affects everything. You've got to really be a student and study, no matter what your age, so you can learn how to make wise decisions that'll give you the best chance to build for the future.
Next, we're affected by results. Whatever your current economic results, whatever projects you've launched, the results up until now, that affects you. The results you've had in the past, up until now, that's affected you.
Now here's number five: We're affected by our dreams. Meaning, our dreams are our view of the future for ourselves.
Now here's a note to make: It's important to make sure that the greatest pull on your life is the pull of the future. Some people let the past pull them back, pull them back. The past can be like gravity, if you let it, to pull you back. Not just to think about it, to get advice from mistakes to carry on for the future, but some people live in the past. They live in the darkness of the past; they live in the mistakes of the past. They live in the discouragement of the past. They didn't make it as they thought they would, and that affects them for the rest of their life, living in the past. So we don't want the past to pull us back to live in the past. And all those other things I mentioned affect us. It's going to affect us to some extent, but not to the extent that we should be affected for our future.
So make this note: Dreams and goals can become magnets. Dreams and goals can become magnets. And the stronger the goal, the higher the purpose, the more powerful the objective, the stronger this magnet is that pulls you that direction.
Now not only do your goals and your objectives pull you that direction, here's what they also do: They pull you through. They pull you through all kinds of down days. They pull you through a difficult time. They'll pull you through some winter of your life. Some people get lost in the confusion of the day simply because their goals are not bright enough to pull them through.
One writer of ancient times said we can walk through the valley; even though there are shadows of death around, we walk through the valley. And why it's possible to walk through the valley, even though there are death and shadows and difficulties, is because we have a view of the other side of the valley.
I am now going to ask you the same questions I usually ask in my workshops. This is an exercise that will help give you direction for the promise of a bright future. These questions will pull you in the direction you want to go. And it's going to serve as a model so that you can teach this to your children, you can teach it to your peers, you can teach it anywhere. You may want to get some paper and pen for this.
Here's the first question: What five things have you already accomplished that you're proud of? Let's take some credit before we go to work on the future. We've all accomplished some good things in the past; let's give ourselves credit for that. When you're working with children — this is important — you may have to do a little coaching. Think about sports or school or other activities. Did you win a blue ribbon? Did you come in first? Were you simply just proud of what you accomplished? Have you simply been a good friend to someone? What five things have you already accomplished that you're proud of? Make your own list.
Here's the next question, and this may take you some time: What do you want in the next 10 years? I want you to make a list of at least 50 items. Now this is not what you think you can get; this is what you want. If everything fell into place, and you could have anything you wanted in the next 10 years, what would that list be? Not something you think you can earn, not something you think you can buy, not something you think you can finally be so successful you can get, this is what would really do it for you the next 10 years. I now want you to make this list.
And here's the deal now, I want you to put each item, one under the other. Not side by side, but one under the other. And make as long a list as you possibly can, one underneath the other. We're going to do some things with this list when you finish. Just start writing now, as fast as you can, abbreviate where you can, to make a longer list. If something's private, put it in code so nobody can figure it out if they got ahold of this list.
Just let your dreams run free here, not what you think you can get, but what you want.
If everything fell into place and you could have whatever you wanted the next 10 years, what would that be? The little things, major things, insignificant things, doesn't matter. Places you want to visit. What experiences would you like to have in the next 10 years? Parachute out of an airplane? Star in a movie? Play in a rock-and-roll band? Win a gold medal in the Olympics? Start a family? Maybe there are some changes you'd like to make, some habits you'd like to drop. How about some better habits you'd like to acquire?
You might make a list of the people you want to meet over the next 10 years. How about your investments, properties, what would really do it for you in the next 10 years? How about a hobby you'd like to start? What would do it for you? Become a wine connoisseur. I'm learning more and more on how to make wine. It's an interesting process. How about becoming a race driver? Skills you want to help teach your children? I taught my girls how to swim and dive. Such great satisfaction when they used to say, "Watch me, Daddy. Watch me. Look how good I am. You taught me. Watch me." Make a contribution to society. Make a contribution to your community. Now make your list.
Next, we're going to do some things with this list for our next question. I want you to look at each item on this list you've made and give each item a number. The number being a 1, 3, 5, or 10. And this is why: I want you look at an item and say, I think that would take about one year. Another item you'd say, I think that would take about three years. Another item, I think that would take five. Another item, maybe that is going to take you 10 years to reach. Give each item now a number of what you think it might take to achieve that goal, a 1, 3, 5, or a 10. Just somewhere close, it doesn't have to be exact. That's about a 1, that's about a three-year goal, that's about a five-year goal, that's about a 10-year goal. If it's less than one year, just make it a year. If it's more than 10, just make it 10. Just approximate, 1, 3, 5, 10.
Now as soon as you've given each item a number, I want you to now go through and count them. How many 1's? How many 3's? How many 5's? How many 10's? And then just make a little list of those numbers.
My father lived to be 93. You can't imagine the goals he had. One of his goals when he was 92 was to get his driver's license renewed. Guess what? He got it renewed for four years. If he'd thought about it more, I think he would have lived two or three more years just to make sure he filled all four years. So he only lived to be 93, but think, at 92, "Got my driver's license renewed for four years." You can't imagine. He used to show his driver's license. Unbelievable!
How far should you go? As far as you can. How many books should you read? As many as you can. How many friends should you make? As many as you can. How much should you earn? As much as you can. What should you try to be? All you possibly can.
The purpose of this exercise is just to stretch you and get you to think, get you to wonder, get you to ponder. I wonder what might be possible if I could get everything I wanted, what would that be?
Now here's what's next. On your list of one-year goals, decide which are the four most important. So now I want you to go back over your one-year goals and pick out the four most important. If you've only got four, this is an easy exercise for you. But you might add some more to your one-year list if you haven't got enough. And then pick out the four most important.
This is what turned me on at age 25. I had goals for accomplishment and personal progress. Once the fires were lit for me, I'm telling you, they have never gone out. Since I was 25 years old, no one has ever said to me, "When are you going to get going?" "When are you going to get off the couch?" "When are you going to get off the dime?" I've never heard that since I was 25, and got all this taken care of. Wow!
Here's what I've heard since I was 25, "When are you going to slow down? You can't visit that many countries; you're going to have a heart attack and die." Amazing! I can't say it strong enough. It's easy to get lazy in designing the day and designing the year and designing the future and designing what you want to accomplish, and just cross your fingers and hope it'll all work out. If you're just hoping that the favorable winds will blow it all your way, I'm telling you, it's not going to happen. Hope is not a strategy.
Keep this up. And one of the best ways to keep it up is to teach it. Give it away to others. You don't need any recognition; just go give everybody you can think of that deserves it his or her own recognition. And your own self-satisfaction will be recognition enough. If they never put a crown on your head, who cares!
When you have those identified, ask the question "Why?" Why are those four goals important to you? Because the why is very important, and I'm going to give you some notes on that a bit later. So just start a little paragraph why those four goals are important to you.
When the why gets stronger, the how gets easier. When the why gets big, powerful, strong, how seems to be so much easier. Without a strong enough why, the how seems to be too difficult almost to accomplish. So how do you manage your time? If you had strong and powerful enough goals, you'd figure out how to manage your time. You'd get a book on the subject. You'd do something to manage your time. Study the art of managing your time. See, you can do anything. You can get up any hour, read any book, take any class, make any change, develop any skill, do any discipline. I mean, you can do it all. When the why starts to grow, the how gets simple. Excellent question to ask children, "Why?"
The purpose is stronger than objects. It's okay to have plenty of objects to go for on your goal list. But always keep asking yourself the question — and sometimes it's good to just write it out — Here's why I want this money. Here's why I want this place. And you start developing those reasons. And I'm telling you now, this starts to become incredibly powerful.
Some of your goals should be personal development. The person you wish to become. Develop skills that make you attractive to the marketplace. Develop the temperament and the attitude that makes you attractive to the business world. The attitude and the temperament that makes you a splendid parent, you study the art. Because here's what's important: Its' not what you get that makes you valuable; it's what you become that makes you valuable. I keep saying this year after year; it's the person you become.
Next, here's what will tie this all together. I want you to look now at the whole list that you've written and the exercises we've done. Now I want you to answer this question, What kind of person must I become to achieve all I want?
Now we've got two things working. What you become helps you to achieve. And what you achieve helps you to become. And the more you become, the more you can achieve. And the more you achieve, the more you can become. Who knows which affects the other the most?
So now just write this exercise, start with a few sentences, your concept of the person you think you must become to achieve what you want. This is time for a little truth here. Maybe you need to become much wiser than you are at the moment, you need to become stronger, you need to have better health. Maybe you need a little coaching to really become the person you want to become. "I'm going to have some coaching, physical coaching, spiritual coaching, developing-skills coaching."
To be the influence you want to be, you've got to build an incredible reputation. "What kind of person must I be to attract all that I want in my life and the people that I want and the opportunities that I want?" When you knock on the door and opportunity opens, you must stand there as a very attractive person, or you may not be invited in.
One of the most mysterious and unique phrases that Jesus ever used, here's what he: said "I stand at the door and knock." And if you open the door, would you probably invite Him in? This extraordinary person? You say, "Wow, of course." And He said, "If you invite me, I'll come in and sit down. Talk things over." For you to be that kind of attractive person, if you knocked on the door of opportunity and it opened and you stood there, would you be the kind of person that opportunity would say, "Come right in and sit down, and let's talk about the future." That's the promise of a bright future.
You now have a map that will guide you to a great future.
Finally, it's very important when you reach a goal that's significant or important to you, to celebrate. Celebrate an accomplishment of any size. It doesn't have to be world-changing or life-changing. If it's important to you, it's important; celebrate.
Now, hopefully, on your list of goals you had some family goals. And if the family together finally reaches a goal, celebrate with the family. Let each member of the family put his or her check mark on this goal, because the whole family worked on this one.
Now here's what this will do. It will help each member of your family to make a longer list of goals. Wow, if we can accomplish this, think of what else we could do. The same is true of you individually. When you accomplish something, check it off, celebrate. It'll help you to grab your list, wherever it is, and say, "Hey, if I can get here, I can double that original list." So celebration creates excitement to develop a longer list.
You'll have goals to replace goals that you've achieved, on and on for the rest of your life. Isn't this good? This material altered the course of my life! It will, my friend, do the same for you. Here's to your bright future!

PUT YOUR VISION TO ACTION By Dan Miller

"Success is never an accident. It typically starts as imagination, becomes a dream, stimulates a goal, grows into a plan of action — which then inevitably meets with opportunity. Don't get stuck along the way."
— Dan Miller

That actually is a great idea. Just breaking the cycle of our routine is often the jarring that our brains need to wake up. Go ahead and spend that 12 hours throwing a ball against the wall — I'm absolutely confident that in that time you'll wipe away some cobwebs, peel back the scales from your eyes, and begin to get in touch with your childhood dreams.

So often I see people who have become numbed to their dreams just because "life happens." Mortgages come along, kids need school books, and it's time for new tires on the car. Who has time to dream? But perhaps that's why unexpected and even unwelcome events like a job loss or a business failure often break the normal day-to-day existence and wake up our best dreams. If things are okay for you right now, take the initiative to find your dreams anyway — don't wait for a crisis to break any pattern of mediocrity that may have slowly found its place in your life. Go spend a day at the zoo, walk four miles out in the country, call an old high school friend, get a massage, go on a cruise, or throw a ball at a wall for 12 hours — that just may be the tipping point to reveal your true calling.

In Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence says, "There are dreamers, but not all human beings dream equally. Some are dreamers of the night, who in the dusty recesses of their mind dream and wake in the morning to find it was just vanity. But the ‘Dreamers of the Day' are dangerous people because they act their dreams into reality with open eyes."

Now there's a clear picture. "Dreamers of the Day" are dangerous because they "act their dreams into reality with open eyes."

Your dreams may be the real beginnings of the future you want.

In today's sophisticated, technological world we often dismiss our night dreams as the result of too much pizza or having too much on our minds when we went to bed. But what about those day dreams? Are they to be dismissed as well as just random thoughts passing through our brains? Should we pay attention to those "dreams" or just hunker down and be "realistic" and "practical" with the economy in the shape it is? With jobs being lost, homes being foreclosed, 700 billion dollars up in smoke, and General Motors on the brink of disaster, surely now is not the time to dream. Or is it? Is now a time to dream, or should all wishes, fantasies, visions, and dreams just be put on hold until things get better? Common sense may tell us to forget about anything but the bare essentials until the economy improves, companies start hiring again, or the government gets the automotive, banking, and real estate industries straightened out.

But "common sense" seldom provides the best solutions at times like these. However you define it, "uncommon sense" may be just what is needed — right now. Maybe the trying times have helped you wake up your long-forgotten dreams. Those things that were put on the back burner while life happened may be ready to be birthed because the "common sense" solutions didn't work out very well.

Haven't you experienced in your own life how those times of trials and challenge often released your best ideas? Several years ago I experienced a devastating business failure. I owed the IRS and everyone else in town hundreds of thousands of dollars. And yet that experience woke up some long-dormant dreams of mine that I was able to bring to life over the next few years as I made those painful payments for my mistakes. Today I am living a life much different from the "success" I thought I was heading for back then.

Have you experienced a challenge that helped open your eyes to a better opportunity? Have you ever taken a dream and acted it into reality? Isn't that where your best ideas started?

Could your "dreams of the day" be the seeds of creative problem solutions and the opening door into your greatest new opportunities?

"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate accomplishments." –Napoleon Hill

As a life coach, nothing concerns me more than beginning the coaching process with someone who says they have no dreams. No dreams traps people in jobs they hate, relationships that have never blossomed, and cars, houses, and clothes that serve nothing but utilitarian functions.

Don't underestimate the value of your night dreams for problem solving and creative approaches to your situation. And by all means, keep dreaming during the day. Tap into those recurring thoughts and ideas that have followed you for years.

"All successful men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose." –Brian Tracy

If you can't dream it, it won't likely happen. Success doesn't sneak up on us. It starts as a dream that we combine with a clear plan of action. Become a Dreamer of the Day and watch your success soar.

Even the Bible tells us — "Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Prov 29:18) We are not going to perish as individuals, families, companies, or a nation — unless we ignore those beautiful dreams of the day.

Maybe in this current work environment you are beginning to wonder if you can even fit in. Perhaps your job is no longer fulfilling — or maybe it has vanished completely. Is it time to conform to a new opportunity or may this be the first time in your life that you actually decide to find — or create — the work you love?

Here's a great question I received recently from a reader who creates beautiful music — but … I'm sure many of you will identify with her.

"Dan, I'm an artist. I don't fit any ‘normal' job because I'm in the 1% of the world's population. I have felt blocked by obstacles or setbacks all my life. I have big dreams — I want to be used by God in a big way. I see myself doing many things: singing/writing/teaching. But I have a feeling I'm going to have to create my own ‘job.' There has never been a job description written for what I want to do. I think God is pushing me ‘out of the box' and has other ideas for me. But I see no clear-marked path of how to best create work. Am I alone in my struggle?"

Dear Artist, I love gifts that God gives us that don't "fit" nicely anywhere. I find that people with those often end up with a much more authentic life than those who simply chose a common career path like dentist, accountant, pastor, teacher, or engineer. The easy path is seldom the most fulfilling. Be grateful that you are in a wonderful 1% of the population. And yes, you will likely have the opportunity to create your position — there are not traditional "jobs" for people like us. But that's where we have to use that same creativity and artistic abilities to find how to share our gift with the world in a way that is meaningful, purposeful — and profitable.

Just keep in mind that having writing/singing skill and putting it to music is the beginning part of seeing success in your work. You then have to position, brand, and market it. Having the gift and talent is not enough. You need to know your "unique selling proposition" (USP) and have a clear marketing strategy. Your music may be appropriate for people in hospice situations or as part of a physical rehabilitation program. I know of an artist who has focused on dental offices for selling her art. Someone commented that her art is calming — she took that one cue and has been extremely successful selling into that one profession.

Don't be fearful of being in the position of having to create your own job or work. Only governments, universities, and enormous organizations have positions with inflexible job titles and duties. Keep in mind that 99.4% of the companies out there have fewer than 99 employees. That means they are small enough to be flexible and to embrace the unique skills brought to them by competent and passionate people. The responsibility (and opportunity) is yours to define what it is that you are passionate about and what you do with excellence. Then you can position and promote yourself for an opportunity that embraces those unique characteristics.

And, no, you are not alone in your struggle. Thousands are asking the same questions and having the same feelings. Believe that being "out of the box" is a blessing. People inside the box are smothering.

People who love their work are not rational people!

I love to see the wide variety of dreams that are nurtured, defined, and developed into meaningful, purposeful work. People often ask me what kind of personal skills make someone a candidate to be one who loves his or her work. And when I start listing the things I think are helpful, I find that I touch on many things that seem to be contradictory.

Is it better to be an extrovert or an introvert? A dreamer or a realist? A thinker or a doer? A socializer or a loner? Is it more valuable to have imagination or practical skills? To be left-brained or right-brained? Dominant or reserved? Analytical or expressive? Change-loving or schedule-conforming? Super intelligent or just normal? Gorgeous or average?

I've come to the conclusion that there is no "right" or "predicable" pattern that leads to work that we love. I think most of us who have found that sweet spot defy rational explanation or categories. The person who loves his or her work is someone using both sides of the brain. The right side pours out dreams, passions, and fantasies, and the left side takes that and creates patterns and systems to allow results that benefit everyone and magically produce money as well. You can have the soul of an artist — and your work is a shaped release of that art. You can be a logical precisionist and your work brings life to those otherwise boring and useless details.

Welcome to today's world of work — yes it is volatile, unpredictable, and intimidating. Old work models are being destroyed. Pensions, medical benefits, company cars, and big bonuses will never be the same. Intelligence, degrees, certification, and loyalty may not be rewarded as in the past. But the apparent destruction reveals a clean slate. There are no obstacles, no barriers. No wrong personal attributes, backgrounds, or education — just opportunity for all!

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Dissatisfaction, Confusion, Action By Dick Sutphen

All change and growth involves three steps: 1. DISSATISFACTION: Because of outer events or inner feelings, you decide your current situation no longer works for you. 2. CONFUSION: Normally, a period of confusion follows in which you challenge your old beliefs. You begin to fantasize how things could be different. This transitional period could last a day, a month, a year, or more ... until something happens. 3. ACTION: Someone helps you to make a decision, or an opportunity presents itself, or you manage to attain clarity. Once this happens, you take action and, ideally, manifest a more satisfying life.
But, oh, how we resist change. Out of fear, we cling to what is and do everything within our power to keep people and things in their familiar static positions. If you’re in a good relationship, you certainly don’t want your union to spin off in some unexpected direction that will cause you anxiety. You want things to remain just as they are, solid and predictable. But soon suffering arises, because life is constantly changing.
“It is your resistance to what is that causes your suffering,” said Buddha. Life is change. Change is what is. If not today, then tomorrow, or next month, or next year. Everything in your life will eventually change.
Trouble starts with our desire for permanency. Desire is a matter of living in the future—of sacrificing the present for the future. And desires always disappoint. If you don’t get what you desire, you become frustrated. If you do get what you desire, you’ll still be frustrated, because what you desired will never live up to your expectations. Sooner or later you’ll find you were chasing illusions.
And permanency is a great big faulty assumption, because it simply does not exist.
But what if you could lock up life so that permanency were possible? Nothing would ever change. Tomorrow would be a repetition of today. Next year, everything the same. Five years down the road, exactly the same. BORING! STATIC! DEPRESSING! It is the not knowing that makes life exciting and generates ALIVENESS.
So the idea is to be courageous enough to embrace change, knowing that your soul is in search of new experiences to provide GROWTH. Growth is why you incarnated upon the earth. But you can’t experience growth living a static life. A static (stagnant) life may protect you from some problems, but at what cost and for how long? Stagnation is a process of drying up—allowing your life to become dull, colorless, lifeless. No aliveness. No joy. Watch some TV, go to work, come home, watch some TV, go to work, come home. Treadmill.
Even if your actions in a quest for growth cause you pain, at least when you’re hurting, you know you’re alive. And the pain will generate more action, which will lead to more aliveness. Soon you’ll find yourself back among the living.
If your life has become lifeless, what can you possibly fear from change? Explore your DISSATISFACTION, allow time for CONFUSION, and then make up your mind and ACT to manifest a more satisfying life.
Words to Consider Eliminating
Since the concepts implied by the following words don’t contribute to improving the quality of your life, it might be in your best interest to notice when you use them. You’ll become more aware of the way you give away your power, limit your reality, or negatively program your subconscious mind.
TRY: Trying is lying. There is no such thing as trying. You do it or you don’t. You get results in life or you have excuses why you didn’t. When people say, “I’ll try,” they usually mean, “I’m not going to do it now.”
SHOULD: Don’t “should on yourself.” Should is resistance to what is, and the Universal Law of resistance states, “That which you resist you draw to you.” Do things because you want to do them, not because you should.
BECAUSE: This word often prefaces a “reasonable” explanation for doing what you do. When you cease to provide reasons to other people for doing what you do, you’ll keep more power.
BUT: “Get your but out of the way!” The word but often creates a problem. If you replace it with the word and, you no longer have a problem.
BELIEF: You only believe what you don’t know or haven’t experienced. Knowledge comes from experience. And belief destroys experience.
Of course this is easier said than done, and there are exceptions. As a writer, all too often, I tend to play loose with words and ignore my own wisdom. But (did you notice the but), now that I’ve shared this with you, I’ll have to be a little more careful.


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16-Year-Old Girl Tops JAMB Score

Sixteen-year-old Miss Irene Ekpoawan Edem has emerged the highest scorer in the 2009 Universities Matriculation Examination (UME), with 310 out of the 400 marks obtainable.
The native of Cross River State applied to study Communications with Options’ at the ABTI-American University of Nigeria, Yola.
Three other candidates, who, coincidentally all made the University of Lagos (UNILAG) their first choices, came bracket second with 308 marks. They are Obukohwo Friday Igugu, 23, Konye Henrietta Odinde, 18 and perhaps the oldest, Raymond Kuroyefa Moses-Gombo, 47. They applied to study Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, Economics and History and Diplomatic Studies, respectively.
The candidates topped the list of the best 15 in the examination, released in Abuja yesterday by the JAMB Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, who disclosed that the full results were now available online.
It was, however, noteworthy that none of the top 15, whose marks ranged between 298 and 310 applied to study the sciences. Three candidates each applied to study Communication, Economics, and History.
While Law, Accounting, Industrial Relations, Urban and Regional Planning, etc. had a candidate each.
Ojerinde said out of the 1, 182, 381 candidates, who applied to sit for the UME , 1,145, 961 or 96.92 per cent of them actually sat for the examination. 65 of them were visually impaired (out of the 71 who registered). 13 were inmates of Ikoyi Prisons and 33 of Kaduna Prisons, all of whom would have completed their terms by the next admission exercise.
A total of 199 candidates sat for the examination in five centres outside the country.
The six states with the highest number of applicants were Imo. Anambra, Delta, Edo, Ogun and Osun, in that order, while the six with the lowest number, in descending order were Gombe, Sokoto, Taraba, Kebbi, Zamfara and Yobe.
The Registrar said 548, 543 candidates scored 200 marks and above.
Another 14, 847 scored between 190 and 199; 150, 541 fell between 180 and 189 marks; 128, 063, were between 170 and 179; another 95, 055 scored between 160 and 169 marks, while 72, 196 scored less than 160 marks.
In all, Social Sciences accounted for 275, 208 or 23.28 per cent of the candidates, followed by Administration with 179, 056 (15.15 per cent), Medicine, 177, 715 (15.03 per cent); Engineering, 152, 051 (12.86); Sciences, 139, 129 (11.77 per cent) and Arts/Humanities, 83.009 (7.02 percent). Others are Law, 75, 244 (6.37 per cent); Education, 44, 346 (3.75 per cent); Environmental Studies, 22, 358 (1.89 per cent); Pharmacy, 20, 857 (1.77 per cent) and Agriculture, 13, 408 (1.14 per cent).

Last year, Social Sciences also accounted for the highest number of 249, 928 or 23.71 per cent of the candidates, followed by the Medical Sciences, 184, 210 (17.48 per cent); Administration, 160, 466 (15.22 per cent); Engineering, 157, 460 (14.94 per cent) and Sciences, 117, 905 (11.19 per cent).
Others were, Law, 68, 434 (6.49 per cent); Arts, 67, 851 (6.44 per cent); Education, 36, 590 (3.47 per cent) and Agriculture, 11, 216 (1.06 per cent).

"Most people spend their lives looking but not truly seeing."
— Joe Navarro: Former FBI agent and expert on nonverbal language

“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.”

"We can let circumstances rule us, or we can take charge and rule our lives from within."

The stories of people achieving unusual success despite all manner of handicaps never fail to capture our attention. They're inspirational to be sure. But they're much more than that if we study them closely. The boy whose legs were terribly burned and who was told he'd be lucky to ever walk again becomes a champion track star. The woman blind and deaf from birth becomes one of the most inspirational figures in the century. And the poor children who rise to fame and fortune have nearly become commonplace.

In this age of unprecedented immigration, we read about and see on television examples of people who arrived in this country without any money and without knowing a word of English and who within a surprisingly short time have become wonderfully successful. In fact, the typical Korean family that has immigrated to the United States during the past 20 years has a higher average income than the average American family that was born and went to school here.

Now how does that happen? Freedom, personal liberty, is the most precious thing on earth. It is also one of the rarest; hence its great value. People who manage to get to America, despite mountainous problems and miles of red tape, often find themselves free for the first time in their lives. It's a joyous, wonderful experience for them. And in this newfound freedom, they set to work to find a place for themselves. They go to work serving their new country and its people. Time means nothing to them.

To them, being free to pursue their own ends in the richest, freest country on the planet is everything. They all go to work. And they work hard and their work is excellent, first-class, as good as they can do it, and it's priced fairly. There's no complaining or sense of entitlement. All they want is the opportunity, and once that's theirs, they make the most of it.

In New York City, a Korean family managed to buy a small convenience grocery store in Midtown Manhattan. The first thing they did was clean it. It sparkled with cleanliness. Then they stocked it with everything they felt the people in their area wanted in the way of things you find in a grocery store. They were open early in the morning; they stayed open late at night. They never failed to smile and give a friendly greeting to their customers. Naturally they became wonderfully successful. They were open seven days a week. One day customers coming to the store found it closed and on the door was a sign giving the reason why. It read, "We've gone to Yale University to watch our son graduate." That's an American story. It's the true story of people who found joy and freedom and in the opportunity to serve their fellow man and make the most of it.

What sets these people apart, people with such vast handicaps such as not knowing the language, not knowing the right people, not having any money, or the boy with the burned legs who becomes the champion runner or a Helen Keller, blind and deaf, who becomes one of the most inspirational figures of our time? What in the world's the answer? The answer, if fully understood, will bring you and me anything and everything we truly want, and it's deceptively simple. Perhaps it's too simple.

The people we've talked about here and the thousands currently doing the same thing all over the country are in possession of something the average American doesn't have. They have goals. They have a burning desire to succeed despite all handicaps. They know exactly what they want; they think about it every day of their lives. It gets them up in the morning and it keeps them giving their very best all day long. It's the last thing they think about before dropping off to sleep at night. They have a vision of exactly what they want to do, and that vision carries them over every obstacle. It's what drives them at every level.

This vision, this dream, this goal, invisible to all the world except the person holding it, is responsible for perhaps every great advance and achievement of humankind. It's the underlying motive for just about everything we see about us. Everything worthwhile achieved by men and women is a dream come true, a goal reached. It's been said that what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

It's the fine building where before there was an empty lot or an ancient eyesore. It's the bridge spanning the bay. It's landing on the moon. And it's that little convenience store in Midtown Manhattan. It's the lovely home on a tree-shaded street and the young person accepting the diploma. It's the new baby in its mother's arms. It's a low golf handicap and a position reached in the world of business. It's a certain income attained or amount of money invested. What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

We become what we think about. And when we're possessed by an exciting goal, we reach it. That's why it's been said, "Be choosy therefore, of what you set your heart upon. For if you want it strongly enough, you'll get it." Amen to that.

It's been said that Americans can have anything they want. The trouble is they don't know what they want. Oh, they want little things. They want a new car; they get it. They want a new refrigerator; they get it. They want a new home, and they get it. The system never fails for them, but they don't seem to understand that it is a system. Nor that if it'll work for a refrigerator or a new car, it will work for anything else they want very much, just as well.

Perhaps that's best. People come in all shapes and sizes and with goals of infinitely varying specifications, if they have goals at all. Once a person fully and emotionally understands that the goals that are important to him or her can become real in his or her life, well it's like opening a jack-in-the-box: All sorts of interesting and exciting things begin to happen. Quite often we become truly alive for the first time in our lives. We look back at our former lives and realize we were shuffling along in a kind of lock-step, that we were actually taking our cues from those about us in the unspoken assumption that we're all alike — when nothing could be further from the truth.

We are not all alike. Each of us is different, with different genetic profiles, different wants in life. What will wonderfully satisfy one particular family and represent complete success for them would be considered failure for another family. All because of their different aspirations, their different plateaus in life, the difference in their lifestyles, upbringings, education. Every facet of our environment as youngsters has an effect upon us and helps to set our course in life.

The youngster who knew poverty as a child might aspire to be wealthy. He might overcompensate because of the desolation in his youth. While another young man raised in an upper-middle-class family who always had just about everything he wanted might settle for a very middle-class adulthood. Things we've always had aren't as important to us as they are to those who have been without them.

We talk about freedom and how dear it is to those who never had it. Most Americans take it for granted and never even think about it. If you ask most Americans what the most important thing in the world is for a human being, chances are they'd seldom come up with freedom. Yet as Archibald MacLeish wrote in his find play, The Secret of Freedom, "The secret of happiness is freedom. And the secret of freedom, courage."

To understand the subject and the importance of goal setting, we have to realize that it's the very basis of any success. It is in fact the definition of success. The best definition of success I've ever found goes like this, "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal. Or in some cases the pursuit of a worthy ideal." If you'll give these definitions some thought, I think you'll agree with me, success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal. It's a beautiful definition of success. It means that anyone who's on course toward the fulfillment of a goal is successful.

Now, success doesn't lie in the achievement of a goal, although that's what the world considers success; it lies in the journey toward the goal. We're successful as long as we're working toward something we want to bring about in our lives. That's when the human being is at his or her best. That's what Cervantes meant when he wrote, "The road is better than the inn."

Quite often romantic stories end with the loving couple getting married. That's just the beginning of the real story. When the young person stands before his school's president or principal and receives the diploma, that's called commencement. That's the beginning. It's an important milestone to be sure, and congratulations are certainly in order, but where are you going from there? Once a person has realized the goal for which he or she has so assiduously toiled, that's wonderful. It's time for a rest and some self-congratulations. There's time to savor the achievement. But we're no longer successful by my definition until we set a new higher goal toward which to work. We're at our best when we're climbing, thinking, planning, working. When we're on the road toward something we want to bring about.

I don't mean by this that we should become workaholics; far from it. In fact, it's been well established that the most successful men and women manage to live in a wonderful state of balance with lots of recreation. Take that word recreate apart when you've got some time, and you'll find it interesting. And they get lots of rest. The mind works best when we're properly rested, and our minds are the best and most important parts of us, regardless of what we choose to do. Did you ever hear an athlete say it's about 90% mental? Whatever the percentage really is, in a good game of golf or tennis, it's very large. Our mental attitude can make all the difference between winning and losing.

With our definition, success being the progressive realization of a worthy goal, we cover all the bases. The young person working to finish school is as successful as any person on earth. The person working toward a particular position with his or her company is just as successful. If you have a goal that you find worthy of you as a person, a goal that fills you with joy at the thought of it, believe me, you'll reach it. But as you draw near and see that the goal will soon be achieved, begin to think ahead to the next goal you're going to set. It often happens that a writer halfway through a book will hit upon the idea for his next one and begin making notes or ideas for a title even while he's finishing work on the one in progress. That's the way it should be.

We are at our very best and we are happiest when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goals we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile.

Most people, when they think of the word success, tend to equate it with lots of money. Sometimes that's a natural part of the goal and tells us how well we're doing. But not always, by any means. Success is whatever we want it to be, that is worthy of us. That's why I commented earlier that success may also be defined as the pursuit of a worthy ideal.

For example, I can't imagine anyone being more successful than an outstanding teacher who's striving to know more about the art of teaching and the subject matter that will catch the interest of his or her pupils, who understands that every student is different and learns at a different rate of speed. Joy and satisfaction come to us from serving others, and there are literally millions of ways of doing that. For those whose goals involve the serving of great numbers of people, chances are they'll be richly rewarded indeed. In fact, for many, a goal is a certain level of income or a certain amount of money in an investment account.

A goal is an individual thing, as individual as the person him- or herself. Since no two people are exactly alike, it stands to reason that no two of us will have exactly the same goals. One thing a goal must do, however, is fill us with positive emotion when we think about it. It must be something we want very much to bring about. The more intensely we feel about a goal, the more assuredly the idea buried deep in our subconscious will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.

I once used the quotation, "No one gets rich without enriching others." I received a letter from a man in Utah who wrote, "How about those who get rich in the drug trade or those who produce and sell pornography? How do they enrich others?" It was a good question, especially in these times. I wrote back to him and told him that my definition of success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal. Certainly people in the drug and pornography business will not qualify as successful. What they're doing is counterproductive and destructive and involves, in the case of drugs, the enslavement and death of thousands.

And I went on to say that while our needs are few and relatively simple, our wants, in this incredibly affluent society, are virtually endless. By meeting those wants, whatever they may be, we serve others, not always for their benefit, nor to our own, nor would I call those in drugs and pornography successful, nor do their riches amount to much if they're apprehended and sent to prison. But I did stop using that quotation. It is possible to get rich without enriching others. But for most of us, it's not the way we want to go.

It's nothing to take pride in. Why bother when there are so many positive, excellent, and productive ways to serve others. But whatever our goal happens to be, if we stay with it, if we're fully committed to it, we'll reach it. That's the way it works.

It's estimated that about 5% of the population achieves unusual success. For the rest, averages seem to be good enough. Most seem to just drift along, taking circumstances as they come, and perhaps hoping from time to time that things will get better.

I like to compare human beings to ships, as Carlyle used to do. It's estimated that about 95% can be compared to ships without rudders. Subject to every shift of wind and tide, they're helplessly adrift, and while they fondly hope that they will one day drift into some rich and bustling port, you and I know that for every narrow harbor entrance, there are 1,000 miles of rocky coastline. The chances of their drifting into port are 1,000 to 1 against them. Our state lotteries wax rich on such people; so do the slot machines in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. They look to luck but don't seem to realize how steeply the odds are stacked against them. Someone wins from time to time to be sure, but the odds are still there.

But the 5% who have taken the time and exercised the discipline to climb into the driver's seat of their lives, who've decided upon a challenging goal to reach and have fully committed themselves to reaching it, sail straight and far across the deep oceans of life, reaching one port after another and accomplishing more in just a few years than the rest accomplish in a lifetime.

If you should visit a ship in port and ask the captain for his next port of call, he'll tell you in a single sentence. Even though the captain cannot see his port, his destination for fully 99% of the voyage, he knows it's there. And then, barring an unforeseen and highly unlikely catastrophe, he'll reach it. All he has to do is keep doing certain things every day.

If someone asks you for your next port of call, your goal, could you tell him or her? Is your goal clean and concise in your mind? Do you have it written down? It's a good idea. We need reminding, reinforcement. If you can get a picture of your goal and stick it to your bathroom mirror, it's an excellent idea to do so. Thousands of successful people carry their goals written on a card in their wallets or purses.

When we ask people what they're working for, chances are they'll answer in vague generalities. They might say, "Oh, good health" or "happiness" or "lots of money." That's not good. Good health should be a universal goal. We all want that, and should do our best to achieve and maintain it. But happiness is a byproduct of something else. And lots of money is much too vague. It might work, but I think it's better to choose a particular sum of money. The better, the clearer our goal is defined, the more real it becomes to us, and before long, the more attainable.

Happiness comes from the direction in which we're moving. Children are happier on Christmas morning before opening their presents than they are Christmas afternoon. No matter how wonderful their presents may be, it's after Christmas. They'll enjoy their gift, to be sure, but we often find them querulous and irritable Christmas afternoon. We're happier on our way out to dinner than we are on the way home. We're happier going on vacation than we are coming home from it. And we're happier moving toward our goals than even after they've been accomplished, believe it or not.

That's why it's so important to set new goals as soon as the current one is realized. And we should never stop this process. All the days of our lives we should be engaged in moving toward, earning, and looking forward to a new plateau on which to stand, a new goal to accomplish.

If you, like so many Americans, don't know what it is you want sufficiently to name as your primary goal, I recommend you make out a want list. Take a note pad, go off by yourself, and write down the things you'd really like to have very much or do. One might be a beautiful new home or a trip around the world, a visit to some special country or place. It might be a yearning for a sailboat or motor yacht, or if you're an avid fisherman, you might want to go salmon fishing in Alaska or trout fishing in New Zealand. It might be a business of your own or a particular position with your company. It might be a certain income that will permit you to live the way you'd like to live. It might be a certain city or town where you'd like to live. Just write down everything you can think of that you would really like to see come about in your life. Then when you've exhausted your wants, go over the list again and number the items in the order of their importance and make number one your present goal.

Do this until it become a habit and a knit way of thinking and doing things. Believe me, the system works; it works every time. Life plays no favorites. If anyone can succeed, and millions do, so can you. Of one thing you may be sure, you will become what you think about. If your thinking is circular and chaotic, your life will reflect that chaos. But if your thinking is orderly and clear, if you have a goal that's important for you to reach, then reach it you will. Take one goal at a time. That's important. That's where most people unwittingly make their mistake. They don't concentrate on a single goal long enough to reach it before they're off on another track, then another, with the result that they achieve nothing — nothing but confusion and excuses.

I started looking for the so-called secret of success when I was 12 years old. I read every book I could find on the subject. I studied psychology and sociology. I studied the great religions of the world, and I read the world's greatest philosophers. And all of a sudden, many years later, I realized that in the hundreds of lives I'd studied, in the countless books I'd read, a plain and simple truth had kept appearing. It's believed that no one can learn anything until he or she is ready for it. And apparently I was finally ready in my late 20s to finally see for the first time the secret I had searched for for so long. It was simply this: We become what we think about.

You see, you are at this moment the living embodiment of the sum total of your thoughts to this point in your life. You can be nothing else. Similarly, five years from now, you'll be the sum total of your thoughts to that point in time. But you can control your thoughts. You can decide upon that on which you wish to concentrate, about what you think about from this point forward, and you will become that, you will realize that goal is yours, anything on earth can be sure. That's why having a goal toward which to work is so very important; it gives our minds a focus and our lives direction.

By thinking every morning, every night, and as many times during the day as you can about this exciting single goal we've established for ourselves, we actually begin moving toward it and bringing it toward us. When we concentrate our thinking, it's like taking a river that's twisting and turning and meandering all over the countryside and putting it into a straight, smooth channel. Now it has power, direction, economy, speed, several billions of human beings would give anything they have to enjoy the freedom and personal liberty you and I take for granted — to have the right to choose their work and their goals, to enjoy our bountiful standard of living, our educational system. To know the peace and privacy of our homes and have laws which protect the citizen rather than persecute him.

We have it all. Yet in the midst of our plenty, millions lead unhappy, aimless lives. They live in tiny prisons of their own fashioning. These are the people who don't know that each of us, each one of us, not the economy or fate or luck or the breaks, each one of us is in charge of his or her own life. Each one of us is completely responsible.

As Carlyle put it, "The person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder. Have a purpose in life. And having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you." He also said, "A person with a half volition goes backward and forward and makes no way on the smoothest road. But the person with a whole volition advances on the roughest and will reach his or her purpose if there be even a little wisdom in it."

So decide upon your goal. Insist upon it. Look at your goal card every morning and night and as many times during the day as you conveniently can. By so doing, you will insinuate your goal into your subconscious mind. You'll see yourself as having already attained your goal. And do that every day without fail, and it will become a habit before you realize it. A habit that will take you from one success to another all the years of your life. For that is the secret of success, the door to everything you will ever have or be.

You are now and you most certainly will become what you think about.

Why the Cheap Will Never Get Rich by Robert Kiyosaki

The other day a friend of mine approached me excitedly, saying, "I found the house of my dreams. It's in foreclosure and the bank will sell it to me for a great price."

"How good is the price?" I asked.

"Just before the real estate market crashed, the seller was asking $780,000 for the property. Today, I can buy it from the bank for $215,000. What do you think?" she asked.

"How would I know?" I replied. "All you've given me is the price."

"Yes!" she squealed. "Now my husband and I can afford it."

"Only cheap people buy on price," I replied. "Just because something is cheap doesn't mean it's worth the cost."

I then explained to her one of my most basic money principles: I buy value. I will pay more for value. If I don't like the price, I simply pass. If the seller wants to sell, he will come back with a better price. I let him tell me what he will accept. I know some people love to haggle; personally, I don't. If a person wants to sell, they will sell. If I feel what I am buying is of value, I'll pay the price. Value rather than price has made me rich.

Against my advice, my friend sought financing for her "dream" home.

Fortunately, the bank turned her down. The house was on a busy street in a deteriorating neighborhood. The high school four blocks away was one of the most dangerous schools in the city. Her son and daughter would either have to go to private school or take karate lessons. She is now looking for a cheaper house to buy and has asked her father, who is retired, for help with the down payment. If her past is a crystal ball to her future, she will likely always be cheap and poor, even though she is a good, kind, educated, hard-working person.

My Point of View

What follows are some thoughts on why my friend will probably never get ahead financially -- especially in this market.

1. She and her husband have college degrees but zero financial education. Even worse, neither plans to attend any investment classes. Choosing to remain financially uneducated has caused them to miss out on the greatest bull and bear markets in history. As my rich dad often said, "What you don't know keeps you poor."

2. She is too emotional. In the world of money and investing, you must learn to control your emotions. When you think about it, three of our biggest financial decisions in life are made at times of peak emotional excitement: deciding to get married, buying a home, and having kids.

My dad often said, "High emotions, low intelligence." To be rich, you need to see the good and the bad, the short- and long-term consequences of your decisions. Obviously, this is easier said than done, but it's key to building wealth.

3. She doesn't know the difference between advice from rich people and advice from sales people. Most people get their financial advice from the latter -- people who profit even if you lose. One reason why financial education is so important is because it helps you know the difference between good and bad advice.

As the current crisis demonstrates, our schools teach very little about money management. Millions of people are living in fear because they followed conventional wisdom: Go to school, get a job, work hard, save money, buy a house, get out of debt, and invest for the long term in a well-diversified portfolio of mutual funds. Many people who followed this financial prescription are not sleeping at night. They need a new plan. Had they sought out a little financial education, they might not be entangled in this mess.

A Thank You to Jon Stewart

Speaking of finance experts, I personally want to thank Jon Stewart of 'The Daily Show' for taking on Jim Cramer and CNBC. Jon Stewart did an incredible job of representing the millions of people all over the world who have lost their savings in the market. He was right in saying he thought it "disingenuous" to advise people to invest for the long term through their retirement plans while knowing full well that traders could steal Americans' retirement money by trading in and out of the market. Most traders like Cramer realize that investing in mutual funds for the long term is financial suicide. Cramer should have spoken up, but we all know why CNBC won't let him tell the truth. If he did, the station's advertisers would leave.

While I applaud Cramer for going on 'The Daily Show' and facing the music, I'm afraid he was marginalized by Stewart -- certainly outgunned -- and he has lost his credibility. He may pay an even bigger price if the SEC decides to dig deeper.

Jim Cramer is a very smart man. I watch his show. I just do not follow his advice.

In closing, I will say what I have said for years: We need financial education in our schools. Without it, we cannot tell the good advice from the bad.

Business in a Recession

Despite the pressures and gloom that come with an economic downturn, recessions also present unique opportunities to the growth-minded manager. One area that short-sighted managers find easy to cut is employee training, especially sales training. However, cutting sales-effectiveness training is exactly the wrong thing to do for business-to-business organizations. To cut sales training is to cut the connection between the company and the customer, just when that connection is most vulnerable.

During the 2001 recession, a Fortune magazine essay stated,

[One fundamental]... that must be non-negotiableis to focus on the quality of your people. We hope it's no longer necessary to argue that this is increasingly your company's only source of competitive advantage. Yet when times get tough, many companies ease up on recruiting, figuring a slow economy will drive more applicants their way, and they spend less on training as a way to raise profits quickly without doing immediate damage to the business.

That's just dumb.

People do become obsolete; they also grow. To put it in old-economy terms, can you imagine postponing maintenance on an aircraft for six months? You wouldn't consider it, yet you may be tempted to do something even worse. Successful companies avoid this mistake. The most valuable airline in the world, Southwest, is one of America's most desirable employers and in 1999 received 170,000 applications for just 6,000 positions. Yet the company recruits vigorously and never lets up, nor does it get stingy on training. The story is similar at General Electric and McKinsey -- getting the best people and making them better is in the DNA of the most successful companies.

Business-to-business marketers should cut trade-show spending, unless they are introducing a new product or customers are able to purchase products at the show (customers are probably cutting back on attendance anyway). Many, if not most, marketers can cut advertising, because their messages are rarely well-tested and the ad creative is often off-strategy. But business-to-business companies cannot cut the training of their front-line troops, the sales force.

Cutting selling skills training is akin to baseball or football teams cutting spring training or daily practice. Cutting sales-force training is no different than cutting surgeons’ training, entertainers’ rehearsals, or airplane pilot simulations. Does anyone think Bruce Springsteen winged his fantastic 12-minute Super Bowl performance? Is not everyone connected to US Airways flight 1549 grateful that Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger had been through thousands of training hours as a glider pilot and commercial jet pilot?

Who would we rather have standing on the wall: soldiers superbly trained on their sophisticated weaponry, or guys whose commander saved money by cutting weapons training?

Arm your sales force. Invest in your rainmakers and up-and-coming rainmakers. Find and shape new rainmakers. In the book The Secrets of Great Rainmakers, there is a chapter titled "Rainmakers Love Recessions.*" Give your rainmakers the means to flourish in this tough marketplace. Give your rainmakers the best tools. Train them to dollarize the values of your products and services, to sell money not features, especially when your customers are behaving more frugally than ever. Teach them to pre-call plan, to do in-depth needs analysis, and to ask customers for commitments that lead to orders. Every share point your salesperson gains today will help your company survive. Every share point your sales force gains today will be worth much more when markets rebound.

Unless all your products and services enjoy 100% market share, there is business to get. If last year your sales force had two days of training, this year give them four or six days. Rainmakers will bring business! Good, proven value-selling sales training, combined with involvement from top management and true pay-for performance rings the cash register even in tough times.

To para-quote Fortune magazine, "To cut sales training is just dumb ... and the great companies never do it."

Negotiating Skills.

If the financial pundits are right about the upcoming recession, the year ahead will be a challenging one for corporations. Customers are going to be more challenging negotiators, and you're going to watch every penny you spend. As Garth Brooks sings, "This old highway's getting longer and the competition's getting younger." It's time to expose your people to some training in negotiating skills.

Make no mistake about it, the business climate in the US is seriously troubled. A nationwide chain of auto stores had me spend two days with their buyers, teaching them how to Power Negotiate. They told me, Take the free test that can determine if you will be a success...or a failure. "We've been working at this company for 30 years, and we've never seen anything like this. We're used to suppliers trying to pass on 10 percent price increases, even 20 percent. But now our suppliers are talking about passing on 50 percent increases." I call this business climate the "perfect storm." We have a dollar that has seen some improvement recently but is still weak. We see increased demand and pricing for raw materials because of the astounding growth of the middle class in India and China, and increased cost of labor in Asia, causing the price of imported goods to soar.

In this challenging business environment nothing affects the bottom line of your company more than the ability of your people to negotiate well. Both on the buying side and the selling side of your business. Remember that a negotiated dollar is a bottomline profit dollar! You will never make money faster than you will when you're negotiating. Here are some tips that you should share with your sales force and purchasing people:

Never Say Yes to Their First Offer. When your salespeople are negotiating and say "Yes" to the first offer, they automatically trigger two reactions in the buyer's mind: Reaction One: We could have done better: If they are eager to accept our first proposal, we could have gotten more. Reaction Two: Something must be wrong. If they are saying "Yes" to a proposal that we didn't think they would, there must be something going on that we don't understand.

Ask for More Than You Expect to Get. Henry Kissinger called this the key to success at the bargaining table. It's deceptively simple, but there are many profound reasons for doing it:

You might just get what you're asking for, and the only way you can find out is to ask. It creates some negotiating room. This makes it easier to get what you really want.

When you're selling, it raises the perceived value of your product or service.

It creates a climate where the other person can have a win with you. This is the key reason for negotiators.

It prevents deadlocks when dealing with an egotistical negotiator who is determined to have a win with you.

Options Give You Power. This principle underlies all power in a negotiation. The side that has the most options has the most power. Work to let your suppliers know that you have options. And when you're selling your product or service to new customers, limit their perception of options by positioning yourself as different from competing companies. Convincing the other side that you have options is the source of your power in a negotiation. Always work to develop options before you go into the negotiation.

Flinch at the Other Side's Proposal. This is the number one mistake that poor negotiators make. They don't Flinch at the other side's proposal. Always react with shock and surprise that they would have the nerve to ask you for a concession. The other side often makes a proposal to you that they really don't expect you to agree to. When you don't Flinch, they start believing that they could get it from you. It makes them tougher negotiators. Practice your Flinches before you go into a negotiation, because a concession often follows a Flinch.

Play Reluctant Buyer. When you are negotiating with a supplier, you can squeeze the seller's negotiating range with this three-stage tactic. Stage One: Listen very carefully to their proposal and ask all the questions you can think of. Stage Two: Tell them that you appreciate all the time that they have taken with you, but tell them it's not exactly what you're looking for. Stage Three: At the last moment, call them back and say, "Just to be fair to you, what is the very lowest price you would take?"

Use the Vise Technique. Listen carefully to the supplier's proposal and then say, "I'm sorry; you'll have to do better than that." Then be quiet! The next person to talk loses. The next person to open his or her mouth will make a concession. If the supplier uses this tactic on you, reply with the counter-tactic "Exactly how much better than that do I have to do?" Pin them down to a specific.

Retain Your Resort to Higher Authority. Don't let the other side know that you can make a decision in the negotiation. Tell them that your buying committee or board of directors has to approve the final deal. You can put a lot of pressure on the other side without creating confrontation by blaming your Higher Authority. "I can never sell this to my board at this price. You'll have to give me a better price." Don't make your Higher Authority an individual (such as a vice president or sales manager), because they will want to go around you to deal directly with the decision maker. Make your Higher Authority a vague entity such as a committee or board of directors. That makes them appear unapproachable.

Never Offer to Split the Difference. Instead, try to get the other side to offer to split the difference. You say to a customer: "How far apart on this are we? We're not that far apart. There must be some middle ground on which we can both agree." When they offer to split the difference, you can reluctantly agree to their proposal, which services their perception that they won. Get the other side to offer to split the difference. You may be able to get them to split the difference again. Even if you don't, you still make them feel that they won.

When You're Asked for a Small Concession, Ask for Something in Return. Whenever you are asked for a small concession in the negotiation, ask for something in return. A customer might say to you, "Can you deliver at 7.30 a.m. this Monday?" Reply with, "If we can do that for you, what can you do for us?" Often they will make a concession to you, and you will be pleasantly surprised at the size of the concession. More importantly, it stops them from constantly grinding to get more from you.

Put these negotiating tips to work for you and the troubled waters ahead will seem a lot smoother.