1. Master Your Universe
Where are you right now? Is this the best place for you? Your universe is your context and you choose that context.
How do you see yourself? What do you like about yourself? What don’t you like? Who are you from the inside out? Your opinion of yourself is a crucial and must reflect both reality and your inventiveness.
Two brothers grew up in an abusive home. One became an ax murderer and the other became a Nobel Prize Laureate. When asked why they turned out the way they did, both replied identically, “Given my abusive childhood, how could I have become anything else?” It isn’t only what happens to you that matters, but how you perceive what happens to you is more important. Just because something doesn’t feel good to you doesn’t mean it is not good for you.
The number one condition for success in life is the ability to create and leverage successful relationships.
Three perspectives to help you clearly understand where you are right now: 1. How do you see yourself? 2. How do others see you? 3. How would you like to be seen? These three questions lead to the strategy question, “So what do I do now?”
We need to be aware of the web relationships around us, the agendas, needs, and motives of those around us, in order to respond properly. Instead of suppressing the frustrations caused by relationship, leading to an inevitable blowup or poor decision, you must learn to constantly deal with your relationships.
First, assess your environment. Step back and take a broader look at the whole picture. Break down your environment into its specific aspects and then deal with each part in turn. Identify the players and how each person can help you or hinder you. You can’t carry out your Prime Objective plan all by yourself; without the help of others you will fail.
To build and maintain a rock-solid network you must: 1. Identify what’s in it for the other person and what he has to lose. 2. Recognize the beliefs, thinking style and personality of the other person. 3. Genuinely care for the other person and show it. People will not help you unless they can see what’s in it for them. Get clear and specific what is clear to the other person. Help the other person without expecting to receive anything in return. Discover other people’s prime objective, needs, and their secret vanity.
Help other people manage the change you are creating. Beware of people who demand that you stay the same in order to keep the relationship. Just because something is self-evident to you, it isn’t obvious to other people, so explain everything to other people. Discover how they learn and make decisions so you can help them adjust to the change.
Show regard; get interested in people for their own sake. The more you are interested in other people without trying to get something in return, the more they will be interested in helping you. Be genuinely curious about other people; learn something new every time you meet them. Listen more than you talk. If you try to exert authority without having significant buy-in, you will be resisted.
Understand how all the people in your personal network can help you achieve your Prime Objective.
Showing posts with label Purpose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Purpose. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Leverage Your Best; Ditch the Rest
Leverage Your Best; Ditch the Rest
Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan
The first step to change is to accept yourself as you and don’t judge yourself for how you got there. One of the paradoxes of change is that the more you pressure someone to change, the less likely they are to change and the less you pressure them to change, the more likely they are to change. You must accept the circumstances that you are in and not complain about them before you can move forward.
In order to get from point A to point B, you must first know exactly where you are, point A, and have a very clear idea of where you want to go, point B. Only when you have done this are you able to work out a strategy to get you there.
The key question to ask to find your life ambition: What do you yearn for that has continually eluded you? Imagine that you have what you yearn for; now what? What does it bring you that you did not have before? Now imagine that this is now yours. Now that you have it, what does it bring you? What does it look like, how does it feel, do you see yourself differently, do others see you differently, how does it affect your day-to-day living, What do you now have that you didn’t have before? As a result of this change, what is now true? Keep going through this exercise until you find what you ultimately want, not just an ends to another means.
Make sure that you really want what you are striving for. Don’t just climb the ladder; make sure it is leaning against the right wall.
What you want to create in life is your Prime Objective.
Ask these questions to help you clarify your Prime Objective:
What are you good at that doesn’t even seem like work to you?
What is crucial to your well-being?
Does the thing you are good at have any commercial value and are you using that leverage?
Are you willing to go out on a limb to market what you are good at?
What do you want people to say about you at your memorial service?
What are you willing to risk or give up entirely in order to achieve your prime objective?
If you could achieve your prime objective right now, what would it look and feel like?
Now, put your Prime Objective into writing.
In order to make a plan to achieve your Prime Objective, ask:
How would you have to set up your life to achieve your prime objective?
What must you accomplish to achieve your prime objective?
What milestones must you pass along the way?
You need to be disciplined enough to follow your plan but flexible enough to adjust to the realities that come your way. A good plan has a purposeful end and clear, specific and definable actions to take. Thinking and intending will never get you there; only action will achieve your prime objective, and action produces more action. The best way to learn is to take action and reflect upon the results in order to take better action. You will either receive positive information, keep on doing what you are doing, or negative information, make adjustments or stop.
Use backward planning: set a date for your goal and then define the last action you would have to take in achieving that goal. Then define the action just before the last and so on, until you come to the present and define the first action you must take.
For helpful tools visit: leverageyourbest.com
The following seven posts are the Seven Leverage Points:
Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan
The first step to change is to accept yourself as you and don’t judge yourself for how you got there. One of the paradoxes of change is that the more you pressure someone to change, the less likely they are to change and the less you pressure them to change, the more likely they are to change. You must accept the circumstances that you are in and not complain about them before you can move forward.
In order to get from point A to point B, you must first know exactly where you are, point A, and have a very clear idea of where you want to go, point B. Only when you have done this are you able to work out a strategy to get you there.
The key question to ask to find your life ambition: What do you yearn for that has continually eluded you? Imagine that you have what you yearn for; now what? What does it bring you that you did not have before? Now imagine that this is now yours. Now that you have it, what does it bring you? What does it look like, how does it feel, do you see yourself differently, do others see you differently, how does it affect your day-to-day living, What do you now have that you didn’t have before? As a result of this change, what is now true? Keep going through this exercise until you find what you ultimately want, not just an ends to another means.
Make sure that you really want what you are striving for. Don’t just climb the ladder; make sure it is leaning against the right wall.
What you want to create in life is your Prime Objective.
Ask these questions to help you clarify your Prime Objective:
What are you good at that doesn’t even seem like work to you?
What is crucial to your well-being?
Does the thing you are good at have any commercial value and are you using that leverage?
Are you willing to go out on a limb to market what you are good at?
What do you want people to say about you at your memorial service?
What are you willing to risk or give up entirely in order to achieve your prime objective?
If you could achieve your prime objective right now, what would it look and feel like?
Now, put your Prime Objective into writing.
In order to make a plan to achieve your Prime Objective, ask:
How would you have to set up your life to achieve your prime objective?
What must you accomplish to achieve your prime objective?
What milestones must you pass along the way?
You need to be disciplined enough to follow your plan but flexible enough to adjust to the realities that come your way. A good plan has a purposeful end and clear, specific and definable actions to take. Thinking and intending will never get you there; only action will achieve your prime objective, and action produces more action. The best way to learn is to take action and reflect upon the results in order to take better action. You will either receive positive information, keep on doing what you are doing, or negative information, make adjustments or stop.
Use backward planning: set a date for your goal and then define the last action you would have to take in achieving that goal. Then define the action just before the last and so on, until you come to the present and define the first action you must take.
For helpful tools visit: leverageyourbest.com
The following seven posts are the Seven Leverage Points:
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
In order to win with people you must first be a winner yourself
1. In order to win with people you must first be a winner yourself.
You can’t be happy unless you are healthy. Being healthy is more than not just being sick but includes being physically, emotionally and psychologically healthy and strong. You can’t give what you don’t have. Being a winner is more than being kind, warm, mature, stable or any other character quality. It comes down to one thing: your value. You must own your value. If you are secure in who you are, then you have become a winner.
First, to be a winner, you must recognize your value, so that no matter what may happen to you, you still have the same value. Second, you must accept your value. Change what you can change but accept what you cannot change. Third, increase your value. Solve as many of your own problems as you can. Fourth, believe in your value. Fifth, bank on your value. Who you are is the greatest asset you will ever possess.
To apply this principle: Forget about what makes you feel insecure. Ask how you can increase your value to benefit yourself and others. Act to make yourself more valuable to others.
From: 25 Ways to Win with People, by John Maxwell and Les Parrott.
You can’t be happy unless you are healthy. Being healthy is more than not just being sick but includes being physically, emotionally and psychologically healthy and strong. You can’t give what you don’t have. Being a winner is more than being kind, warm, mature, stable or any other character quality. It comes down to one thing: your value. You must own your value. If you are secure in who you are, then you have become a winner.
First, to be a winner, you must recognize your value, so that no matter what may happen to you, you still have the same value. Second, you must accept your value. Change what you can change but accept what you cannot change. Third, increase your value. Solve as many of your own problems as you can. Fourth, believe in your value. Fifth, bank on your value. Who you are is the greatest asset you will ever possess.
To apply this principle: Forget about what makes you feel insecure. Ask how you can increase your value to benefit yourself and others. Act to make yourself more valuable to others.
From: 25 Ways to Win with People, by John Maxwell and Les Parrott.
25 Ways to Win with People
In their book, 25 Ways to Win with People, John Maxwell and Les Parrott teamed up to make an excellent little book filled with some practical wisdom for making an impact in the lives of other people. Each chapter is brief enough to be read in a few minutes, yet holds the seed for incredible growth and change if you apply the principles. I will post the outline of the book chapter by chapter.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Integrity
I just ran across this quote that I thought was powerful:
From Anthony Bloom's Beginning to Pray:
"I remember a certain number of (my father's) phrases. In fact there are two things he said which impressed me and have stayed with me all my life. One is about life. I remember he said to me after a holiday, 'I worried about you' and I said, 'Did you think I'd had an accident?' He said, 'That would have meant nothing, even if you had been killed. I thought you had lost your integrity.'
Then on another occasion he said to me, 'Always remember that whether you are alive or dead matters nothing. What matters is what you live for and what you are prepared to die for.'
These things (says Bloom) were the background of my early education and show the sense of life that I got from him."
From Anthony Bloom's Beginning to Pray:
"I remember a certain number of (my father's) phrases. In fact there are two things he said which impressed me and have stayed with me all my life. One is about life. I remember he said to me after a holiday, 'I worried about you' and I said, 'Did you think I'd had an accident?' He said, 'That would have meant nothing, even if you had been killed. I thought you had lost your integrity.'
Then on another occasion he said to me, 'Always remember that whether you are alive or dead matters nothing. What matters is what you live for and what you are prepared to die for.'
These things (says Bloom) were the background of my early education and show the sense of life that I got from him."
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