"One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals." - Michael Korda
Chris Widener's Commentary:
One of the keys to making great gains in short periods of time is to ride the momentum. And you ride the momentum by stretching your goals in that area to goals that are greater and higher. Sure, you have to keep working at the areas that need tending even though they aren't barreling along, but your focus and your high energies go into the areas that are really moving. For example, if you have one particular demographic that is buying from you right now, then you pour more effort into that group. You raise your goals for the saturation of that demographic. Maybe you are really growing intellectually in an area. Well, pursue it more and more! Raise your goal for learning in that area.
Action Point: What area of your life is moving at its quickest clip? Ask yourself what your goals are in that area. Now raise them, push harder, and see it move you further along than you imagined!
*******
"People will change either when they hurt enough they have to or they have learned enough that they want to and received enough they are able to."
-- John Maxwell
Chris Widener's Commentary:
Once, in a meeting I was in with John Maxwell, someone asked John what has to happen to get people to change. The quote above was his answer. It is true. You will change eventually. It is just whether you will do it the easy way or the hard way. Will you learn enough to want to change? Or will you wait until it hurts enough that you have to change? Most people wait for the pain. Successful people, like yourself, are trying to learn and get the skills they need to be able to change - and that makes all the difference in the world. For example, have you learned enough to want to lose weight? Or will it take a heart attack or adult onset diabetes to push your eating habits to change? You can choose - that's power!
Action Point: What lesson in life are you stubbornly refusing to get (we all have them)? Take some time today to make a concrete step in the right direction - the direction of change - so you don't wait any longer and have to go the painful route!
*****
"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." -- Victor Borge
Chris Widener's Commentary:
Have you ever run across somebody who you just couldn't seem to get along with? Maybe you don't fight but there is just something there? While I do believe that we have to communicate and address issues with one another, I am more and more coming to believe that perhaps the key to breakthrough in these kinds of relationships is to set aside the "issues" and develop your friendship, with an emphasis on having fun and even laughing together. This has been born out in research by a professor at the University of Washington in regard to marriage. He found that when the couple focused on regaining the friendship and fun of the earlier stages of their relationship, the other issues became less important and even dropped away. I think this is generally true in all relationships. Fun and laughter can over lots of perturbing things.
Action Point: Think of that person who has been grating on you, especially if it is based on an "issue." Ask them to lunch or a ball game. Anything that can put you in an easier situation. Tell them you just want to get to know one another better and focus in on the enjoyment of it. Don't even bring up the issue between you. You will be amazed at how this may be the breakthrough you were looking for.
"Do not save your loving speeches for your friends till they are dead. Do not write them on their tombstones, speak them rather now instead." -- Anna Cummins
Chris Widener's Commentary:
Of course your friends assume that you must like them, otherwise you wouldn't spend so much time with them, right? But isn't it interesting how if that friend has a serious accident or illness, we are all of the sudden compelled to tell them how much we appreciate them and for what we do so? Sometimes they are gone before we know it and we don't have the chance to say as much, except to others who gather together to tell each other how much we all miss our friend. We can be proactive though! We can make sure that our friends know now how much we appreciate them and what we admire about them. We must simply choose to tell them.
Action Point: Think of a friend you think highly of. Now pick up the phone and invite them to lunch or coffee. When you get there, enjoy the time, talk about all the fun things you normally do, but be sure to take the time to let them know how much their friendship means to you. They will appreciate it and your friendship will deepen!
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people." -- Theodore Roosevelt
"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, 'Make me feel important.´ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life."
-- Mary Kay Ash
Life's Purpose
"How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most." Stephen Covey
"Decide upon your major definite purpose in life and then organize all your activities around it." Brian Tracy
"All successful people are people of purpose. They hold fast to an idea, a project, a plan and will not let it go; they cherish it, brood upon it, tend to develop it; and when assailed by difficulties, they refuse to be beguiled into surrender; indeed, the intensity of the purpose increases with the growing magnitude of the obstacles encountered." James Allen
"A life without purpose is a languid, drifting thing; Every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves: This day let me make a sound beginning, for what we have hitherto done is naught!" Thomas A. Kempis
"It's the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance and sweeps away all obstacles." -- Claude M. Bristol