Archive for October, 2008

How Persistence With Flexibility Can Make You More Successful

October 31st, 2008

PersistenceThe road to success is a bumpy one, it is never straight, there are a lot of obstacles that you’ll need to overcome, so do you still want to go for it?

Action Produces Results

Many people lives a mediocre life because most of them give up, they procrastinate in taking action, they delay what they need to do in order to make them successful. Ask yourself, “What have you done today that will bring you to your goals?”

If your answer is none, how are you going to achieve your goals? How are you going to achieve what you want in your life? How are going to achieve the great success that you always wanted? Let’s face it, you want more money, you want to become a millionaire, but you are not taking any steps that will make you a millionaire!

This is what is happening with most people. They know what they want, but they are not doing anything to achieve what they want. Don’t expect that you will become a millionaire automatically. There is no free lunch in this world. You need to take action if you are expecting results.

If you want to lose 10 pounds but you are not doing anything about it, how in the world are those fats going to disappear from your body? That is just not possible. I don’t think that money will come to you automatically. Even if you are someone with extremely good luck, you will still need to take the action to buy the lottery if you want to win it.

So the first step that you need to take in order to achieve what you want in your life, is to take massive of action. It is action that produces results, hence, if you want results, take action, massive of action.

Taking action is one of the most important success strategies. The next thing will be…

The More You Fail, The More Successful You Will Be

If you read the biographies and autobiographies of great people, you’ll discover that each of these people could have surrendered to setbacks many times. This is what you can do now, learn the background of the president of your company, or the mayor of your city, or select any person you consider a real success. When you probe, you’ll discover the individual has overcome big, real obstacles.

It is not possible to win high-level success without meeting opposition, hardship and setback. But it is possible to use setbacks to propel you forward. Let me give you some examples:

Doctors use setbacks to pave the way to better health and longer life. Often when a patient dies for an uncertain reason, doctors person a post-mortem to find out why. In this way they learn more about the functioning of the human body, and lives of other people are saved. Doctors learn from setbacks, obstacles, etc.

A sales executive devotes one entire sales meeting a month to helping his salesman discover why they lost important sales. The lost sale is reconstructed and carefully examined. In this way, the salesman learns how to avoid losing similar sales in the future. Businessman learns from past performance and experiences to make more sales.

The football coach who wins more games that he loses goes over the details of each game with his team to point out their mistakes. Some coaches have movies made of each game so the team can literally see its bad moves. The purpose is to play the next game better. Again, athletes learn from their past performance in order to improve.

So can you see it now? You need to learn from the past, learn from your setbacks, learn from your experiences, learn from what had happened to you before. Many people give up or they try new thing the moment they face feedback or setbacks. If this is what is happening to you, you’ll never achieve what you want.

Persistence is the key to your long-term success. If you cannot persist, you’ll never achieve your long-term goals.

For some people, they never give up, they try and try, again and again, and still fail to achieve what they want. Therefore, having persistence alone is not enough, you’ll need…

Persistence With Flexibility

Thomas Edison is credited with being one of America’s most persistent scientists. It’s reported that he conducted thousands of experiments before he invented the electric light bulb. He persisted in his goal to develop a light bulb, but he made that persistence pay off by blending it with flexibility.

You can have all the persistence, but you will still fail to achieve what you want if you are doing things the same way. You must understand this: The reason you received feedback is because you are doing it the wrong way. Thus, if you keep on doing with the same approach, you’ll be getting the same result, you’ll still receiving the same feedback!

Do you understand now? If you are trying to lose weight, you keep on trying and trying but you fail to achieve the results you want, most probably it is because that you are using the wrong approach. You need to change the strategies that you are using to get new results.

If Thomas Edison keep on trying with just one single material in his experiment, he’ll never invented the light bulb.

This is why the Ultimate Success Formula is so powerful that if you follow it, you’ll definitely achieve what you want in your life.

Remember, persisting in one way is not a guarantee of victory. But persistence blended with flexibility does guarantee success. Here are 2 simple ways how you can develop flexibility:

1. Believe that there is a way you can achieve it. As soon as you tell yourself that you’re beaten, you’ll never conquer that problem. It’s believing “there is a way” that is important. When you believe that something is possible, you’ll automatically convert negative energy into positive energy.

A problem, a difficulty, becomes unsolvable only when you think it is unsolvable. Attract solutions by believing solutions are possible. Refuse, even to let yourself say or think that it is impossible.

2. Keep your mind fresh. Often, when a problem occurs, we will focus on the problem instead of the solution. We stay so close to a problem for so long that we can’t see new solutions or new approaches. When you hit a snag, don’t throw up the whole project. Instead, back off, get mentally refreshed. Try something as simple as playing some music or taking a walk or a short nap. Then when you tackle it again, the solution often comes almost before you know it.

Every problem created has a solution, if there isn’t any solution to the problem, it is not a problem. Often, a solution will come to you when you look at the positive side.

Remember, you see in any situation what you expect to see. See the good side and conquer defeat. All things do work together for good if you’ll just develop a clear and positive vision.

How To Plan Money Seeds In Your Life

October 29th, 2008

Money SeedsDo you want to become a millionaire? If you do, then you will have to learn how to plan the money seeds. What are money seeds actually? Money seeds are not big wealth, they are small actions that you take everyday that will bring you to huge wealth over time.

Many people underestimate what they can do with small actions. When small actions accumulated over a long time, they bring big money to you, they will make you a fortune. One of the reasons most people are not doing this because it is a mundane and tedious work.

Planning money seeds is a snowball effect. Imagine that a snowball rolling down from a hill. Along the way, the snowball will get bigger and bigger because it accumulates more and more snow along the way. This is how money seeds work.

The question now is…

How Can You Plan Money Seeds?

The answer is pretty simple, like I mentioned above, money seeds are the small actions that you take everyday that will propel you into big wealth. And the best money seed in creating wealth, is ‘service first’. Practice giving a better service first and you will automatically plant money seeds in your life.

Most people adopt the ‘money first’ attitude, this is why most of them are not rich. Why? Think about it, if you put ‘money first’, you’ll become so money-conscious that you forget money can’t be harvested unless you plant the seeds that grow the money. And the seed of money, is service.

Have you ever went for any restaurant that gave you almost perfect service? What do you think about that restaurant then? Will you going back for more? Of course you will!

Let me give you an example here. Tom is just like many people you know, he adopted the ‘money first’ mindset instead of the ‘service first’ mindset. Each week, he spends hours of company time working on his personal budget problems. He told you that he is the most underpaid person in his company. Tom works in a multi-million company, it is paying other employees big salaries but not for Tom.

Tom even tried to ask for pay raise and often, his boss told him this, “Why do you believe you are justified in asking for an increase?”. And Tom gave him a lot of reasons, “I’d been passed over when others around here were getting pay raises. My bills are getting larger and my paycheck isn’t. I do everything around here they ask me to do.”

Is this is what happening to you? Do you ever have the thoughts in your mind, “Sure, I could do a better job if they paid me for it, but only a fool does something he isn’t paid for.” If you have this kind of thinking, you’re having the wrong mindset! You have to change it now.

You don’t get a raise on the promise of better performance, you get a raise only by demonstrating better performance. You can’t harvest the money unless you plant the seeds that grow money.

Let me give you another clear example of how you can plant your money seeds using the ‘service first’ mentality.

Consider which producers make the money from movies. The get-rich-quick producer proceeds to make a picture. Putting money ahead of entertainment, he cuts corners everywhere. He buys a poorly written script and employs second-rate writers to adapt it. In employing actors, arranging sets, even in recording sound, he puts money first. This producer thinks the movie-goer is a sucker, someone who can’t tell good from bad.

But the get-rich-quick producer seldom does get rich quick. There never is a bandwagon movement to buy anything second-class, especially when it is given a first-class price.

The producer who enjoys the largest profits from pictures put entertainment ahead of money. Rather than chisel the movie-goer, he does everything possible to give people more and better entertainment than they expect to get. As a result, people like the movie. It gets talk about, it gets good review and it makes money.

I believe after going through this example, you are now cleared with the meaning of planting money seeds and how you can do so. Here is a powerful rule that will help you to develop the habit of planting money seeds in your life:

“Always give people more than they expect to get.”

The moment you do something more than expected, you will raise the value that you created for people. People will notice and they will appreciate more. As a result, if you are a salesman, you will end up selling more and making more money.

Remember, the moment you fill your mind with ‘money first’ attitude, you will do everything because of money. And people can smell that, they can see it in your face that you want their money. That is why you’ll hardly make sales or money if you adopt this mindset.

Change it now. No matter what you do, you need to do it from the ‘service first’ mindset. This is the key that will bring you towards your success.

Even A Snail Can Make It

October 26th, 2008

This is an interesting email I received from a friend few days ago. Maybe you have watched it before maybe not. Just enjoy it…

When someone tells you that you can’t do something…

Snail

Look around…

Snail

Consider all options…

Snail

Then GO for it!

Snail

Use all the things God gave you!

Snail

Be creative!

Snail

In the end, you will succeed and prove them wrong!

Snail

Always remember, ‘Nothing is impossible, if your heart is willing!’

So I hope you’ll remember the message this email or this snail is going to tell you.

The Magic Of Positive Thinking

October 24th, 2008

Positive ThinkingYour thinking is one of the most powerful tools that you must leverage on if you want to achieve great success in your life. Using your mind to achieve what you want is the best success strategy, and to think big, is the most practical and easiest way.

Did you know that everything that comes into your eye will become pictures in your mind? Even when you are reading this post of mine, your mind will create pictures so that you can easily absorb what you are reading. Here is the key to thinking big, when you think about something, you think about it in picture, not in words.

This is what I called mind pictures. Whenever you think about something, your mind will create pictures or images from experience stored in your mind that you have come across before. When you speak or read, your mind automatically converts words and phrases into mind pictures.

If someone tells you he had just bought a brand new Nokia mobile phone, you will straight away see the picture of a mobile phone in your mind. Your mind pictures that you see are modified by the words that you use to name or describe things. Just like when someone tells you about BMW, you will straight away picture the shape of the car, the design and so on. But when someone tells you about MiniCooper, you will picture different images in your mind. This is how words play an important role in shaping your life.

Suppose you tell your friend, “I’m sorry to report that I’ve failed.” What will your friend see? What will he think about? He probably will see defeat and all the disappointment and grief the word ‘fail’ conveys. Now, what if you tell your friend, “Here’s a new approach which I think will work.” He will feel encourage and ready to try again.

What I’m going to tell you is that, you need to think positively, be an optimist instead of thinking negatively. Every successful people think positively, and this is their number one success strategy.

One thing about thinking is that, most people will think negatively instead of positively. If your thinking is conservative, it will be hard for you to improve. Everyday there are more signs of expanding opportunity, so don’t sell yourself short. When you see an advertisement in the newspaper, it is a job that you like, what will you do?

For most people, they will think, “What a great job, but I’m not good enough for this job, so why bother?” Or maybe you see someone that you really like but you don’t call her because you think that your standard is not as high as her, or maybe you think that you do not rate with her?

These are the common conservative thinking that most people will face in their lives. When you go for an interview, if the interviewer asks you what is your expected salary, what kind of answer will you give? Again, most people will put in a modest number because they feel that they are not worth the bigger sum that they would earn.

So rule number one in positive thinking:

“Never sell yourself short! You know you are better than that.”

So if you are someone who always think negatively or conservatively, what can you do in order to change it? Very simple, below are 3 simple steps that you can follow to help you develop as a positive thinker.

The 3 Simple Steps To Positive Thinker:

1. Use Positive Words In Your Daily Conversation

Always use positive words in your communication or when you are talking to yourself (in your mind). When someone asks you, “How do you feel today?” What kind of answer should you give? If you respond with an “I’m tired, I have a headache, I wish it was saturday and I’m not feeling good.” If you give this kind of answer, you are making yourself worse. You need to start from this, even it is just a small simple point, but it will give you tremendous power over the long period.

So next time when somebody asks you how do you feel, tell them that you are feeling wonderful, great or fantastic. Make sure your answer is a positive answer. You will feel better when your words changes to positive words. Remember this, “Fake it till you make it”.

2. Encourage and Praise Others Often

It is good if you can use positive words in your daily conversation. There is one more thing that you can do with your daily conversation, that is to praise other people. You need to learn how to use positive language to encourage people. Think about it, if you have a special word for your wife or husband everyday, notice that he or she will stay in a positive state all the time. And when this happens, the whole surrounding will become a positive one. This is how successful people can always be motivated all the time, because they make use of their environment by changing other people’s state.

This is a very powerful tool. Use it! Use it again and again, there is nothing wrong to encourage or praise people often. If you can encourage people with your words, why you don’t do so? It is a free tool!

3. Envision A Positive Future

Imagine that if you keep on complaining about your low-pay job, the plumbing that always getting fouled up, the lucky breaks somebody else just got, the doctor bills that are piling up, you are poor, etc. You will act as if you are sentenced to living in this kind of lousy life.

However, if you think of yourself as the person you want to be in the future, you will see yourself as someone who is successful, you’re not just a lousy clerk earning lousy salary, you don’t live in the crummy apartment, you don’t have to worry about bills and so on, will these motivate you? Of course it will. You will think bigger and in the same time, grow bigger.

So always remember that you have to envision a positive future. Don’t see yourself as someone lousy who are earning or living a mediocre life. What is happening to you now do not mean that it will be the same for you in the next few years. We all have the same mind, we can think whatever we want, so choose to think something positive whenever you can.

If you are not leveraging on this powerful tool, you are wasting a lot of your potential and what you can achieve in your life. Have you ever imagined what you are capable of in the future? What kind of person you want to be and what kind of financial level you want to achieve?

You have unlimited potential. It all starts from your mind, your thinking. So always think positively in every side of your life. This may seem like a mundane and tedious work, but it is the key to success. Bear in mind, this is one of the ultimate success strategies that will give you what you want, so practice positive thinking from now on.

4 Common Reasons People Don’t Set Goals

October 21st, 2008

Goal SettingIf you want to be successful today, you must learn to set your goals. If there is one advice that I can give to help you to achieve what you want in your life, it is goal setting.

I can’t stress enough how important goal setting is to you in order to achieve what you really want. Do you think that you can achieve something just like luck? Do you think that you will become a millionaire by doing nothing, and the money just fall from the sky? This is impossible.

You must first have a dream, you wish and think that you want to become a millionaire. However, this is not enough, by just dreaming about what you want will not get you what you want. You must then develop a burning desire. It is your desire that will drive you into taking the action, it is your burning desire that will move you towards your dreams.

If desire itself can bring you what you want, why do you need to have a goal then?

Goal setting is leverage, it is a tool that will get you what you want in a faster and easier manner. Just like if you want to become a millionaire, having a strong desire is good, but having a clear and specific goal pointing you to that direction in the same time is better.

If you still hesitate why you need to have a goal, read this post of mine, Top 3 Reasons Why You Need To Have A Goal.

Now, many people want to be successful, but most of them will not set goals, why? Below are the 4 common reasons people don’t set goals…

1. They Don’t Aware Of The Importance Of Goal Setting

How many of you know about goal setting? The answer is, not much. A lot of people want to be successful, but they will never read more and learn more. And if you are not reading more and learning more, how can you learn the art of goal setting? It is impossible that this skill will come to you automatically.

There must be a time where you first come across this information, where you come across the skill of goal setting in your life. I’ll strongly suggest you to rad through this post of mine, Why You Need To Set Goals Today. Once you went through this post, you will understand why goal setting is important in your life.

Like what I mentioned in that post of mine:

Without direction, we will be caught up with short term outcomes like paying the bills, watching TV, going shopping, trying out the newest restaurant, avoiding problems or simply making it through one hectic week after another. Like rats on a treadmill. We will tend to be caught up in a stressed and monotonous existence instead of designing a destiny and truly living.

So make sure you know why you need to set goals today. When the reasons are clear, you will then start your goal setting journey, but most people…

2. They Don’t Know How To Set Goals

Do you know how to set goals? Many people don’t know how to set goals. In fact, goal setting is just a process, it is not complicated but it is not easy as well. But don’t get freak out because I said that it is not easy. There are many ways how you can set your goals, some are effective than others, and what you want to learn, is of course, the better and more effective ways of goal setting.

Of course, if you ask me how to set effective goals, I’ll tell you to grab my Goal Setting Formula. You will find every step and process there, what you need to do before and after you have set your goals. Go and grab it if you feel that it is going to help you to achieve much more in your life.

3. They Are Afraid Of Failure

Do you afraid of failure? A lot of people don’t set their goals simply because they are afraid of failure! Can you imagine that? They haven’t achieved their goals and they haven’t actually took any real solid action yet, but they are already losing the faith and afraid of failure.

After all, if you don’t set goals, you won’t fail, right? Wrong, you will be living a mediocrity life, which is the biggest failure in your life. So if you don’t have any goals in your life, you’re losing, you fail. Don’t worry about failure my friend, nobody was born perfect, everyone will fail in their lives.

It is just a matter of how you deal with failure. If you treat failure as something bad, something limit you, you will never grow. However, if you treat failure as feedback and change your strategies the moment you receive feedback, you will improve and you will grow. This is what success is all about.

Do you think that Thomas Edison successfully invented the light bulb in his first try? Do you think that Donald Trump makes all his deal successfully without any failure? That is impossible, failure is the mother of all successes. In fact, the more you fail, the more successful you will be.

If you want to be successful today, dare to fail! Take it as a challenge, take it as a chance for you to improve, learn from your failure and change your strategy. Read this post and get inspired so you will never be afraid of failure anymore, Do You Dare To Fail?

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Donald Trump:

“My policy is to learn from the past, focus on the present and dream about my future!”

4. They Are Afraid Of Humiliation

After you have set your goals, did you stick the paper where you’ve written down your goals on the place where you can see often? Most people won’t do this, why? One word, humiliation. Many of us are afraid to tell our friends of our goals. Don’t worry about this, what is wrong with having big goals? What is wrong if you set your goals to live a successful life?

When you think about it carefully, everyone wants to live a successful life, just that they don’t dare to make it public because they are afraid that their friends will laugh at them. Frankly, if you tell your friends that your goal is to become a millionaire, how many of them will laugh at you?

The answer is, not much. Most of your friends are very supportive, some may even encourage you to achieve great goals and big dreams. This is what friends are for, right?

So it is fine to share your goals with people, don’t worry that if you cannot achieve your goals and people might laugh at you. Will you improve even if you did not achieve your goals? Of course you will.

Just like if you set your goal as to double your income, will you guarantee to achieve it? No, but does it really matter even if you don’t achieve it? Will you improve and earn more than usual? Of course you will! When you have a clear and specific goal and you start to work on it, you will definitely improve even if you did not achieve it.

This is why goal setting is so important. It helps you to stay focused and help you to improve the quality of your life slowly, day by day. Thus, if you haven’t found yourself a goal, make sure you set it right now, before you leave this blog.

Ask yourself what you really want to achieve in your life, what you really want to accomplish in your life and what do you want out of your life? Remember, if there is a piece of advice that I can give to help you achieve much more in your life, it is goal setting…

Top 3 Reasons You Need To Have Vision

October 19th, 2008

VisionDo you think that you need to have a vision?

What is vision anyway? If you look in Wikipedia, vision is something most often refers to visual perception, but may refer to vision (spirituality) (i.e., inspirational experiences or perceptions believed to come from a deity or other supernatural source) or hallucinations.

For me, vision is just your dream, your long-term goal. Is it important to have vision in your life? Of course! You need to have vision if you want to live a better life, a quality life and a wealthy life.

So why do we need to have vision?

1. Every Leader Or Successful Person Has Vision

As you know, every successful business and every leader have vision. Why? This is simply because they know the importance of having a clear direction of where they are heading. Take the world’s richest man for example, Bill Gates, do you think that he has vision?

Of course! Do you know what is his vision? To have every computer in every house uses his software. And this is the vision that made him a billionaire, the world’s richest man. Therefore, do you think you need to have vision? The answer is obvious. If you want to be successful but you don’t have a vision, how are you going to achieve it?

A vision is just like a target in your life. It creates the road map for you, it tells you what decision you should make and it shows you the right direction in your life. You must be able to foresee your future, dream about your future. Many people overestimate what he can do within one year, but underestimate what he can achieve in 10 years.

Your vision is your most powerful tool that you will need to design your destiny. You must be dare to dream, dream it big and dream it far away. When you envision your future, don’t limit yourself, don’t worry about money or time or relationship, dream envision your future as a perfect one, don’t limit yourself.

2. It Helps In Decision Making

If you know what you want, do you think that it will be easier for you to achieve it? Yes, definitely. Do you know what makes a successful person successful? It is the decision that he made in his life that made him a success. When the opportunity comes, he knows exactly what he should do and what kind of decision he should make. This is why he becomes a successful person.

And if you have a vision, it will help you in decision making, why? Just like if you’re driving in a car, if you know where you are heading, you will know which route to take even before you reach your destination. However, if you don’t know where you want to go, do you know which route should you take? No!

So you see, once you knew exactly what you want in your life, you will automatically tell your mind to act according to what you want, you’ll automatically make the right decision that will lead you to the place you want to go. This is why having a vision will help in decision making.

3. It Helps To Drive You

Your vision also helps to motivate you. It is just like your goals, whenever you think about it, it’ll get you ‘hot’ and motivated. Do you still remember my previous post about references? When you visualize about your future, it’ll create references for you. If you miss this post, you can always read it here, Life References: How To Change And Improve The Quality Of Your Life.

What I mean by creating references for you is that it will form a strong solid belief within you. There is a saying that best describe this, “Fake It Till You Make It”.

You’ll Become Who You Think Of Most Of The Time

When you think of your perfect life, do you think you’ll feel motivated? When you think that you are a millionaire, money is not a problem for you, you drive in your dream car, you have a perfect family, you have a great relationship with your love one, everybody loves you, you are fit and healthy, you are a successful person, do you think that by imagining this you will get yourself motivated?

Of course you will. So start from now on, keep on visualize about your future, envision your perfect life 10 years from now. You can do this when you are free, when you are bathing, when you are jogging or when you are traveling. Make use of the free time to dream about your future and create goals and plans of how you can achieve them.

Your Assignment Before You Go Off

This is an easy assignment for you. Take out a piece of paper, go to a quiet place so that you can keep away from distraction. If you are in your room right now, close the door, you need to be 100% focus to do this.

Now, let your imagination goes wild, dream about your future, create your vision, this is the first step in designing your life. Write down everything that comes to your mind. Don’t limit yourself, dream as if you have all the resources to achieve them. Keep on writing. If you need 3 hours to do this, just do it. This is about your future, it is about your life.

Life References: How To Create References That Empower You

October 16th, 2008

Life ReferencesThis is going to be the second part of my previous post, Life References: How To Change And Improve The Quality Of Your Life. If you haven’t read it yet, make sure you go through it before you continue, or else you won’t grab the big idea.

So you know that the success that you desired in your life is nothing but the feeling in your heart. The question now is, how can you create the life references that will empower and drive you toward what you want in your life? Like I mentioned in my last post, what happened to you in the past will become your life references.

And you know that references are the experiences in your life that you stored in your giant cabinet of your brain. When an event occur, your mind will automatically search for past experience and you will act according to the references you created in your mind. If you create the reference that life is tough, then you will never live an easy day. If you create the reference that you will never be rich because you live in a poor family, chances are, your mind will limit your potential and you will make decisions that keep you from becoming rich.

So how can you create empowering life references that will lead you toward what you want? Basically, there are a few ways you can do so…

1. Via Visualization

Do you still remember who Roger Bannister is? Many years ago, nobody believes that it is possible to finish one mile run in just one minute. However, Roger Bannister is the first person who breaks this record. How did he does it? There are no references for him, everyone is telling him that it is impossible to break the one-minute mile record. If you want the full story of Roger Bannister, read this post of mine, Breaking The Beliefs Of The World.

Now, how did he create the references that strong enough for him to break the record? Very simple, through visualization. What Roger did is that, he rehearse in his mind over and over again that he broke the record everyday and how he celebrates the amazing results in his mind. He did this every single day until that he created such a strong reference and this reference becomes the supportive factor that keeps him going.

Therefore, if you want to build a strong life references, you can build them via visualization. If you want to be rich and you want to believe that it is possible for you to become a millionaire, then visualize it everyday. Think about it and dream about becoming rich everyday. Soon enough, you will find that it will become true that you can become rich.

2. Via Reading

Yes, by reading more and more, you will be learning more and more. As a result, you will start to form a strong life references in your mind. Let me ask you this question, if you never know anything about smoking, and one day you read an article that discussed about the dangerous of smoking, do you think that this will leave a life impact to you? Of course you will, you will create a life reference in your mind that telling you the dangerous of smoking.

Like what I said in my previous post, I ask you why will a baby pull out a cigarette butt from a dirty ashtray and put it in his mouth? It is because he does not have a reference of this before. The baby does not have any reference that tells him it is dirty and he and it is not good for him. However, once the baby gets educated, he will know that it is not good to do so and that will create a reference for him telling him that he shouldn’t do so.

Therefore, the more you read, the more knowledge you gain, the more knowledge you gain, the more life references you create. As a result, you will have more life references that will shape your life. That is why reading and learning is one of the most important process that you can never miss if you want to improve the quality of your life. If you want to be successful in your life, you must constantly read more and keep on improve in your life.

3. Via Other People’s References

So how can you do this? Very simple, through the references of other people, especially someone close to you, such as your parents. If your parents are not millionaires, chances are, the financial knowledge that they taught you has been inaccurate. The references of other people in your life circle are going to affect you. Just like if your teacher tells you that you need to score this certain subject, get good grades, find a good job, get paid and keep doing and saving for the whole life and you’ll be financially free.

If your teacher is not financially free, he will be implementing an inaccurate financial reference to your life. This is how other people’s references can give impact to your life. And this is also why who you mix with will determine how you live your life. Those who mix with millionaires will definitely earn more than ordinary people, most of the time. Take mastermind group for example, why did you need to join a mastermind group? It is because the references of other members of the group are going to shape your life, that is why mastermind group is so powerful in helping you to your success.

These are some of the common ways how you can create empowering life references. If you want to learn more, I strongly suggest you buy Anothony Robbins’ book, Awaken The Giant Within. It is the most powerful self-improvement book that I have ever read and I’ll definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their lives to grab it.

Life References: How To Change And Improve The Quality Of Your Life

October 13th, 2008

Life ReferencesIf you grow up in a poor family and your parents told you that in order to be rich, you’ll have to study hard, get a good job and work hard all the time, do you think that this experience is going to affect your life? Of course, just like the life of Oprah Winfrey (If you don’t know her story, read this, Oprah Winfrey Success Story), if the same situation happens to others, they will live a life full of pain. This is simply because their life experience greatly impact the way they live.

If you live in a rich lifestyle, you were born in a wealthy family where your parents love you and they will give you anything you ask for, what is going to happen if one day all of these luxury items and pampering are not there anymore? What happened to you in the past will become your life references. In the future, when something similar ever happen again, you will then search deep in your mind for the same references that you have experienced before and act exactly the same way as you were before.

Let me give you a clear example here. If you like to play tennis and you the first time you are in for a tennis game, you win the game marvelously, everyone praise you and you feel like you’re the top tennis player among your friends. How is this experience going to affect your life? Do you think that you will raise your confidence in the next tennis game? Do you think that you will do better in the next match? Or do you think that you have the talent and want to explore more in this field? This is the life experience or reference that I’m talking about.

References are all the experiences in your life that you stored in your giant cabinet in your mind. Some references are picked up consciously, some unconsciously, while some you found yourself and some you created by listening to what others had to say.

Just like if you found a bag and inside this bag there is $50,000 cash, what are you going to do with it? Will you return this bag to its own or make a police report? Or are you going to keep those money as your own? Your action depends on your life references. Clearly, if you choose to return this money to it’s owner, it is because of the past experiences that you have had in your mind that told you to do so. Maybe you have developed a belief that returning something lost to it’s owner is doing a good deed and you will be rewarded by good karma because you trust in the golden rule of life.

What if you choose to keep the money and use it on your own? Maybe it is because you have encountered this similar situation before, you lost $10,000 cash in a bag and you found it back with nothing inside the bag. This will then create a strong reference on your brain that if you find any something not belongs to you, you should keep it as your own. This is how life references can affect you. People act according to their references.

Why will a baby pull out a cigarette butt from a dirty ashtray and put it in his mouth? It is because he does not have a reference of this before. The baby does not have any reference that tells him it is dirty and he and it is not good for him.

The key now is, are your life references empowering or dis-empowering?

The way you use your references will determine how you feel, because whether something is good or bad it is all depends on what you are comparing it to. It is just like if you bring someone from a very poor family that live in an isolated village to a lousy and cheap hotel room in New York City, I bet that he will be thrilled and tells you that it is a very luxury. Sometimes you will lose perspective that good and bad are merely based upon your references.

Therefore, you must learn how to make use of your references, how you can make them to empower you in your life and help you change and improve the quality of your life. You must then understand…

The Contrasting References

It is good to know that the references you have in your life are the ones that are going to affect the way you make decisions and every action that you take. However, in order to use your references to help you to build a better life and be more successful, you will need to have empowering references.

Imagine this for a moment. One of your friends is very successful, he is rich and he has a lot of money. One day he invited you to his big luxury bungalow to have a birthday party. So you accepted and you go for his party. He then found out that his bungalow is huge and it costs him $3 million. Not only that, the door of his house is made of half marble and that door itself cost him $500,000. Plus, he had a BMW and a Benz park in his garage. Wow, what a waste of money you may think, right?

But if you put it in a different perspective, will this event inspire and drive you into taking action and wanting to make more money? Of course it will. Certainly, there are rooms in your life for you to think bigger, pushing limit and imagine the unimaginable. The use of contrasting references is one of the most powerful ways to shape your life, to change your feelings and emotions.

Now, you may say that what if you are already very wealthy and you have everything you ever wanted? All your friends around you use you as their contrasting references, you don’t have any friends that you can use as contrast references. What should you do then? Think carefully, it is the perspective, the meaning that you give toward the references that create the emotion and the feeling.

You can come from a poor family, but if you look at it as an empowering reference, then it will empower and help you to achieve more in your life. It is all about the meaning you choose to give. Just like Oprah Winfrey, she was sexually abused and lived a painful life, but she never complained about it. Instead, she gave those references or her experiences empowering meaning.

She said that because she had gone through all those pain, she can now talk to anyone who has been in the same situation before, because she was there once too! So you see, it is how you make use of your references. Here is one very powerful quotes for you, “The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible”.

Continue to read the next article, Life References: How To Create References That Empower You.

Exclusive Interview With John Yeo From Blogger’s Paycheck

October 11th, 2008

This is an exclusive interview with John Yeo from Blogger’s Paycheck. I’ve got to know John around 6 months ago. That time, he was just starting in his internet business and I knew him through Internet Marketing Singapore Forum. He is the forum moderator.

John had been a helpful and he kept on leading me from the moment I knew him. Today, I decided to interview him because he had made a breakthrough in internet marketing. He had created a successful internet business, his Blogger’s Paycheck.

I’m glad to have him as a friend who always assists me in anyway he can. After all, most of the successful internet marketers out there do not really like to share their knowledge with others. Even if they do, there is a price to pay.

Although that he is in internet marketing and blogging, while my blog, The Millionaire Secrets, is about success and wealth creation, I believe that John will be able to share with us some insights and ‘secrets’ of his success.

Therefore, it is not just about making money online, it is more to the mindset of success and how he works his way to achieve such an amazing results today.

I believe that John has something interesting to share with us today, especially his story to success and all the positive mindsets, beliefs and attitudes that lead him to where he is today…

Download this FREE interview report below…

==> Exclusive Interview With John Yeo From Blogger’s Paycheck (Right Click To Save)

The Top 3 Reasons You Need To Have A Goal

October 9th, 2008

Goal SettingHave you ever thought of why do you need to have a goal? Why is that every successful person set goals anyway? There must be some reasons behind why they do so. For me, there are basically only 3 reasons why I set my goals…

1. Goals Keep Me Focus In My Direction

I believe you know this. The number one reason people set their goals is because goals can keep them staying focused in where they are heading. It does not matter where you come from, the real key is where are you heading? Maybe you come from a poor family or maybe you live a mediocre life. But it does not matter because everyone has different background.

It does not mean that if you come a rich family, you will 100% achieve your goals because you are rich. It also does not mean that if you come from a poor family, then you will be staying poor forever. Where you want to go is the real key to achieve great success in life.

Like I said, goals keep you staying focuses on where you are heading. If you don’t have a goal today, where will you be heading? Like if your goal is to become a top player in tennis, but if you haven’t found this goal yet, where will you be going? Will you improve your tennis skill? Mostly not, because it does not matter for you whether you are a top tennis player or not. However, once you have a clear goal of wanting to become a top tennis player, what kind of action will you take? Will you keep on thinking about this goal? Of course you will. And if you keep on thinking about this goal, will you take more action and train more? Definitely.

So you see, your goals keep you focus in where you are heading. It is the same if you want to be a millionaire. You need to set goal to achieve it. Your goal will then keep you focus and moving you toward that direction. As a result, you will take more action along the way, and hence, improve in the area of where you have set your goals.

It does not matter even if you did not achieve your goals. I cannot guarantee that once you have set your goals, you will achieve them. What I can promise is that once you have set your goals, you will definitely improve in that direction. Why? It is because you will at least take some action that moves you toward your goals, therefore, improve in that direction.

This is the number one reason why goal setting is so important. It gives you reasons to wake up in the morning, it is the determinant of how you live your life today.

2. Your Goals Somehow Motivate You

In fact, it is not your goals that motivate you, it is the reason behind your goals that motivate you. However, the moment you set your goals, you are cleared with the reason why you want to achieve them, this gives you a strong desire and this desire is going to drive you forward.

Whenever you look at your goals, you will be motivated because your mind know the reasons behind your goals. Your goals are somehow linked with your purpose of achieving them. That means, when you see your goals, you will get motivated because they are the signal that drives you in your life.

This is just like the moment you see your dream car, you will get motivated, because it will trigger your hot button and get you driven. Your goals have this very same function. The moment you see your goals, you will get motivated, they remind you of what you have to do and what you have to accomplish in your life.

This is why you need to write down your goals and paste them somewhere you can see often. Unfortunately, this is also the step that most people are not doing because they are shy about their goals, they fear others might laugh at them if they fail to achieve their goals.

3. Get You What You Want In The Shortest Time Possible

If you don’t have any goal today, you will be like lost sheep that dangling in nowhere. When you know what exactly that you want in your life, you are clear of your direction, you know where you want to go and you will save a lot of time focus and get there.

Have you ever heard of the Pareto 80/20 rule? Your goals will determine your action. That means, if you have a goal today, you will spend most of your time doing what’s necessary to get you there, you are spending 20% of your time to produce 80% of the results that you want. If you don’t have a clear goal today, you will do a lot of things that give you little results because you are focused.

In fact, goal setting enable you to take action according to your action plan. And by doing so, you are actually doing the tasks that have the greatest impact in your life. You are doing something that give you the maximum results. Just like if you have written down your goals and you have developed an action plan on how you can achieve your goals, you can then organize your action plan according to their importance and their impact on your lives.

Organize and get those action step that gives you the most impact and maximum results in your life first. This way, you will be getting 20% percent of the things done and produce 80% of the results.

These are the top 3 reasons you need to have a goal. Goal setting is a very crucial process in your road to success. If there is one thing that can make your dreams come true, it is goal setting.

So make the decision and set your goals today. Be committed and do whatever it takes to achieve your goals.