Begin each day with this question: “What am I going to do today that will make the best use of my time and energy, and lead me a step closer to reaching my goals?”

During the day, each time you are faced with a decision, ask yourself: “Does this action substantially help me toward achieving my goals?”

Before you leave your workplace or before you go to sleep at night, make a list of your most urgent priorities for the following day in order of their importance. You might consider dividing your activities into A, B and C lists:

•A is for action immediately
•B is before the end of the day
•C is can wait until tomorrow
Become aware of interruptions and distractions that can block your success. Constant telephone calls are the most common. Spending too much time on reading and answering personal e-mails is another problem. Chatting with co-workers eats up more time. Messy files, disorganized scheduling and cluttered desks are roadblocks. Take an objective look at your routines and habits. And then take action! —Denis Waitley

From Motivation to Motive-Action by Denis Waitley
With the current times, each of us needs to understand the magnitude of social and economic change in the world. In the past, change in business and social life was incremental, and a set of personal strategies for achieving excellence was not required. Today, in the knowledge-based world, where change is the rule, a set of personal strategies is essential for success, even survival. Never again will you be able to go to your place of business on autopilot, comfortable and secure that the organization, state or government will provide for and look after you. You must look in the mirror when you ask who is responsible for your success or failure. You must become a lifelong learner and leader, for to be a follower is to fall hopelessly behind the pace of progress. The power brokers in the new global arena will be the knowledge facilitators. Ignorance will be even more the tyrant and enslaver than in the past. As you look in the mirror to see the 21st-century you, there will also be another image standing beside you. It is your competition. Your competition, from now on, will be a hungry immigrant with a wireless, hand-held, digital assistant. Hungry for food, hungry for a home, for a new car, for security, for a college education. Hungry for knowledge. Smart, quick thinking, skilled and willing to do anything necessary to be competitive in the world marketplace. Working long hours and Saturdays, staying open later, serving customers better and more cheerfully. To be a player in the 21st century you have to be willing to give more in service than you receive in payment.

These are the new rules in the game of life. These are the actions you must take to be a leader and a winner in your personal and professional life. By mastering these profoundly simple action steps, you will be positioned to be a change master in the new century.

Action Step No. 1—Consider Yourself Self-Employed, But Be a Team Player.
What this means is that you are your own chief executive officer of your future. Start thinking of yourself as a service company with a single employee. You’re a small company that puts your services to work for a larger company. Tomorrow you may sell those services to a different organization, but that doesn’t mean you’re any less loyal to your current employer. Taking responsibility for yourself in this way does mean that you never equate your personal long-term interests with your employer’s.

The first idea is resolving not to suffer the fate of those who lost their jobs and found their skills were obsolete. The second is to begin immediately the process of protecting yourself against that possibility—by becoming proactive instead of reactive.

Ask yourself these questions:

How vulnerable am I? What trends must I watch? What information must I gain? What knowledge do I lack?

Again, think of yourself as a company. Set up a training department in your mind and make certain your top employee is updating his or her skills. Make sure you have your own private pension plan, knowing that you are responsible for your own financial security.

Entrusting the government or an employer, other than yourself, with your retirement income is like hiring a compulsive gambler as your accountant.

You’re the CEO of your daily life who must have the vision to set your goals and allocate your resources. The mindset of being responsible for your own future used to be crucial only to the self-employed, but it has become essential for us all. Today’s typical employees are no longer one-career people. Most will have five separate careers in their lifetimes. Remember, your competition is a hungry immigrant with a laptop. Action Step No. 1 is to consider yourself to be self-employed, but be a team player.

Action Step No. 2—Be Flexible in the Face of Daily Surprises.
We live in a time-starved, overstressed, violent society. Much of our over-reaction to what happens to us every day is a result of our self-indulgent value system, where we blame others for our problems, look to organizations or the government for our solutions, thirst for immediate sensual gratification and believe we should have privileges without responsibilities. This condition is manifested in the high crime rate and in the increase in violence in the workplace where employees blame their managers for threatening their security.

I have learned how to be flexible in the face of daily surprises, which is one of the most important action traits for a leader. I really haven’t been angry for about 17 years. During that time, no one has tried to physically harm me or someone close to me. I’ve learned to adapt to stress in life and reserve my fear or anger for imminently physically dangerous situations. I rarely, if ever, get upset with what people say, do or don’t do, even if it inconveniences me. I do react emotionally when I see someone physically or emotionally abusing or victimizing another. But I’ve learned not to sweat the small stuff.

The Serenity Prayer, “Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference,” is a valuable measuring tool we can apply to our lives. Simple yet profound words to live by.





3. Seeds of Greatness
The Power of Habit by Denis Waitley
You may know me.
I’m your constant companion.
I’m your greatest helper; I’m your heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am at your command.
Half the tasks you do might as well be turned over to me. I’m able to do them quickly, and I’m able to do them the same every time,
if that’s what you want.

I’m easily managed; all you’ve got to do is be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want it done; after a few lessons I’ll do it automatically.
I am the servant of all great men and women; of course,
I’m the servant of all the failures as well.
I’ve made all the winners who have ever lived.
And, I’ve made all the losers too.

But I work with all the precision of a marvelous computer
with the intelligence of a human being.
You may run me for profit, or you may run me to ruin;
it makes no difference to me.

Take me. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.
Be firm with me, and I’ll put the world at your feet.
Who am I?

I’m Habit!


Why Most Goal Setting Fails by Darren Hardy
Here are five reasons why most people fail to reach their goals:

1. Wish List and Cross Your Fingers
You cannot simply write down a list of wants on New Year’s Day, stick it in a drawer for the rest of the year and wait around for your life to change.

2. Clear as Mud
Your goals have to be crystal clear. You have to give clear instructions to your brain in order for it to see and ‘draw’ into your life what you need to accomplish your goals. Just like the combination on a lock, the digits in a phone number or an ATM code, if the instructions are off by only one digit, they won’t work.

3. All Talk
Proclaiming your goal is just the starting point. Now you have to actually draw a map for exactly how you are going to get there and define the resources you’ll need to arrive safely.

4. Houston We Have a Problem
You must have your own command and control system to keep on track along your journey into the unknown.

5. Lack of Reinforcements
Don’t forget the support and guidance of people and resources you will need along the way.