 
E is for Effort

Copyright 2018 Bradley Pearce

Published by Bradley Pearce at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

With the exception of God, all the characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Dedicated to:

John Lennon

" _When I was five, my mother always told me happiness was the key to life._

When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I wrote down "Happy".

They told me I did not understand the question.

I told them they did not understand Life."

John Lennon

Table of Contents

E IS FOR EFFORT

Introduction

Progress is not linear

Man in the mirror

Fear

Creatures of habit

Conditioning

Comfort zone

Who am I?

Proust questions

Who are you?

It's all about you

You are what you radiate

Fifteen hundred hours

First Impressions

What would you like to do for a living?

Success at what price

Be careful what you wish for

Steps to Success

Goals

Write goals down

Commitment

Start

The power of now

Planning

Timeline

Action

Obstacles

Failure

Why goals fail

Persistence

The 3 foot rule

Monitor your progress

Energy

Adversity

Think Big

Procrastination

Distractions

Life's detours

Change your attitude

Back to the Future

Self-Belief

Self-Esteem

Self-Worth

Self-Doubt

Self-Talk

Self-Discipline

Self-Confidence

Self Everything

Time Management

Milestones

Making Goals Tangible

Goal Buddy / Mentor

Make / Take Opportunities

Negative Energy

The Importance of feeling Important

The Law of Attraction

Imagination

Synergy

Meditation

Meditation Process

Four Brainwave States

Mind Power

Self-Suggestion

Providence

Give yourself permission

Luck

AND THE REST IS HISTORY

Abraham Lincoln

Charles Dickens

Alfred Nobel

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

Thomas Edison

Henry Ford

Guglielmo Marconi

Charlie Chaplin

Bill Gates

Tony Robbins

Sir Peter Jackson

J K Rowling

Alistair K Duncan

Susan Boyle

Just ordinary People

Happy 100th Birthday

Recipe for Success

Guidelines

Thank You

Remember That

Walking the Talk

Shine

A Poignant Horoscope

In a Nut Shell

Inspirational Quotes

About Sheepy

A Brief History Lesson

Recommended Readings

About Bradley Pearce
Introduction

Welcome to the revised edition of _E is for Effort_. Leaner, meaner, faster, stronger. I hope you find this edition easier to read and as informative as the first edition. Enjoy.

I'd like to begin with one of my favorite motivational sayings:

Man must stand

With mouth open for long time,

Before roast duck flies in.

Old Chinese Proverb

I have this image in my head of a man with his mouth open waiting for the roast duck to arrive. The truth being that many of us wait around with mouths open waiting our goals to come to us. The peculiar thing about goals is that they don't generally work that way.

After some reflective thought I came up with my own saying:

Given the effort and sacrifice required to be succeed;

Imagine what could be achieved;

If one did nothing?

Bradley Pearce

Because in reality that is what the people are doing with their mouths open. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Nothing will happen if you do exactly that. Nothing. I think it's time we took action and made things happen for us.

Success is a Conquest;

Not a Bequest.

I want you to write your goal here:

Goal: ...................................................

Start Date: ...../...../......

End Date: ...../...../......

  * You have taken a goal from your mind and written it down on paper. It has escaped the confines of your thoughts. Your eyes now see what your mind could only imagined.

  * You have made the goal tangible. Carry it in your wallet. Look at it every day.

  * You have given your goal a birthday.

  * Success started at this very moment. It starts now.

Sure there will be ups and downs, obstacles, that's okay, because that is how success works. The three step shuffle. Two steps forward, one back.

I'm not asking you to see the entire stair case,

Just the first step.

Lives are constantly oscillating between success and failure. Whether it's to paint the fence, or commit to a New Year's Resolution. We bounce like ping-pong balls between the two states, making corrections to get us to where we want to go.

Success = f (Failure)

You will bounce back and forth between the boundaries, making self-corrections that over time, until you arrive at our goal.

If one could write a formula that encapsulates how to succeed then it might look like this:

_Success is a function of Persistent Effort_.

You will read about this again and again and again in this book. No one ever succeeded by quitting.

I want you to make an effort. An effort to dream. An effort to commit. An effort to change. An effort to act. An effort to fail. An effort to progress. An effort to persist. An effort to succeed.

Effort moves you > From State A > To State B > To State C > To Succeed

The very fact you are reading this book, means you have a desire to change in your life.

You will discover how others have achieved success. And in the end, you will discover that there was no secret. That we are all just ordinary people that made an extra-ordinary effort. Are you prepared to go the extra mile? To run that extra lap, when your legs are aching? Run faster as your lungs are burning? To make that extra phone call for that next sale? Knock on that extra door for that job? Sacrifice that extra hour of personal time to study for that qualification which may provide you that promotion?

If you want an extraordinary life,

_Then do something extra_.

If you are reluctant to make an effort and you simply wish to have success given to you, then I suggest you buy yourself a magic lamp and give it a rub and hope a Gene appears and grants you three wishes. But of course, that would require you making an effort to find the magic lamp.

Feel free to jump to between sections of this book, as they each stand on their own right, but also form part of the whole holistically. I will repeat myself over and over and over and over again to expound the fundamentals truth behind attaining your goal.

It will be a journey of self-discovery.

Destiny is not a matter of chance;

It is a matter of choice.

You have the chance to write your own story. It will about you. How many frogs will kiss along the way? Well that's up to you. But remember, you do get to live happily ever after.

Your journey may feel be like a giant board game of snakes and ladders. Go on. Roll the dice (take action) and progress a number of spaces. Move closer to your goal. Sometimes you will roll double sixes and progress in leaps and bounds. Other times a series of ones.

The dice are in your hands.

Make an effort and roll them.

If you don't throw the dice, do not expect any progress. Sometimes you land on a snake and slide backwards. That's okay. You can handle setbacks. Because you know they can't hurt you if you keep rolling the dice and keep in the game. Persistence will be the key to finishing.

Or similarly, the journey will be like a jig saw puzzle. One piece at a time...

And once you have attained your goal, much like a scary roller coaster ride, you will want to do it all over again with another goal.

Come with me on a journey. Here is the road map you will need...

It is a journey of discovery. The discovery of you...
Progress is Not Linear

_There are no shortcuts;_

To any place worth going.

Sarah Brown

I want you to visualize the above graph whenever you feel like you are failing, to remind yourself that you are on a rocky journey. And that you are at some point along this journey. As a child you joined the dots to complete a picture?

To complete your journey you will need to join the dots.

The bigger the dream, the more dots there will be. Do not expect a mole hill if you are thinking of climbing Mt Everest.

Where would be the fun if there were only two dots?

Effort can be described as:

  * A conscious exertion to produce an outcome;

  * An energy used to do something;

  * A serious or determined attempt;

  * Work done by the mind or body;

Sound familiar. If you make no effort, if you do nothing, then that is what generally happens. A book does not write itself. A writer must type every single word. If they type nothing, nothing is written.

If you want something to happen,

You must make it happen.

So what can ignite the fuse for you to take action? How about a desire for change?

Desire for Change > Effort > Action

You have a desire to make a change something about yourself. Let us now look at this more closely at what drives this desire in the next chapter...
The Desire for Change

The definition of Insanity:

People doing the same thing;

But expecting different result.

My apologies for stating the obvious, but unless you change your actions, nothing will change in your life. You will keep on getting the same outcome. People that want a change in their lives, must change their behavior and habits.

The amount of effort required depends on how much you desire the change. How badly do you wish to lose weight? To stop smoking?

Effort = f (Desire for change)

Inaction results in no progress. Most people live with the expectation that success will arrive through their inbox to discover an email which states, _"Congratulations, you are successful. Come and collect your roast duck."_

Progress = f (Action)

No Progress = f (Inaction)

They say a journey is made up of many steps, and that the hardest step is the first step. By reading this book you have taken that first step.

Your desire to change,

_Must be greater than your desire to be the same_.

We all have desires. The desire to win lotto, a better job, a better house, a holiday in some exotic land.

How many of us feel:

  * We lead unfulfilled or unsatisfying lives?

  * We are not where would like to be at this point in their lives?

  * Struggle with money problems?

  * Suffer from low self-confidence?

  * Are not satisfied at their jobs?

We have an intense desire to change these things. Yet what do we do about changing them? Silence. Do nothing, get nothing remember.

Desire is the driving force that sets everything in motion. Desire is behind great achievements. Good and Evil. Nothing great has been created without it. Whether you're inventing the electric light, or running for the Presidency.

Desire is the catalyst that can overcome a reluctant mental attitude. It arouses people. Stirring them from a slumber upon their safe perches within their warm fuzzy comfort zones. Like an impelling force, it rejuvenates a flagging mind and provides purpose to life.

When the desire for change is strong enough,

People will Act.

Singularly or Collectively;

Dramatically or Passively;

To bring about that change.

Bradley Pearce

Either you makes the change for yourself.

Or a catalyst for change must be introduced.

In the case of the gold fish, place a piranha in the bowl and the _desire for change_ soon becomes apparent...

Man in the Mirror

Now here is the scary part of the book, I want you to go look in the mirror.

Who do you see?

  * If you want to know what success looks like? You're looking at it.

  * If you want to know what failure looks like? You're looking at it.

  * If you want to know who's holding back? You're looking at them.

  * If you want to know who can propel you forward? You're looking at them.

Next time you look in the mirror I want you see a good looking person.

  * Confident, assured, with bright eyes.

  * A person of mystery and intrigue.

  * You harbor a secret. A goal.

  * Smile at that person. (They'll smile back.)

You have magic beans (goals) in your pocket. Everyone thinks you've gone mad. You do not care what they think anymore. You do not seek their approval. You are the author of your own life story now. You have are consumed by your goal. You have become addicted to this goal. You have to satisfy your craving at any cost. Time, money, and friends.

You will do whatever it take to attain it. This fix. You feel cheated if you can't.

Others see a change in you. No longer the pliable predictable person you once were. Your circle of friends have changed. You talk differently. You act differently. You think differently. You look different.

You look _important_. You feel important.

There is a sense of urgency about you. You have little time for trivial distractions of a TV series or hanging off bar stools. You are not the same person you saw in the mirror a year ago.

Something has changed. Welcome to life...

... _Life is said to begin,_

_Where your comfort zone ends_.

If you've not _uncomfortable_ , you're simply not living. Rattle the cage and do something that challenges you. If your goals don't scare you, then they're too small.

We all have the power to change our lives. The masses surrender their lives over to their work, the Internet, and mindless reality shows.

The greatest power you possess,

Is the power of Choice.

You read earlier where the definition of insanity where people keep doing the same thing, but expect a different result. People that live comfortable lives of getting up, going to work, paying the mortgage, waiting to retire and die. Looking back from their rocking chairs with regrets at what could have been.

At any point in time, they could have acted and taken that first small step. The excuses they once used now appearing worn and transparent.

The moment you choose to change, to set new habits in your life, regardless of the consequences, that is the moment you become the author of your own story.

If you don't write you life story;

You might become part of someone else's story.

If you allow others to write the story of your life, pushing and pulling and coercing you in all directions but your own, you will forever be on their treadmill.

  * People hold themselves back.

  * People who accept second-best, invariably become and receive second-best.

  * People that think doubt, fail. (Remembering you get back what you put out.)

  * People who think success, succeed.

You need only look in the mirror to see the one responsible.

If today was the last day of your life, what would you do differently?

If you have ever seen the movie _Ground Hog Day_ starring the immortal Bill Murray and the insatiable Andie MacDowell. Murray has to relive the same day over and over again. Predictability and frustration sets in, and he goes about learning new talents. Playing the piano. Ice sculpting.

Yet every morning when we wake up, we are given the same opportunities. How many of us embrace them with both hands?

Make each new day a new start. A new beginning. What would we do if this was the last day of your life? Because it is. There is never a tomorrow. Just today. Over and over and over again.

So why do we keep repeating yesterday? The simple answer, fear...
Fear

Your journey will feel like a roller coaster ride

First you have to have a curiosity to experience the ride. Why does everyone scream and yet at the end of it want to do it again? You overcome the fear and purchase a ticket. You take a leap of faith and climb aboard and strap yourself in. The path is hidden from view, but you can see what is immediately in front of you, but you cannot see the dips and loops that lay beyond your vision. You know if you climb out now, you will be missing out on something extra-ordinary. Something special is about to happen.

" _I'm not a screamer."_ You say to yourself.

The car begins to move. There is no going back. No stopping until you reach the end. Picking up pace, it climbs and dives and the world outside becomes a blur.

" _Aaaaahhhhhhh_!"_ A primal urge allows you to scream.

You react to the forces catapulting your body in all directions at once. And suddenly as quickly as it began, the ride is over. You have reached your destination. You have overcome the impossible, overcome your fear. A strange satisfaction rushes through, your mind. You want to do it again.

Fear springs from Ignorance.

Ralph W Emmerson

Fear is merely an _illusion_ created by the mind.

It is no more than an intangible internalized thought. Before an external fear can be perceived, it must be first accepted internally. Most people are under the delusion that our fears are external. There cannot be a monster under the bed, unless you first perceive it in your head. Fantasized experiences that appear to be real.

Fear = f (Fantasized Experiences)

So how do we overcome Fear?

  * **Acceptance** \- Accept the fact that the fear is all in your mind. That you created it and you are the master of it. Assert there is no fear. Fear only exists if you allow it to exist.

  * **Analyze your Fear** \- By analyzing the fear, you begin to understand it. You can rationalize that the roller coaster ride is not dangerous. That many people keep wanting to do it.

  * **Positive Self-Talk** \- Tell yourself you can do it. State an affirmation repeatedly to yourself. Give yourself self-belief in the thing you are about to do. _"I will do this, I can do this."_ Replace the dreadful thought, _"...Oh my God I'm going to die..."_ with, _"...This looks like fun... I can do this."_

  * **Just do it** \- Close your eyes and just do it anyway. Throw caution to the wind and just do it. I recall while trying to get geeekle.com developed I was hesitant about whether to part with my savings. I was annoyed with myself for being so indecisive. So I just did it. I closed my eyes and transferred the funds. Knowing the project would be _underway_. What an exhilarating feeling that was. What a buzz! It was a simple act, but it felt monumental.

So how do we overcome our fears?

Change the way you think, change the habit of your thinking...
Creatures of Habit

"A _re you on a treadmill? Well, the only way you can get off, is by evolving mastership. We are controlled by our habits. At first we manage them. But later they manage us. Young habits are like cubs, fluffy and fun. Take care what kind of habits you are evolving. Soon you will be in their power, and they can eat you up. It is habit that chains us to the treadmill, and makes up us subject to the will of others. And it is habit that gives us mastership, of ourselves and others."_

From the Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)

I came across this wonderful quote while rummaging through my favorite second hand book store and I thought how poignant it is still today. How people of that time were very much like us. They did not have the distractions as we do today such as television or social networks, but they did have other habits that stole their time and energy.

Dramatic outside forces can create unsolicited change on your life, such as a redundancy; or passively, such as talking to stranger that open's your eyes a new thought.

Either you make a change;

_Or change is made on you by an outside force_.

  * Students go about their daily habit of classes and study;

  * Workers go about their daily habit of commuting and working and commuting;

  * Shopkeepers go about their daily habit of opening their stores and selling;

  * Drivers go about their daily habit of driving routes.

Many not even realizing they are doing things automatically. Have you driven a route and when you got there you do not remember the journey. As if you were on automatic pilot. As if you were a passenger rather than the driver. (And you thought the roller coaster ride was scary.)

What if we changed their habits?

  * Have the student attend a different lecture hall in a different building;

  * Have the workers miss their train and need to take a bus;

  * Have the shopkeeper has to sell a completely different product;

  * The driver is forced to take a detour on a different route.

One can imagine a cold awakening from their habitual slumber. Their brains now having to actively negotiate and respond to the new environmental stimuli.

We all have habits. We allow them to take control of our lives. Daily routines that get us through the day without thinking. They dictate how we act and work and play, what we do and do not do.

There are good habits, such as brushing our teeth, and taking time out to relax to read a good book. There are bad habits such as eating takeaways for dinner and smoking cigarettes.

People are creatures of habit:

Everything we do is a habit;

From the first thing in the morning;

To the last thing we do at night;

And everything in between.

The definition of insanity it when one does the same thing but expecting a different result. It naturally follows that if we want a different result, we have to do something different.

People need to change their behavior,

Changing their habit will create a different outcome.

Habits requires two components:

  * Thought (desire).

  * Behavior (action).

By themselves they are not habits. A habit requires a thought and an action.

Habit Change = f (Change of Thought and Behaviour)

Consciously thinking not smoke _and_ not physically smoking, that is a new habit.

  * Your mind will be telling you to smoke, your body will be craving for a cigarette.

  * But your new habit says you do not smoke, and you _re-inforce this thought_ with the _action of not smoking_.

It takes three weeks to ingrain a new habit. Just twenty one days. After that, you wonder why you had not done it sooner.

It is hard to step outside one's safe and secure comfort zone. Into the unknown, filled with fear and failure that you have created in your mind.

So how did we become who we are?

Conditioning...

Conditioning

_Can you remember who you were_

before the world told you who you should be?

Charles Bukowski

The subject of human conditioning is a vast and specialized field, I suggest those interested should pursue further reading online.

We are all born with relatively empty databases, our minds are a blank canvas. Waiting to be painted with a colorful life. Other than our animal primal instincts for survival, we have yet to be programmed as to how to behave.

So how do become programmed to behave the way we do?

  * Our behavior is based on what we know or believe. Our belief system.

  * Our belief system is based on our knowledge.

  * Our knowledge is based on experiences from social inputs.

These Social inputs our lives and expectations. And ultimately our behavior. The growing pain we experience as children in the _formative years_ , sets the stage for when we are adults. Our behavior is no longer our own, but someone else's. These are the _external forces_ we talked about earlier acting on us.

We are programmed from an early age to behave in a certain way, by our parents and peers. We are literally programmed to conform to the specific tribe's socially accepted behavior. We are socially aligned and are led willingly onto the treadmill that carries us along with the others.

Being told, _"...don't go upsetting the apple cart."_

Have you ever found yourself sounding like your mother or father? And wondered, where did that come from?

Life is an iterative process of learning. It is through experiences, successes and failures that we build up a mental catalogue of knowledge. And ultimately, that knowledge becomes wisdom in time.

Thoughts become Words;

Words become Actions;

Actions become Habits;

Habits become Character;

And Character will define your Destiny.

Buddha

Besides the social groups, we are also tacitly influenced by:

  * **Role Models** \- Our parents are our primary role models. We spend a large proportion of our formative years watching and observing their behavior. We learn through _osmosis_ , filtering their behavior as acceptable. It is quite common for adults to repeat their parents' behavior when they themselves have family.

  * **Teaching** \- We are taught directly to do the right thing e.g. our parents telling us how to behave at the dinner table. How to place our knife and fork. Hopefully they taught us some manners and respect. To say please and thank you.

  * **Reward** \- This is positive reinforcement for things we did. Usually by parents, but also from teachers and our peers. We are rewarded for doing something considered right or exceptional.

  * **Punishment** \- Conversely this is negative deterrent to stop you from repeating your actions deemed non-acceptable differently. Again usually applied by parents, but also from teachers and your peers. And the Justice System _._

  * **Critics** \- We internally accept those that criticize us. _We accept they must be right_ , so we impose the same critical opinions upon ourselves e.g. "... _you're useless... you will not amount to anything... This is your lot, accept it."_

These external forces govern our habits that become part of our character that over time defines our destiny.

We think, therefore we are.

And because we perform these habits every day, three hundred and sixty five days a year, they have become ingrained in us. It makes us feel safe to behave this way. Insulated from change. Change that would unsettle us. We conform and live within socially accepted _comfort zone_ , so as not to appear difficult or strange.

Perhaps this should be called the _comfort bubble_.

Habits hold us back because they dictate our day. They consume our energy and time. Time you will never get back. Fear of failure and humiliation keep us from stepping off treadmill.

Are you prepared to step off the treadmill and step outside your comfort zone?

Are you ready to burst your comfort bubble? ...

Comfort Zone

We all live in our self-defined comfort zones. Cocooned within the boundaries of our habits.

Why live in discomfort, when you can live in comfort right? _Comfort boundaries_ are set by us, for us. But like heavy fly wheels, they spin with an inertia that make them difficult to change direction.

Humans are social creatures needing:

  * Social interaction.

  * Social acceptance.

  * To belong.

But sometimes this acceptance comes at the price of conformity. Conformity to the _Social Herd._

Like a castle it protects us from the outside world. We are happy to go through life conforming to society's' expectations, restrictive as they are, not to be different from others about us.

How different are we to the gold fish in the glass bowl?

If I placed you in a strange country, where you did not speak the language, did not recognize the foods, and had no money in your pocket. How would you feel? It's an incredible feeling of _adaptation_ that cannot be read in books. You must use your _basic primal instincts_. You must make social connections with complete strangers, to live in their environment and community until you can find your way home. The _ability to adapt_ is a valuable social skill and helps us overcome obstacles that cross the path in life.

The ability to _adapt to change_ strengthens our self-belief and resolve to continue. That will make it out of there. And who knows, you might just want to stay.

Stepping outsides your comfort zone allows you to see the world as others see it. Though I myself may hold a certain belief, I am always willing to hear someone else's view. Accepting they might know something I do not. And vice versa. Talking to complete strangers is a great way to build confidence. Initiating and engaging in conversation. Adapting your conversation. Engaging, yet being able to listen with an open mind.

Learn about their language and their country and their views. Their wonderful character. Learn how we are all hardwired differently. And yet discover they are not too unlike me. Facing the same day to day challenges and difficulties. The same joys and simple pleasures in life.

Encounters outside your comfort zone allow you to:

  * Gain confidence,

  * Builds your self-belief

  * Reduces the need to seek acceptance from others.

Are you ready to take a leap ?...

Who am I?

I often described myself as a funny shape peg for a funny shape hole. I am different. I know that. I accept that. And sometimes that frightens people.

I guess if I ever had a card printed I think it would state:

Am I qualified to write this book? I am not educated in sociology, philosophy or psychiatry from any University. I am just an arm chair philosopher with over sixty years' experience from the Faculty of Life. From which I have yet to graduate.

A very good friend of mine told me once about Chinese students about to enter university:

First year, the don't know that they don't know;

Second year, they know they don't know;

Third year, they don't know they know;

And by their final year, they know they know.

On reflection there is a lot of truth in those wise words. Like anything we learn, at first we don't know we don't know. Then at some point, we know we don't know. I hope by the end of the book, you will know that you know.

I like to think I am a mix between Walter-Mitty the perpetual day dreamer; Peter Pan the boy who never grew up; and Edison the innovator. Why Peter Pan? Because children have imaginations free from prejudices.

Adults lose this innocence and live habitual lives conditioned by commitments and external forces. Fortunately, that never happened for me and I just carried on being the kid I always was. And I've never regretted a day in my life. It makes me smile to think how I am a child in an old man's body.

My story is about a child that grew up in a large family of seven siblings and small rural township. As a teenager growing up in the 60's and 70's the school holidays were spent working a nearby market garden. It was tough back breaking work. I would spend some days driving a tractor in a 40 acre field of dry dusty soil. Some days picking potatoes by hand into sugar sacks. As a twelve year old child lifting the thirty kilogram bags onto the back of an old Bedford truck on cold winter's night with the constellation of the Milky Way above. Other days baling and stacking hay in intolerably hot and dusty sheds. What did not kill me only made me stronger. At the time I did not appreciate it, but looking back now, I would have to say I loved every moment of it. Endless summers that now fifty years later, flash by in a blink of an eye.

The 60's and 70's were pre-technology years, where kids made our own skateboards. I was lucky to have lived in such an amazing time and a small rural township. Drugs were virtually non-existent. There was no internet or no social networks to distract us. Strict parenting kept us on the straight and narrow. These were the great years. But the best years are what lay ahead.

Computers were emerging around the early 1980's and I decided I would pursue a career as high school teacher teaching Math, Sciences and Computer Studies. Unfortunately the New Zealand Education Department at the time decided that (quote, unquote):

" _Computers are not the way of the future."_

Hmm. So I decided if I could not teach computer science, then I did not want to be a teacher.

My father was an accountant, as were my brothers and my sisters married accountants. So the last thing I wanted to become was an accountant. The unspoken pressure to conform was enormous.

After a few years of working odd jobs, I decided to return to university at the ripe old age of twenty four to complete a degree in business studies. I was determined I was _not going to be an accountant_. I would study _Business Administration_ and become a manager of some sort and satisfy my entrepreneurial calling.

Unfortunately, as I was good at mathematics, and accounting was simply a processing of credits (negatives) and debits (positives), I ended up majoring in the one thing I said I would never, Accounting.

My bad.

And I began my working life down the railway tracks. Forever assigned to be the one thing I swore I would never me. The universe had it in for me.

Then about twenty years ago to read Self Help books and Historical fiction, something other than text books. And discovered a world I never knew existed. The more I read, the more I saw my own life on a pedestal.

It was an epiphany:

  * How I had held myself back by a perceived peer expectations.

(All unspoken. It was all in my head.)

  * How I wasted years living in a comfort zone.

(It felt safe there.)

I never had really experienced life. I had lived within my own comfort bubble. Fearful of the uncertainty that lay just beyond the invisible barrier of the cage in which I lived. Unaware the cage door was never locked. Unaware I could fly away at any time. I had imprisoned myself all those years.

We could be whoever or whatever we wanted to be. We just have to be brave enough to open the cage door. Spread our wings. And take a leap of faith and that life carried on. No one ever died by taking a leap of faith. You may wake up the next morning with a few emotional bruises to show for your efforts. But you are still living, and wiser for the experience.

So you fell over? What you do next will shape who you are for the rest of your life.

A literary giant, and one my two favorite authors, once said:

Character consists of what you do

between your third and fourth attempts.

James A Michener

From that day forward I decided I would start writing my own story. I travelled and chased my dreams. For better and for worse. And trust me, there were some worse.

I still chase them. I had fallen too far down the rabbit hole to turn back.

Now I am a writer and exploring product innovation, my only regret is that it took twenty years of my life trying to be something I never wanted to be. An accountant. Thinking positively, regrets are a good things, they help us learn what not to do next time.

Knowing why and how I became the one thing I never wanted to be, empowered me to _accept responsibility_ for that. Not one to blame others, because I allowed it to happen.

Then I let the thought go.

I don't like carrying around emotional baggage. So I write those thoughts down and email them to myself and save the email to a special directory titled "thoughts". Knowing the _thoughts_ will always be there should I ever wish to recall them. Yet somehow I never do.

Life is heavy enough without carrying around unnecessary burdens.

Your mind can only hold one thought at a time.

Make it a good one.

I want to look forward to the future and not spend my life looking back to the past.

It is more produtive to look forward;

_Than to look_ _backwards_.

It takes time (you will never get back) and energy looking backwards. So why not invest that time and energy looking forward. And don't forget your shades.

What motivates me?

  * Reminding myself who I am and what I am capable of.

  * That it requires time and energy and effort to achieve your heart's desires.

  * To start.

  * To never give up.

  * And to finish **.**

  * No matter how long it takes.

What else motivates me?

  * The simple things in life.

  * The beauty and abundance that surrounds us all.

  * That I am one with God, and that God is with me every moment of the life.

He is a simple poem I just wrote a moment ago for no reason other than it needed to be captured before it faded and I forgot the words...

We are all poets

Seeing God's creation through different eyes

Beauty is so vast

It cannot be seen all at once.

Before we have a look at who you are, here are some questions you might wish to answer about yourself...
Michael Proust Questions

A famous French writer, Marcel Proust, adapted a questionnaire popular among the English families of the late nineteenth century.

They are aimed at identifying what is important to you. Take your time, go back over them and reflect on them. The only judge here is yourself. How open can you be about yourself? There are no right or wrong answers. Have fun. I did.

Here are some I have answered:

1. What is your idea of happiness?

Being one with God and Spirit.

2. What is your greatest worry in life?

My golf swing.

3. What is the trait you deplore most in yourself?

My impatience.

4. Which living person do you admire most?

My father (95).

5. What is your greatest extravagance?

Second hand books.

6. What is your current state of mine?

Content, Optimistic, and ever Grateful.

7. On what occasions would you lie?

To protect my family.

8. What is the quality you admire most in a person?

Integrity, Honesty, Compassion, Authenticity.

9. Which phrases do you most overuse?

What would you like to do for a living?

How badly do you want your goal?

10. Who is your greatest love of your life?

My Children.

11. When and where are you happiest?

Being in open spaces. Walking, thinking, day dreaming.

Creating something where before there was nothing.

12. If you could change something about yourself what would it be?

To talk less, to listen more.

To be more patient.

13. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Overcoming my stutter.

14. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

I'm not coming back.

15. Where would you most like to live?

South Island, New Zealand. A homestead with cherry trees, workshop/art studio.

16. What is your most valued possession?

My second-hand books.

17. What is your most marked characteristic?

My independence.

18. What do you value most in friends?

Their conversation, their support.

Their couch.

19. Who are your favorite Writers?

James A Michener and Charles Bukowski.

20. Which Historical figures do you most identify with?

Marconi, Edison, Chaplin.

21. What are your favorite names?

Emily, Rebecca, Harry,

22. What is that you most dislike?

Drugs, Inequity, Social Injustice, Trolls.

23. What is your greatest regret?

I have many, but they have all lead me to where I am today.

24. How would you like to die?

I don't know, surprise me.

25. What is your motto?

Shine!

So how did you get on? Go back over them again, wax on wax off. Polish the vague and make it crystal clear. Discover yourself. Remember, only you and the person in the mirror will ever know about these. I like re-reading my answers. Sometimes we forget, as we should. Our minds can only hold one thought at a time...

Who are You?

_The thing that you have that nobody else has, is you._

Your voice, your mind, your thoughts, your visions.

So write and draw, build and play, dance and live,

As only you can.

Socrates, also known as _The Delphic Oracle_ , gave the world his famous quotation:

Man, know thyself.

To know thyself, is to know your limitations as well as your potential.

In this chapter I want to shake your cage and have you thinking about yourself:

  * Who are you?

  * What makes you tick?

  * What are the things you want to achieve in life?

  * Why are you not doing them?

  * What's holding you back?

  * What drives you?

  * What excites you?

  * What are you passionate about?

  * What gets you out of bed in the morning?

  * What are your core values?

  * What inspires you, who inspires you?

  * What is the meaning of life to you?

  * What do you stand for?

Now let's find out a bit more about you. Take a piece of paper or your note book and ask yourself these questions:

What do you consider your achievements over your life time?

  * Did you graduate from high school? University?

  * Did you land the job you thought wanted to have?

  * Did you get married and have a family?

  * Did you travel and see the world?

  * Were you president of the local golf club?

  * Did you attend yours son's football matches?

  * Did you work in the community?

Write these down.

It is important to know that we have achieved things in our lives. So often we go through life and forget these achievements. We are successful at many things. But these get lost in the fog of time. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves how special and successful we are.

What are your strengths?

  * What are you good at?

  * What can you do with your eyes closed?

  * What do you enjoy doing?

Write these down.

What are your weaknesses?

  * What are you not good at?

  * What are you not good at?

  * What do you avoid doing?

Write these down.

There is no shame in having a weakness. I call them strengths I have yet to acquire. Everything can be overcome in time and practice.

Weakness = f (Strength yet to be acquired)

What are your values in life?

What values do you subscribe to? Are you honest? There is a 10-80-10 rule which subscribes to the belief that if there were say $20 cash laying on the ground:

  * 10% would pick it up and pocket it without any considerations.

  * 10% would pick it up and look for the owner and hand it into lost and found.

  * The other 80% of people would pick it up and think about what to do. Keep it or hand it in.

Where would you fit in these percentages?

Do you have any regrets? Later on in the book there is a chapter on turning a hundred years old.

  * How would you look back on your life?

  * Do you see any rejects you may or may not have done?

  * Regrets are considered good things.

  * Regrets are life lessons.

  * It is through regrets that we learn. To be able to accept them is the first step to recovery. Be proud of your regrets. They made you who you are today.

Regrets take us down new pathways that we not otherwise have taken. We encounter new people. New experiences. Generating new decisions and plans. Life has a funny way of working out. Sometimes we do not have control of the steering wheel.

Bucket list

  * Make a list of all the things you want to do in your life before you die. I recently came across a list I had made some fourteen years ago in an old journal. I was blown away by the list of some thirty listed items. Many of which I still identify with. Some were, _what was I thinking?_ But hey, at least I wrote them down.

What inspires you?

  * What gets you out of bed every morning?

  * What would you like to get out of bed for?

  * Is it the job of your dreams?

  * They say work is not work, if you enjoy it.

  * Is it being your boss?

  * Is it the freedom you enjoy?

  * Is it your friends and family?

Who inspires you?

  * Which people inspire you to be a better person?

  * Who do you idolize and wish you could be?

I need only think of Edison and Ford and Marconi among a few to be inspired. I need only look to my father as a role model for humanities and honesty and trust.

It's all about you

_It really is._

It always has been.

One of my favorite diagrams that I find myself drawing again and again is one of a stick person with a loop arrow above its head. This signifies the power and control, the responsibility and accountability are yours. And yours alone.

There is only one person that is responsible for everything that happens to you, and that person is you.

Stop blaming everyone and everything else for your situation. You are where you are today because of the decisions made over time, and more importantly, because _you_ of _allowed_ them.

Rarely do people blame themselves. It's easier to blame someone else. Empower yourself right now and say to yourself,

We can blame ourselves for our:

  * Perceived fears;

  * Failings;

  * Education;

  * Friends and associates;

  * Beliefs;

  * Habits;

  * Past circumstances.

  * Current circumstances

  * Future circumstances.

We are responsible for everything that we allow to happen to us.

Look to no one else for blame. Look in the mirror. That's the person responsible. If you do not take charge of your life, _someone else will._ Many people live their lives by proxy. Allowing others to mold their lives for them. Like sheep, going where the flock goes. Doing what the flock does.

If there are times when you wonder why you are where you are, remember this:

At this moment in time,

You are exactly where you are suppose to be.

Every decision you make is a fork in the road you decided to go down one path or down another. Each decision will take you along a path of consequences that in time lead to other opportunities that exist only on that branch or limb.

You are where you are today;

Because you have chosen to be there.

The choice to go left or right. The choice to say yes or No. This choice is called " _Freewill_ ". Within all of us is the potential to do incredible things. It has only one expiry date. So you better use it before then.

People these days expect to be lead. You need to take the initiative and do your own leading. It is up to you and you alone to take control of your destiny.

Destiny is a Conquest.

Do not expect it to be given to you.

I want you to imagine your greatest achievement in your life to date. Now ask yourself whether you could have achieved this had you taken another path. I know I certainly would not have missed the opportunity to meet my ex-wife. It was because of her we have three very beautiful and talented children.

God keeps blessing me with abundance. _(But then I am his favorite.)_
You are what you radiate

How you feel about yourself is how others will feel about you. Do you send out positive ( _confidence_ ) vibes or negative ( _doubting_ ) vibes?

What you radiate is how people perceive you.

  * Radiate confidence, and you will draw confident people to you, which in turn opens up new opportunities.

  * Don't waste your time and energy on people who are not interested in what you have to say.

  * Invest your time and energy with those who appreciate you.

I know from personal experience it is difficult to let go of the past. To avoid negative people. To avoid the annoyance and inconvenience.

  * Negative people will drain your energy.

  * Spend your energy on positive people.

It is more produtive to look forward;

_Than to look_ _backwards_.
Fifteen Hundred Hours

People say, _"I do not have time"_ , yet they find time watching television, or glued to the internet.

We are, what we repeatedly do.

Aristotle

Aristotle knew this two and half thousand years ago. Like sands through an hour glass the seconds that slip away, never to return. You only have _this very moment_ , use it or lose it.

Do not tell me you do not have time. Reality check:

Life = f (Time)

Later in the book, you will read about how I accessed the wasted time to write a web site and several novels. Over a period of twenty weeks I averaged four hours a day. Every day. Seven days a week. I once had told myself too that " _I did not have time_." I justified to myself that I just wanted to rest after work.

Then one day I made an effort. I asked myself a simple question:

How badly did I want my goal?

Damn. Double damn. I curse that question. Guilt set in. Knowing I would need to change my habits if I wanted to complete the website. It took a few weeks to form the new habit. After weeks of focusing on the web site, the evenings and weekends, I realized the number of hours I had wasted all my life procrastinating.

Literally twenty to thirty hours each week was being lost to meaningless distractions. Thirty hours a week over fifty two weeks equates to over fifteen hundred hours every year.

Do the math. There are twenty four hours available every day. Assuming we use eight for sleeping. Eight for working. Then that still leaves us another eight hours to ourselves. Okay, spare four hours for eating and commuting and other incidentals.

That still leaves at four hours for us to do something productive:

  * Learn the piano.

  * Write a book.

  * Go to the gym.

  * Go for a walk.

  * Anything but, sitting in front of the television or the internet.

When you use to say, _I do not have time_. Trust me. _You have time._

Imagine what you could accomplish with fifteen hundred hours available to you every year. If you find yourself unmotivated to make an effort ask this simple question:

How badly did I want my goal?

If the answer to that question does not get you to act now, then perhaps you don't really truly want you goal. Maybe you could stop for two weeks, and the give up entirely...

So, how badly do you want your goal? ...

First Impressions

When you are dressed in your Sunday best you act differently. You do not slouch. You stand tall. You feel important. Next time you're passing a mirror check out the reflection. Do you like what you see?

Because this is what other people see.

You only get one chance to make a first impression.

Make it a good one.

What would you like to do for a living?

That is a very powerful question.

It is like granting someone three wishes. No longer held back by commitments to jobs. It is quite liberating to contemplate this every so often. To remind ourselves of what we are holding ourselves from becoming.

Fortune really does favor the brave. Look at those people we admire most. What differentiates you from them? I suspect you both came from common back grounds. The only difference being at some junction in their life they turned left, and you turned right.

Don't get me wrong. The decision you made was correct for you at that time. Sometimes the decision was forced on them through circumstances beyond their control. Somehow they adapted and overcame the obstacles thrown in their way. As we faced our own.

We find ourselves on a tread mill, and before you know it, you are married, with kids and a mortgage. A sudden life style change is not an option because others now depend on you.

If you do not like their current job, what would you like to be doing? And what are you doing about it? If you do nothing, that's pretty much what you'll get.

  * Vocalize your desire.

  * You have a choice to make a change.

  * Accept it has been you holding yourself back.

  * Accepting this truth is the first step in moving forward.

_You require no's permission but you own_.

Dream big and take that first brave step of their journey. You may fall on your first attempt. But it is what you do afterwards that will define how badly you want your goal. Take heart, the people we hold on high fell more times than they cared to remember.

Success is as much about falling, as it is about reaching your destination. And when you reach the summit, what a view.

Sometimes all we need to do is to take a leap of faith.

Close your eyes and just do it. It is as simple as that.

Once you begin, the momentum will build of its own inertia. Providence will step in as a silent partner. You will become aware of things that were always there but had never noticed before. Obstacles will be thrown in your way and you will face each as they arise.

You find yourself going further down the rabbit hole.

And there is no going back...
Be careful what you wish for

The thing with the universe is that, _it tends to give you what you ask for_.

A recall a story of a man who wished for a red car. One day in the parking lot, he found his red car. A toy one. It was red and it was car. It was exactly as he had asked for.

The moral of the story is, be specific.

At a time when I was "between" contractor jobs I was also working on various projects to day while I waited for the phone to ring. I had also told friends that I would rather be working on the projects than finding a new contract. Thinking about it these days, maybe I was sending wrong messages out into the universe. I got exactly what I was wishing for.

So now I am asking the universe for more work in order to raise capital to fund the projects. (Specifics).

There are two schools of thought on this. Those that believe in a universal force that guides us; and of course those that don't. Having witnessed many bazar occurrences over the years. I believe there is an interconnection between our minds and the cosmos. Albeit a divine mysterious God and a hoard of Angelic helpers. The Universe will provide if you ask for it.

The bible states:

Ask and you shall receive.

The problem is that we never ask, because they think there is not enough to go around. Someone else will get the red car. Not them. But if they around, they would the world is full of abundance. For you.

Look at the office buildings, who owns those? Who occupies the tendency of each office? The businesses. And who owns those? There are trees and land and crops rolling on and on. There is so much abundance all around the world. You are surrounded by it. And it is there for you as well. You just have to ask for it.

I would often take a walk to the city viaduct to sit and look at the yachts and the apartment buildings. I would imagine a particular boat as being mine. I would visualize myself sailing it away. I look up and see an apartment nearby. My apartment. That's what it looks like. I imagine owning it. I was _programming my mind_ that these were already mine. I was programming my mind that it was _okay_ to have these things. I was sending a message to the universe to make this happen.

What I would not say was, "...o _h well I should be happy with what I have, I shouldn't want for things above my station_." That sort of self-talk is _self-depreciating_. It sends the wrong signals to yourself and to the universe.

If you keep telling yourself you do not deserve it, then your subconscious will ensure that you never will receive it.

Think abundance.

Think prosperity for you.

Own it in the now, as if it has already happened. Acknowledge your past successes as evidence of the power you possess and your ability to succeed. Prosperity of the conscious mind.

Remember what Albert Einstein said about intelligence:

Intelligence is not about Knowledge,

_It is about_ _Imagination_ _._

It is not what you know, but how you imagine... (I call it day dreaming.)

The poorest man is not a man without a cent;

It is the man without a dream.

Unknown
Steps to Success

And every journey begins with the hardest step of all: _The first step._

Let us look more closely at each of these stages...

Goals

Goals are Dreams with deadlines.

A goal is a desire you wish to have fulfil. If you went an airline ticket office, and ask for a ticket.

" _Where to?"_ Asks the booking clerk.

" _I do not know_. _"_ You reply.

How is the airline to know where to book you if you have no idea where you want to go? You need to establish:

  * What you want, and

  * When you want it.

Common goals include such things as:

  * To get a promotion.

  * Be your own boss.

  * Own your own property.

  * To lose/gain weight.

  * To stop smoking.

  * To world travel.

  * To write a book.

  * To be singer.

  * To graduate from high school / University.

  * To learn another language.

  * To be a good parent. To have a happy home and family.

  * To learn to fly, pilots license.

  * To learn to sail.

  * To walk on the moon/Mars.

  * To understand dark matter.

  * To understand life.

  * To understand women.

Whatever the goal, it is the desire that will drive you to achieve it.

Goal = f (Desire for Change)

What is your goal? Write this down. See it in writing. Actualize it with words on paper.

My Goal is to:

  * ..................................................................................................

Now having stated your goal, answer this simple question:

**Why? -** Why do want to achieve this goal? There has to be a fundamental reason why you have chosen this goal. You are about to embark upon a lengthy crusade to achieve this goal. Why?

The purpose of the goal is to:

  * ..................................................................................................

What is the mission statement of your goal?

Clarify your vision with a Mission Statement

I am reminded of Henry Ford's mission statement for making the Model-T,

" _I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces."_

Purpose will be the main driving force behind the goal. As it was for Ford.

If your goal is to _lose weight_ , then the purpose is to be _healthier_.

A good friend of mine had the goal to maintain their weight. The purpose was so they could be in top condition to run marathons.

In your mind,

The goal must be so real,

It is as though you have come back from the future

To tell everyone about it.

Write Goals Down

Are your goals written down or floating around in your head?

Ask the fundamental question, what do you really want to achieve? This will be your mission statement. For myself developing a classified advertising web site, my mission statement was to offer:

Simplistic Functionality

It is essential you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve:

  * Be Specific.

  * Make it measureable.

  * Make it realistic.

  * Set a time frame **.**

Next, you need to be more specific.

Add meat to the bones. If you want a house:

  * What type of house?

  * What size?

  * Where?

  * What color?

  * How many rooms?

With _the web site_ wanted a specific layout with specific navigational abilities:

  * I clean uncluttered pages.

  * Three fundamental pages, Home, Results and Advert.

  * Uniform presentation to buy, sell, public notices, employment, properties.

  * Easy navigation and not a labyrinth of links.

  * If a person wanted to delete their profile it would be a simple click of a button.

Writing goals down initiates the goals reality.

Making the intangible tangible. It gets the goal out of your head and onto paper. You get to express in words your thoughts in your head. Do they look as good on paper as they did floating around inside your head?

There are short term goals and long term goals.

If you do not have any long term goals then I dare you to dream out that far. Some goals take longer than others. Long term goals can be achieved after the completion of the short term goals. Planning future goals helps you establish the activities you need to be doing now.

People over estimate what they can do in a year.

And under-estimate what they can do in ten years.

What are your One year, Five years, and Ten year goals?

1 year goals:

  * .................................................................

  * .................................................................

  * .................................................................

5 year goals:

  * .................................................................

  * .................................................................

  * .................................................................

10 year goals:

  * .................................................................

  * .................................................................

  * .................................................................

### When God is your partner, dream big!

Get a fix on where you want to go. Create an image of yourself ten years from now.

  * Write down your goal.

  * Your life is too important to be left to chance.

  * Surrender yourself to your desires.

  * Become passionate, enthusiastic and engrossed in your goal.

  * Achieve your goal _one step at a time_. Regard each task you perform, no matter how small it may seem, as a _step_ toward your goal. You're climbing your Everest, each small step is getting you closer to the summit of your goal. No matter how small. A giant boulder can be broken into pebbles.

  * Take detours in your stride. A detour is simply an alternative route to the same goal. A detour is sometimes things you never contemplated initially, they could be beneficial, or they could be detrimental. Either way they are exciting challenges to be overcome.

Write Goals down, not only to set them in stone, but because your mind can only hold one thought at a time. What happens to those good ideas we have and we allow them to drift from your mind. We forget them. What was that fantastic idea I just had? ... Aaaaah_!

By writing it down, we do not need to _remember_ the goal. It is there in black and white. Reminding you of your commitment and desire, more than any memory can hold on to...

Commitment

Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do,

Long after the mood you said it in has left you.

This means you are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal.

This will involve making changes, sacrifices and learning new skills. You will be venturing into new territory. Encountering new terms and concepts specific to your goal.

Commitment is what transforms

a promise into reality.

Abraham Lincoln

Commitment can overcome any obstacle. That is because commitment is the force behind persistence.

Commitment = f (Positive Attitude)

Your commitment _will_ be tested. And depending on the strength of your commitment, it will decide whether you continue or give up. Reminding yourself why you want this goal will help strengthen your commitment. Re-visit the original notes you made when you started on the journey.

Visualization, actualizations and affirmations are a good way to keep the goal in our mind.

**Visualization -** Comprise a collage of the goal you want. If you want a trim body. Cut a picture from a magazine, paste it to your graph measuring your weight loss or gain.

If your goal is to quit smoking, then reward yourself with a big red tick each day on the calendar. And watch the ticks mount up.

**Actualization -** I had a cap embroidered with the name of a web site I was developing. Every time I saw it, it reminded me that the web site was a real thing that. Wearing it made me feel proud. Re-enforcing my self-esteem and self-belief that I was the person behind it.

**Affirmations -** Affirmations are positive thoughts we repeat to ourselves. By selecting quality thoughts we are able to plant them like seeds into our subconscious. You are what you think you are.

I everyday tell myself while I am out driving or walking, that I am successful. That the projects will be successful. I list off the projects, geeekle, FOSN, this book. Words have an effect on how we feel. And how we feel effects how we say and act.

  * Repeat the affirmation to yourself, either silently or aloud and your commitment to the goal.

  * Repeat what you expect of your goal.

  * Repeat this self-talk anytime and place to affirm your commitment.

  * Accept the affirmation as truth.

  * Your subconscious will begin to believe it was well.

  * Replacing self-doubt with self-belief.

Remember, the mind will propel you to your most _dominant_ thoughts. And we will gravitate towards that thought.

Make it a good one...

Start

So when is the best time to start?

How about right now.

Making a conscious decision to start will be probably one of the most difficult tasks you will ever get to undertake.

Over two thousand years ago, Buddha identified the path to success came down to two factors:

  * Not Starting;

  * Not Persevering;

When is the best time to start this change in your life? Right now. This very moment. Not later, tomorrow or next week. Right now.

And who decides this? You do. And only you.

Throughout our lives we have been told what to think. And when to do it. Expectations of others have ruled your life. Whether it be your parents, or your spouse, or your bank manager.

_As of right now that will cease_.

The time has come to free yourself of the shackles that were holding you back. You will make your own decisions based on what _feels right for you._

Success begins when you start to act on you goal. I want you to write down today's date and time. Write it down right now.

I am going to need a completion date from you now, because a Goal without a deadline is just a dream.

For the web site I gave myself two years from the date I reserved the domain name, 5th Oct 2013, to the when I wanted the web site launched live on the internet, 5th Oct 2015. I wrote the date inside the cap I had made. Reminding me every time I looked at it.

Having a completion date for a goal, creates a sense of urgency.

An open ended deadline allows you to let things slip out eternally. As there is no pressure on you perform and complete the necessary tasks.

Deadlines are great motivators to getting things done.

The completion date is what pressures you to act. Forcing you to achieve results within the time frame.

Pulling you towards your goal...
The Power of Now

Starting = f (NOW)

When should you start this change? Right this very moment.

If you wish to lose weight, you begin right now. Not after dinner tonight or the next day. It means right this very moment.

You wish to quit smoking, when do you stop? Not after the next cigarette, or the tomorrow. You stop right now.

As of this moment you are committed to changing your life towards the betterment of your goal. You have shaken hands with yourself to do something towards your goal, right now.

Commitment is not a one-off deal. It is an _everyday_ deal.

Successful people do not wait for the perfect conditions to arrive. They act now. They know the _perfect conditions will never arise_.

In Joules Verne's book, _'Around the world in 80 Days'_ , Phileas Fogg accepts a wager. When asked when would he leave, and he replies, _"Right this very moment_. _"_ And within the hour he was on the 8:45pm train out of London and headed for Paris.

I am unsure as to whether Joules Verne knew anything about motivational behavior. Or it was an inherent in Phileas Fogg's fictional character. Either way, Verne encapsulated the essence of success. If you want something done, start it without delay.

If only we all could be like Phileas Fogg and jump to our goals immediately.

But we can be...

Planning

A goal without a plan;

### Is just a wish.

Planning is the strategy whereby you map out what needs to done. You need to set specific dates for each mile stone you wish to achieve e.g. if your plan is to lose one kilo per month, over the next ten months:

  * Set a goal; (Lose ten kg over ten months)

  * Set a timetable; (Ten months)

  * Set milestones. (One kg per month.)

  * Establish the resources required. (Gym, Diet.)

Planning is an iterative process throughout the journey. Flight plans may need to be altered when you encounter rough weather. So it will be with your journey when you encounter a road block.

When starting out, do not worry about not having enough money. Limited funds are a blessing, not a curse.

Nothing encourages creative thinking than limited funds.

If you want to make a movie

Make it.

Don't wait for a grant.

Don't wait for the perfect conditions.

Just make it.

Quentin Tarantino

Timeline

Establishing a time frame within which to accomplish the goal is vital to staying focused and not allowing it to drift out endlessly.

Recently I undertook a weight reduction goal. I wanted to lose ten kilograms in ten months. Each week I weigh myself and plot this on a graph and have this on the cubicle wall at my desk. I can look up and see the progress made and where I am on the path to my goal. It reinforces my commitment to carry on. Any blips remind me I need to focus on the plan.

By having a due date, one becomes more focused on achieving results by that date. A deadline is like the fire under us that keeps us boiling. Take away the fire and you will go cold.

Setting firm dates for the completion of stages and the project can be achieved by several means. One of the most useful ways is to use a Gantt chart. This is a visual aid that shows how long each stage should take in relation to a time line.

The advantages of the Gantt chart are:

  * By breaking down the project into specific tasks, one could work out the practical aspects of the project;

  * Identify which tasks need to be completed before others can start;

  * Identify the minimum delivery time;

  * Keeps you informed of the progress.

One system I have used over the years is a simple dome diagram segmented into the different stages. It is a simplistic way for me to identify each stage. Within each stage are further steps.

For _geeekle.com_ I created these time lines. Identifying each major task and knowing the sequence required to complete the project. There was some overlap, but it allowed a simplistic mapping of the tasks involved.

There is no right or wrong way of displaying your project. Whatever works, that helps you understand it and implement the steps that get you to your goal.

Any planning is good planning. It can be as simplistic or as intricate as you like. Any activity towards planning means you are investing time and energy into positive productive thoughts into your goal...

Action

_Ideas don't work,_

Unless you do.

The difference between Action and Inaction are two small words: "I will".

Inaction > "I will" > Action.

Instead of trying to spread your time and energies over several tasks, which will only result in achieving a little of each, rather than a lot of one, concentrate on one thing at a time like a magnifying glass focusing sunlight to a point.

The human mind can be focused like a magnifying glass.

Sunrays by themselves cannot start a fire. But when concentrated by a focusing lens they can. The same concept can be applied to time and energy.

Nothing happens without an action to initiate it. It is one thing to have an intangible thought of something. But it is action that will _actualizes_ the thought into something tangible.

Desire > Action > Outcome

The desire is simply an intangible thought. Action is required to materialize the desire into the Desired Outcome, the Goal.

Outcome = f (Action)

An outcome is a result of an action. You must _physically do something_ (effort) to create the outcome.

Do nothing,

And that is what happens.

Nothing.

Mountains cannot be climbed in a single step. It involves a series of steps. A series of actions that will require you to do achieve the task. (Effort)

Having the desire is one thing. But without Execution, it remains just that. Theoretical and intangible. Sitting on the shelf, waiting to be taken to the grave with its owner.

Action = f (Effort)

But once the wheels of action begin turning, things start to happen. You begin to notice things:

  * It may be a newspaper article, something you would have overlooked a thousand times.

  * You find yourself surrounded by like-minded people.

  * Discussions lead to more questions and answers.

  * The project snowballs gains momentum.

_Events_ happen behind the scenes. Providence.

I have noticed this too with other projects I have worked on. Once I made the decision to pursue its development, numerous events manifested themselves to help me move forward.

It was as if the seed I had planted has taken a life of its own and the universe had stepped in...

Obstacles

" _It's impossible", said the Pride._

" _It's risky", said Experience._

" _It's pointless", said Reason._

" _Give it a go", whispered the Heart._

As you know with any journey one undertakes, you will experience road blocks and detours.

The will take the form of obstacles that need to be gotten around. Hurdles that need to be gotten over. And excuses, which need to be forgotten.

It may be a rock you can easily side step. Or a deep ravine you need to engineer a bridge to cross over. Whatever the obstacle in your way, it will halt you in your tracks. You will have a devil on one shoulder whispering in your ear to quit. And an angel on the other shoulder telling you to carry on.

But you already know the answer, you're going to give up now. You've come too far to turn back now.

Obstacles are no more than opportunities waiting to be solved.

Obstacles are problems that may or not have been anticipated when you began your journey. They are small challenges that need to be broken down and solved one at time.

I find obstacles exciting junctions to be at. Sure I curse them initially. Looking back afterwards, I wondered what the fuss was about. Obstacles are no more than mini goals. The same rules of engagement apply as you would with any goal:

  * Evaluate

  * Plan

  * Act

  * Evaluate...

Step back, assess the situation. And imagine a strategy that will get you around this goal.

  * Face the issue immediately in front of you.

  * You can face future issues, when they arise.

  * For now, focus only on the obstacle in front of you.

Ask yourself this, _how badly do you want your goal?_

Now look at the boulder blocking you path. Are you going to find a way around it, or are you going to give up?

I recall a little story about two children about to embark on an imaginary adventure,

"W _ill it be dangerous?"_ Asked the one child.

" _It wouldn't be an adventure if it was not."_ Replies the other.

If you are lucky, you will not face any obstacles. But life is such that one never knows what lays ahead. We can only see the first three feet, what is in front of us. We allow for contingencies in our initial planning, and make the rest up as we go along.

I recall chatting to an eighteen old lad where I was staying at the time, many, many years ago now. I asked him what he wanted to do in life:

  * He said he wanted to be a deep sea diver.

  * So I asked why he was not pursuing that exciting goal.

  * He said he needed high school qualifications.

  * Then he needed training and other courses.

  * It would take five years.

  * Making one excuse other the other.

  * It was all too over whelming for him.

  * And so was happy to let his dream of being a deep sea diver sink.

  * He did however succeed in finding an excuse how _not_ to pursue their dream.

So I asked him:

  * Could he still get the high school qualifications?

  * And he said yes. _But_ it would be mean going back to school, or studying outside work.

  * He could have negotiated the hurdle if he wanted to. The truth is, he did not want to make an effort.

  * To face each year as it came, one year at a time.

  * He was only eighteen years of age, and in five years' time he would be the shocking old age of twenty-three.

  * That was nearly twenty years ago. He would be thirty-eight now.

My only remaining question to him would be:

How badly did he want to be a deep see diver?

Obviously not bad enough.

Never give up on something

You can't go a day without

Thinking about.

How badly do you want your goal? What excuses and obstacles are you going to throw up to stop yourself? Only you can stop yourself.

Focus on solutions,

Not on the problems.

There will days when you feel stalled and literally stuck in a rut. A feeling hopelessly lost. Things simply are not moving as they should. Things have come to a standstill and you feel like the world is conspiring against you. You feel like giving up. Then you ask yourself that question. Don't make me repeat. You know what it is. Damn. Double damn. (Excuse my language).

What do you do?

  * Stop.

  * Step Back.

  * Think.

  * Identify the things that have you stalled.

  * Ask questions – Who, what, when, how and why?

  * Break the issue down into smaller parts and address each one separately.

Get the obstacle down onto paper. Now you can manage them. Draw a grid box. With the headings _Problem_ , _Solution_ , and _Action Required._

List the problems you identify as holding you back. List the issues down before you start on listing the solutions.

Against each problem, identify at least three solutions that could move you forward. Some maybe ones you can enact immediately. Some maybe be long term solutions.

  * Short Term Solutions

  * Long Term Solutions

  * Review Original Goal.

Also, go back and think about your original goal.

  * Have you been derailed, or simply detoured?

  * Are you still following the same goal?

For example, if you needed more money:

  * Then you could contact friends or colleagues.

  * You could sell shares in your company.

  * You could get a second job.

  * You could meet with venture capital providers.

  * You could improvise using different materials.

  * You could scale back the size of the project.

If find you do not have the time to go to the gym:

  * Then you make more time.

  * You could go earlier in the morning.

  * You could go at lunch time. Or before work or late in the evening.

  * You could foregone another activity.

It is quite strange how we can find time when we need to do something we really want to do.

Remember that an obstacle is simply a mini goal that needs to be achieved. You will need to plan accordingly and take action to get around the obstacle that has stalled you.

Seek out and be open to new ideas:

  * Other people may have ideas you had never have thought applicable.

  * Tell people about your goal.

  * You will be surprised what feedback you get.

  * What if someone asked you for your thoughts about something? That would be an honor that they respect your opinion.

Remember, if you do not ask:

  * Do not expect others to give their opinion.

  * So ask.

  * You may not agree with their advice.

  * That's ok. Just listen and take it on board and stir it in with what you do know.

  * Your imagination will take care of the rest.

Did I ever want to give up? You beat I did. Every time it got too hard, a little voice in my head would whisper, "... _Why do not you just stop all this nonsense, who were you kidding thinking this was going to work? Things are hopeless, you'll never finish this_."

Then I would stop myself allowing this thought to enter my head and I tell myself, "... _Okay so what if it all fails. I did not do this for anyone else... I did this for me._ "

I repeat the one question that would answer my doubts:

And how badly do I want this?

That one question has shaken doubt and despair from me so many times.

Encouraging me to take the next step, as heavy as that next step was, I still took it. I was not going to give up and look back in a years to come, telling people what I was _going to do_. And then having them ask why did I stop?

No, this goal has to be completed. Success or failure. But it was not going to fail because I quit on it.

When stuck in a rut with an obstacle blocking your path, and the vultures of dark thoughts and doubt circling above you:

  * Break down the problem into smaller separate problems which could be addressed one at a time.

  * Then bring the parts together to make a whole.

  * Even the biggest of problems can have the smallest of solutions.

There is a solution to _every_ problem, we just don't know it _yet_.

When something appears over whelming;

And there seems no way to get it done;

Reduce it to its smallest parts;

And take care of them;

One at a time.
Failure

_Failure is the mother of success_

What is success but a series of failures overcome.

Success = f (Failure)

Some say there is no such thing as failure. Edison and Ford both agree. Even failures produce a result. It may not be the result we want, but it is better than no result at all.

It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success;

They much often succeed through failure.

Samuel Smiles (1859)

People have generally two attitude options when facing failure:

Even a negative result is progress.

Success is not about avoiding failure. It's about learning from failure. Edison went on failing all his life, only to go down as the world's greatest inventor.

As discussed in the introduction, success is an iterative process of assessments, adaptations, and course corrections. Oscillating between success and failure, to procure a positive result will bring you closer to your goal.

It is through these continuous corrections that get us back on course. Airplanes are continuously adjusting its course while negotiating the changing air currents. It will rarely flies in a straight line. So it will be with your journey to your goal.

Babbage is considered the father of Computing. What began as valves and tubes, transistors and microchips, desk tops and lap tops, has evolved to Operating Systems and the Internet. Each visionary standing on the shoulders of its predecessor and seeing a little bit further. Each one failing and resolving the issue. The next person would refine it further, failing as the built each successive prototype.

You recall the initial "brick" mobile phones. You may laugh at it and call it a failure by today's standards. But imagine what your great grandchildren will think of your smart phone.

Rather trying to hide from failure, successful people learnt from failure.

Instead of using the word "Problem"

Substitute the word "Opportunity"

Behind every success story there is a story of failure. Failure is simply an opportunity to find a solution.

Much as a weakness is a strength you have yet to acquire...

Why Goals Fail?

_Goals don't fail._

People do.

We need only look to the most common of New Year's Resolution.

  * One in two people will make resolutions.

  * And of those, fewer than ten percent will actually achieve their goals.

  * So, for every hundred people, fifty will make a resolution.

  * Of those, only five will achieve their resolutions.

Fundamentally goals fail because:

  * **Fear of Failure** \- If one has a fear of failure, they are already on the predestined course to fail. To avoid failing, they simply avoid starting.

  * **Being Unrealistic** \- For example, becoming a vegetarian overnight.

  * **Having the Wrong Motivation** \- Losing weight for the wrong reason, such as trying to fit into an old pair of jeans from when you were younger. When in fact the real motive is to have a slimmer healthier figure.

  * **Bad Associations** \- Surrounding yourself with smokers is not a good environment to quit smoking.

  * **Lacking Commitment and Mental Resolve** \- If your will power is weak so will be your resolve to stick to attaining your goal. The wall is only as strong as the mortar holding it together.

  * **Focusing on the Negative** \- Generally people base their goals on eliminating the negative in their lives, junk food, smoking, drinking. Their focus should be on maximizing the positives, such as thoughts of healthier foods. The mind needs to focus on the positive. The new habit. And in time the old negative thoughts will fade away, superseded by positive thoughts.

  * **Setbacks and Failures** – These will deter a person from continuing on with a goal.

  * **Lack of Perseverance** -The inability to see something through to the end.

Let us look more closely at the one element that will determine your success...
Persistence

Nothing in this world can take the place of Persistence.

Talent will not.

Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

Persistence and Determination alone are Omnipotent.

The slogan "press on" has solved, and always will solve,

the problems of the human race.

President Calvin Coolidge

While successful people have varying degrees of talents, they all share the common quality of _perseverance_. No matter what obstacle, opposition, misfortune, discouragement, or resistance they meet, nothing could divert them from their purpose.

History shows great Artists, Composers, Writers, Scientists, and Businessmen, have all applied sustained effort.

Looking at a few examples we see:

  * **James** **Watt** spent fifteen years before he successfully made a steam engine;

  * **Stephenson** spent eighteen years before he made the first steam locomotive, _The Rocket_ ;

  * **Edison** spent over two years trying to find the right filament for the light bulb;

  * **Palissy** , a famous French potter, renown now for his enamel ware. Spent ten years of being mocked by his own family trying to rediscovering the lost art of enameling. Then spent another eight years to perfect his enamel ware process;

  * **Carlyle** who wrote _French Revolution_ , lost the original copy of over a million words, after giving it to a friend to proof read, whose house maid mistook the papers on the floor for rubbish and burnt them. Carlyle spent a further seven years rewriting the script;

In our age of instant gratification many people cannot wait years to achieve their goals. They want them now. Unfortunately that is not how goals work. You will need to invest time and energy and effort.

You must persist until the very last step. No matter how many steps it takes. Part of planning is to be realistic. Instant gratification generally only works for lotto tickets and magic lamps. Good luck with that.

The greater the man;

The greater the obstacles he has had to face.

Unknown

If you fail in your goal, it is only because you have given up on your goal. And given into the obstacles that you refuse to resolve.

Simplistically, success can be shown by the flow chart below. As you can see, it is not a complicated process...

When I thought I couldn't go on,

I forced myself to keep going.

_My success is based on persistence, not luck_.

Estee Lauder

You will face failure. You will face adversity. But you made a commitment to see your journey through to the end. Because you truly want that goal. And you would do whatever it takes to achieve it. And for as long as it takes.

Success = f (Effort to the power of Persistence)

The only thing that differentiates successful people from unsuccessful people is their willingness to persist at their goal. They never gave up. Failure only encouraged them to press on and endure. For one more moment...

The moment we feel like giving up,

_This is the moment we should resolve to hanging on a little longer_.

For success is just one more moment away.

Unknown

BUT. There is _always_ a **BUT**.

Persistence is a good virtue to have, but you have to be realistic. While you should never give up while there is an ounce of hope left in you. You must also be receptive to know when something is not going to ever work out. There will come a time when you will just have to let it go, and look for other alternatives.

Being realistic is better than being stubborn.

Failure is a good thing. It tells us how something is not done.

Failure is not the end of search. It is simply a transition point at which we rest, re-assess, re-evaluate, to redirect our energies elsewhere...
The Three Foot Rule

Worry only about the next three feet in front of you.

This is one of my favorite rules.

Imagine its dark and you are travelling down a narrow path. You have a lantern. And you can only see three feet in front of you.

It is easy to be daunted by the length of the journey and discouraged by the obstacles that may impede us. Sometimes we try to see too far ahead of ourselves. When we should only worry about the next three feet and what lays immediately in front of you. Do not worry about what is six or nine feet ahead.

Just focus on what is immediately ahead. Once you get there, then you have another three feet to assess.

Every journey can be broken down into three foot intervals. Face what needs to be face now. You can worry about the obstacles that may, or may not, arise when you arrive to them. Perceiving fears ahead of time is unproductive. Remember what we said about an external fear must first exist internally in the mind. If there is a mountain lion down the path. You can address that issue when you get to it. Hopefully by then, it has moved on.

You cannot climb a mountain

In a single step.

You climb it in small manageable steps.

Everything must be done in stages. Like the wall we are trying to build. A thousand bricks make up the wall. But you can only lay one at a time.

Concern yourself only with the next brick and worry about the thousandth brick until you get to it...

Monitor your Progress

Imagine having a bank account where you had no record of the amounts deposited, or the closing balance? After a while you would wonder how much you saved. Or wonder if you had been saving at all. Without a physical reference we tend to get disillusioned and despondent as to whether we making progress at all.

Imagine being stranded on a dessert island without keeping track of the days. After a week or so you would wondering how long how you had been there. After a month or so, time would blur and you would have lost track on time you had been on the island.

When I begin a new project I maintain a note book detailing the date, the start time and end time. I then I calculate the number of hours I spend on the project for the day. If I am writing a book I take note of the start word count and the end word count. It might look like the following table...

At the front of the notebook I maintain a summary of hours. And I notate the daily hours onto the summary table. Below is the table for the short novel I wrote entitled the The Ring...

By scheduling the time invested it became a major motivating force in achieving my goal. I now have proof that I am taking the small steps towards my goal. And with each hour and unit produced I are closer to it. The daily routine of recording the hours become a habit. As we know about habits, once they form they are difficult to break. It becomes an addictive and obsessive behavior. If the habit pushes you to invest more time and energy again and again.

Those accumulated investments of time and energy can only spell ultimate success in the end.

Seeing the schedule of hours re-enforces my commitment and progress to my goal. I become empowered by the sight of the growing tally of hours. It over shadows self-doubt and builds self-esteem. You now have _proof_ that you are doing something about attaining your goal.

I see an empty space for today and I just have an urge to fill it. It would be almost feel shameful to show an "x". As it should. Your goal is too important to be left attended.

Some people in the office ask me what all the numbers are on the white-board. Rather than get into a lengthy discussion on motivation and the questioning around that. I tell them I am keeping track of the hours I waste watching television each night, and that I could be doing something more productive.

I hope they go away rethinking their own time.

By keeping track of the hours or words, I am forcing myself to be aware that I am making progress on my goal. If at any time I have any doubt, I just look up at the white board covered in numbers. That is my life on the wall. Time that otherwise would have been wasted doing nothing.

Screaming back at me...
Energy

_Achievement is like gold mining._

The more ore you crush,

The more gold you win.

When I think of energy, my father immediately comes to mine. He has expelled so much energy over his life time I often get tired just thinking about it. He is certainly an inspiration in my life. His diligence and work ethics has been recognized not only by the community in which he lives, but also internationally with a Queens Service Medal for his Community Services.

He retired at the age of eighty-eight, from his three jobs, as an Accountant, Justice of the Peace, and Secretary of the local Racing Club. In addition he had voluntary involvement as secretary of the numerous community clubs and civic bodies, humanitarian causes, his altruistic and benevolent nature. His legacy is an inspiration to those who know him and those that follow in his footsteps.

He is now ninety-five.

People who pour out the most energy, tend to do the greatest works:

  * The great Artists (Rubens, Leonardo de Vinci);

  * The great Musicians (Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Hayden and Wagner);

  * The great Writers (Shakespeare, Goethe, Voltaire, Dickens);

  * The great Scientists (Pasteur, Darwin, Cavendish, Rutherford, Kelvin);

  * The great Innovators (Faraday, Ford, Edison)

Prodigious people read more, wrote more, painted more, composed more, thought more, experimented more, and discovered more.

They simply did more than their fellow citizens.

So how much more energy is required? Water boils at hundred degrees Celsius, enough to make a cup of coffee. At a hundred and one degrees you can make steam. Enough to power a steam ship around the world...

It seems only 1% more can make a dramatic difference.

So what is Energy?

Energy is the effort required to complete the task.

  * Work Applied

  * Diligence

  * Application

  * Perseverance

  * Effort

If a person can do one percent more each day, image applied it over twenty years. This can compound to immense proportions when compared to what the average person dispenses.

Dissipated energy is of little use. It contributes very little unless it is focused.

General sun light cannot start a fire, but when it is focused with a magnifying glass, it can. So is the same with your time and energy. They must be focused on your goal, otherwise little is achieved.

Trying to do many things at once will also achieve very little in each and generally results in fatigue and failure. It is better to focus your time and energy on the achievement of one thing; than on many at one time and the completion of none. It is all right to have several interests.

But you must focus solely on that interest, before moving onto the next.

Where does Energy come from?

Energy comes from inspiration. That creative urge to do something. Great things can be achieved when inspiration becomes an obsession.

_Interest_ _> >_ _Inspiration_ _> >_ _Obsession_

It is like reading a book:

  * It is one thing to read a book.

  * It is another to be drawn into it.

  * To be obsessed by the book.

So is it with you goal. Your goal must obsess you. It must take over every waking thought you have, to the exclusion of all others.

Never give up on something

You can't go a day without thinking about.

The other side to energy, is fatigue.

Fatigue will happen. It is only natural. Fatigue will creep in when you are tired and bored and lost interest. The key to turning fatigue into energy is a change of interest.

Giving your mind something interesting to focus on increases your energy levels.

By simply re-directing the mind, new energy can be sourced.

Energy = f (Interest)

Many famous people have revitalized their energies simply by shifting their interest. For example:

  * **Thomas Edison** would work up to twenty hours a day. He would focus solely on one experiment, and when he got bored, he did not give up, he simply shifted his attention to another experiment. If got bored or physically tired, he would take a nap on couch, and then resume his attention to an experiment. He would take up to seven to eight naps a day.

  * **President Woodrow Wilson** was known to put the Presidential duties on hold three times a day while he took a presidential nap for twenty minutes while he rested and contemplated nothing at all. Thereby allowing his mind to rest and recover.

  * **Napoleon** would concentrate on one thing at time, then forget it. Then move onto the next thing...

Adversity

_People are like aromatic herbs;_

They do not give out their virtues and talents until they are crushed.

Unknown

Sometimes it takes adversity to bring out the best in people:

  * **Edison** \- Was vagabond for several months before he found work that supported his interest of innovation;

  * **Michelangelo** \- Was so poor initially that he had to share a bed with other painters;

  * **Isaac Newton** \- For ten years while making his discoveries could not afford the membership fee to the Royal Society;

  * **Roosevelt** (President) - Polio;

  * **Bacon** (Philosopher) - Enfeebled weakling;

  * **Lord Byron** (Literature) - Club foot;

  * **Beethoven** (Musician) - Asthma and deafness;

  * **Handel** (Musician) - Palsy;

  * **Caesar, Socrates, Mozart** \- Epileptics;

These renowned people rose above their afflictions and went on to do great deeds.

I know personally having to overcome my stutter of nearly thirty years. Which held me back a year at school. I would not let it hold me back. For a kid, a stutter was a sign of being unintelligent. But I did not feel unintelligent and I went about proving otherwise. I exceled at my studies and proved to myself I was as good as other students without stutters. Yes, it got personal. I made it personal. I was driven by a passion to succeed.

My stutter was my adversity. It shaped my life, made me who I am today. I worked with it, and in time not only conquered it. I may not have had the power of speech, but I did have the power of thought.

The stutter shaped my life, and I give thanks for that. A handbrake for others, a propellant for me. Who knows where and who I would be now if I had never had it. The first thirty years I refrained speaking. The second thirty years you could not shut me up. I was making up for lost time. And hopefully with God's blessing, my last thirty years I will spend writing.

And the needle has been lifted from the sound track, but the voice continues through the words of my books...

Think Big

I read an incredible book about twenty years ago that changed my life completely. It was entitled _The Magic of Thinking Big_ (1959) by Dr David Schwartz.

It was liberating and gave me an initiation into a world I had only speculated about for years. I consider it a classic among motivational books. If you can find a copy, it is well worth the read.

If you want a big life, then you should think big.

If it was not for the pioneers thinking beyond their stations, where would we be today? They had far less than what we have available to us, yet they dreamed big and shaped our lives today. Faraday dreamed of electrical generators. Ford dreamed of a horseless cartage.

Free your mind like that of a child. Open it up to an endless possibilities. What would you dream about? Do not let your logical mind try to rationalize your thought as to how to achieve them. Just think of things you could have if you had no restrictions.

Because we live in a world of expectations and conformity, responsibilities and commitments, we tend to limit ourselves to within those controlling boundaries. We dare not to voice a thought or dream that challenges the status quo. It is not like you're starting a revolution. Well you are actually. A one man revolution of who you are.

Thinking big crushes the old barriers that hold you back. It creates a pathway to a castle rather than to a cottage we programmed ourselves to believe as our lot in life.

They say that when God

Is your partner in your Goals,

Then you should dream Big.

Humans have a desire to belong, and as such we allow ourselves to be coerced to conform to those around us in order to _fit in_. This tribal affiliation to conform is evident in many _Tribes_ (Religious, political, cultural, trade unions, and sporting groups) in our everyday lives. They wear their hearts on their sleeves. _You're either with us, or you're against us._ Speaking out against the group could ostracize you and disenfranchise your ability to belong.

As a Tribe we share a set of values. An identity, emotional security and our primal belief that there is safety in numbers. We are products of the Tribe's thinking. When the rest of the Tribe is thinking small, there is pressure on you not to disturb the status quo. Best go along with what everyone else's small thinking.

The majority of people live their lives suffering in silence.

Occasionally a rare individual comes along and sees a rainbow and vocalize it and act on it. The benefit out weighing the cost. They overcome their fear of being ostracized and proceed to step outside the Tribe.

Self-belief is the innate trait in all of us that allows us to step outside the comfort zone of the Tribe.

Success is determined

Not by the size of one's brain,

But by the size of one's thinking.

Take the people who considers themselves mediocre.

  * Believing they are worth little.

  * Believing they are unimportant.

  * Believing they can only achieve small things.

  * Their behavior reflects their attitude.

  * Affecting the way they acts, walks and talks.

  * Becoming what they thinks they is.

.

Take the people who considers themselves successful.

  * Believing they are worth more.

  * Believing they are important.

  * Believing they can do big things.

  * Their behavior reflects their attitude

  * Affecting the way they acts, walks and talks.

  * Becoming what they thinks they is.

Most people sell themselves short.

  * They self-depreciate themselves.

  * Considering themselves mediocre, not worthy of big success.

  * Becoming what they think they are.

You are your thoughts.

  * Think failure, you will fail.

  * Think success, and you will succeed.

  * Do not self-depreciate yourself.

  * Think small, expect small results.

  * Think Big, expect big results.

  * The size of your success is proportional to the size of your thinking.

The only real risk,

Is the risk of thinking too small.

Francis M Lappe

Do not disempower yourself with small goals, small thoughts. Empower yourself with big thoughts, big goals...
Procrastination

If you are going to procrastinate.

Do it later.

You would think the Latin root of procrastination would be _crustacean_. But it isn't. It stems from middle French, _to put off until tomorrow_.

Procrastination = f (Avoidance)

We procrastinate to avoid making an effort. Yet we ultimately make an effort to do something less important. It stems from the _lack the self-discipline_ _to_ _manage our time effectively_.

Everyone suffers from it. I love to procrastinate. Who doesn't, right?

It is only natural to avoid things that can be done later. Find some _other_ activity to justify not doing it. Two angels sit on my shoulders whispering into my ears. Swinging me back and forth with temptations.

One must awaken to the fact that by avoiding a task will not accomplish that task. And if you want the task completed, then you just have to do it.

Just do it.

I recall trying to get _geeekle.com_ started. I so easily could have procrastinated for another month or so. Waiting for the perfect time. Which as we know, would never arrive. I needed to make an opportunity happen.

A funny thing happens when you finally start the task you have been avoiding. An intense sense of interest is aroused. And you begin to focus your thoughts and energy at what is at hand. Then you begin to think, why you did not start this earlier? Now you have trouble pulling yourself away.

For example, let's say you have been putting off mowing the lawns. Grudgingly you drag the mower from the garage and start it up. Soon you are into it. Keenly striding about with sharp eyes. The smell of two stroke inciting activity. Seeing patches you missed last time, _I'll get those_ , you think to yourself. Your interest aroused, adrenaline is coursing through your veins. Now you can't stop. You're a man possessed. And I thought starting was an issue.

Next time you have something important to do. Just do it. Your interest will take over once you start.

Make it the focus of your day. You get twenty-four hours, or one thousand four hundred and forty minutes a day. It is up to you as to who you give those minutes to. Only you can give these minutes away.

What often happens, is that we get interrupted or distracted, ask yourself this, _"Is this the best use of my time?"_

If the answer is no. Then stop.

Look at the most urgent/important task and address that. Begin at the top and work your way down the priority list. Starting with the lower ranked task is simply deferring the top most important task.

It's called _procrastination_.

By recognizing this inefficiency you begin to work smarter.

Learn to recognize the inconsequential,

Then ignore it.
Distractions

Distractions are everywhere. I love being distracted.

Funny story: _There was a questionnaire in a magazine. It was a questionnaire to determine whether one was having a Mid-life Crisis. So, over my lunch break I proceeded to complete the questionnaire out of curiosity. After completing the forty questions. I sat back and I thought to myself that was funny. I had only answered yes to one question. Hmm. Something was not right. Had I misinterpreted the questions? A quick review told me I hadn't. Then it dawned on me. I was well past the age group that this questionnaire was targeted. The things that most mid-life people fret about, simply did not push my buttons anymore. That explained all the 'No's'. Curiously you ask, what was the question I had answered yes to?_

It was, "Are you easily distracted?" And in a flash I had answered Yes!

Just as it is in our nature to procrastinate and put things off until later, it is also in our nature to be distracted by more enjoyable tasks.

Distraction can occur before you even start your journey. Despite the obvious distractions like social media and television. There are also the voices of doubt reverberating in your mind.

Humans are emotional sensitive creatures. We are what we feel we are. If we feel down and out, then that is how we will perceive our goal.

Social networks and television are in our comfort zone. It feels good there doesn't it? The goal soon fades and forgotten. Then one day in the future you recall you had a good idea once, what was it again? Oh well, I suppose I did not want it that badly.

Constantly remind yourself,

  * Is what I am doing right now?

  * Is this the best use of my time?

  * Is it urgent?

  * Or is it important?

If what you are working on is not important. Then stop working on it. And start working on something is it important.

People spend their lives prioritizing the _urgent_ things, rather than on the _important_ things.

Everything in life is _urgent_. My morning coffee is _urgent_. Emails and mobile phones are urgent. Social Networks and the Internet sap hours of our lives every day. But are they truly urgent, or important?

If you are not working on your project, then what has given your current activity greater priority over your project?

Strangely the most important time of all is the time you spend _planning_.

Switching off from the worlds distractions. Switching off you mobile, your emails. Just having time for yourself to think. We spend so much time running around, frantically trying to complete a task. When another one arrives behind it at the speed of light y way of an email.

We simply do not stop and have time, purely for ourselves. Blocking out an hour once a week, your _white space_ on your diary will provide you that time to plan your priorities. And to step back from the chaos called daily life. Allowing you to see the bigger picture.

It is basically a meeting set aside with yourself. You can accept it or decline it, depending on how badly you want your goal.

By managing your time more effectively means:

  * Saying "no".

  * Time management.

  * Prioritizing important matters.

  * Recognize distractions and stop immediately.

Life's Detours

We are where we are today,

Because of the decisions we have made.

But take heart, It is where you are supposed to be.

Some of us turned left, some of us turned right. Some of us say yes, and some of us say no.

I have many friends that have _succeeded_ in their careers and done very well for themselves. I often find myself reflecting on my own situation and wonder what could have been if I had taken the safe path. Foregoing the risks and opportunities that had crossed my path.

If there was anyone who has lead a life of detours it has been me. I never regret my decisions. Because that would have denied me the chance of being whom I really am. And who I want to be.

So what pulls us from the _safe_ path?

The Qualification Trap / Career Path...

The Qualification Trap / Career Path

From an early age we find ourselves on a treadmill. Junior High leads to High School and for many it leads to Colleges and Universities and a job in the work force working for the man. We find ourselves bobbing up and down on the ocean of life. Being towed about by the current of forces acting on us. From parents, spouses, family, bosses and bank managers.

We have dug ourselves a hole of commitments from which it is too difficult to climb out. We have sentenced ourselves to forty years of hard labor with no right of parole.

Or so it would seem.

It is only when people retire or are made redundant do they are forced to entertain the possibility of an alternative path. Those lucky enough to start their _goal_ career early on have a lifetime of _living the dream_. Others find success later in life and wish they had done it earlier.

As the saying goes, _"Fortune favors the Brave."_

It's not easy to choose between a qualification and a life calling. Especially when the qualification is someone else's expectation of you.

Can you remember who you were,

before the world told you who you should be?

Taking the safe option and avoiding the risky option. Without making a sweeping generalization one would find most successful people are generally unqualified. Or perhaps have dropped out of university to pursue their goal.

Unqualified people will generally get nine to five jobs, and may pursue opportunities of running their own business.

Qualified people on the other hand are taken up by corporations and placed upon the company treadmill pursuing promotions, salaries and bonuses.

  * The unqualified group are unrestrained and free to pursue opportunities as they arise.

  * The qualified group are now shackled by corporate commitments. Falling into rank and file. Stuck to the railway tracks shunting to their retirements. Leaving the corporate regime almost impossible.

The qualified could jump ship to another, but rarely does one jump ship into the ocean of uncertainty.

  * The unqualified live on the ocean. Bobbing about. Sharks and uncertainty encircling them. Taking any opportunity to stay afloat.

  * The qualified group is safe and secure on the _HMS Certainty_ and their salaries and bonuses chain them to the hull. Their commitments binding them to a lifetime of servitude.

Can we stop and change paths?

  * The short answer is no.

  * The long answer is yes.

  * But it will require planning and courage.

There are many examples of famous people were coerced into other occupations only to find the volition to follow their heart and dreams.

  * Charles Darwin nearly became a Priest, and

  * Isaac Newton nearly became a farmer.

A change of direction will come as an awakening, an epiphany, or even an Act of God. The very fact you are reading this book, or books like this, shows you have consciously have a desire to make a change in your life.

Not all paths to goals are linear. Many paths are winding, bumpy and pitted with pot holes. You need to be flexible. Making compromises and taking detours when opportunities arise.

You can choose to live your life or you can choose to live your life the way other people want. If you do not write your own life story, someone else will write it for you. You have only yourself to blame for allowing what happens to you.

The choice is always and forever will be, yours...

Change your Attitude

Change your attitude,

And you can change your Life.

Your attitude governs how you perceive situations and things that interact with our lives:

  * Bad people see and seek bad things.

  * Good people see and seek good things.

How we view the world is how we react to the world. It is all in the attitude of the beholder:

  * Is the day partly sunny or partly cloudy?

  * Is the glass half empty, or half full?

It is really that simple:

  * Negative-ness will seek out the negative side to the situation.

  * Positive-ness will seek out the positive side.

Negative Thinkers:

  * Sees problems;

  * Sees obstacles;

  * Sees limitations;

  * Avoid improvements;

  * Sets low goals;

  * Associates with small thinkers;

  * Turns minor issues into dramas;

  * Is Pessimistic;

  * They are happy being miserable.

Positive Thinkers:

  * Sees solutions;

  * Sees opportunities;

  * Sees no boundaries;

  * Identifies improvements;

  * Associates with big thinkers;

  * Is Optimistic;

  * Provides training;

  * They are unhappy being miserable.

The positive thinker tries gets ahead. Because they see opportunities. Seeking out solutions to challenges. It is generally easy to identify the positive people. They are the ones with smiles on their faces.

Negative people go about with upside down smiles.

We must be careful in what we think, because it is what we will attract. Attitude is a state of mind and we burden ourselves with it like a yoke. A story about a traveler in ancient times reminds us of this...

" _What kind of people live inside the walls?" Asked a traveler arriving at the gates of the city._

" _What kind of people were like in the city he was leaving." Inquired the gate keeper._

" _They were unfriendly and cold hearted." Replied the traveler._

" _You'll find the people of this town are no different." Replied the gate keeper._

And so the traveler moved on to the next town.

Soon after another traveler arrives.

" _What kind of people live inside the walls?" Asked the traveler._

" _What kind of people were like in the city he was leaving." Inquired the gate keeper._

" _They were friendly and warm hearted." Replied the traveler._

" _You'll find the people of this town are no different", replied the gate keeper._

Your attitude dictates your feelings:

  * If you are a positive outlook, you will only see smiles and major mishaps seem minor.

  * If you are negative, you will only see frowns and fail to see the endless opportunities.

Humans are reactive creatures. As such, we are what we feel.

  * Some days you wake up bouncy and without a care in the world.

  * The next day you are slow and sluggish.

How you feel one day, will be different in a year's time. Our emotions are our feelings of the current situation.

Change the situation and our emotions change with it.

You have the _choice_ to change your circumstances:

  * You can choose to dwell on the negative.

  * Or you can choose to dwell on other more positive opportunities.

Rather than spending time and energy harboring resentful thought and calculating a revenge, make your success the revenge.

Change your world,

Simply by changing your attitude.

Being Grateful - One way of turning around one's attitude is being grateful.

  * Think ungrateful thoughts, develop a negative attitude.

  * If you are perpetually dwelling on things you do not have, you will continual to make yourself miserable and negative about life

  * Think grateful thoughts. Develop a positive attitude.

If grateful for what you have, then your mind will maintain a positive attitude.

I once read that, when we are thinking resentful thoughts of someone, we should try to think of something good about the person. Your enemy is someone's friend. By thinking about something good about that person, you have lifted the yolk of resentment from your shoulders. And you actually feel better about yourself. I had a father-in-law once and let's just say we agreed to disagree. Having said that, he was a terrific grandfather to the children. For that I am forever grateful. Somehow the bitter thoughts fade, and I have released him from my thoughts. I know he had many friends, who thought highly of him. Who was I to judge him?

Dwelling on the negative consumes time and energy that cannot be replaced. The sands of time waits for no one.

Change your attitude

_And you can change the world around you_.
Back to the Future

The future's so bright, I have to wear shades.

They say life is about 10% what happens to us, and 90% how we react to what happens to us.

People consume a lot of their time and energy on past events. By looking backwards, you are walking backwards into the future.

If you are worrying about

what other people are thinking about you;

Realize one thing;

They're not.

People are perpetually concerned about what other people could be thinking about them. It is this perception that consumes people's time and energy. Invest that time and energy on you.

Let the past go. Empty it into the void, and forget it. If you can't. Then write it down in an email and send it to yourself. Save that email to a folder created for negative thoughts. Now it's safe in your negative thoughts vault. It is now safe to let go of it.

Think of it much like you would a shopping list. Rather than try to remember every item on the list and fretting about forgetting an item, we write a list. You can then go about your day care free knowing the list with all its items (worries) is safe inside your pocket, waiting to be pulled out at any time to be referred to at any moment you choose to.

You have freed your mind for it to occupy other thoughts, happier thoughts. And in time, you would have forgotten about the list or really cannot be bothered looking at that list again. Satisfied you've now captured the negative thoughts and buried them. And like an old grave, from time to time pay it a visit and reflect, what were you thinking and going through at that time.

And possibly have a quiet giggle at the foolishness.

Hindsight is powerful if we learn from it, become wiser and forgiving, of others and ourselves. Now turn about and face the future, feel it like the sun on your face. Every possibility exists for you for the taking. It's up to you to take that first step toward it, no matter what it is. You just have to make an effort to work on it. Make every waking thought about that goal.

Tell people about it. They'll probably think you've gone cray and you have. Because your goal is extra-ordinary. And ordinary people have trouble accepting the extra-ordinary. It becomes to others, not them. And you are not them. You are that other people.

Imagine that negative thought as a grain of sand. Now imagine a desert. That grain of sand seems pretty small now doesn't it. Such is its insignificance. Drop that grain of sand onto the desert. Watch the wind of change and future opportunities blow it away. Take a number, I haven't got time at the moment. I'm too busy to waste on a grain of sand in my shoe.

Your brain can only hold one thought at a time. Make it about the future. Make it creative. Make it productive. Make it a good one.

The life journey you are on is all about you. It really is.

If you are determined to prove people wrong, then do it by results. Nothing speaks louder than results. Forgive them their ignorance. Accept their tacit apology.

And move on with your life...

Self-Belief

_I am going to succeed;_

Because I am crazy enough to think I can.

Unknown

People who have self-belief back themselves to succeed. Self-Belief is about the _"I am, I can, I will"_.

  * I am going to do this.

  * I am going to succeed.

  * I can do this.

Will-Power is the self-belief that those who believe they can, can conquer. _I am, I can, I will_ , are foundation stones of self-belief. When self-belief is coupled with a well-directed desire, an impelling force of the conquest arises.

We continually have internal conversations in our heads, self-talk or self-thought. The nature of the chatter will determine our mood of the moment and our outlook on life (attitude). This can either help or hinder us.

As discussed in the Change your Attitude chapter,

  * Telling yourself you feel fantastic and it is a beautiful day is empowering and uplifting.

  * Telling yourself you are feeling down and it is a miserable day, will dis-empower you and lower your self-esteem.

You cannot stop the self-talk. It is an inherent part of human nature. But you can _control_ what you tell yourself and what you say.

Remember, you are always in control of your actions and thoughts.

  * You can either punish yourself with negative thoughts or

  * Reward yourself with positive thoughts of achievement and success.

Whether you think you can,

Or Think you cannot.

_You're probably right_.

Henry Ford

Self-Belief is the conviction that you know you will succeed.

Self-Belief = f (Passion)

Self-belief is fueled by Passion. Passion is more than the initial desire you had that recognized the change you required in your life. Passion is what drives persistence that is required when the going gets tough. Passion taken to the next level is Obsession.

_Interest_ _> >_ _Passion >> Obsession_

Your goal will become your addiction, much like a like a drug addict craving for a narcotic.

You may not believe it now, but once you become obsessed with your goal you will do whatever it takes to satisfy the craving. You will feel cheated if you don't get your daily fix.

How badly do you want your goal?

It is one thing to want something. It is another thing to be passionate about it, e.g. some people wish to own a business. To be their own boss and they gain independence. I ask them are the passionate about the product the business sells, and generally they say no. If you are not passionate the product, clients will detect this. You may eventually dread going to work and regret ever buying the business.

Action = f (Self-Belief)

The more action I took towards my goals the more that action solidified into belief. This in turn created more action. Eventually becoming a self-feeding circular function. I was becoming addicted. I wanted more action. I need more hours, more time, and more energy.

If you're not tired, you're not trying hard enough.

FOLLOW YOUR TALENT/PASSION

People who work utilizing their innate talents and skills generally are more satisfied than those who do not. I know from experience that as an accountant, I simply go through the motions. There is no passion or excitement in it for me. I know there are accountants out there who just love counting beans, and who can't wait to post their next journal. Balance to the last cent. Fortunately this is not me. I do however have a passion for data analysis and computer modelling. They actually pay be for something I am having fun at. That's the kicker. Something I can do with my eyes closed. Whoa-who!

SEE OPPORTUNITIES, NOT LIMITATIONS

Rather than limiting ourselves, give yourself permission to focus your mind on the opportunities rather than limitations. If you focus on the limitations and obstacles, then that is what will be. If you focus on the opportunities and challenges, you will find solutions and progress.

The old adage, bring me solutions, not problems. There are always three immediate solutions to any problem, and three unseen solutions waiting patiently to be applied. What are they? I don't know, but I do know they're out there waiting to be discovered.

See setbacks and failures as opportunities for further progression. Edison and Ford were classic entrepreneurs that saw failure simply as a way of not doing something. They focused on solutions rather than dwelling on the problem.

WELCOME AND ACCEPT CHANGE

Nothing stays static. Progress requires change. But sometimes we hold onto the old ways because it fits nicely into our comfort zone. Why pop a perfectly good comfort bubble and expose ourselves to the external elements? It's safe within the bubble isn't it?

The status quo is predictable, and safe. Change only brings about uncertainty and fear. But people who accept change are generally rewarded because of it. Those that have an open attitude to change also have the courage to explore other areas of potential opportunities and success.

As a data modeler I have a passion for process improvement. _I want to be the laziest accountant_. While this frightens some companies when I say this, I then explain that I want to make work easier, to free up time for other important things, e.g. planning.

Give me a lazy person any day.

They'll find an easy way to do something.

Bill Gates

I recall a particular cash flow model that required to be updated for month end accounts. Oh the pain and effort and frustration involved was monumental, I really was not looking forward to month end. So I process improved it and what had taken half a day of fiddling about, now takes less than five minutes. I'm happier and I am my time is freed up to pursue other improvements.

ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY

Accepting responsibility will empower you to shape your own destiny. You will feel you are at the helm of their own ship. You will have the confidence to navigate where your heart's desire without looking to others for their approval. Take control of their own destiny.

PERSISTENCE

As discussed many times in this book, a word you have heard over and over and over again, _persistence_. I love this word. Let's say it again, _Persistence_. And again...

Persistence

And persistence does not happen without Effort. Persistence will come with your addiction. Persistence is the craving to want more and you will do anything to get it. I remind myself consistently that unless I make an effort, nothing will happen.

People fail to reach their goals because they either fail to start,

Or they fail to persist with them.

Buddha

They give up because their goals do not materialize as quickly as they hoped they would. When you get to read the section _And the Rest Is History_ , you will discover people who have succeeded to reach their goals. By persisting. All could have given up. But all chose to keep going in the face of adversity and hardship.

Many persisted through tougher times than we have in our modern age today.

Unfortunately for us we are spoilt with technology and everything is achieved at the speed of light. We live with the expectation of _instantaneous gratification_. Persistence sounds top much like hard work. Yet we persist with chatting on social networks that consume our time.

My good friend Gordon, often texts me and ask me what I am doing for the day. I text back that I am busy working on my first million. Sure I would rather be out playing golf, or many other distractions that would keep me away from my projects. Knowing I have to persist with them if I want to make progress. I cannot go a day without thinking about my goals. I am too far down the rabbit hole to let them go and give up.

NETWORKING & SYNERGY

Building mutually beneficial relationships with people opens up new opportunities and also allows for synergy to be generated. The combined power of the group is greater than the sum of the group.

From experience I have had to let _FOSN_ be developed by a University as they have the technical expertise and network to commercial bodies that may be interested in investing in the product.

One only has to look to the Bill Gates, (biography in the section _The Rest is History_ ) to see how he initially turned down the offer to write an operating system, only to accept it later. Opportunity had knocked twice. And even then he had someone else write the code. He attained his goal by levering other people's skills and strengths that he lacked himself.

LIVING WITH PURPOSE / PASSION

People who are happy with their lives have a sense of purpose. Possessing a drive that gets them out of bed. As if they were on a mission. It gives them purpose and so they can plan their lives around their goals.

A goal should occupy your every waking thought,

_Otherwise it is just a thought_.

Once that goal has a purpose, it will drive you. It will be greater than the sum of all the distractions that tempt you not to act on it...

Self-Esteem

People require a healthy level of self-esteem and self-confidence to achieve success in their lives.

Our subconscious minds plays a big part in the determination of our behavior. If we are feeling badly about ourselves, we tend to behave badly such as over-indulgences in junk foods or alcohol or drugs. This is not a conscious act, but moreover, an automatic subconscious reaction that reflects how we feel about ourselves.

The self-belief attitude, _"I do not deserve..."_ plays a power factor in determining one's behavior. People with a low self-image subconsciously sabotage any opportunities that come along by finding excuses for why it cannot be done.

We think, therefore we are.

Through the use of positive affirmations and self-suggestions we are able to reprogram the underlying subconscious automatic thoughts of self-doubt and self-worth.

I often repeat positive affirmations of success to myself and I live everyday as if I have already achieved these. I am realistic to know that I am still on a journey, but to give up would remove all doubt and defeat the purpose of starting in the first place.

It is not a matter of If,

But simply a matter of When.

Such is my confidence. I get an incredible sense of satisfaction that the projects are progressing. Sure I have adversity facing me from every quarter, but I plough on. Persistence is a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Can your goal face adversity? It wouldn't be a goal if it couldn't.

When you're comfortable with who you are and confident in what you can do, then other people come to believe in you and your abilities. If you joke about your goal, others will see it as a joke. If you take your goal seriously. Others will take it seriously. This applies both in your personal as well as your working life.

You are what you portray you are.

Self-esteem is an appreciation of one self. It is all about you. It really is. If you do not like yourself, then it is unlikely others will and you will project this in a negative attitude. Or, you could project a positive self-image and have people turning heads, asking, who was that person?

Funny story: _We often worry ourselves about what other people are thinking about us. When in all truth, they are not thinking of you at all._

I can assure you the other people are only thinking of themselves.

You are the only one consuming energy on the negative thought. Your mind can only hold one thought at a time. Make it a good one.

Those with low self-esteem would exhibit the following traits:

  * Unworthy of love, happiness, fulfilment;

  * Jealousy;

  * Fail to give compliments;

  * Fail to give affection;

  * Fail to make friends easily;

  * Not taking their own needs into account;

  * Feeling inadequate to create the life they desire;

  * Suffer from an inferiority complex;

  * Suffer neurotic guilt.

  * The fear of rejection;

  * Lack confidence to complete their goals;

  * Negative Self-Talk;

  * Self-Doubt;

As a result they do not believe their goals are worth pursuing. Shackling themselves to a ball and chain, hindering their potential before the race even begins.

If they think they are unworthy, then they think other people are more worthy.

  * They surrender their self-esteem to those who they consider more important than themselves.

  * They surrender to our spouses.

  * Their lives are no longer their own.

  * And they surrender their lives to be scribed by someone else.

Needless to say, those with a high self-esteem feel the opposite.

  * Their confidence to conquer all what the world throws at them is unquestioned.

  * They feel invincible.

  * They are in control of what they do and how they do it.

  * They seek no one else's approval, but their own.

  * They dwell on the positive.

Funny story: _I bumped into a young gentleman at my local bar and we began chatting as you do. I asked him what he would like to do if he could not fail. He said he had no idea. I asked about his dreams and goals in life. He said he didn't have any. I asked what had happened to them. He said they had flown out the window. I asked who opened the window. He said he did. I said, oh. I was stumped and accepted I would not be drawn into his despair._

The bar was not the place to give him a lengthy lecture of motivation. But I was amused to think he had given up on every dream he had ever had. I did discover he liked to write poetry and I suggested he could publish on line. I sensed I may have aroused his interest in that thought. And I hope I have lit a small candle in his darkness and that he rediscovers his dreams again.

To conquer low self-esteem is a simple function of attitude:

Self-Esteem = f (Self-Attitude)

I keep coming back to Henry Ford's words of wisdom:

If you think you can, or you think you cannot,

You're probably right.

For many years I allowed myself to be stifled by the perceived pressure of others. Then I took responsibility for everything that happens to me. My life choices were solely mine to make, not others.

I had to stop thinking about what others thought about what I did. I certainly was not thinking about what they did. It was all a perception in my head.

Look in the mirror. How we see ourselves is how others see us.

Self-Attitude = f (Self-Image)

Self-Image is the impression we have of ourselves. Just as we have first impressions of people walking along a street. We judge them in the first glance. Already we have assessed them as good or bad, nice or harmful, cute or ugly. And we do not even know them.

I see beggars shuffling along the street with their shoulders slouched, heads down, along. I then try to imagine them clean and shaved and in a nice business suit. Polished shoes and heads held high.

The same person. Different attitude.

I know when I get dressed up for a job interview or some important occasion I feel six feet tall. Okay, admittedly I'm already five eleven and three quarters, but today I feel six feet tall. A tower. I feel smart. I look sharp. I feel important. I feel good about myself. Yet, an hour before I was in casuals and felt like an ugly duckling and ordinary.

Why the sudden change in attitude simply by getting dressed up smart? Because my attitude changed. I liked what I saw in the mirror. It looked good. I felt good. And more importantly, I felt good about myself. I had self-esteem. I had self-worth about myself. I felt I could conquer the world.

Maybe women are onto something when they go shopping to feel better about themselves? I know I would feel better about myself if I bought a new set of golf clubs. Or dare I say it, a new pair of shoes, (and in my defense, they were golf shoes).

Your self-image is a key ingredient into to lifting your self-esteem and feeling good about yourself.

  * I want you to start standing straighter, shoulder back, head up;

  * I want you to start dressing smarter. If you dress like a beggar, you feel like a beggar. If you dress like a successful person, you'll feel like a successful person;

  * I want you start thinking positive thoughts. Start seeing the good in things. Let go of all the negative thoughts and make room for creative thoughts and ideas. Positive thinking works because positive thinkers dwell on what they want and they cannot help gravitating towards their goals;

  * I want you to start looking past the problems in your life and start seeing opportunities and solutions. Not all at once, just one at a time;

  * I want you to remind yourself that you are better than you think you are. You are very good at what you do. Know that recessions come and go, but your talents will always be with you;

  * I want you to know that the only opinion that matters is your own. I have many self-appointed life-coaches who proceed to tell me how to live my life. I just smile at them and listen. Who knows, one might actually tell me something interesting. But at the end of the day, you are responsible for the choices you make. Not the people giving you advice. Take it on board, digest it, but the decision you make will be your own;

  * I want you to know that you can do whatever you put your mind to. You need no one's permission, but your own;

  * I want you to start giving compliments and thanks to those you interact with;

  * I want you to start speaking well about yourself. Do not put yourself down. Admit to yourself you are good at what you do. In fact, you are proud of yourself for what you do. I want you to praise yourself;

  * I want you to start looking after your body. Stop abusing it with bad things, junk food and drugs. Start taking walks as a form of passive exercise. Your body is a temple. Worship it. It is the only one you get on this journey;

  * I want you to avoid negative people, otherwise you will be drawn into their world. If you hang out with positive people, you will be surprised what opportunities rub off onto you. This will require a change of habit. And habits as you know take about three weeks to form;

  * I want you to know that success is not based on luck. And that successful people are not super human or super intelligent. They are ordinary people, like you and me. They made an effort and persisted at their goal;

  * I want you to start believing that you are in control of your life. Know that you, and you alone are responsible for everything that you let happen to you. You can say no. It is your choice. You have that power. Exercise it. It's your God given right;

  * I want you to start reading books that inspire you. Reading feeds the brain like fertilizer feeds a plant. Life is 99% above the shoulders.

  * The power of the mind is what drives successful people;

  * I want you to start visualizing the life you desire and want. The universe has a way to gravitate opportunities your way. But first you need to visualize what you want. And do not visualize just once. Visualize every waking moment you have. Do not let it be just a passing thought. _Making it a perpetual waking dream_ ;

  * Most of all I want you to smile. And when you see someone without a smile. Give them yours. Smiles are very infectious.

Exercised these traits every waking moment and put the world on notice of your presence...
Self-Worth

Closely related to Self-Esteem is Self-Worth.

We have all seen the employee of the month plaque on the walls at _MacDonalds_. To the individual selected, they are proud as punch. How would you feel about yourself if your boss puts a plaque on the wall at work? You would have to give a smile and feel pretty good about yourself right? I know I would. You would be feeling pretty good about getting out of bed and going to work.

Your self-esteem has been raised. You feel you have a sense of purpose. You have a _feel good_ attitude about yourself, your work place and those around you. It maybe be raining outside, but all you feel is sunshine.

  * This praise and recognition of being accepted, is primal.

  * To be socially accepted.

  * To be recognized and acknowledged, or to put another way,

  * The recognition of not being rejected or outcast from the herd we find ourselves.

We feel part of a team. We are willing to give more than before. _Value added._ Maybe even go beyond the call of duty to keep that feeling of being recognized. A little praise will go a long way. And it is all passive. It is all about attitude.

And it is all in the mind.

At times when I was unemployed, I felt low and worthless about myself. But when I had an interview lined up my spirit would rise and there was a feeling of hope. When I began working I had a feeling of purpose. I had gained self-worth again.

Self-worth empowers a person energizing them forward, where before we may have been hesitant.

But self-worth is more than just having a job. Self-worth should be about how you as a person think about yourself. After a month or so, the novelty of the job wears off and so does one's self-worth. Like some drug, you do not get the same buzz as when you first started. You feel yourself slipping back to your old ways. You old attitude returns.

Most people attach self-worth to an external stimulant. Such as a job, or a boat, or luxury living. These come and go. The only constant in this equation, is you.

Self-Esteem, Self-worth and Self-Belief are passive and intangible. It is the attitude you have about yourself that will empower control over your own destiny...

Self-Doubt

_Opportunity is always knocking;_

The problem is most people have the

Self-Doubt volume turned up so loud;

They cannot hear it.

Brian Vaszily

Ever had those thoughts of Self-Doubt. It's that whisper in your ear telling you to give up.

We allow other people's opinions enter our head, as though to justify giving up. Dismiss those thoughts:

  * Until they walk in your shoes.

  * Until they see what you see.

  * They will never understand your vision.

The only voice you have to talk over is that of Self-Doubt.

Prove it wrong by not giving up.

Self-Doubt = f (Fear)

Self-Doubt can arise because of Fear:

  * The fear of embarrassment.

  * The fear of failure.

  * The fear of losing our predictable security.

When you think about the fear of failure. Think about what could have been had you tried. What are you going to give up if you stop now? The sad thing is that dreams do not fail. People do. They quit before ever reaching the top.

Failure =f (Quitting)

So next time you worry about the fear of failure, just remember:

Quitting = f (You)

Only you can make you give up and quit. You are responsible for everything that you allow to happen to you. Look in the mirror. How do you explain to the person looking back at you why you can't take another step? When you know you can.

The person in the mirror has belief in you. They know your deepest thoughts and anguish. They know the pain you are suffering. Don't let them down. If you can't do it for yourself, then at least do it for them. They'll be there with you when you cross the finishing line. And they'll be smiling next time you see them.

_Action_ feeds and strengthens confidence and shifts the mind's thoughts away from what could be to what is actually happening. Many people experience the jitters before a performance. But once they begin the activity they immerse themselves into it and their fears disappear.

Action conquers fear.

Inaction feeds fear.

If you wish to fight fear, then shift your thoughts to taking action. Acting now, is better than acting later. Now is always the best time to do something. Strictly speaking, it is the only time you have available, right now...

  * If you need to lose weight, go for a walk right now.

  * If you need to stop smoking, stop smoking right now.

  * If you need to write that book, start writing right now.

  * If you need to weed the garden, weed it right now.

Right now is the only time you have available. Doing it later, tomorrow, next week or sometime, is simply postponing it indefinitely. And yesterday is already lost in the sands of time.

We all have a finite time on this earth, and if we measure our entire life in a finite number of grains of sand passing through an hour glass that represents our life. Imagine that with each passing grain of sand as a measure of time we cannot retrieve back.

Many dreams have been because people have said, _"I'll start someday"_. And many dreams have been achieved because people have said, _"I'll start right now"_.

Self-Doubt stems from the lack of confidence and a belief that we lack the ability. When we are confident we stand six feet tall and feel invincible.

Your mind can only hold one thought at a time;

Make it a good one.

Knowing yourself is an important part of self-confidence. Knowing your character and who you strengthens your personal resolve to be yourself, and not trying to someone else.

Be authentic, be yourself.

Focus on where you want to go.

Not on the Fear.

Character is your evaluation of yourself. Reputation is other peoples' evaluation of you.

Character is who we are.

Reputation is what other people say about you.

Self-Doubt is like a virus that attacks our Self-Esteem and confidence. People with self-doubt feel they are not good enough, that they do not deserve success.

  * To them, success belongs to _other people_. They accept their lot. And that there is nothing they can do about it.

  * The _'I do not deserve'_ attitude stems from a self-belief of _inferiority_ , which results in them never starting, or soon giving up.

People with self-doubt have a resistance to change because of the fear of the unknown.

  * It is safer to live in a predictable comfort zone, than to step outside it into the unknown. Failure to accept change can lead to missed opportunities. It is only when change is forced upon people (redundancy) that progress often takes place, and people wish they had made the change years earlier.

  * I am a firm believer of living outside my comfort zone. It is where life begins. Many people live in fear of losing their jobs. _I live in fear of being stuck in one._ I love living on the edge. To face the unknown. To face new challenges, is exhilarating. How exciting is that! And know what? The sun still comes up the very next day.

Fear cannot stop you.

Only you can.

People rely on the co-dependency of others for happiness and success.

  * There is an erroneous perception that we must seek other's approvals before we can act towards our goals.

  * If I were to voice this perception aloud, those _co-dependents_ would deny any knowledge and responsibility for any hindrance. And they would be correct. _The perception was all inside my head._ In our minds we play out what we think others would say about us and our goal. Thereby holding ourselves back. We just have to realize they are not thinking about us. They are thinking about themselves.

We blame others for holding us back or missed opportunities.

  * It is like a crutch we no longer need, we keep leaning on it for sympathy from others. It is easier to blame someone else than to blame ourselves. Blame is backward looking. Like walking backward into the future.

  * Once we take responsibility for what happens to us, the sooner we can stop looking backwards and start looking forwards. We have the power to change our destiny.

  * Blame is negative energy. Let it go.

**Negative Beliefs** \- These effectively become self-profiling prophesies.

It is the mind set of _'I cannot do that'_. If people put as much energy into positive beliefs as they do negative beliefs image the success that would result?

It is easier not to act than it is to act. A change towards the positive requires action to take place. A change towards the negative, or even the status quo, requires little or no action at all. Procrastination is at home here. If you do nothing, then that is what generally what happens.

Excusitis / Butitis.

  * People find excuses to avoid taking action. These excuses are usually prefixed with the word _but_.

  * Remember my good friend Ronald from the first chapter. He has numerous wonderful ideas, and he often tells me about them. Maybe in hope I will act upon them. Because he is too busy, or he has a thousand excuses why he can't. It's not that I am not passionate about his ideas, it's just that I am more passionate about my own.

  * He has rationalized numerous excuses to himself. Patted himself on the back for being a genius, and accepts defeat. Then he goes back to his safe ordinary life.

The next section on Self-talk will help you re-program these negative thoughts held in our sub-conscious and enact new empowering positive thoughts...
Self-Talk

_It's impossible_ , said the Pride.

_It's risky_ , said Experience.

_It's pointless,_ said Reason.

_Give it a go_ , whispered the Heart.

Unknown

The mind can be a powerful ally. Or it can be a powerful enemy.

One moment you can be feeling down in the dumps, the next you are feeling tall and invincible. Yet, you are still the same person after as you were before.

This phenomenon has to do with the _self-talk_ , or your _thought talk_. The messages you tell yourself. Inside your head. And those that you verbalize aloud to yourself.

Being able to recognize the destructive thoughts and restate them as constructive thoughts will allow you regain the confidence you had when you began your journey. And dispel the omens that cross upon your path.

Sometimes I catch myself thinking... _'It cannot happen to me, and I do not deserve it'_.

Then I shake the negative thought free and reaffirm to myself... _'Yes it can. I do deserve this. I've put energy into the projects. They are unique. They are mine. Why not. I am special. I am unique. It will happen because it will make it happen. There is abundance out there. This is my share. I am creating something special no one else has done before. I am an innovator. People will know my name. I will live the life I dream of.'_

Take each day as a building block. Set daily goals. Take action to achieve them. Doing nothing will achieve just that, nothing. If you fall, pick yourself up. Learn from the fall and rebuild. Success is all about falling. The hardest part about succeeding is not about getting to where you want to go, it is overcoming the obstacles in our path. The strange thing is that when you reach your goal there will be not so much an exuberant celebration, but more of a quiet relief. You made it. Your goal is but a point in time, as was starting. What you will treasure most is the journey in between. A daring adventures and obstacles you faced along the way. That is what you will be telling everyone about.

It is easy to slip into a negative self-talk. It helps us justifies and rationalizes their failings. People tell themselves they you need a good education to earn good money. While some truth can be found in this, it is not entirely true. There are a lot of well-educated people who are often lack money. They spend it as quick as they can make it. And there are a lot of people with little education who are wealthy. If education was the fount of being wealthy, then one would not expect lot more wealthy teachers and professors?

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not.

Education will not.

The world is full of educated derelicts.

Ray Koc
Self-Discipline

Probably one of the most important changes you will facilitate the success of your goal will be Self-Discipline.

Self-Discipline = f (Attitude)

Self-Discipline is the power house to propel you forward. It will fend off distractions and negative forces of others who have little faith in your goal. Trolls, whose sole purpose is to prove your goal a hopeless cause and that you really be better off with then down at the pub. Every night, for the rest of your life. Just like them.

If you cannot lead yourself.

Others will.

Humans are incredible social creatures. We live in a community and have a herd mentality. It is a primal instinct to follow the herd. For protection. For food. For shelter. For survival.

Why do people go to gym classes, when they easily do the same simple exercises at home? For free. Because we like to be lead. If everybody else is doing a particular craze, then we feel we have to as well.

Have you seen the number of people who turn up to Success Seminars? There is obviously an intense interest in them. Motivational speakers hoping to spark life into the cadets. Cadets looking for a quick fix to elevate them above their current situation, eager to learn the secret that will transform their lives from ordinary to extra-ordinary overnight. Unfortunately, self-help doesn't work that way, overnight. Well, unless you've bought a lotto ticket. Good luck with that.

Afterwards, ninety five percent will go back to their routine lives. The sacrifice outweighed the benefit. They could not wait that long. It all becomes too hard. _So how badly did they want their dreams to come true?_ Obviously not that much.

Five percent of those attending saw a light in the darkness. A _hope_ of better things. Knowing they would have to make a change in the way they thought and acted. A small price really. The benefit outweighed the sacrifice. They could wait as long as it took. If it meant having their dream. It all seemed so easy. _How badly did they want their dreams?_ A lot.

If you ever find your life not working out. Think of it this way:

It all works out in the end.

If it hasn't worked out.

It is not the end.

I often have to remind myself of this every time I become disillusioned. It is okay to feel disillusioned from time to time. You would not be human if you did not. It is how you find your way out of the fog that makes you stronger.

Going for a good walk helps build my self-belief. I love to walk and think. No longer surrounded by walls or people. My mobile is full of notes made while out walking and day dreaming. My only fear is the battery will go flat.

The new ideas get my creative juices flowing again...
Self-Confidence

_Confidence = f (Action)_

Fear is the lack of confidence. Fear is all in your mind. It stems from worry, tension and negative thoughts. As we read earlier, before you can fear something externally. You must first fear it internally.

Action builds Confidence.

Confidence cures Fear.

So what overcomes fear? Confidence. And how do you acquire confidence? Through Action.

As in the analogy of the roller coaster ride,

Action overcomes fear.

Since fear is the lack of confidence to proceed, then by building confidence allows one to conquer fear. No one is born with confidence. Confidence is acquired over time. Those that radiate confidence have practiced taking action it over many years.

Confidence is gained by:

  * Having the proper perspective of situations and other people.

  * Develop an understanding attitude.

  * Trusting your judgement, and sticking with it.

  * Improving one's appearance.

  * Relieving the fear in others.

  * Acting correctly and appropriately.

  * Have a reservoir of positive thoughts.

  * Does not allow negative and self-depreciating thoughts grow.

Role Play:

Ask yourself,

What would an important person do?

By putting yourself in their shoes, you begin to feel more at ease. You would feel as though you have power. No one can intimidate you.

  * You would remain calm.

  * You would think before you spoke.

  * You would ask the right questions.

  * You would not be hasty to pass judgement.

  * You are in control of the situation.

  * You are able to find a perspective.

You can apply this role play to almost any situation. Become _the more important you_. Not the self-depreciating you.

Before we can master anything we must master ourselves.

It is better to conquer thyself;

Than all the men in the World.

Buddha

To be master oneself, is to be master over one's weaknesses. To over comes one's weaknesses is to build new strengths. If you are afraid of public speaking. If you have a weak voice. If you are physically weak. These can all be overcome with routine practice and exercises.

A person with self-confidence can handle most any situation. How we respond to criticism, financial failure, other misfortunes, is a reflection of our self-mastery.

Life is 10% what happens to you;

90% how you re-act to it.

Unknown
Self-Everything

Imagined you are driving a car at night heading to a preplanned destination. The gauges on the dash board represent the various attributes that make up ability to complete the journey.

A map showing us the path. The Fuel gauge the energy required. The Rev counter the passion we have. Oil pressure gauge the Self-Belief that we have. Temperature gauge self-doubt. We may even stop to ask for directions. There will be pot holes and flat tires. Road blocks and detours. We negotiate and overcome these if we want to get to our destination. We have to monitor the gauges and keep them in check. If fuel is getting low we refuel. Are the revs too high for the speed we are going?

Headlights light up the immediate distance front of us. Street lights will give us some indication of the rood ahead. There is no rush. Too fast and we could lose control. To slow and we could lose interest. The odometer ticks over and the mileage adds up. And with every passing mile we get closer to our destination. Your goal.

You arrive and kill the engine. Apply the hand brake. You sit there and like any long drive, you wonder how you got there.

It took patience and persistence. But you made it. And you begin to wonder where you can drive to next.

You need more gas, another map...

Time Management

Time Management is a book within itself. Essentially it is the act of planning and controlling the amount of time spent on specific activities. Thereby increasing productivity within the limited time available.

Most people are familiar with the basic _To Do List_ and how to create them. But I will iterate them here to refresh the memory.

_To Do Lists_ are the most common way to track and manage tasks by:

  * Listing the tasks to be completed.

  * Ranking and prioritizing of these tasks.

  * Once the task is completed, it is crossed off.

The benefits of these are:

  * The reduction of time spent on non-priorities.

  * Making time to plan.

  * Reducing distractions.

  * Eliminating procrastination.

Some _do's and don'ts_ of time management include:

  * Do make a list of important tasks.

  * Do set priorities to these tasks.

  * Do learn to say "No".

  * Do set a time frame in which to complete each task.

  * When interrupted by another task, rank its priority, and place it in the queue.

There are a range of techniques available to rank specific tasks and projects that have restrictive time frames. I have summarized a few of these as follows.

ABC Analysis

Used by business management to rank tasks:

  * A – Urgent and important Tasks.

  * B – Important but not urgent Tasks.

  * C – Neither urgent nor important Tasks.

Tasks within each group are then ranked by priority. ABC analysis is often combined with Pareto analysis.

Pareto Analysis

In 1906, an Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto noted that 80% of Italy's land was owned by 20% of the people. Then he started noting it in other aspects of his life. He observed that 80% of his garden peas came from 20% of his pea plants.

The 80:20 ratio of cause to effect became known as the "Pareto Principle" that advocates:

  * 80% of tasks will take up 20% of the disposable time.

  * 20% of tasks will take up 80% of the disposable time.

Tasks should be sorted into one of these two parts, with tasks that fall into the first category assuming the higher priority.

Other examples include:

  * 80% of sales come from 20% of your clients.

  * 80% of problems originate with 20% of projects.

  * 80% of sales come from 20% of the products.

  * 80% of your complaints come from 20% of customers.

  * 80% of your success come from 20% of one's efforts.

Eisenhower Analysis

What is important is seldom urgent.

And what is urgent is seldom important.

President Dwight Eisenhower

US President Dwight Eisenhower utilized a grid matrix where one prioritizes tasks based on their criteria of being:

_To-Do-_ Lists are essential part of planning, but they can have their draw backs:

  * The time spent in administering the list erodes time available to implementing it;

  * Administrating them can create an "analysis paralysis";

  * Listing routine tasks consumes time and can be seen as a form of procrastination, rather than just getting on with the task at hand.

  * _To-Do Lists_ must be flexible for disasters;

  * _To-Do Lists_ should include regular planning evaluation sessions to identify inefficiencies;

  * The potential of getting stuck on short term goals at the expense of long term goals.

The simpler the To-Do-List the better. Brevity over detail. Spend five minutes tops to go over the list as though it were a cheap menu. Identify what needs to be done sooner than later.

Then just do it...

Milestones

A good way to stay focused is to know you how you fair against the milestones you have set for yourself. Milestones must be quantifiable, measureable. As discussed earlier, timeframes and deadlines are good milestones to measure by.

When I was working out at the gym to lose weight and gain fitness. I would weigh myself each week, then mark this on a graph. I visually saw the progress I was making. Pinning to my wall in the office. It was there staring me in the face. Re-enforcing my goal and progress.

The downward gradient line rewarded my belief that I was making progress and encouraged me to continue.

Making the Goal Tangible

Whatever your goal, large or small, you begin by writing it down. That is the first step in making the goal tangible. You have transformed it from being an intangible thought rattling inside your mind to a physical tangible statement on paper.

Get yourself a book or journal and write down in plain words the goal you wish to achieve. Get it out of your head and onto a piece of paper. Stick that piece of paper on the fridge, a wall you cannot avoid looking at.

It is your goal talking to you...

..." _I am here, it's what you want, what are you doing about me?"_

If you find this difficult to do, then I have to ask, _are you really serious about your goal_? Do you really want to lose weight, or quit smoking or get a qualification? Or are you going to give me an excuse?

People are visual creatures. We take in more than just words and sounds. With my goal to launch a classified advertising web site geeekle.com, I wanted something that reminded me every day. So I had a cap embroiled with the name across the front.

I have it on the passenger seat in my car. I use it when I play golf and see it every time I drive about. Staring me in the face. Reminding me, that's my goal, what am I doing about it? On my smart phone I use to have a picture of the cap as my screen saver. Every time I use my phone, it's in my face. Reminding me, what are you doing about it?

These days I have an image of my latest book on the screen saver, and a working cover of the next book to inspire creative thoughts. That I can do it. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen ...
Goal Buddy / Mentor

" _When I tell you to jump, you jump!!_

All you need to know is how high, and when to come down!"

I recall nearly forty years ago a Staff Sergeant yelling at bunch of us young territorial recruits at boot camp.

It would be great to have a Staff Sergeant with us when we start our journey. _By the left, quick march ... Left_ Right! Left_ Right!_ We would certainly all get to the end of our journeys without delay if we had them screaming at us.

Let's substitute the regimental _Staff Sergeant_ for a _Goal Buddy._

A Goal Buddy is someone who keeps an eye on you to ensure you have not fallen off the wagon, so to speak. They check in on you to see how things are going. Checking that you have not wasted time on other activities that could be invested into you goal.

A Goal Buddy may be sharing the same goal as you. To quit smoking, or lose weight, or pursue a project. Each can share their experiences. Pushing the other on. Supporting each other when the going gets tough, and give advice to overcome hurdles.

In some way you belong to a two person tribe. And you know how people like to conform and be accepted by the tribe. Providing a positive driving force for you to at your goal. You don't want to be seen as the one that quits, leaving the other one stranded.

A Goal Buddy not only watches over you, they also support and praise you for efforts made:

  * They make you feel guilty when you have slipped,

  * And elated when you made progress.

  * No longer do you suffer in silence.

  * You have someone there who acknowledges the progress you have made.

  * They are a sounding board for advice and direction.

  * Someone who _identifies_ with your ambition to achieve your goal.

By actively telling your friends and colleagues that you have a goal, you have set an expectation in _their_ minds that you wish to achieve. You now not only have to live up to your own expectation, but theirs as well.

The societal pressure that first limited you, now can be utilized to your benefit.

Find a friend, someone you trust and respect with who you can share your goal. Ask them to passively monitor you. They need nothing do more than keep an eye on you and check in on you from time to time about your progress.

I have a few friends who regularly ask me how _the next book_ is going. This prompts me to stay on track and to have a progress report ready. It informs them, and more importantly me, that I have things happening.

Mentors are another form of Goal Buddy, though these tend to be used more in the professional arena, yet serve the same purpose:

  * To encourage you in your goal;

  * To monitor your progress;

  * Provide suggestions for improvement and direction;

  * Provide positive support.

Your personal trainer at the gym is a mentor, with a vested interest in you achieving your goal. Or a friend at work may ask, _"How's the gym going? You look like you've lost some weight."_

Several years ago now, a lovely office lady by the name of Robyn, decided it was time to quit smoking after a life time. _"I haven't had a cigarette for a week now..."_ She would inform us, then weeks later, _"...It's been a month now_. _"_ She knew we were monitoring her progress. Keeping tabs on her. _She was proud as punch to declare her progress_. She wasn't letting us down. Her reward was the satisfaction she got at each milestone. As well as the smiles from the office staff. She was not just doing for herself. She was doing it for us.

By the time of the writing of this book, she would have ceased smoking for over seven years now. Well done Robyn! You are an inspiration to everyone...

Make / Take Opportunities

There are two ways to make things happen. You can either:

  * Take Opportunities; or you,

  * Make Opportunities.

Opportunities _will_ cross your path. Many famous performers found their breaks by stepping up when the main act fell ill and could not preform. It is sometimes a tough option if you feel under prepared.

Generally opportunity does not knock twice. Unless your name is Bill Gates. (But that is another story under the _Rest is History section_.) Sometimes opportunity comes knocking. As it did for the Beatles when Brian Epstein came knocking. It happened August 2008 when Susan Boyle stepped onto the stage of _Britain's Got Talent_ , and sang " _I Dreamed a Dream_ ".

When I see my friends looking for work, and I asked them how are they looking? _Oh I check the internet and I apply for one or two jobs_. I suggest they should be applying for at least ten jobs a day. Above and below their station. Like a sawn off shot gun, blast they should pepper job section, with as many applications as they can rather than applying for one or two jobs with a single shot rifle. Knock on as many as you can, and a greater number of opportunities.

I tell them it is not about the job. It is about getting their foot in the agency's or company's door. You want to tell as many as you can that you exist and are keen to work. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I applied for a job once and got the call that I had been turned down. Feeling a little dejected, I thanked them for the call. Then the HR manager told me that although I had not got the job, the CEO of the company liked my Resume and thought they could use me some other position. What was only meant to be a three week role, got rolled to another month, and then rolled again to six months.

Moral of the story, apply for as many jobs as you can every day.

  * Applying a specific job is taking an opportunity.

  * Applying for a lot of jobs is making an opportunity.

Do not wait for the company or agency to advertise the perfect job. Make yourself known to the agency and get on their Database systems. So when the perfect job comes up they can find a match with your skill set. And they will call you asking if you are still looking for work before they have even place the advert for the role.

Opportunities are disguised as Hard Work,

_That is why people do not recognize them_.

Ann Landers
Negative Energy

Negative energy comes in many forms and sources. But at the end of the day it is self-generated. It's all inside your head.

The greatest power that a person possesses,

Is the Power of Choice.

Unknown

Yet despite this power of choice, we allow people's opinions get to them. You have a choice not to listen. Much like tuning a radio station, you come across a stations playing music you do not like. So you move onto another station, and find one that you like.

  * You have the power to choose who you listen to;

  * You have the power to choose who not to listen to;

  * You have the power to change what you hear;

  * You have the power to control what influences you;

Whatever empowers you, or disenfranchises you, is in your control.

Like an umbrella, protect yourself from getting soaked with negative opinions. Change the station to the one you want to listen to. Negative feelings stem from envy, resentment and dissatisfaction. They hinder our actions and are detrimental to us fulfilling our goals and dreams.

Stop trying to wrestle with negative thoughts. Simply let them go. Replace the negative thought with a positive one. Negative thoughts consume time and energy. Time and energy that would be better spent on positive thoughts.

Your mind can only hold one thought a time. Make it a good one...
The Importance of Feeling Important

By thinking yourself as an important person, it will elevate yourself above your perceived position and empower you to be more than what you thought you were.

What would an important person do?

It is strange how one's behavior changes when they cloth their minds with that of an important person. Their reactions change under to situations. Imagine you are faced with a crisis, how would you react to it? Panic, rush about, rant and rave. Now imagine how an important person would react.

They would remain cool, calm and collected and very much as Phileas Fogg would I imagine.

We have not trained ourselves to stay calm and collected. Nor trained ourselves to switch to that of an important person. You have seen important dignitaries on television and how reserved they are? Projecting a confidence with the eyes of the world are on them. Rash irrational behavior would destroy their reputations and expose them as being human.

Sometimes we are drawn into debates with colleagues and friends and tempers flare. But rather than throw fuel onto the fire and exchange heated verbal blows. We should say nothing.

The loudest thing you can say is Silence

Silence does not mean you are wrong. Expending energy on negative debate is a waste of your valuable time. People sometimes want to bait you, pull your strings. Silence is the loudest thing you can shout back at them. Again, what would an important person do? Would they lower themselves to unstructured debate? Or would they find an appropriate forum in which to have the exchange of ideas, _"Let me get to you on that."_

Staying silent also avoids you saying things you may regret saying. We all know that one person who tweets first and thinks (maybe) afterwards. Minimize the damage and the harm by listening and thinking first.

God gave us two ears and one tongue for a good reason.

Do not accept the judgment or opinions of average people. You are not average. People who tell you it cannot be done are almost always unsuccessful themselves. They have already quit before making an attempt. Their opinions poison and toxic to your wellbeing. The choice as to whether you take their opinions on board is always yours...
The Law of Attraction

Have you ever been thinking of someone and the phone rings?

Or you bump into them, or there is a knock at the door with them standing there. Have you ever been thinking of something unusual and later you see this. I have had several of these _coincidences_. To the point they had becoming more numerous. I began noting them down. They had gone past the point of being just a coincidence. _(God does not do coincidence.)_

Sometimes you would have an airy feeling of Deja-vu. That sensation that the current experience or event has already been experienced in the past. The rationalists will dismiss this as coincidence.

The non-rationalists, those who see beyond the veil of logic, know there are greater forces at work. That the power of the mind acts as a _magnet_ to attract what we think about. It is easy for the logical mind to dismiss this as nonsense. However the logical mind cannot rationalize these events. So it chooses to ignore them and not pretend they do not exist.

Yet they do exist.

It has been discovered there are forces greater than those that exist in our physical realm. I may lose some of you at this point and I do not blame you. As an abstract concept it is difficult to grasp and understand, let alone accept.

Research has been done across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including meta-physics, spiritual, philosophical and religious, all came to the same conclusions. You will attract what your mind thinks about. This ancient knowledge spans thousands of years. Yet today we still dismiss it as _coincidence_.

Like attracts like.

  * If you have is anger and resentment, then that is what you will probably get back.

  * If you have happiness, forgiveness and gratitude, then you will find others with these qualities attracted to you.

The world you create about you is generated by your thoughts.

If you can imagine it;

It can be so.

**Visualization** – Visualization is a way to attract things into your life and help shape the life you wish to live. By imagining or visualizing the thing you desire you send thoughts out into the universe, like a prayer, that will be answered.

Ask, and so you shall receive.

One may never know how or why it works. But it does work. If we fill our minds with positive thoughts and desires, we become more self-aware to them when they cross our path in the future. Prior to the sending out positive thoughts, we may not have been as receptive as they were not in the fore front of our minds / consciousness.

They have always been there. It is just that we are now more receptive to sensing them.

If you have a desire to be a deep sea diver, you will notice articles and things associated with this. Because you now have an interest in them. A keen interest. Whereas before your mind was asleep to this interest. You had no passion or desire for this. Just as you still overlook so many articles that hold little interest for you.

You mind will filter out what you want

And disregards the rest.

In the Imagination section that follows next you will read about how Ford and Marconi. Both stumbled on articles that interested them. Inspiring them to achieve greater visons. Imagine what would have happened if they had not seen the article that caught their curiosity.

Desires become Thoughts,

Thoughts become Reality.

If you want to re-shape your life, your world, your destiny, then start thinking about the desires you wish in your life. _Providence_ is a wonderful magical word to describe how the universe takes hold of your desires and steps in to have them cross your path.

It is up to you to see the road signs, and take the opportunities as they arise...
Imagination

_A man's intelligence;_

Should not be measure by his knowledge;

But by his imagination.

Albert Einstein

Imagination always precedes reality.

Richard Branson envisioned taking people into space. Space tourists. He is still a little unsure how he is going to do it, but he is working on it. He just knows it is going to happen. To him the goal so real, it is not a matter of _if_ , but _when_.

Such will be your goals. You have already visualized them in your mind, such that they are real. And that you have come back in time to tell people about it. Imagine if you could go back to your high school when you were a kid and telling everyone about the Smart phone? Or a flash drive and memory stick.

They would laugh at you, right? Truth be known, the children would relish the ideas. It would be the adults that would be laughing. Who is this crazy person? _"Security!"_

Children have amazing unbridled imaginations, contrary to their adult counterparts:

  * They do not judge.

  * They are without bias or prejudice.

  * They allow themselves to see things as they are, not as adults world see things.

  * They do not see racial or religious prejudices, they only see people as _people_.

  * They imagine going into space as easy as eating their cereal in the morning.

  * Their imaginations know no bounds.

I have a saying I tell others, _"You do not see what I see."_

But as adults, people lose this innocence:

  * Adults become biased and prejudiced by their peers, conforming to our community, our society. They become _tribal_ and maintain a _herd_ mentality _._

  * Adults lose their ability to day dream and see through former child eyes.

  * Adults become blinkered by laws, regulations, religion, mortgages, work, and family commitments.

We are only held back

_By our limited imaginations_.

Unknown
Synergy

1 + 1 = 3

Synergy is the power of partnership

The collective power of two minds is not double. It is exponential. Two minds have the power of four. Four minds have the powers of sixteen.

Two minds sitting around a kitchen table discussing an idea is better than just one. The power in numbers has been realized by many great names, like Ford, Nike, Google and Yahoo. It may have been an idea by one person initially, but that one person knew they needed other people to help them.

Many people are scared to share their ideas, not so much because of failure. Because others may think it's silly, or because someone might steal it the idea. But at some stage you will need to share your idea if you wish to progress further. There are three fundamental types of people involved:

  * **Product People** \- I am a Product person. Unashamedly so. I do not have the passion for Finance, nor Marketing. Yes I am accountant, but I have no passion for it. My heart and soul is in the product. I am a concept person. I know that. I accept that. But I also know that I need two other people if I want my products to get off the ground. The product person, loves the product, they think eat, sleep and dream concepts. Visualizing objects in his mind.

  * **Finance People** \- Finance people are only interested in the money side, and does the project make money.

  * **Marketing People** \- Marketing people are not interested in the product or the money, they are interested in what people need.

Allow each their specialty. Their space. Combined, the resultant energy is exponential.

Use the power of synergy to drive your goal.

  * If it is to lose weight, speak to a person trainer for best results.

  * If it to quit smoking, seek out others or look for support on line.

When we consult and talk to other people we become a little wiser. Find out what knowledge/elements are missing in your goal that could be filled by someone who has that knowledge. Seek those people out and take them along on your journey. They have a vested interest in you completing the journey.

E = m.c2

Effort = Motivation x Capacity for Change...
Meditation

Prayer is when you talk to God.

Meditation is when you are listening.

Mediation is a personal. It is a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness in itself. It requires no one else to participate. Just you.

Unless you have practiced it, you may feel it is no more than _hocus-pocus_. But there are many notated benefits people have ascribed to Meditation:

  * Induces a peace and calmness;

  * A place to re-center oneself;

  * A place to clear the mind;

  * Alleviates stress and anxiety;

  * To unplug from a world full of distractions and constant movement;

  * A place to give thanks for the blessings and abundance about you.

Our daily mental energy is like a fuel tank, it can run low to empty such that you cannot move forward until it is topped up. Meditation allows us to refuel and recharge our batteries as it were.

Someone once described meditation as being like a Janitor cleaning up the rubbish that lays scattered around your office. The office being your mind in this case. Disorganized and cluttered thoughts and data that you haven't had time to file away properly.

While you _quiet the mind_ through meditation, you stop thinking. _Silence_. Your mind stands perfectly still. The Janitor goes about clearing away of all the files and pages of your thoughts into their respective filing cabinets.

Imagine going to working in a messy disorganized office. Paper all over the floor and desks. Not knowing where to find the file you were after. Such is the benefit of meditation. The file is in the filing cabinet for quick easy access.

You start to see thing more clearly. Literary.

Funny story: _I recall once looking out a window of the office one day from my desk after practicing medication for a several months. And it was as though someone had wiped the mist from the window. I saw things I had never noticed before. Birds and power lines. Details previously lost in the blur of visual clutter. Then I realized something. Why was I doing this job? I hated it. Long hours for little thanks. Away from my family. I resigned that day. It was as though I had had an epiphany. It was wonderful. I recall that day so clearly. And that was over thirty years ago._

  * Meditation requires no religious belief. Meditation is simply an applied wisdom that allows people to turn inwards to escape the busy world outside. And to find an inner peace.

Life may seem like a merry go round at most times, the external world passing by in a blur. Meditation slows the merry-go-round to eventually stop. By allowing your mind to achieve a state of stillness you begin to see things as they are, not as others wish you to see them.

  * Medication allows one to reprogram themselves with self-suggestions. This is a very powerful tool at accessing the subconscious, the engine room for much of our self-beliefs in our daily lives.

  * Meditation blocks out the external static that clutter our thoughts. And allows the message of self-belief to be accepted as the truth.

  * Meditation comes in many forms and styles. Some people such as Tibetan Monks and Indian Yogi go to great lengths to find profound "enlightenment". But here, I will simply give you an introductory lesson in finding a stillness of the mind.

The great thing about meditation, is that it can be done anywhere, anytime. It can be done first thing in the morning, in the middle of the day, and even before you go to bed at night. It can be done in your office, at home, in an open field. Even sitting on a rock if rocks are your _thing_.

Do not expect amazing things to happen all at once. You cannot expect a polished shine on the first buffing right? Wax-on wax-off. We all have busy hectic lives. We are perpetually thinking about worrying thoughts. Family and jobs and money and bills. So it can be difficult to learn to switch these thoughts off easily.

It will take some time to gain control to quiet the mind. Just as a doctor can only see one patient at a time and that a janitor can only clean one office at a time, so _your mind can only hold one thought at a time._

One simple way to quieten a thought is to write them down so you do not have to remember them. You can return to them after the meditation, if you remember.

The Meditation Process

Imagine exercising twenty minutes a day without a thought in your mind.

Imagine the janitors of your mind being thankful for those twenty one to be able to do their job and file all the memories and thoughts away.

Like parent picking up after a child. Your subconscious needs to pick up after you. Isn't it nice to return to a clean room? Where you can find everything. Now you are ready to face the hectic clatter and chaos your daily lives throw at you.

Let us begin with a simple method I use to attain a state of meditation. At worse you will enjoy a good rest. At best, you will enjoy a wonderful new experience that will change your life forever. It will take practice, discipline, and patience, but over time it will become a habit.

First, I need you to understand the difference between tense and being relaxed.

I want you to clench your fist, breathing in, hold it for a few moments. Feel the tension in your hand, arm, body and mind. You feel tense, tight. Now release your clenched fist, and exhaling as you do so. You can feel the tension dissipate and the incredible sense of relaxation flood your hand, body and mind.

That's being relaxed.

  * **Sit relaxed** in dim / dark room or space; (Why dim or dark? Light serves as a primal waking function for humans. Eye lids permeate sunlight, making it difficult to relax);

  * **Close your eyes**. It is not about trying to sleep. It is simply a state of relaxation;

  * **Relax your muscles**. Exhale and release all the tension in your body, for your toes to your nose. (Clench them and release. Feel the difference.);

  * **Focus on the sound of your breathing** ;

  * **Let your mind go blank**. Visualize nothing. Think no thoughts. Simply listen to the sound of your breathing. _By doing so, you are holding only one thought. The sound of your breathing_ ;

  * **Breathing.** Breathe passively in through the nose. Hold it in for a moment or two. Then breathe passively out through the mouth. Listening to the sound as you do this. Anytime you start to have a thought, focus back on the sound of your breathing. Breathe in through your nose expanding the chest. Somehow it feels fuller and more passive than if we try to breathe through our mouth. Then exhale through the mouth. Slowly release as though letting down a tire. The overall effect will be soothing and relaxing. I imagine expelling the negative and any illness from my body. Breathe in the good, breathe out the bad;

Because your mind can only hold one thought at a time I want you to concentrate on listening to your breathing. This should eliminate any internal chatter. Allow images to freely come and go. Do not try to hold onto them. If an intruding thought passes by, bring your thought back to your breathing to erase the thought.

  * **Continue for a period of about twenty minutes.** Or a time you feel comfortable. The purpose of meditation is to become deeply relaxed and to lower your brainwaves down to Alpha or Theta levels (discussed soon). It will require no effort on your part other than to allow yourself to slip deeper into the void of your subconscious.

  * **Finishing up**. Once you have decided it is time to ascend back to the conscious world, do not open your eyes suddenly. Wait a moment for your awareness to return to you. Your mental operating system had been shut down, it's time to reboot and have functional thoughts return to your mind. Slowly move your body muscles, wiggling the toes, your legs, your fingers and hands and arms and body. Feeling the sensation come back again. Count to five slowly and allow your senses to be prepared for the world around it.

  * **Slowly open your eyes.** As if waking from a snooze.

  * **Take a few moments to gather yourself.** And your surroundings. Take a few deep breaths and stand up and move about.

Although the benefits are not immediately transparent, you will sense a certain awareness and clarity you felt was missing before. As if the "fog" is slowly lifting. In time you will sense a change in the clarity of your thinking. You will feel more grounded, more confident because the tension valve been released. If you feel better about yourself, you will feel better about other people.

Meditation consumes up to twenty minutes each day, but this is small price to pay for enabling the janitor of your mind to clear away the clutter and provide insight to unsolved problems in our lives.

It can be done at any time of day. Whatever time fits into your life style. The more you meditate, the more it becomes a habit. And like any habit, it becomes addictive, and that's got to be a good thing right?

Think of the subconscious as the powerhouse behind the conscious mind, capable of having compounded thoughts. The conscious mind being the projection screen of a single thought.

Project a good one...
Four Brainwave States

Despite being able to land a man on the moon, the brain is still a mystery as to how it functions.

What we do know is that brain is that it made up of zillions upon gazillions of brain cells called neurons. These neurons communicate with each other using electricity and have a cyclical frequency known as _brainwaves_.

The brain has four basic states:

**BETA STATE –** Basically your waking state, in which your mind is busy problem solving, reading books, and attending to daily tasks. Right now, unless you've fallen asleep, you are in a beta state. While in the Beta state the left brain hemisphere is more dominant. The logical side. Solving complex problems and highly creative thinking.

People who are generally stressed tend to have a high/overactive Beta state. This can lead to long term problems. When you are stressed, the body releases hormones to counteract the stress. One way of escape a high beta state is to coerce it to a lower state by way of _meditation_.

**ALPHA STATE –** While in this state the brain releases _endorphins_ that counter the effects of the stress hormones. Endorphins are your body's natural pain killers and induces relaxation giving rise to tranquility, creativity, enhanced focus, and an inner peace. In this state one can experience:

  * Reduces stress.

  * Provides relaxation.

  * Enhances creativity.

  * Enhances learning.

  * Enhances performance.

While in the Alpha state the creative right brain hemisphere begins to play a more active role in problem solving. The left brain hemisphere becomes less dominant. When a balance is reached between the two hemispheres, this is called _whole brain_ thinking that leads to enhanced learning. The power of logic and creative thinking simultaneously.

**THETA STATE -** This slower brainwave state is where deep meditation and REM (dreaming) occur. Like being in a dream state, although the automatic functions of the body continue, you are not aware of your body. And your emotional state is one of euphoria and bliss. The right brain hemisphere becomes more dominant. In this state one can experience:

  * A profound insight.

  * An intuition.

  * A Spiritual connection.

  * Creativity.

  * A one-ness.

Interesting to note, small children spend a lot of their waking hours in a Theta state, where imagination is just as real as _reality_. With the logical left hemisphere out of commission and unable to censor your imagination, the Theta state allows:

  * An uninhibited imagination.

  * An uninhibited creativity.

  * An uninhibited intuition.

**DELTA STATE –** Deep mediation can induce the Delta state. This is where the body is able to rest completely, and repair itself. Little is known about what happens in the brain during Delta, much as we know little about dreams. But it is believed that the Delta state is connected to the bodies self-healing mechanisms.

I once heard a story about a young boy who had cancer and he imagined storm troopers inside of him, shooting at the cancer. Breaking it down. Destroying it. The story goes that the young boy's cancer strangely disappeared. There are other stories of self-healing you may have heard yourself. The young boy had the belief the lasers were really destroying his cancer, to the point that his body believed it too.

TO SUMMARIZE

Meditation achieves several things:

  * It quiets the mind and allows your mind to do some housekeeping of the clutter within it;

  * It relaxes the body and mind;

  * It allows you to connect with something higher than ourselves, our Higher Self. (We are but a shell compared to the yolk of the Higher Self that resides inside us.);

  * It allows you to send ripples out into the universe;

  * It helps _re-program_ the subconscious mind.

  * It allows you to make requests of the Higher Self;

I will say it again here, Mediation is a personal thing. It will be a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness. I know people who are more advanced than myself. But what I practice works for me. And strangely enough, miracles happen and things that I need to happen, happen. I have become a more patient person because of the mediation.

And I get to ask God for all sorts of things. How cool is that?

Mind Power

_What you think, You become;_

What you feel, You attract

What you imagine, You create.

Buddha

Buddha knew this twenty-five hundred years ago. And yet man has still to adopt that universal wisdom.

_The Power of the Mind_ is a book in itself and there are many renowned advocates of this subject better than myself. Many people have difficulty accepting this theorem. I would encourage that you to read this section, if only to gain a synopsis of subject.

One need only look to the power of _hypnosis_ to gain an appreciate _mind over matter_.

We've all seen the documentaries and television shows. There is no doubting their authenticity. Exponents such as Tony Robbins has had people walking on hot coals to demonstrate the reality of it. Until we have seen mind power in action, we can only have faith.

Hypnotism is now accepted as a practical tool for overcoming fears and the like. An experiment was conducted involving three similar sized men. Each were asked to grip a device to measure how hard they could grip it. They all measure around the hundred point mark. Taking that as their standard grip strength, they were then hypnotized and told they were weak, then asked to grip the device as hard as they could. This was measure to be around the fifty point mark. They were then told they were strong, and asked to re-grip the device. This time they measured about the one hundred and fifty point mark. How could it be possible, that these similar three mean could allow themselves to grip only fifty percent of their original strength, and then later, more surprisingly, grip fifty percent more than they could when they were not hypnotized?

Such is the power of the mind, to create energy where there was none before. Not only _adding strength_ , but _taking strength away_.

Could we, in our daily lives, be limiting ourselves to use only part of our available energy? If our expectations is only to get by, then what reserve of energy could be released? But if choose to excel through positive suggestion, can we untapped more energy?

Your mind governs how you feel.

It is up to you to train your brain. Like any muscle it needs to be exercised to be conditioned. Over our life time it has had active and passive workouts from what we experience. Conditioned to our exposure to experiences.

For example, we see the world as an upside down projection on the retina of our eyes. Over time our minds have had to flip it over for us to see it as we do. The very things we see in life have already been manipulated by the mind.

Your mind is the power house to all this. It controls what you think. And what you think, is what you will become. Self-talk and self-thought drive your actions and emotions. Control your mind ( _subconscious_ ) and you control your world.

Your subconscious houses the _software_ (programs) that controls your beliefs and habits. This software has been built up over years of observation. Inputs from experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly. Conditional behavior algorithms perpetually run beneath the surface of the conscious mind. Guarding us, such that we react _instinctively_ to events around us.

There are ways to get past the guards that protect the subconscious and we will discuss this under the _section Self-Suggestion_.

There will be small exercises for you to complete if you choose to. I suggest you do, if only to have you write something down and onto paper. To rattle your mind. You get you thinking. _Any new thought is a good thought_ , and a start to challenging your status quo.

I want a new rodent on the wheel in your head. The old rodent keep doing the same thing and kept getting the same result. We want a different result! Time for a new rodent.

New opportunities will open up. Of course you will feel afraid. You will feel excited. Welcome to the edge of life. You will become a pioneer of your own life and the potential that it holds.

What lies behind, and lies ahead of you, is nothing compared to what lies inside you. Such is the potential you have housed in you, and yet many of us dismiss this potential as belonging to someone else.

Ralph Emmerson

  * Your mind moves in the direction of your dominant thoughts.

  * Dominant your mind with your goal. And your mind will move towards attaining those goal.

Self-Suggestion

Here we will cover the power of self-suggestion. (Also referred to as _auto-suggestion_.)

Self-Suggestion is a psychological technique and a form of self-hypnosis whereby a person consciously or unconsciously attempts to influence their own behavior or beliefs by the _repetition of positive mantras/suggestions_ to themselves. To the extent that they come to believe it as being true.

HISTORY - In 1885, _Couéism_ was developed by Dr Émile Coué, a Frenchman and apothecary (an early form of pharmacist). Coué still believed in the use of medication, but he also believed that the mental state was able to affect and amplify the benefits of the medications. He observed a positive effect when his patients used his mantra-like conscious suggestion:

"Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."

UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE

The underlying principle behind Self-Suggestion is that any idea or thought, either positive or negative in nature, that occupies the mind will turns into reality. So long as it is in the realm of possibility, e.g. a person without hands will not be able to make them grow back. But a person with asthma may believe it is disappearing. Similarly negative suggestions will encourage both mind and body to accept this thought.

One _must not pass personal judgement_ thereby countering the effectiveness of the positive suggestion. They simply must _believe and consciously accept_ it will work. They must put aside any thoughts of self-doubt and create the opposite effect.

Children are more perceptible to autosuggestion. A simple exercise such as instructing a child to _clasp your hands_ and then tell them _'you cannot pull them apart'_ , the child would immediately believe the instructions and would be unable to unclasp their hands.

AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS

They say life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. Those reactions are a reflex to your built in programming. Over the years your subconscious mind has been gathering, compiling and filing away all experiences encountered. Stimuli.

Automatic thoughts are thoughts that come to mind involuntarily and effortlessly as a response to certain stimuli. The average person processes over _sixty thousand_ automatic thoughts per day, most of these occur subconsciously and execute without the involvement of our conscious mind. Like _micro programs or sub-routines_ in our subconscious minds, they become executed as a response to stimuli in our environment.

Because these automatic thoughts determine your attitudes and behavior and reactions they are considered to ultimately responsible for whether you fail or succeed. It becomes a circular argument and one that entrenches itself deeper into your subconscious. And because all this happens subconsciously we have very little control over the execution of these automatic thought micro-programs. Or so we thought. To overcome the negative automatic thoughts we need to _identify the stimuli that trigger_ these thoughts, attitudes and behaviors.

One must actively change these thought patterns and introduce cognitive (thought) patterns that trigger positive outcomes. Basically this means one must change the way one behaves to certain stimuli. But if the _conscious mind_ tries to make a behavioral change that clashes with the _subconscious mind's_ pre-programmed thought patterns, _the subconscious mind always wins_.

Subconscious mind > Conscious mind

Dr Emile Coue in his book _Self Mastery through Conscious Autosuggestion_ wrote:

In the conflict between the Will and the Subconscious Mind, the force of the subconscious mind is in direct ratio to the square of the Will.

So, unless you change the subconscious automatic thoughts, you will have much difficulty changing your will, or conscious thoughts. Negative behaviors persist despite the full positive consciousness of their ways. For example:

  * Despite knowing that smoking can damage their health, people continue to smoke.

  * People know that eating excessively is also bad for their well-being, and yet they continue to eat more than they should.

Basically in computer terms and you have to _erase_ the old negative automatic thought program and re-install a new positive one that encourages successful behavior. The way one does this is through the _power of auto-suggestion._

Auto-suggestion utilizes:

  * Positive thinking;

  * Increased Self-confidence;

  * Positive affirmations;

  * Changing one's self-belief system.

  * Adopt positive thought patterns.

Unsuccessful people have limiting automatic thoughts that are triggered by a deeply rooted negative belief system and thought patterns.

Conversely, successful people attribute their success to a distinct set of positive thought patterns in their belief system...

Providence

_The moment one commits oneself, heart and soul, the Providence (wisdom and foresight) also begins. Things begin to happen that would never have happened before. Events stream from the decision to commit, creating all sorts of favorable incidents and meetings and material assistance._

W.N Murray (Himalayan Explorer)

When _things_ happen without our efforts, such is Providence taking charge.

As if a giant wheel of the universe is beginning to turn and cogs are engage. The mind has the power to send messages out into the universal ether and quite often they are answered. Remember, if you don't ask don't expect them to be answered.

The old biblical adage: _Ask, and you shall receive_

One cannot explain this mysterious phenomenon, but many have experienced it. I suspect it is because _we begin to notice things more_ once we begin working own our goals. Things that were always there, but did not arouse our curiosity or catch our interest until now.

While I was in the process of developing _FOSN_ , food-tech articles in magazines would begin to catch my eye. Arousing my curiosity and encouraging me to investigate further.

Once the wheels of your goal start turning, cogs connect behind the scenes. You speak to one person and they speak to someone interested that initiates an activity that then leads to further progress. All outside your direct control. While you work diligently away at the coal face. Wheels turn in the back ground.

But as WN Murray also states:

" _It is only when one commits heart and soul, creating a stream of favorable incidents, meetings and material assistance. It is as if the Universe has stepped up and accepted to be your partner in your goal."_

_._

Give yourself Permission

Every person you meet knows something you do not;

Learn from them.

Accept that mistakes happen. Learn from them, and move on. Mistakes are no more than failures right? And what have we learnt about failures? They are the grease of the world and they are mother of success.

If you keep making mistakes, that's a good thing. You're on the right path!

I would rather you make a mistake than make nothing at all. It means you are doing something about your goal. Persistence and determination in the face of adversity will turn the most stubborn of locks.

Giving yourself permission to make mistakes is empowering. It means you have control of your actions. Remember, you're not perfect, you're only human.

Also, it is okay to change your mind.

Mother Teresa was questioned as to why she had changed her view on something she had commented on months earlier. She simply said she had changed her mind because _she did not know then what she knew now_.

As individuals we grow through our ever changing circumstances and encountered experiences. Tomorrow we may hold a differing view to what hold today.

Give yourself permission:

  * To make mistakes;

  * To change your mind.

Luck

_There is no such thing as Luck;_

Everything comes through the application of Effort.

Have you ever noticed how some people seem to have a more luck than others? They seem to be at the right place at the right time. The truth is that it is not about luck. Most of these _lucky_ people _looked for opportunities_ , and because their minds are more _respective_ , they find them.

Even a miracle requires a prayer.

We dismiss other people's successes as, _oh they were lucky_. But if you examine their circumstances (as you will in the next section, _The Rest is History_ ), you discover what they have sacrificed to be who they are now. Time and energy for one. This book did not write itself. I have to invest time and energy into every line. An athelete trains for hours every day. A concert pianist practices for hours and days on end. They sacrificed friends and family and even a childhood to perform for those few hours on stage.

Remember, if you do nothing, that is what you get, nothing.

The more I practice,

The luckier I get.

Golfing Legend Gary Player

So next time you see someone successful, think about the sacrifice they have made to get to what they have. Success is a conquest, not a bequest.

When I thought I couldn't go on,

I forced myself to keep going.

My success is based on persistence, not luck.

Estee Lauder

And the Rest is History

_Be not afraid of Greatness._

Some are born Great.

Some achieve Greatness.

And some have Greatness trust upon them.

William Shakespeare

We often hold successful people up as pearls, as if they always were. But as we all know, pearls begin as a piece of grit. It has taken many years for it to become what it is.

What is the piece of grit that resides inside us, waiting to become a pearl? By peeling back the layers upon layers, we discover that we have the same piece of grit inside all of us.

Some of the greatest names in the world were born in small rural communities. Many were born in hard times. A far cry from the modern age we find ourselves with comforts and conveniences. What we call hard times today, would be seen as luxury by past standards.

We hold these people up as beacons to illuminate our own path. Drawing courage and strength from their journey.

Often we tell ourselves:

If they can do it, then so can I.

_If they did not give up, then neither will I_.

I find it fascinating to look behind the _veil_ of people we hold as being successful. We tend to focus on the end result, overlooking the years of toil, hardships and failures that got them to where they are. Many had little if any formal education. Major events shaped their lives: wars, duels, debts, poverty and accidents. Events that coerced and shaped their destiny. Through their determination they overcame adversity.

Many did not seek fame or glory, but had it thrust it upon them.

Let us examine the lives of several famous pearls who grew from the grit of their desires...

Abraham Lincoln

" _The best way to predict the future,_

Is to create the future."

Abe was born in 1809, in a Kentucky backwoods cabin to small farmers. Clothes were cut from animal skins his father shot. Schooling was a rare event. The Cumberland Trial, from Louisville to Nashville passed his door, and young Abe watched in fascination as covered wagons of pioneers and slaves headed North West. At the age of ten he lost his mother to disease. His father's new wife soon saw all the children went to school. Renowned as for playing the clown, young Abe often mimicked preachers and itinerant statesmen. A sense of humor he would carry into his adult life.

By 1830 he had seen a variety of jobs. He had seen slavery first hand while delivering cargo by riverboat to New Orleans, and later as a storekeeper. Becoming involved in politics as a clerk of local elections. Entering politics himself in 1832, but was defeated. In 1834 he tried again and was elected top of the poll. In his spare time he studied law and entered into a successful law practice.

In 1846, his wife Mary Todd encouraged Abe to stand as Congressman. He was elected and the Lincolns moved from Springfield to Washington to take his seat. His riverboat years had raised the stigma of slavery in him. He was now in a position to do something about it.

His Bill to abolish slavery in the tiny District of Columbia was flatly rejected. He returned to Springfield having lost all interest in politics, and buckled down to his law practice and was soon becoming a renowned on the Illinois circuit.

In 1860, with the Democrats were split on the question of slavery. The newly formed Republican Party had a good chance of winning and nominated Abe as their candidate for President. Surprised by the nomination Abe grabbed it with both hands. The scene was set for the American Civil War.

And for one of America's greatest Presidents was about to raise from the ashes.

And as they say, the Rest is History.

Abe Lincoln was a unique man in American history. Without much of a formal education he became one of the greatest orators and statesman of our time.

Charles Dickens

A self-made man from the blacking factory.

Born in 1812, Charles Dickens, never knew a moment in his life where he was not painfully aware of his family's money problems. His father would borrow money from anyone rash enough to lend, soon found himself in debtors' prison. Charles and his sister were sent to work in a blacking factory at a young age to repay his father's debt of forty pounds.

At the age of twenty, he joined the staff of an evening newspaper and achieved his ambition of becoming a reporter in the House of Commons. Also being sent to various part of the country to cover political speeches. His chatty columns were received enthusiastically and with an increased salary and he found himself again paying off more his father's debts.

His interest in descriptive writing had been aroused and wrote under the pen name _Boz_. His reputation spread and Dickens decided to become a full time writer.

And as they say, the rest is history.

He went on to write great books such as Pickwick, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, David Copperfield, A Tales of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. He wrote from experience, as all writers do. Awoken by through hardships he had experienced. However, as a prodigious writer he burnt the candle at both ends. Dying of ill health at the age of fifty eight.

It was through his widely distributed heart felt stories he brought about an awareness of social and political reforms. That would eventually give rise to better schooling, hospitals and see the end to imprisonment for debt.

Alfred Nobel

" _I intend to leave a fund for the promotion of peace,_

But I am skeptical as to its results."

Could there be more of a contradiction. His ambition world peace. His munitions business selling the merchandise of death.

Today his reputation rests not on his inventiveness, but the international awards that bear his name. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1833, his early life was a struggle. Sickly and weak, surviving because of a caring mother. His bankrupt father left for Russia and returned wealthy after the Crimean War brought orders pouring into his father's munitions factories. After the war with orders dwindling, his father was bankrupt again.

Alfred and his brothers went into business for themselves and started experimenting with a newly liquid discovered in 1847, called " _nitro-glycerin_ ". Despite the accidental death of his brother, Alfred set to work to devise a safer mixture, to solidify it.

And as providence would have it, the solution came about by accident.

Shipment of nitro glycerin is usually packed in sawdust, but one particular ship was packed with a clay prevalent in northern Germany, called "kieselguhr" (diatomite). A can had leaked and soaked into the clay. Nobel tested it and discovered that the substance maintained its explosiveness, while being safer to handle. He was granted a patent.

And as they say, the rest is history, well almost ...

Discovering dynamite may have establish Nobel's empire and wealth. But the Nobel prizes came about because of an influential woman, _Bertha von Sutter_ for inspiring them. Bertha was a novelist and Austrian Chairperson of the Third Peace Congress and it was she who convinced Nobel to attend the Fourth Congress in Berne, which he did incognito.

In 1893 he wrote to her proposing _..." the formation of a prize fund to be distributed every five years..." ... "...awarded to the man or woman who had done the most to advance the general idea of peace in Europe" ..._

Now, the rest can be history.

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

" _I came into the world with Halley's Comet,_

And I reckon I'll go out with it."

And so it was to be. Samuel Clemens was born in a small village in Missouri in 1835. At the age of four the family moved to Hannibal on the banks of the Missouri. It was there that he meet the characters and enjoyed the misadventures that he would later write about. Though his education was limited and his life tough, he still held a sense of humor.

He was twelve when his father died. After that he was sent out to work as a printer's apprentice. Using whatever savings for travel, he found it difficult to settle, moving from one printing job and city to another. When not trying his hand at gold prospecting, he would write articles for a local paper. The articles attracted considerable attention and he was soon offered a job as a reporter reporting the debates of the Territorial Legislature.

Being penniless at the time, he had walked the seventy miles in four days to a job in Virginia City. His articles attracted more attention and it was suggested he should use a pen name. An old writing acquaintance of his had just died and who had written under the pen name, " _Mark Twain_ ". Samuel like it so much, he decided to adopt it.

Samuel got involved in a dispute with an editor that cumulated into a duel. Although no shots were fired, they were considered illegal and he had to flee the state with a _warrant for his arrest_. Heading to California he got a job as a correspondent on an expedition to Hawaii. Twain was so impressed with this trip, on his return gave a series of lectures about it and making considerable amount of money in the process. Enough to support his travels to Europe and write a travel log entitled _Innocents Abroad_.

Relocating himself to Hartford in 1872, his neighbor, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ , inspired him to devote himself as a writer. And so began the books _Roughing It_ , _The Gilded Age_ , _Tom Sayer_ and _Huckleberry Finn._ All the while maintaining his sense of humor.

And as they say, the rest is history.

A boy from the back waters of the Missouri river, Samuel had itchy feet to travel, and with a recycled pen name he crafted a living from telling the stories of his childhood adventures.

Thomas Edison

" _When you have exhausted all possibilities,_

Remember this: You haven't."

Born Thomas Alva Edison in 1847 in Milan, Ohio. After Edison failed dismally at school much of his education was self-taught. By age of twelve young Thomas had decided he would be an inventor.

Inventor's needed money for their experiments, and he got a job. The local railway company allowed him to sell sweets and papers. Allowing him to convert a baggage car into a laboratory, devoted his spare time to studying chemistry and physics. Once however, an experiment with phosphorous set the baggage car on fire, and Edison, and his lab, were thrown off at the next stop.

Soon after the disaster, he saved the Stationmaster's son from being run over by a train. This opened an opportunity for a job as a telegraph man. Clever, or cunning, as young Thomas was, he set up a device that would automatically send the letter ' _A'_ every hour to prove that he was awake. This came unstuck when the chief operator found Thomas asleep. He was out of a job again.

For months Thomas became a _vagabond_. Untidy, looking like a scarecrow. Twenty two and penniless, opportunely would knock again when a friend had arranged for him to sleep in the cellar of a company that ran the ticker-tape machine for NY stockbrokers. As fate would have it, the machine broke down and amid the chaos and confusion, Thomas offered his services to fix it.

Within minutes the system was operating again and the grateful management made Thomas foreman on the spot. With a salary of three hundred dollars per month. Thomas was rich. A year later he resigned, having saved enough for a workshop to manufacture ticker tape machines. Devoting his spare time to experimenting on new inventions.

And as they say, the rest is history.

He relocated to Menlo Park, New Jersey, where most of his major discoveries were made. While on a train in 1885 crossing the country, he watched the vista roll pass outside the window. This gave him the idea of moving pictures. Edison calculated he failed fourteen hundred times for every success he had.

He carried on failing his entire life...

Henry Ford

" _Whether you think you can;_

Or think you cannot; You're probably right."

Born in July 1863. It was the year of Gettysburg, and the fate of the Civil War was still in the balance. Starting school at the age of eight, and doing a man sized job on the farm by the age of twelve. Ford was fascinated with steam engines, gaining considerable through hands on experience. When his mother died when he was thirteen, he was sent to work in Detroit. It was there he read an article about Doctor Nicolaus Otto's _internal combustion engine_.

In 1891, Ford climbed aboard a hay wagon and headed east to start work at as a steam engineer with the Edison Company in Detroit. Within a year he was chief engineer and was making a hundred dollars a month. Enough to move to a bigger house with a shed out the back to experiment.

It was after a visit to the World Trade Fair in Chicago in 1893 where he witnessed small petrol engines pumping water, and thoughts turned to a _horseless carriage_.

His first engine was made from a piece of one inch gas pipe. He then went about making a two cylinder model. Adapting this to a bicycle it proved too powerful. And so adapted it to a four wheel carriage. Building it in a back shed from scrap metal and parts. Bicycle seats and wheels. There was no reverse, there was no brakes. In May 1896, the first ever "Tin Lizzie" made its appearance on the streets of a city that would become the motor car capital of the world. Detroit.

With investment from several prominent Detroit businesses the _Cadillac Automobile Company_ was born. _(Yes, you read it right)._ Continual production delays and friction with stockholders caused Ford to sell out and formed the _Ford Motor Company_ in June 1903. He was only forty years old.

And as they say, the rest is history.

By 1927 over fifteen million Model T's had been made. He says he never invented anything new. Not invent the petrol engine, nor the assembly line. He simply improved upon what came before. His dream was to make a _horseless carriage_. One which the common man could afford. Leaving behind the world's largest charitable Trusts, the Ford Foundation, dedicated to the welfare of all mankind.

Guglielmo Marconi

" _La calma della mia via ebba allora fine."_

(The calm of my life ended at this moment.)

Born to Italian nobility in Bologna, April 1874 to an aristocratic landowner. His Irish mother the granddaughter of John Jameson, the founder of whiskey distillers, Jameson & Sons. By the age of ten he had developed an interest in electricity. At the age of fifteen he had read an article by the German physicist _Heinrich Hertz_ of a discovery whereby a spark would generate energy waves. W _aves in ether_. With the help of his elder brother Alfonso, he began to experiment with creating his own transmitter.

He found he could defect a compass needle by creating a spark. The compass was soon replaced by a bell. Sending the letter "S" in Morse code, three dots across ever growing distances. Despite his father's original skepticism in his son's _childish experiments,_ even he started to see the potential of discovery. Marconi was only twenty one.

The Italian Post and Telegraph showed little interest in his device and so Marconi headed to England, the then greatest maritime nation in the world. Upon his arrival, British Customs officials thought his apparatus was a weapon and damaged it extensively. It would take Marconi another year to rebuild it and was granted a Patent. No. 12039.

In 1897 the first message was sent across the Bristol Channel. It would now only be a question of developing it on a commercial scale, and over even greater distances.

And as they say, the rest is history.

In 1909 Marconi received a Nobel Prize. By 1919, using the curvature of the earth and the electrified layers of the earth's upper atmosphere, he was able bounce a short wave beam around the entire earth.

Marconi died in 1937. And for two brief minutes the silence Marconi had broken forty two years before returned. On that day the air fell silent all over the world wireless stations went off the air.

And the BBC stopped broadcasting.

Charlie Chaplin

" _Failure is unimportant._

It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."

Born in London, April 1889, to music hall artistes. Charles Spencer Chaplin was taught to sing and dance before he could walk. His father's drinking problems and his mother's illness, soon had Charlie in an orphanage. Straight from the pages of Dickens, at the age of 10 he would become a street urchin. Later to be portrayed and preserved in the 1921 film "The Kid".

Chaplin soon found his way back to the stage, progressing from music halls to theatrical drama. Offered a chance to join the Fred Karno Company, of which his brother Sid was already a member. The troupe toured America and at the end of the tour, Chaplin at the age of twenty three, decided to head to California, and get into _movies_.

The emerging movie industry was in chaos as new companies sprang up to meet the growing demand. Keystone Studios, famous for the _Keystone Cops_ , the helmeted incompetents who never got their man, offered Chaplin a contract.

It was there he came upon the costume that would make him famous by accident. Many of the Keystone actors thought little of Chaplin, some jealous, many contemptuous. Chaplin was forced to share the dressing room with two very large, but friendly comedians.

He decided to put together a funny costume from his fellow larger comedians. Donning the oversized pants, shoes, tight fitting coat, and small bowler hat. Finished off with his signature toothbrush moustache and bamboo cane.

To save expenses on _extras_ , Keystone studios would film at public events. One day they were filming at a children's' auto-race. Chaplin made an impromptu appearance, and dashed onto the race track creating havoc. With the Keystone Cops and Cameramen in hot pursuit after him. Establishing his comic reputation. For the next twenty five years he wore the same improvised costume and make up.

And as they say, the rest is history.

_City Lights_ was Chaplin's greatest film. With a closing scene considered to be the most moving ever screened. Despite having to compete with the new _Talkies_. The silent movie was a huge success. On the surface Chaplin was a comic actor. But his quotes would suggest he had a more philosophical and sensitive personality...

  * " _Life is a Tragedy when seen in close up, but a Comedy when seen in long shot."_

  * " _The mirror is my best friend, it never laughs when I cry."_

  * " _You only need Power when you need to do something Harmful;_

Otherwise Love is enough to get things done."

Incidentally, Chaplin once lost a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

Bill Gates

" _I choose a lazy person to do a hard job._

Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."

Born in Seattle 1955, to a middle class family. His father a prominent lawyer and his mother serving on serval boards of directors. He was encouraged to be competitive and was expected to become a lawyer. Gates was a voracious reader as a child, spending hours reading encyclopedias.

At the age of thirteen, while attending an exclusive elementary school, Gates took an interest in programming and wrote his first program of _Tic-Tac-Toe_. It was at this school that he first met Paul Allen, a co-founder of the future Microsoft. But he and Allen were soon banned from using the computer system after trying to access free computer time by exploiting the bugs. Only to be called back to help resolve the bugs. Gates took the opportunity to study source computers languages, and was hired by the company to write a payroll application.

He left high school with an SAT of 1590 / 1600 enrolling at Harvard originally set on studying law, only to spend much of his time in the computer lab. In 1975 an article in _Popular Electronics_ about the _Altair 8800 mini computer_ based on the _Intel 808 CPU_ fascinated Gates/Allen. They saw this as an opportunity to start their own computer company. Dropping out of Harvard they founded _Microsoft_ to write business computer applications.

They say Opportunity doesn't knock twice. It did with Bill Gates.

In 1980 IBM was looking for an operating system. They approached Gates, and he referred them to another firm specializing in operating systems. But IBM and the other firm could not agree on the licensing, so IBM re-approached Gates. After adapting another operating system for the PC, he delivered it to IBM for a one-time fee of fifty thousand dollars. Gates _retained the copyright_ , and making Microsoft a major player in the industry.

And as they say, the rest is history.

Now predominantly involved in managing his charitable foundation and philanthropy, focusing on tackling the global problems ignored by governments and other world organizations. The geeky kid who caught the computer bug, saw the value of having a copyright. And when opportunity knocked twice, he opened the door very wide.

Tony Robbins

" _Action is the most important key._

To any success."

Born in 1960 in North Hollywood California, his father a parking garage attendant, and his mother an alcoholic, divorcing when he was seven. As a teenager he worked as a handyman to help support his younger siblings. At school he was elected student body president in his senior year.

His home life was chaotic and abusive. Such that he when he was seventeen he was chased from his home, and he never returned. Deciding not to attend University, he worked as a janitor. Helping to promote self-help seminars for Jim Rohn, (himself a rags to riches story).

This association would change his life forever. Rohn taught him that happiness and success in life are not the result of what we have, but rather of how we live. It struck Robbins like an epiphany. And changed his life forever.

In 1987 Robbins would begin work as a self-help coach at his own workshops where he taught neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Claiming a connection between the neurological processes (neuro), and language (linguistic). That behavioral patterns, learned through experience (programming) can be changed to achieve specific goals in life. NLP has been seen to treat phobias, depression, habit disorders, and psychosomatic illnesses.

Robbins gained global exposure and monumental public recognition through his books, television infomercials and self-help audio tapes.

And say they say, the rest is history.

Tony Robbins is now one of, if not the world's most recognized and distinguished motivational speaker.

Sir Peter Jackson

" _My films are not made for the Oscars;_

They are made for the Audience."

It is with much honor I get to write about this amazing fellow _Kiwi_ (New Zealander).

Born 1961 at Pukerua Bay, north of Wellington, to immigrant parents from England. Jackson initiated his career at the young age of nine, after a family friend gave the Jackson's an eight millimeter movie camera.

It was not long before he was making short films with his friends. His favorite film being King Kong, making his own stop motion models. Through trial and error he had a natural flare for special effects. With no formal training in film making, Jackson thought himself editing, special effects and make up.

Jackson was fascinated by the work of author J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Lord of the Rings_. Leaving school at sixteen he worked seven years as a photo engraver for the local newspaper. Living at home with his parents saving enough money buy film equipment, a sixteen millimeter camera. And began shooting a film later titled _Bad Taste_. Filming on his only one day off, Jackson wrote and directed the full length comedy film about flesh eating aliens. The film winning him a thirty thousand dollar grant from the New Zealand Film Commission. He quit his day job and finished the film.

With another grant of two hundred thousand dollars grant to pay for post-production. The filmed debuted at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, where it won acclaim and distribution deals to a dozen countries. The exposure catapulted Jackson into world of cinematography. Although he enjoyed working on horror movies, he broke with convention and in 1994 he began work on _Heavenly Creatures_ with a then unknown actress Kate Winslet. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

This paved the way to other big budget Hollywood movies _._ Jackson's _Weta Workshop_ , a special effects company underwent dramatic change and growth from a one man band to a full scale operation of digital and physical effects.

In 1997 Jackson went looking for more adventurous movies. He bought the film rights to _Lord of the Rings,_ having taken several years to persuade a movie studio to share his vision. It became the highest grossing movie trilogy of all time, winning a total of seventeen Academy awards.

And as they say, the rest is history.

They say behind every great man is said to be a great women, and it would be unfair not to mention Jackson's partner Fran Walsh. Walsh shared Jackson's passion for movies and collaborated on many of his major films.

To us Kiwi's, Peter is just an ordinary bloke. Achieving extraordinary success with a kiwi can-do attitude. Peter Jackson has never really worked a day in his life. He's just been having fun ever since he held that eight millimeter camera as a kid.

Good on ya' mate.

J K Rowling

" _Rock bottom was the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."_

Born in 1965, in Gloucestershire England. Joanne Rowling has lived a life of rags to riches. (Having no middle name, she borrowed her grandmother's name, Kathleen, in the pen name, hence the J.K.)

As a child she would write and read fantasy stories to her younger sister. As a teenager she suffered a difficult family life. Her mother's illness and strained relations with her father. At school she was considered bright, but not exceptional. Having failed the entrance exam to Oxford University, she entered the University of Exeter and studied French and Classics. Rowling recalls doing little work, preferring to do what was only necessary to pass.

In 1990, while waiting on a train from Manchester to London that had been delayed by four hours, she conceived the idea of Harry Potter. A story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry came fully formed into her mind.

Moving to Porto Portugal to teach English as a foreign language at night, she wrote during the day while listening to Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. There she meet her first husband, and they had a daughter together. Separating after suffering domestic abuse. Moving back to Edinburgh Scotland in 1993 with her infant daughter, and three completed chapters of her first book.

Seven years after graduating from University, she saw herself as a failure. A failed marriage. Jobless, with a dependent child. Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression. Which may have inspired the dark and soul sucking characters described in her stories. Becoming welfare beneficiary and was close to being homeless. She was now at rock bottom.

This would become the foundation on which to rebuild. The failure was liberating and allowed her to focus on writing. Writing from cafes while taking her baby out to help her fall asleep. In 1995, having finished the book an agency agreed to represent Rowling in the search for a publisher.

After several rejections, Bloomsbury's chairman gave the first chapter to his eight year old daughter to read, who immediately demanded the next. The publishing house agreed to publish the book and gave Rowling a fifteen hundred pound advance. But advised Rowling to get a day job as they did not expect her to make money writing children's books. Soon after she was given eight thousand pound grant from the Scottish Arts Council to continue writing.

In 1997, they ran an initial print run of a thousand copies of the _Philosophers Stone_. (Incidentally, these first edition are now worth up to twenty five thousand pounds). After winning numerous literary awards, an auction was held for rights to publish in America. The top bid, one hundred and five thousand US dollars.

And as they say, the rest is history.

From rags to riches, from rock bottom to the clouds. Perseverance through unimaginable hardships. You have to respect the journey Rowling has had to undertake to get to where she is today.

How would you or I would have fared?

Alistair K Duncan

" _Traction, traction, traction._

Keep moving forward."

Born in 1968 in New Zealand, Duncan grew up as any kiwi kid would and followed the traditional schooling and career path. His curiosity and interest in spiritualism lead him to study Indian Mysticism and Yoga. The benefits to my mind, body and soul.

An active surfer, he can be found at one of New Zealand's most notorious surf beaches, Piha, Auckland. Renowned for its treacherous rips, but also its waves. Attracting surfers from around the world. One day while he was surfing, he looked back towards the beach and saw what he thought was an aberration standing on the cliff top overlooking the beach. He was overcome with an impulse to write about it.

Although having no leaning towards writing beforehand, he began to write about the vision he had seen and had soon expanded it into a story. Weaving his knowledge of ancient of Indian mysticism he began to write a series of fantasy books which have proved popular among those who read the genre. He left his day job selling financial services and began writing full time. Having now written over twenty books which he publishes on-line.

Spending his days surfing, writing and teaching Yoga and meditation. What a life!

Here was an ordinary guy, working an ordinary nine to five office job. Who, having never written a book before, gives it all up to write? He may not be a KJ Rowling just yet, but he is doing what others only dream of.

I am very privileged to call him a friend. He is an inspiration and an icon of success, living the dream and doing what he loves.

It has come to past since writing this section that he has been offered a contract with a London publishing house for his book "The Mystic Tiger". And he is currently on the verge of being distributed in India. He stayed true to his vision, focusing his energies into his books. Sure there were obstacles and detours, but in the end he has reached his destination.

And as they say, the rest is history.

Susan Boyle

" _I know what they were thinking;_

But why should it matter as long as I can sing?

It's not a beauty contest."

Born in 1961 in Scotland, the youngest of ten siblings. In the heart of coal mining country. Her father was a miner and her mother a shorthand typist. Her mother was forty five when she gave birth to her. She was raised believing she had been briefly deprived of oxygen at birth and had a learning disability. Often being bullied at school. It transpires that she was misdiagnosed and found to have an above average IQ.

Leaving school with few qualifications and she was employed for six month as a trainee cook at a local college before undertaking various government training programs. Taking singing lessons, her singing audience had been limited to the local Church choir and karaoke in local pubs around her village.

In 1995 she auditioned on Michael Barrymore's TV show which travelled around the country visiting shopping centers. Amateurs would perform on a stage unrehearsed. Barrymore seemed more interested in mocking her with his tomfoolery in order to get audience reaction, than her ability to sing.

Susan's brilliance, would silence her greatest critic.

After winning several local singing competitions, her mother encouraged her to enter the TV show " _Britain's Got Talent_ ". A larger audience than the local parish church. Thinking that the show was for _beautiful people_ and that she was _too old_. But her singing coach Fred O'Neil thankfully persuaded to sing nonetheless.

And so in August 2008 contestant #43212, Susan Boyle, stepped onto the stage. And sang " _I Dreamed a Dream_ ". (The show would go to air April 2009). Her performance was described as the _biggest wake-up call ever_ in the history of talent shows. It gave me goosebumps and my eyes welled with tears upon hearing and seeing her sing.

And as they say...the rest is history.

Susan has gone from strength to strength and her success became a true fairy tale story.

And Barrymore's ugly duckling had turned into a beautiful swan.

Just Ordinary People

We see from the group of _famous_ people, that they came from ordinary and adverse backgrounds. Many had little or no formal education. Many had parents die when they were very young.

  * Sometimes they are summoned to duty. Lincoln was an _accidental President_ called upon to impeach slavery, and was drawn into a Civil War. His call for equality, his resistance to adversity, and an innate sense of humor, brought stability to a nation. Greatest was trust upon him;

  * Sometimes all it takes is an article in a magazine to ignite the flame. Ford and Otto's engine. Marconi and Hertz's Ether waves. Gates and Altair's minicomputer;

  * Sometimes it simply took a train ride. Edison's train ride inspired the idea for motion pictures;

  * Sometimes all it took was a gift, as simple as an 8 mm camera to a kid with a vision of what could be;

  * Sometimes it takes a delayed train to London. Allowing Rowling to day dream about a wizard child. What did you think about while waiting for your train?

Inspiration comes from the simplest things. No great laboratory can substitute for the solitude and open spaces. When our minds are free from the clutter of our daily lives.

It comes when we are free to daydream. Our minds fall into a meditative state and we see things.

Our subconscious minds communicates with us. Offering fleeting subtle suggestions. If we do not capture them in time, they will fade much as our dreams do when we wake in the morning. And we are left wondering, _what was that idea I had_?

A subconscious thought is no more than a fluttering butterfly. Capture it before it escapes.

Next time you drift off, allow yourself to day dream. Allow your subconscious to take you on a magical journey through the looking glass. Perhaps you will be struck with an epiphany. A truth. An awakening. A solution to your problem. Whatever you discover, it is being shown to you for a reason.

Do not judge what you see. It will make sense in time.

If one searches for a commonality among these famous people, one would discover two strong colorful threads:

  * Passion;

  * Perseverance.

Each had a passion to do what they did. Each had a dogged determination to see it through to the end, no matter what. Remember, these were ordinary people, much like you or I. Their backgrounds very little different to our own.

They had a vision. A vision only they could see. And they acted on that vision. Often they would fail. Yet they got back up and carried on. Irrespective of what others thought.

So what is your vision? What do you see for yourself that you don't care what other's think. How badly do you want it? Are you prepared to fall and dust off the bruised pride and carry on? I know you are.

There is no time limit on success, but there is an expiry date...

Happy 100th Birthday

Imagine now you are about to celebrate your 100th birthday.

Family and friend gather around you to talk about the past 100 years. Your life, your experiences, people and places from the old days.

Then afterwards you find yourself alone.

Contemplating your life. Wondering if the dreams you once had, had been fulfilled. And you realize although you had failures in your life, it was these failures that brought the greatest happiness. Somehow work, mortgages, other people's expectations, and excuses, had gotten in the way of the life once dreamed.

If you could do it all again, would you do it differently?

Get your priorities straight, no one ever said,

" _I wish I spent more time in the office."_

The wisdom of the years have shown you that always landed on your feet when you fell. Of all the things you ever did, you still rebounded and here you sit at the ripe young age of 100. Your body may be old and buckled.

But your mind is sharp with visions of adventures.

Two great grandchild come up to you. A beautiful little boy and girl, fresh young innocent faces. Their eyes large and bright. Their minds a blank canvas waiting for a story to be scribed.

And you ask them, "What do want to be when you grow up?"

And they tell you wonderful stories of astronauts, doctors, firemen and ballerinas.

What you tell them that will be shape their minds for the rest of their lives. Shower them with hope and belief in their dreams.

Support them every time they come back with a new one.

In the end;

We only regret the chances we did not take.

Unknown

Wheel of Success

As discussed, there are many elements that make up the wheel to your success. The spokes are radiating from you like energy rays.

You are the source.

The pioneers venturing west never had a super highway laid out for them. They could only see three feet at a time and faced obstacles when they were confronted by them. Throwing caution to the wind they turned their backs on the comforts and security of where they came, and with persistence were rewarded with an extraordinary life.

It will be a bumpy ride, but you will get there. You are always in control.

Attaining your goal will take time. How much time? How much are you prepared to invest? If you cannot wait the time it takes to attain your goal, then ask yourself that question, _how badly do you want your goal?_

One has to _work_ for their success. One has to earn it through blood, sweat and tears. It will not be given to you. It will feel like a roller coaster ride of emotions of hope and despair. Of excitement and frustrations. And by the end of the ride, you will want to do it all again.

Which ladder are you climbing?

Guidelines

  1. Give thanks to God every morning. And every night;

  2. Embrace each new day with enthusiasm;

  3. Do at least one random act of kindness every day;

  4. Surround yourself with Positive People;

  5. Avoid Negative People;

  6. Avoid Anger, Worry and Stress;

  7. Practice Patience;

  8. Practice Laugher;

  9. Practice Meditation;

  10. Accept You are Responsible for everything that you allow to happen to you;

  11. Accept you can be Wrong;

  12. Look back to learn, look forward to grow;

  13. Assume Ignorance until you know otherwise;

  14. Protect your Integrity and Reputation;

  15. Silence is the loudest thing you can say;

  16. Show Respect and Gratitude to Others;

  17. Think Big. Dream Big;

  18. NOW, is always the best time to do something;

  19. Quitting is not an option;

  20. Shine.

Recipe for Success:

_A heap spoon of Vision;_

A cup of Desire;

A pinch of Hope;

A pound of Perseverance;

Fold slowly together with Effort;

Set your Expectations on High;

Bake for as long as it takes to Rise;

Sprinkle with Gratitude from Above;

Serve with a slice of Satisfaction.

Thank You

Firstly I like to give thanks to God and Spirit for allowing me to accomplish the task of writing this book.

And I would like to thank you, for taking time and effort to read this book. Allowing me share my thoughts with you. I hope you have been enlightened and discovered something useful to help you on your journey.

As I have always told my three wonderful children, life is about having fun. No matter what they are doing, whether be it a competition, or their studies:

Always have fun.

I respect that we all have our own view of what God is and means to us. To each their own God. To each their own belief. I only know what God means to me, and that your God is with you. Watching over us all.

You do not have to believe in God. Just know that God believes in you.

In my wallet I carry a card with biblical quote I found a very long time ago. Or maybe it found me. It is a bit faded these days, but I still take heart and strength from its words:

"... _I will be with you always to the very end of the age."_

Matthew 28:20

God and I are going through life

Together one moment at a time.

That card has gotten be through some tough times. God will never leave me behind. We are all special to Him. (Though I'm His favorite. )

This reminds me of one final story which you may, or may not have heard before...

A man is walking along the beach with God, leaving two sets of prints in the sand behind them. Then hardship hits the man, and the man sees only one set of prints.

He asks God, "Why did you abandon me?"

God replies, "I did not abandon you... I was carrying you."

So when I feel like there are only one set of foot prints in the sand, I know God is carrying me. And in time, there will be two sets again.

I hope my words have touched you. I hope they have provoked you and rattled your cage. Awaken you from your slumber on the perch of life. Sometimes we feel like we are in cages confined with restrictive lives. It is said that a bird born in a cage, thinks that flying is an illness. Success is often seen as an illness meant for others.

We are where we are today because of the decisions we have made. But take heart, it is where you are supposed to be. At any point you can change direction to where you want to go.

It's never too late to be the person you want to be.

Never stop learning, never stop growing, and walk your own path. With self-belief you can march to the beat of your own drum. Which reminds me a former manager who gave me a parting gift after being made redundant. He wrote...

" _Bradley,_

You march to the beat of your own drum.

All the best, Boon"

To this day I have never opened the gift. I have no idea what is inside the small brown paper wrapper box tied off with a bright red ribbon. I felt the words on the outside was the gift. I do march to the beat of my own drum. Boon had seen that and recognized it. I was proud he had noticed. His words are treasured more than the gift inside the box. Which will forever remain an intriguing mystery.

Thank you again for making the effort to read this book. If you come away with just one useful tip, one word, one phase that will keep you take that first step.

Persist and don't give up. You will succeed.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the book as much as I have had writing it. I wish you abundance and success in your goals and your life.

Bradley Pearce

Remember that:

It all works out in the end.

If it hasn't worked out,

It is not the end.

God Bless to you all on your Journey.

Now fly away...

Walking the Talk

_You cannot build a reputation_

On what you're going to do.

Henry Ford

Having talked the talk, I had to ask myself, can I walk the talk?

Like most people, I am the sum of my experiences and circumstances. I have goals I wish to achieve. I have had my fair share of successes and fair share of failures. I am just an ordinary person, from an ordinary back ground, with a dream to live an extra-ordinary life.

If one goal was not enough to focus on, I had a lineup of them. With more in stewing on the back burners of my mind. Each were uniquely different.

Three immediate goals I had in the forefront of my mind were:

  * geeekle.com - a classified advertising web site.

  * FOSN - a flavoring tablet.

  * E is for Effort- a motivational self-help book.

After these three were completed, I focused on writing a novel, soon followed by another, then another. Had I bitten off more than I could chew? Probably But I did not have to achieve them all at once. Just one at time. One day at a time. Just to achieve one of these goals would be considered monumental effort.

As usual, my mind was saying, "why not?"

Each project could be departmentalized and managed individually. My brain would switch off one project, allowing that to stew in my subconscious, while I focus my conscious thoughts on another.

I recall reading Steve Jobs had once said about having multiple passions...

" _Try not to eliminate any one of them._

You have them for a reason.

Collectively they make the person you are."

Combined passions creates synergy. That synergy will open doors in your imagination and creativity others struggle to perceive.

Our passions makes us who we are as individuals.

Don't wait to be discovered,

That will happen when others catch up.

Bradley Pearce
Six Novels and a Self-Help Book

I always consider myself to be an artist foremost and writing as an extension of the creative process. It all began with a personal journal entitled, _Scattered Memories_ about the time I was going through a difficult period in my life. A collection of chronological events and memories and experiences. It enabled me to get thoughts out of my head so I no longer had to remember them. I would email the word doc to myself and update it anytime, anywhere in the world.

That journal had gotten me writing and the mad ramblings had become a manuscript of my life. Life experiences scribed upon cyber parchments. The villains and darlings. The emotions and dreams. The despair and triumphs.

Over seventy two thousand words later it dawned on me that I had practically written a book. Okay, it had taken over ten years, but there it was. Something I could print off and read. That journal seeded the thought...

' _If I can write that many pages,_

Then maybe I could write about my favorite interest.

Motivation.'

And so began the first steps to the book you are reading now. _E is for Effort._

While I was writing this book, I would take long daily walks. A six kilometer walk to the beach, and back again. Assuming I took the short route. And as I walked I would day-dream and wonder. As I have a habit of doing. Of nothing in particular. Allowing the mind to meditate while I walked. I saw beauty in the pastures, and trees. The open spaces, and the blue sky above. A thought or idea would enter my head and I would extrapolate it. I would pull it apart and put it back together again, differently. Asking _"what if?"_ And if it withstood my interrogation it would be entered on my Smart Phone as a note.

To be regurgitated at a later date.

Sometimes it was an innovative product idea. Sometimes it would be observational comedy. Sometimes I would see an image and ponder a story about it. Creating characters and situations about the imagery.

One day on the daily walk-about an amusing story came into my head and I let it entertain me. It was about a young man named Arthur, and he lived in Watford England. Why Watford? I have no idea, I wasn't the one telling the story inside my head. It was like I was watching a movie I had never seen before. I pictured him living with his Aunt. It was all there, coming together. As though it was being projected into my mind. When I returned home again, I sat down and typed out two and half chapters of what was to become the beginnings of _The Ring_. Narrative and dialogue just flowed from my fingers.

I typed like a man possessed. And I had no idea why or what drove me to be so energized. Afterwards I asked myself, _where did that come from?_

I finished _E is for Effort_ some months later and was soon distracted by the web site _geeekle.com_ and then by _FOSN_. Once these came to completion I needed something to occupy my time. I could not go back to watching hours of television and wait to die.

I decided to revisit _The Ring_ and printed it off. I re-read it and was quite surprised. Now I had the mission of completing it. I had never written fiction other than the first two chapters. I was an accountant. I was an analyst. Self-doubt and excuses started to plough my mind and sowed its seeds.

The temptation was stronger than the fear and I found inspiration and support in a good friend and published author, Alistair K Duncan. A like-minded gentleman with whom I share a spiritual interest. We were sounding boards to each other's projects and other crazy ideas.

In a notebook I began scribbling down ideas on how the story would develop. Pulling threads together, weaving them under and over each other to form a dense tapestry. I look back at the note book now and try to decipher the hieroglyphics that I had written. Appearing now as scribblings of a mad man.

Like most of my projects I kept track of the hours on my laptop. Detailing the hours I would spend each evening and the weekends. A reminder to me that I was making an effort. I highlighted any _zeros_ with yellow so they stood out. Reminding me I had lost time.

Re-enforcing my quest, _'How badly did I want this goal.'_

There were days when one just needs to take time out. Time off. Stepping back from the coal face. To breathe. You forget you've been submersed for so long. On Friday evenings I would spend time with friends down at the local. Time not to think about the project. To switch off and mingle among _normal_ people again. It was became part of my habit.

It was the Universe's way of saying, _'Hey look, have a break. You deserve it. One day won't hurt you.'_

Completing a novel is an amazing feeling. Afterwards you feel empty. You had emptied your soul and very being onto the pages. There was no more to give. No one notices, only you. You can almost hear the silent cheering from within you. _Aye_!_ Then one looks back at all the days spent. The word counts and coffees. Days of writer's block and the days when the words just flowed like water. It's the journey you remember most.

Completing the book was one goal. Sending it off to a literary agent is another.

Though most literary agents accept email manuscripts, but my very first submission was by post, albeit a partial manuscript to a literary agent in London. I was submitting it for review with the hope of being published. I had to print a partial manuscript off, and physically post it.

It made the journey feel _complete._

If I was lucky enough, I would be baptized by a literary agent with a _rejection letter_. You are not truly a writer until you have been rejected. 

It would take between eight to twelve weeks to get a reply, if one received one at all. Otherwise, ' _Don't call us, we'll call you_. _'_ That is the economic reality of publishing. Agents receive over six hundred manuscripts are submitted every month. And this was my debut novel, albeit a short novel. Generally most novels need to be over eighty-five thousand words. Mine had barely topped sixty-five. I knew I would be pushing my luck.

I waited patiently, forever hopeful that I had _'cracked it'_ , but appreciated where I stood among the experienced writers. I was still learning the craft and had a long way to go before I could be considered a mature writer.

I had to start somewhere, and _The Ring_ was it.

Eight weeks later I received an email. It was short and I immediately detected the rejection. The Agent had made the effort to write back. This was not some two-bit publisher. I had swung for the fence. _And they had written back._ The Agent said, _'Interesting story. Economy of words. 65,000+ words. Keep writing.'_

Once I got over the initial feelings of failure, I picked out the positive parts...

_Interesting story_ – Tick – I thought so too.

_Economy of words_ – Tick - I could work on that.

_65,000+ words_ – Tick - I can write more words.

_Keep writing_ – Tick - That, I can certainly do.

The agent had taken the _time and energy_ to read my manuscript, albeit the first twenty-five pages. He had found it interesting. He could have said, _'Stop writing and keep your day job.'_

I always said when I got my first rejection letter that I would frame it to signify I had officially become a writer. _I now had a rejection letter to prove it!_ Some people never get that much. Ninety eight percent of wannabe writers never finish (or start) writing, let alone receive a rejection letter.

Since then I have completed another five novels and later went back and added another four chapters to _The Ring_ taking that novel to over eighty thousand words. Making it a better story in the end. It's actually better down loads now that when I first launched it.

All the books can be found under smashwords.com and obooko.com. To date it has had over seventeen thousand downloads. I publish for free until such time a publisher makes me an offer I cannot refuse, while I perfect my craft and discovering my voice.

I was important to me that I was able to walk the walk after talking the talk. And you know what? The more I finished a goal, the more I wanted to do the next. I could not imagine myself being glued to a television watching endless mindless no-go-where Netflix television series, or chatting social networks to cyber friends. Losing time that I would never be able to get back.

Let me tell you a couple of secrets about writing books:

  * They will not write themselves.

  * You write one word at a time. One word after another. (Stephen King)

  * And the trick is not to stop.

It sounds easy I know. And in truth, it is.

You just have to make an effort. Be persistent and be determined. These will become ingrained in your habits to the point you cannot live without them.

Each evening I arrive home from the office and I immediately pick up my laptop and head out the door again to a café where I would spend the next two to three hours writing. _Every_ evening. Without thought. Sure I begrudgingly step each foot forward, but it is like I'm on auto-pilot.

And not to do so, I would feel cheated. Annoyed and upset.

If that does not sound committed enough, I would spend the entire weekends at the café, eight hours a day. That was my weekend. That is how you finish writing a book or learning a musical instrument, or losing weight.

Persistence and commitment.

It takes two to three weeks to form a habit. It will feel terrible and awkward for those first three weeks, but I promise you after the initial pain, you will feel robbed and deprived and cheated if you can't go about your goal.

A year contains three hundred and sixty five days. These are going to pass whether you want them to or not. It is up to you how to fill each and every one of them. Do not wait for tomorrow to begin. Tomorrow never arrives.

It will always be today for the rest of your life.

So do it today. Do it right now...

Shine

I am reminded of a wonderful empowering little story that goes:

The last thing you want to hear a surgeon say

When he's just about to operate is "Oops!"

Well, when you were born,

God did not say "Oops!"

He said, "Perfect!"

It is my personal belief, that God put us on this good Earth to Shine. Inside each of us is a spark. Call it a soul, a spirit. God loves us so much, He gave us the gift of physical life. A Life in which to experience and enjoy. A Life in which to be authentic, to be unique, and to shine.

He wants nothing in return.

God made us just as he intended us to be. Whether it was a small Indian man who gained his country's independence without violence. Four likely lads from Liverpool who changed the pop world forever. Or a coal miner's daughter who went on national TV and stopped the world with her angelic voice and sang, _'I have a Dream'_.

God made us all uniquely different. We all have the ability to do great deeds. But He also gave us Freewill, and so left it to us to decide what we should to do with our lives. Success is a conquest, not a bequest. It would be nice if we could simply make a wish and it all came true. But wishes don't always work that way. You have to make a physical effort.

You're sitting on the one thing holding you back.

Goals are there for the grabbing, but you have to get off your backside to attain it.

Every day, God presents us with a new day. A clean slate to begin again. Like the movie _Ground-Hog Day_ , we get to relive that day over and over again. Each day we are given is an opportunity to make a change in our lives, our habits, our attitudes. It is your chance to change and to do something different. A chance to have a different life. A chance to change your attitudes and habits.

So what did you do differently today?

Shine the brightest you can be. Life does not come with an instruction book. The secret to life is that there is no secret. You have to improvise every situation you encounter.

And when we die.

And stand before the Big Guy.

" _Well, what did you do with your life?"_ God asks.

What will your story be? Make it a good one. Don't disappoint the God with a story of what could have been.

Tell God an adventure even He would be proud of...

A Poignant Horoscope

My Starsign sign is Aquarian and although I try not to subscribe too much in horoscopes, they can provide a great source of inspiration to motivate us to act. I was in a bar the other day, (what are the chances of that I hear you say?) and I was reading the daily paper while enjoying a quiet beer and trying to rehydrate after another excessive cardio workout at the gym. After checking that World War Three had not broken out in the White House Day Care Center, I shifted my eyes to the next most important section of the paper, the Horoscopes.

I was quite amuzed by what I read. Maybe we read more into them than we should. But this one was quite poignant. As if the universe was poking me in the ribs, saying, get on with it. No one can do what you can do.

I thought it would be a good way to end the book as it applies to all of us:

It may seem as though you are just one person

Competing among millions of similar people.

But no one is you.

When you do what only you can do,

You have no competition.

So what is it to be?

In a nut shell

Let me try to reduce everything that we have covered in all the previous chapters into just one.

Your action plan to success.

Buddha said that people fail their goals because either they don't start or that the give up. So by default to achieve a goal one must start and not give up.

Be specific about what you want, when you want it by, and why you want it.

Write your goal here:

Goal: ...................................................

Why: ...................................................

Start Date: ...../...../......

End Date: ...../...../......

So when do you start? How about right now?

To change your life you will need to change in your habits. It will require self-discipline. Take the twenty one day challenge and create a new habit for yourself. And I guarantee you will not be able go back to the way it was before.

You are the only person who can make this happen to you. You are responsible for everything that you allow to happen to you. If you don't write your life story, someone else will.

Plan your goal. Create a time line. Prioritize the tasks...

When you find yourself procrastinating and distracted, ask yourself, "Is this the best use of my time?" You will oscillate between success and failure, it is all part of the process of progress.

Face obstacles and adversity three feet at a time. Break down large obstacles into smaller pieces and address each one individually.

Monitor your progress against set milestones. Make and take opportunities. Have a goal buddy keep watch over your progress. Make the goal tangible. Avoid negative energy. Surround yourself with like-minded people. Feel important, act like an important person.

Strengthen your self-belief with self-talk. Visualize and imagine the impossible. Use the power of the mind to attract good things in your life. Meditate to help clear the mental clutter. Allow providence to mysteriously work in the back ground.

And give yourself permission to make mistakes. Failure is the mother of success. Failure strengthens you. It teaches you how not to do something.

Success is not linear. It will be a lumpy bumpy ride, but one you will remember long after you reach your goal.

Persistence is the key to success.

Giving up never got anyone to their goal.

It's all about the self-discipline to persist. To persevere Persistence. It's called diligence.

Giving up is not an option. Weather the storm. One more moment.

And in the wise words of my good friend Alistair, _"Traction, traction, traction."_ Just keep going until you reach the end. One way or another, you have to make it. You have to finish. Otherwise, why did you bother starting?

If you want an even simpler explanation of how to succeed, follow these two steps:

  1. Just do it (Start)

  2. And keep on doing it until you get to where you want to go. (Do not quit.)

Are you ready to take the leap?

Inspirational Quotes

Man must stand with mouth open for long time,

Before roast duck flies in.

Old Chinese Proverb

A journey of a thousand miles;

Begins with one step.

Confucius

There are only two reasons for why people fail to reach their goals:

  1. They do not start;

  2. They give up.

Buddha

Dreams are the seedlings of realities.

James Allen

Life is 10% what Happens to You;

90% how you Re-Act to it.

Unknown

The real risk is in doing nothing.

Denis Waitley

Ideas do not work;

Unless you do.

Unknown

Logic will take you from A to B;

Imagination will take you very where.

Albert Einstein

The best things in life are Unseen;

When we close our Eyes;

When we Laugh;

When we Kiss;

When we Dream.

Unknown

Success is often disguised as Hard Work.

Ann Landers

You cannot build a reputation;

On what you are going to do.

Henry Ford

Make Peace with the Past

So it doesn't spoil the Present.

Unknown

No one is the reason for your happiness,

Except yourself.

Unknown

Stop thinking too much,

It's okay not to know all the answers

Unknown

Put service first;

And the money will take care of itself.

Unknown

A mind stretched by a new idea;

Cannot go back to its original dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Life begins,

Where the comfort zone ends.

Unknown

Failure is the grease of the World.

Unknown

Giving up is not an option.

Bradley Pearce

One person with Belief;

Is worth ninety-nine people with only an Interest.

Unknown

Fear not Death;

But of not living the life you could have.

Unknown

Take the road less travelled.

It's more rewarding.

Unknown

If you are serious about changing your life;

Get serious about changing your attitude.

Bradley Pearce

Never compromise your integrity or reputation;

They are your most important assets.

Unknown

Every person you meet knows something you do not;

Learn from them.

Unknown

Life is a daring Adventure;

Or it is nothing.

Helen Keller

We are continuously faced with great Opportunities;

Disguised as insoluble problems.

Unknown

The Key of Persistence;

Will open any door closed by Resistance.

John Di Lemme

The secret to getting whatever you want;

Is to do whatever it takes.

Unknown

Success is endurance

For one moment more.

Arab Proverb

Experience is the name many people give to their mistakes.

Oscar Wilde

We learn from our failures, not our successes.

Dracula, Bram Stoker (1897)

You reap what you sow.

Paul the Apostle

A thousand failures are forgotten and forgiven;

For those who achieve success.

Unknown

Do not wait;

The time will never be right.

Napoleon Hill

Dreams do not work;

Unless you do.

Unknown

If a thing is Impossible;

It can be done.

Old Hungarian Proverb

It's the people you do not imagine;

That do the unimaginable.

Unknown

There are no shortcuts;

To any place worth going.

Sarah Brown

Progress is not a linear process.

Unknown

Why live an Ordinary life;

When you can life an Extraordinary Life.

Anthony Robbins

There is no such thing as coincidence.

God does not do chance.

Unknown

A Man who is not Courageous enough in life to take Risks;

Will never accomplish anything in Life.

Muhammad Ali

Failure to Act

Is a Failure to Succeed.

Unknown

Destiny is a matter of Choice.

Unknown

If Plan A doesn't work;

There are another 25 letters to choose from.

Unknown

When something appears overwhelming;

Reduce it down to its smallest parts;

And address them, one at a time.

Unknown

If you want to be a better person tomorrow than you are today;

Do something for someone without expecting anything in return.

Unknown

Feed your faith

And your doubts will starve to death.

Unknown

A successful marriage is not about finding the right person;

It's about being the right person.

Unknown

When you light a light for someone else,

It will also brighten your path.

Kajama

The way people treat you is not a statement about you.

It is a statement about who they are as a human being

Kajama

The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground.

Unknown

Smile. And if you see someone's without a smile;

Give them one of yours.

Unknown

Find your Passion;

You will find your Purpose;

And you will find your Path.

Unknown

People over-estimate what they can do in one year;

And under-estimate what they can do in ten.

Give yourself time to achieve your goals.

Unknown

For every negative you say about someone;

Say something positive about them;

Remember, your enemy is someone's friend.

Unknown

You're only as good the people you surround yourself with.

Unknown

Find yourself the smartest person in the room;

If you're the smartest person in the room;

Find another room.

Unknown

Your brain can only hold one thought at a time;

Make it a good one.

Unknown

Never give up on something

You cannot go a day without thinking about.

Unknown

Living an extraordinary life;

Means giving up living an Ordinary Life.

Unknown

Keep listening to the little voice in your head;

Follow your intuition.

Unknown

Remind yourself who you are and what you are capable of.

Unknown

You do not need to see the whole stair case;

You just need to see the first step.

Unknown

How far you go,

Depends on how far you wish to reach.

Unknown

Let go of other people's definition of success.

Unknown

If you're wondering what is holding you back;

You're probably sitting on it.

Unknown

You can be anything you want to be.

Change your attitude;

And you can change your world.

Unknown

Champions keep playing until they get it right.

Billie Jean-King

Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary life.

C.S. Lewis

Sometimes, we're tested not to show up our weaknesses.

But to discover our strengths.

Unknown

The choice you make between hating and forgiving someone,

Can become the story of your life.

Unknown

Failure is unimportant;

It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

Charlie Chaplin

Sometimes you need to color outside the lines.

Bradley Pearce

Never apologize for doing something your passionate about.

Unknown

A good relationship is like a good book;

It will find you.

Bradley Pearce

When you come to the end of your rope;

Tie a knot and hang on.

It's better than sliding off.

Kajama

Be yourself, no matter what other people think.

God made you the way you are for a reason.

Besides, an original is always worth more than a copy.

Kajama

When you face difficult times, know that challenges are not sent to destroy you.

They're sent to strengthen you.

Kajama

First you do not know you do not know,

Then you know you do not know,

Then you do not know you know,

Then you know you know.

Chinese Saying

Don't wait to be discovered;

That will happen when others catch up.

Bradley Pearce

Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts;

You'll never get it back once people discover you.

Unknown

There is no 'I' in Rush;

But there is an 'I' in Patience.

Bradley Pearce

Where ever you are, you're just passing through.

Greg Johnson

Can you remember who you were before the

World told you who you should be?

Charles Bukowski

Be the Voice, not the Echo.

Unknown

The only difference between ordinary and extraordinary;

Is the verb _Extra_.

Bradley Pearce

How badly do you want your goal?

Bradley Pearce

Given the effort and sacrifice required to be succeed;

Imagine what could be achieved;

If one did nothing?

Bradley Pearce

The Meaning of Life is to Shine.

Bradley Pearce

About Sheepy

You're probably wondering what is it with the sheep icon. Well, I have been drawing that little creature for over thirty years. It started as a doodle a baby sheep looking up at the bottom of the letters I use to write to a certain person who was _argiculturally_ inclined. (For the Millenals, _letters_ are messages written on paper and sent to other people in the old days before emails were invented). Then I began drawing it at the bottom corner of my notes. And it stayed with me ever since.

It reminds me of my rural roots and I like to think it keeps me grounded. It's called _Sheepy_. Not an original name I know, but I like it.

I hope you've enjoyed reading _E is for Effort_ as much as I had writing it.

God bless you all.

Bradley Pearce

A brief history lesson

I left this section until last as I did not want to put you to sleep right away. When I am interested in something, I like to investigate its history. I want transparency. The who what when and how _Self-Help_ came about.

Contrary to my original belief, Self-Help books have been around for over two hundred years. If one also factors in Buddha, Biblical Proverbs and Ancient Geek Philosophers it actually goes back another two and half thousand years. Then you have the Poets and the Bards, each trying to rationalize the very nature of man's soul and what drives him to great heights and the depths of despair.

It was **Benjamin Franklin** in the mid 1700's that first wrote, "God helps them that help themselves" in his book Poor Richard's Almanac.

1828 inaugurated the first official self-help publication with George Combe's _Constitution,_ with self-responsibility, self-control, and self-improvement through education.

1841 Ralph Waldo Emmerson published the essay Compensation, wherein he stated that "...man should give thanks for his faults (failings) ... acquire the habits of self-help ... strength grows out of weakness". Themes that are often heralded today.

1859 Samuel Smiles published the self-titled book Self-Help. It iterated a variation of Benjamin Franklin's phrase "Heaven helps those who help themselves". It is interesting to note, "...It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much often succeed through failure".

1902 James Allen published As a Man Thinketh, which believed that man literally becomes what he thinks, and his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts. Think noble, become noble. Think lowly thoughts, become lowly.

1936 saw the arrival of the legendary Dale Carnegie and his historic publication How to Win Friends and Influence People. Having failing at several careers Carnegie became fascinated in the relationship between Success and Self-Confidence.

1937 Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich extended upon James Allen's earlier view, suggesting that the repetition of positive thoughts would attract happiness and wealth, by tapping into an "...infinite Intelligence".

1959 gave the world the book The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. His thoughts were aligned with James Allen's in that he saw the progress of people was relative to the size of their thinking. You are what you think. To set high goals and think positively to achieve them.

In 1978 after three years of secluded and intensive study and contemplation of the human mind John Kehoe in his series of Mind Power books further extended the concept of the use of the mind to shape one's destiny.

1987 saw the appearance of the giant among motivational speakers, **Anthony Robbins** and the publication of his book _Unlimited Power_ and _Awaken the Giant Within_ (1991) imparted the traits of personal development. With ideological similarities to Dale Carnegie, Robbins teaches strategies and techniques to overcome personal problems.

1995 **Conway Stone's** book _Follow your Dreams_ extended the theory that the mind is the power house for creating one's future potential.

Self-help has been around a very long time. Each adding to the knowledge base, like tree rings. Each coming to the same conclusion,

  * That a person is responsible for their own success and

  * That the power of the mind can overcome the obstacles that hold them back.

These motivational pioneers have given millions ordinary people the insights of how to attain extra-ordinary lives. And with persistence and effort I know you will also be living an extraordinary life of your own.

Remember the only difference between ordinary and extraordinary,

Is the verb Extra.

Recommended Readings

**Awaken the Giant Within**

By Anthony Robbins

Publisher: Summit Books (1991)

Dare to Dream

By Florence Littauer

Publisher: Word Publishing (1991)

Being Happy

By Andrew Matthews

Publisher: IN Books (1988)

Handbook to a Happier Life

By Jim Donovan

Publisher: New World Library (1998)

How to Meditate: A Practical Guide

By Kathleen McRonald

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com, Limited, (2011)

How to Win Friends and Influence People

By Dale Carnegie

Publisher: Simpson and Schuster (1981)

So What Makes You Tick

By David Sharpe

Publisher: Ten Speed Press (1990)

Self-Hypnosis and Scientific Self Suggestion

By W J Ousby

Publisher: Fireside (1977)

Stop Procrastinating – Do it !

By James R. Sherman, PhD

Publisher: Pathway Books (1981)

Steal like an Artist

By Austin Kleon

Publisher: Workman Publishing Company, NY

The Laws of Manifestation

By David Spangler

Publisher: Findhorn Publications (1975)

The Magic of Thinking Big

By David J. Schwartz‎

Publisher: Prentice Hall (1959)

Unlimited Power

By Anthony Robbins,

Publisher: Simpson and Schuster (1986)

What Makes Us Tick

By Hugh MacKay

Publisher: Hachette Australia (2010)

About the Author

Born a long time ago in the small township of Foxton New Zealand, Bradley's first book was a Self-Help book E is for Effort. That led to his debut novel The Ring. And so began the "End of Days" trilogy. One book lead to another, and as they say the rest is history. His books reflects his keen interest in comparative religion, spirituality, adventure and romance. When not writing he enjoys innovating new products, hearty workouts and hanging out with his three amazingly intelligent and beautiful children Harry, Emily and Rebecca. Then again, he could be found at his local enjoying a craft beer with good friends.

### Other books by this author

Please visit your favorite eBook retailer to discover other books by Bradley Pearce:

E is for Effort

The Ring

The Mist

Lady in Red

Puppet on a String

Alfie

Three Wishes

Man in the Moon

