Which half of the glass do you live in?

When you think about solutions, you become a problem solver.  The more you think about solutions, the more solutions you will find.

What you focus on is what you get.  If you focus on problems, that is what you will get most of the time.  You will become really good at finding flaws and mistakes in everyone and everything.  The world will look and feel like an awful place to you.

If you focus on solutions, then you are always finding ways of overcoming obstacles.  You do not deny that there are problems and difficulties but you see them as challenges to be overcome and experiences that help you grow.

Here are some of our choices:  Do I want to live in a world of scarcity or abundance? Do I want to live in a world of problems or solutions? Do I want to be happy or sad? Do I want to be free or enslaved?

Yes, these are choices.  They are not imposed by anyone but us.

These are choices we all make consciously or unconsciously.  We choose where we want to direct our focus – the full or the empty half of the glass.

Successful people see both halves of the glass but focus on the full half.  They think about how to solve problems and find value in every experience.   It is a healthy habit to cultivate.  It also saves you the cost of antidepressants!

“Optimism is the fuel of motivation!” Martin Seligman, Psychologist and Research Scientist

Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

Are you a ‘Me Too’ product or do you have a brand?

Become an expert at something.  Develop excellence orientation by taking an objective look at your strengths and weaknesses.  You strengths are great, but your weakest area is the limiting factor that determines your income.

So what are you known for? When people hear your name what associations come to their minds?

We all have something unique about us.  The question is how to find it and leverage it to our advantage. The second question is how to make sure that we do not sabotage ourselves by neglecting our weaknesses?

If we do not deal with our weaknesses to ensure they do not become an obstacle to our success, we are doing a great injustice to ourselves.

For example, if you are a really good engineer but you have terrible communication skills, it is your poor communication skills that will determine how successful you will be and not your engineering skills.   Wouldn’t it therefore make sense to improve your communication skills, so they do not limit how far you can go with your engineering capabilities?

It is true that we must build on our strengths, but we must get our weaknesses out of the way so they do not cripple us and limit our earning power.

For the engineer in our example to excel, she must make every effort to become known for her outstanding engineering capabilities, but needs to improve her communication skills to do so.  This means that she will not realize her full potential or get to be the brand that represents excellence if her weakness in communication is not overcome.

Take stock of your strengths and weaknesses; determine your USP (unique selling point) and build it up; identify your greatest weakness and do whatever it takes to stop it from limiting your success and achievement.

Present yourself to the world with the appearance, behavior and communication style that says who you are.  Personal branding involves looks, words and deeds that are aligned with your USP.

Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

Did you know that your psychological time makes a difference to your personal success!

Leaders think about the future, everyone else follows the leaders.  It is estimated that only about 3% of adults actually have written goals.  Leaders are among these 3% because if you don’t have written goals you are not leading you are being led.  Not surprisingly – if you do not know where you are going, you are neither motivated nor confident, so you follow someone who seems to know where they are going.

Leaders live in future time while remaining cognizant of the present context as well as the lessons learnt from the past.   The one thing leaders do not do is to dwell on past successes or failures.   The PAST is their teacher.  The PRESENT is where they create their reality by realizing their dreams.

The FUTURE is where their dreams are born and where they cross new frontiers. Leaders have balanced time-lines and are not afraid of the future because they know where they are going.

The future is an unknown and frightening place to those who cling to the ‘certainty’ what has already been done.  Yes – they will always be followers and the leaders will be those who have a vision of what has not yet happened.  Leaders know they are the ones that will make it happen.

Leaders live in the present but create the future by taking action.

Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

Your IMAGINATION is a powerful resource! Are you using it?

Imagine the perfect outcome, imagine yourself enjoying the benefits of this perfect outcome, hold this image, this vision in your mind and then everything you do should be a step in that direction.

Neurological research indicates that our minds cannot tell the difference between real experiences and vividly imagined experiences.  Sports persons who use visualization enhance their performance greatly.

In experiments using three groups of sportspersons   – 1) a group that did only physical practice, 2) a group that did only visualization and 3) a group that did neither, the following was found:

• The group that did only physical practice performed the best
• The group that did only visualization performed almost as well, and
• The group that did neither, not surprisingly, performed the worst.

Our imagination helps us to paint detailed mental pictures of what we want. The more sensory details (smell, taste, touch, visual images and sounds) we bring into our mental pictures the greater the chances are that our minds will begin to accept that as reality.  The greater our acceptance of the vision as real, the greater the possibility we have of actually manifesting that vision and making it our reality.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”  Albert Einstein

Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

Did you know that preoccupation with your destination and your travel plans can make you or break you?

Successful people always think about where they are going and where they want to go not where they have been.  Then they ask themselves “HOW” to get there? 

Knowing where you want to go and having a road map for how to get there are essentials for success.   Most of us have neither and some of us have one without the other.  This thing is we need both, plus one other thing, to succeed.

The plan can change but we must have a starting point from which to diverge if necessary.

We need three things here:

1. A clearly identified destination meaning you know WHAT you want
2. A plan for HOW to get there  (a strategy)
3. A VEHICLE to get you there (this means the essential knowledge, skills and capabilities)

To clarify the point here is an example: “I will share my knowledge and experience as an expert speechwriter with interested people by publishing an e-book by the end of this year. I will use my writing abilities and creativity to make the book interesting and useful.  The book will be such an effective and practical guide that people will enthusiastically share it with others and increase my sales.”

P.S. Always put the things you want to achieve in writing.  It helps engrave them into your subconscious mind and when you revisit your diary you will be surprised to find that the ones you wrote down actually happened.

 Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

There is no Personal Freedom without Financial Freedom!

Another of the 3 key areas in achieving success is based on money and investments.  Successful people focus on survival by asking themselves, “How long could I survive on what I have without working?” Then, they identify how best to acquire an amount that will guarantee their survival.

Following this advice, means is that you always have a sum of money on which you could live for 6 months, one year or more.  Having this sum means that you never have to become a slave to any job or type of work you do not like.

The secret of achieving financial freedom is to have the discipline to become a good money manager.   If you do not manage your money you will fall into a trap that resembles ‘Parkinson’s Law’ with regard to time management – the law is: “work expands to fill the available time.” Applied to money, the law would be something like expenses expand to deplete the available money and sometimes even more.

At T. Harv Eker’s seminar – Millionaire Mind Intensive© in London earlier this year, Harv shared one of the simplest and most effective Money Management Systems for achieving Financial Freedom.   I really urge you to attend this seminar if you want to become financially free and maybe even go beyond financial freedom to becoming a millionaire.

Here are some of the key leanings:

1. Never spend more than 55% of your earnings on necessities.  Live within those means.
2. Divide the rest of your money into 5 parts
   1. 10% goes into permanent savings that you never, ever spend.  You can invest this money wisely, it but never spend it.
   2. 10% goes into long-term savings that you build up to pay for major purchases in your life
   3. 10% goes into your education and continuous development fund so you keep improving your earning power
   4. 5% goes into money you  give to good causes and charities
   5. 10% is play money – to be spent completely every month on rewarding yourself with something you enjoy.

I highly recommend you take the time to attend the Millionaire Mind Intensive© Seminar or at the very least read the book by T. Harv Eker on the subject. It will pay handsomely in ROI.

Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

Why is “Love the music of the soul” and the “stream in the desert?” 

In the timeless words of Shakespeare: “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

Happiness comes from our relationships and when these are not working properly, they impact all other aspects of our lives.   On the other hand, when our relationships are intact and we love and are loved, there is a magic that takes hold of our lives and we seem to find resources we never knew we had.

Family and relationships are one of the three key areas of importance to most people.  Quality time is the best way to increase the strength of your relationships.  You can measure the quality based on the face time you spend with the important people in your life.

Do not however, confuse “spending time” with being physically there.  To be PRESENT, means that you are totally engaged mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually with another person. There is nothing else taking up space in your mind, so those with you feel the power of your presence because you are completely there for them. This is the meaning of ‘quality time’.  The timeless moments when we connect so profoundly with those we love that time stops and we are hear the music of the soul and experience the streams in the desert.

It is a myth that people leave their problems at home and focus on their work.  When their home life and family relations are out of balance their whole life, including their work is also out of balance.

Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

The Laws of Nature always apply or do they?

 Have you, or do you know anyone who has successfully managed to grow a Cedar tree from a Melon seed? My guess is that the answer is “No!” The reason I am so sure of this, is that one of the Laws of Nature is: “you reap what you sow!”   Many of you are probably thinking: “well duh, that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”  My answer is that it can’t be that obvious because so many people are constantly trying to get something for nothing.

Employees in companies, managers in big businesses and we humans in general always want more and we want it for FREE if possible.  We want more, more, and more again but we do not want to put in the effort it takes to truly create value.

I am not even sure that the concept of ‘value creation’ is widely understood.   Too many people confuse activity and effort with value creation.

Value creation is not just showing up at 8:00 am and leaving at 5:00 pm.  It really depends on what you do in between.  For example, did you have breakfast, chat with your friends about what happened last night or over the weekend, spend hours on Facebook or browsing the web, take multiple cigarette and bathroom breaks, come late, stay at lunch for longer than you are supposed to and then shut down mind and body well before the end of the day?   These activities are about subtracting value NOT adding value.

Research confirms that most employees are no more than 50% productive at work! What a waste of resources and what a waste of a life!  You spend 35% of your life at work!!!

To increase your income, you must work all the time you are at work.  All your activities must be high value activities and success and advancement will follow. Some examples of value adding activities are: finding creative solutions to problems, reducing the cost of some task, product or service, resolving conflict, creating a new product or service, closing a profitable sale, doing things faster and more accurately, etc.

A great daily exercise is to write 5 to 10 successes you have accomplished at the end of each day.  It really helps you to understand what value creation means on a very personal level.  Creation is about ADDITION, not about SUBTRACTION!

“You reap what you sow” does apply to every aspect of your life including your job.

Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

Are you Goal-Driven or on Remote Control?

Success is determined by the clarity of your goals.  What is your focal point? What do you want to accomplish?  If you can answer these questions you have taken the essential first step to success.

A good starting point to determine what you really want out of your life is to go to the end and imagine yourself on your deathbed.  I know it is not a pleasant thought, but it is certainly one of the most powerful reality checks.

Imagine yourself there and ask yourself what you would like to have done with your life. What would you like to be remembered for?  What do you want to have contributed to those you love? What difference did your life make?

Unfortunately, if you do not find the answers to these questions long before you get to your deathbed you may just as well be dead.  There is a choice to be made.

You can live a life on ‘remote-control’ or you can ‘wake up’, think about the answers to these tough questions:

1. What really gets me excited and motivated so much so that I cannot sleep?
2. What is the kind of work that never makes me tired because I truly enjoy doing it?
3. What am I best at and others notice my talent in that area?
4. How can I make a living doing this work?

If you do not find the answers to these questions your engine is running on ‘neutral’ and you won’t necessarily feel that your life was the exciting journey it was meant to be.  Of course life will be like a roller-coaster ride full of ups and downs but if you have found your center, you will not only survive the journey but will make it worthwhile.

Self-knowledge is the key that unlocks the door to your success.

Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

FEARLESS

“I am a warrior.  I look ‘em in the eye, I tell ‘em who I am, and if they don’t like it, —-‘em!” T. Harv Eker, 1994

Self-confidence and healthy self-esteem are king in any field of endeavor.  Not ‘right’, not ‘wrong’ but belief in your cause and faith in your purpose.

1. Know yourself
2. Know what you want
3. Get comfortable in your skin
4. Clarify your purpose and your strategy
5. Stand your ground
6. Realize your full potential.  If others do not like it, …. them!
7. Have fun doing it!

Research has shown that most of the world’s problems can be traced down to one root cause: low self-esteem.  At ICTN we develop your human potential in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions.