30 August, 2018

Top of Mind: Why You Should Always Keep Improving

SUCCESS Staff


I firmly believe the moment you stop learning is the moment you stop living.
—Aashish Dalal, co-founder and CEO of ParkWhiz
When I was growing up, my dad would tell me, “I don’t care what you want to be as long as you try and be the best.” It has stuck with me. If I’m not improving, someone else is, and I will get passed by. I don’t fear failure, but it’s something that constantly motivates me.
—David Johnson, chief operating officer of Fireman’s Brew
Continuous improvement is the best hedge against future risk. The external environments of businesses change constantly, so leaders must continually improve to remain successful and competitive. Without that improvement, businesses quickly lose their competitive advantage and market share.
—Christophor Jurin, founder and CEO of Construct-Ed
If one does not constantly improve, one stays behind. People must always stay on top of their game, whether through forward thinking or innovative actions. We live in a remarkable age in which technology is evolving rapidly and assisting us in continually improving ourselves and our work methods. Immerse yourself in change. Don’t be afraid of it. Carpe diem.
—Ayelet Noff, founder and co-CEO of Blonde 2.0
The world around us is constantly evolving and adapting. Success isn’t achieved by staying idle; you’ve got to adapt and overcome challenges around you.
—Chris Quiocho, managing partner of Indy Asset Exchange
Credit to Success Magazine Staff - Post January 2016 Success Magazine

28 August, 2018

5 Ways to Be Better Than "Just Good"

Tony Jeary

Q: think I am great at my job, but I’m not in the top 1% of performers at my company. How can I refine my skills to become one of the best?

A: You sound like the type of person who hopes to perform at a peak level, who wants to get the most out of life, and who wants to continually raise the bar on your performance. If these statements are all accurate, it is fair to say that you are probably very interested in becoming what I like to call a master.
Several years ago I created a term called Return on Effort (ROE). ROE is about getting the best possible results from the most compressed amount of time and energy invested. Consistently achieving a high ROE involves the pursuit of not just great results, but extraordinary results. I’m talking about the kind of results that are eye-popping; the kind of results that you might have thought were impossible to achieve.
I teach the people I work with that there is a progression of satisfactory results that has three stages. Many people and organizations are satisfied with good results. Then there is a smaller percentage of people who want to accelerate their results, and they perform at a level of greatness. The third stage is one I call mastery. Most of my new customers are those performing at the great level and have a desire to achieve more. They want to perform at the mastery level. The shift to mastery involves a specific change in thinking.
What do you think of when you hear the word mastery? Most people think of being elite or being the best they can possibly be. Although those ideas are accurate, mastery involves much more than that. Let’s break this down a bit.

If you want to change what you do in order to achieve a better result, you must ultimately change what you believe about something.


There are three possibilities when it comes to acceptable results. As I shared before, good is where many successful businesses operate. Good companies are profitable and experience some growth. They have developed business practices that work for them and stick to them. They are typically conservative when it comes to change and their innovation level is about average. Organizations such as these are satisfied with whom and what they are. They have settled into a comfort zone and rarely take any action to disrupt it.
The second possibility is great. Great businesses start as good companies then dare to do things differently. They developed the ability to think more strategically and combined strategic thinking with the focus needed to create the strategies that propelled them to greater success. When businesses or people achieve greatness, they have difficulty grasping that there is yet a third possibility that awaits them: mastery. Their problem is they believe they have already achieved as much as possible. At that point, their greatness becomes a silent enemy and a roadblock to discovering the third possibility of achievement.
To achieve mastery, there must be a very specific shift in thinking. This applies to individuals and organizations. Ask yourself, How is dramatic change ignited and what does it look like? I have been working with top-performing individuals and organizations for the past 25 years and have identified a specific profile of mastery. There are five essential characteristics of mastery, and all of them are the result of a specific way of thinking. As individuals and organizations begin to think and believe in some new principles, there is a consistent upward shift in superior results. The five foundational characteristics that produce the mastery profile are simple and easy to understand, but difficult to achieve.
  1. A compelling strategic vision and a deep motivation to achieve it. Clarity exists about why the vision must be achieved and its value and significance.
  2. An obsession with learning, growing and improving.
  3. The ability to think on a long-term basis and focus on outcomes, vision and execution.
  4. A desire to achieve perfection. Perfection is understood to be about always doing the right things at the right time and making no mistakes.
  5. The consistent ability to convert challenges into opportunities.
Most people today don’t care about doing the hard work required to function at the mastery level. Most people prefer creating and then maintaining a comfort zone around themselves. For those with this mindset, apathy rules and any meaningful change is a possible threat.
The thing that ultimately drives action is belief. It is very difficult to think and accept ideas that conflict with what you believe to be true. The truth you embrace shapes your opinions, your personality and most visibly, the things you actually do. The things you do communicate whom and what you are to others and what you do is driven by what you believe.
If you want to change what you do in order to achieve a better result, you must ultimately change what you believe about something. Start believing that you can adopt the five characteristics of a master. It is only when you change what you believe that you can change the way you think. When you change the way you think, you can make better choices. When you make better choices, you can achieve better results. When you continually improve your results, you eventually transition from good to great to master.
If you want to change what you do in order to achieve a better result, you must ultimately change what you believe about something

24 August, 2018

Transform Your Mind | One of The Most Eye Opening Videos



You can change your hair, your clothes, even your spouse....
But if you don't change your mind, nothing will change!!!

23 August, 2018

How to Execute and Make Things Happen - A Must Read!!!

Kim Reed Perell

Kim Perell in action on stage at Success Live - Sept 2017

“Passion comes from the Latin word for pain. What is something you're so passionate about that you would gladly suffer for?” — Kim Perell


“The execution factor, it doesn’t sound very sexy…”  says Kim Perell, entrepreneur and CEO of global technology company Amobee. “But I’m here to tell you how to master this one skill that will drive your success more than anything else.” That’s because execution is a skill that can be learned, she says. There are five essential traits to master the skill of execution and take something from idea to reality. 

Vision

Vision is about a having a North Star. It"s about having a compass from where you are today to success. “People who write down their goals are nine times as likely to be successful over their lifetime as people that don"t,” Perell says. “Nine times! Why wouldn’t you do this?”

Passion

What is something you"re so passionate about that you would gladly suffer for?  “When I was 11, I had a passion for horses,” Perell says. “So I went to the barn and asked them if I could work at the stable to get a riding lesson, and they gave me seven hours of cleaning up the stables for a one-hour ride. I thought that was an incredible deal. Looking back I think they got a better deal on that one, but I would have done anything to ride that horse.” It’s passion that’ll keep you going when initial enthusiasm wears off.

Action

Ask yourself what is one action that you will take to accomplish your vision. Just a simple one, Perell says. Start small and write that down. You have to be willing to take that first step.

Resilience

“I think Rocky is the best example of resilience,” Perell says. “He gets knocked down all the time but he always gets back up.” This is the ability to adapt and overcome obstacles and rollbacks and thrive in change.

Relationships

“Nobody is successful alone; I haven"t been,” Perell says. It"s important to build healthy, inspiring, supportive relationships. The most significant factor in any person"s life is the people you surround yourself with.
I just love the way Kim puts Success in Perspective...
What do you think?

21 August, 2018

3 Key Qualities of a Good Team Player

John C. Maxwell


One of my all-time favorite movies is Remember the Titans. It traces the legendary 1971 high school team that won the Virginia state football championship and rose to become the No. 2 ranked high school squad in the country. But those victories alone were not what inspired a Hollywood film and provoked barbershop conversation decades later.
The players attended a newly integrated high school in Alexandria, a town teeming with tension. That season they conquered the racial divide among themselves, and taught their fans to do the same.
“At a time when the city was ready to burn itself to the ground, the kids stepped out and changed attitudes among themselves and their community,” Coach Herman Boone said in an interview included in the movie’s DVD.
They had embraced a teamwork attitude; each member learning to put aside his prejudice, mistrust, pride and fear to become part of a greater whole.

The shift from me to we doesn’t come naturally for everyone.

The shift from ‘me’ to ‘we’ (or in the Titans’ case, from us and them to just us) doesn’t come naturally for everyone. It sure didn’t for me. That’s why today we’re going to examine some qualities of a good team player, and discuss how to adopt an attitude of collaboration.

Talk It Out

Coach Boone might have taught ball-handling strategies, but the more critical skill he imparted on his players was communication. He made the young men ride together, room together and train together. They resisted—except for one white player who crossed the color line and set the tone for everyone else. The steady wins on the field might have cracked the wall, but it was the locker room conversation that demolished it, Boone later said.
Communicating means more than simply talking (and definitely more than just texting). To improve your connection with people…
  • Be candid. Harboring hidden agendas, relaying messages through third parties, sugarcoating bad news, beating around the bush and airing grievances on social media are surefire ways to sabotage group relations.
  • Be quick. If something is bothering you, address the problem within 24 hours so that a short-term frustration doesn’t morph into a long-term grudge.
  • Be inclusive. Be discreet when needed, but otherwise share as much work-related information with your team as possible. Open communication increases trust, trust increases ownership and ownership increases participation.

Roll With It

Trailblazing record producer Quincy Jones was once accused of being a sellout. He was big in the jazz world, rubbing elbows with the genre’s most renowned musicians. But in the 1980s, he jumped into the pop scene with an emerging superstar, Michael Jackson, to the chagrin of jazz diehards.
Jones shrugged them off. “When I was 12 to 13 years old, we played everything—strip music, rhythm and blues,” he told Context magazine. “We played pop music, [polkas], and Sousa…. We played every club in town—black, white, tennis. So I’ve always had a range to draw from.”
I’m not sure there’s a better attribute to bring to a team than adaptability. What organization doesn’t benefit from someone who is able to roll with financial ups and downs, pinch-hit for colleagues, adjust to changing operations or shift strategies on the fly? These team players exhibit a nimbleness that’s contagious, injecting a can-do spirit across an entire division.
You can become more flexible in your thinking if you…
  • Keep learning. For many years, I carried a notecard in my pocket and jotted down new information as I learned it. I got into the habit of looking for new material and skills to acquire.
  • Think beyond your role. How many times have you heard a colleague whine, “That’s not my job”? Don’t be that office bellyacher! Instead learn a little bit about everyone’s duties, especially those higher up on the ladder than you. You never know when an opportunity will arise to save the day in a company crisis.
  • Think creatively. Look for unconventional solutions when you meet a challenge. “There’s an expression that says a person’s age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea,” Jones once said. “The ones who don’t react with fear are the really creative people. ‘Let’s try it,’ they’ll say. ‘Let’s go there even if we blow it.’ ”

Wave Your Pompoms

Figuratively, of course. But consider the enthusiasm of sideline cheerleaders and how much energy they infuse into fields and stands.
I think about companies like Harley-Davidson, which went from owning 80 percent of its market to nearly going under in the early 1980s. Or General Motors’ sputtering in the 2000s, or Starbucks diluting itself with rapid, unsustainable expansion.
In all three cases, the enthusiasm of the CEO and employees rescued those companies from the brink of disaster and grew them into the juggernauts they are today. You don’t need to be cheerleader-perky to bring energy into your workspace. But you can grow your enthusiasm by…
  • Showing a sense of urgency. Give yourself deadlines for completing the steps of a project, especially the mundane tasks you’re putting off.
  • Taking on more. When someone asks you to do something, do it and then go beyond the assignment.
  • Striving for excellence. Nothing breeds enthusiasm like the feeling of success that follows a job well done. Let that momentum carry you into the next project.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz perhaps said it best: “When you’re surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible.”
* * *
These qualities are merely a taste of the many attributes good team players bring to their organizations.
I’ll leave you, then, with one final task: Think about the people in your sphere. Consider everyone from the parking attendant to the CEO. Identify those who exhibit the best team qualities. Watch them. How do they put their attitudes into action? How do they inspire others to follow their examples? Teamwork doesn’t come naturally for everybody. But remember those Titans, and know that attitudes can change.
The shift from me to we doesn’t come naturally for everyone
Who saw the movie - "Remember The Titans"?

19 August, 2018

😍Just Checking in....😍

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday!!!
Be Awesome....👍

14 August, 2018

Why printing your photos can make you happier

BY CHRIS ROPER

An old girlfriend of mine asked why I took so few pictures. When I explained I just couldn’t be bothered, she patiently replied that pictures are like memories – if you don’t take any, how are you supposed to remember all the happy moments you had in life?
I’m not especially forgetful, but her point struck a chord. My girlfriend taught me a fundamental truth: photographs help us immortalize special memories. And the very best memories deserve to live in the physical world, where you can see them every day, reliving the best times of your life as if they were yesterday.
Since then, I’ve been taking photos regularly and printing them using 1ClickPrint. Now I’m in the habit of taking pictures, it’s great to browse albums or walk around my home and remember the sights, smells, and sounds of the past.
You see, just taking pictures isn’t enough. It’s what you do with them that counts. Do you remember what you did with your last picture? If you’re like 90% of the population you probably uploaded it to social media. That buzz you get when the likes build up is pretty special, but like all cheap thrills it fades quickly, and so does the photo.
It’s a strange irony: we take cameras with us everywhere but spend far less time looking at the pictures. Yet studies have shown that browsing old albums makes you happier than eating chocolate, watching TV, listening to music, or drinking booze.
If you truly want to relive your favorite moments of the past, why not print your photographs? Hang them on your living room wall, in your study, in the kitchen, frame and display them on your desk at work… do anything to bring those treasured moments to life in the real world.
I use 1ClickPrint to create canvas prints of my favorite pictures, but they also print on metal, wood, acrylic, and (of course) paper, so you can find the right style for your home. Instead of spending money on costly artworks, cover your walls in loved ones and exotic places, bringing you closer to friends, family, and past adventures.

The craftspeople at 1ClickPrint prepare everything by hand, using the finest art-grade inks to ensure long-lasting, colourful, and vibrant pictures. Every order is then triple-checked before leaving the printers and sent securely to your door. With premium, hand-stretched canvas prints beginning at just $5.99, you can easily print within budget. 
Abandoning your photographs on a hard drive or social media account denies them their true power. If you take pictures to remember a special moment, then give them life by printing them. You’ll feel a lot happier if you do.
If you have money, don't buy things - buy memories!!!

13 August, 2018

Tony Robbins: THE MAGIC OF CHANGING YOUR THINKING! (very motivational)



Tony Robbins - The Magic of Changing your Thinking.
Every day you have to stand guard at the door of your mind - Jim Rohn

10 August, 2018

If you've ever struggled to control your emotions, you must watch this.



Problems are not the problem, reaction is the problem...
"What is defeat? Nothing but Education. Nothingbut the first step to something better" - Wendell Phillips

09 August, 2018

11 Tips to Boost Your Mood and Be Happier - 2/2

Patty Onderko


What makes you happy? (Tips 6-11)
Besides the big stuff like family, health, work and faith, you probably treasure at least one small, regular ritual that brings you peace, joy, sanity, flow and reflection. Unwittingly over the years, you have probably developed and perfected a strategy for cultivating qualities proven to feed a positive outlook: gratitude, optimism, awe, compassion, mindfulness and physical health, for instance. And it’s probably not by writing in a leather-bound gratitude journal every night or sitting in the lotus position chanting “om” each morning. Happy habits don’t need to be formal or fit idealized notions of tranquility or all-out jubilation, but they should be personalized.
My ritual is going for a long walk through the neighborhood with my headphones on, music providing a dramatic soundtrack to my everyday worries, hopes and fantasies. But you might lift your mood by gardening, sipping coffee while reading a book, doodling on a sketchpad, reading your child a bedtime story or hiking with a friend.
We asked positive-psychology leaders how they practice what they preach. How do they stay centered, optimistic, grateful and satisfied in their busy lives? They share their surprising answers below.
6. “Every other week, I take my 1-year-old son Leo to the Dallas aquarium. Very few things in this world make me as happy as watching someone I love become overwhelmed with awe at something as ordinary as a swimming turtle. Awe, like joy, is contagious, and I want to see the world through eyes like Leo’s.”
—Shawn Achor, happiness researcher 
7. “I love to run and/or walk along the Charles River here in Boston, in all seasons. But the biggest delight I share with my wife, Alicia, is our annual weeklong visit to Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico. We look forward to it all year as a boost and culmination of being active, outside, with a new group of friends, doing yoga and tai chi, participating in new dances, and being almost completely away from our digital connections and devices.”
—John J. Ratey, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School 
8. “Kickboxing class is my coffee-free pickup. It is not violent (I box to a four-count beat with music) but rather an exhilarating way to get my feel-good hormones racing through my body.”
—Elizabeth Lombardo, Ph.D., author of Better than Perfect: 7 Strategies to Crush Your Inner Critic and Create a Life You Love
9. “I try to reflect on human kindness by thinking of those who have reached out to me or offered help.”
—Fred Luskin, Ph.D., director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects at Stanford University 
10. “For me, it’s going on a brisk walk through parklands or by the water. I walk fast enough to get my blood pumping and clear my head. Sometimes I listen to music or an audio program, but mostly I just breathe deeply and listen to my own thoughts, allowing them to untangle in my mind.”
—Domonique Bertolucci, author of The Happiness Code: Ten Keys to Being the Best You Can Be and 100 Days Happier: Daily Inspiration for Life-Long Happiness
11. “I just try to make anything I have to do, or that I can do, into something that I enjoy—by learning about it, savoring it, doing it better than I did it before. When I was younger, I depended much more on specific activities like rock climbing, mountain climbing, painting or reading…. Now, in the ninth decade of life, I am just grateful to be alive…. [And] the people I love… are just as essential now as they ever were.”
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., professor of psychology and management at Claremont (Calif.) Graduate University


Thanx for reading my Blog. Make today your happy day, and all the rest that follows

P.S. Follow the link to see all the books that you can read from each of these people!

07 August, 2018

11 Tips to Boost Your Mood and Be Happier - 1/2

Patty Onderko


What makes you happy?
Besides the big stuff like family, health, work and faith, you probably treasure at least one small, regular ritual that brings you peace, joy, sanity, flow and reflection. Unwittingly over the years, you have probably developed and perfected a strategy for cultivating qualities proven to feed a positive outlook: gratitude, optimism, awe, compassion, mindfulness and physical health, for instance. And it’s probably not by writing in a leather-bound gratitude journal every night or sitting in the lotus position chanting “om” each morning. Happy habits don’t need to be formal or fit idealized notions of tranquility or all-out jubilation, but they should be personalized.
My ritual is going for a long walk through the neighborhood with my headphones on, music providing a dramatic soundtrack to my everyday worries, hopes and fantasies. But you might lift your mood by gardening, sipping coffee while reading a book, doodling on a sketchpad, reading your child a bedtime story or hiking with a friend.
We asked positive-psychology leaders how they practice what they preach. How do they stay centered, optimistic, grateful and satisfied in their busy lives? They share their surprising answers below.
1. “First thing in the morning I get on my treadmill, and I get a bridge partner on the Internet. I have an air desk so I can walk for an hour at 3 mph and play bridge at the same time.”
—Martin Seligman, Ph.D., director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
2. “A good conversation with a friend over a cup of coffee and jogging along the Hudson River in New York City are two of my favorite activities.”
—Gabriele Oettingen, Ph.D., professor of psychology at New York University
3. “Even when I’m totally off my game and out of my normal happiness routines—which include writing down what I’m grateful for, getting enough sleep, hiking with my dog, allowing myself to just work on one thing at a time, etc.—I still always make an effort to connect with strangers. I look passersby in the eye and smile. I chat with the barista. I dish out compliments (“Love your shoes!”) in the grocery store. It’s almost a game for me: Who smiles back? Who brightens? Who chuckles? And it rarely fails to lift my spirits.”
—Christine Carter, Ph.D., senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center 
4. “Before breakfast every morning, I start a meditative routine on a yoga mat with a foam roller. I work through trigger points in my legs, hips, back and chest. Then I move to a series of plank and lunge poses. Often my 3-year-old daughter will climb onto my back to add 50 pounds of weight. She knows Daddy starts the day by working out. She knows I don’t talk when I work out, so I can hear her breathing next to my own, and we often get synchronized. Taking care of my body, noticing and appreciating what is happening in the present moment, connecting to my daughter: all mushed up together in a daily 10-minute routine.”
—Todd Kashdan, Ph.D., professor of psychology at George Mason University 
5. “I make sure I ask myself what I need emotionally in the moment, then try to provide it directly. This often involves some physical touch like putting both my hands on my heart so I can feel cared for and supported, and then speaking to myself with the same warmth, compassion and encouragement I would show to a good friend. When I’m struggling, I say things like ‘I’m sorry this is so hard right now. I’m here for you.’ ”
—Kristen Neff, Ph.D., associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin 



Be on the lookout for Thurday's Blog where I will share the last 6 Tips to Boost Your Mood and Be Happier

Have a Blessed Tuesday....

03 August, 2018

What If My Whole Life Has Been Wrong | MORNING MOTIVATION (very motivati...



Do I live in a friendly or a hostile Universe - Albert Einstein
The Solution is INSIDE - Not OUTSIDE!
...open to everything, but attached to nothing....

02 August, 2018

10 Simple Steps to a Happier You - the last 5

How to bring a little bliss in your life using the acronym GREAT DREAM



Follow these 10 steps—an easy acronym, GREAT DREAM—to sprinkle some

happy into your life and the lives of others.

6. DIRECTION

Have goals to look forward to.
Feeling good about the future is important for our happiness. We all need goals to motivate us, and these need to be challenging enough to excite us, but also achievable. If we try to attempt the impossible, it brings unnecessary stress. Choosing ambitious but realistic goalsgives our lives direction and brings a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when we achieve them.
What are your most important goals?

7. RESILIENCE

Find ways to bounce back.
All of us have times of stress, loss, failure or trauma in our lives. But how we respond to these has a big impact on our well-being. We often cannot choose what happens to us, but we can choose our own attitude to what happens. In practice it’s not always easy, but one of the most exciting findings from recent research is that resilience, like many other life skills, can be learned.
How do you bounce back in tough times?

8. EMOTION

Take a positive approach.
Positive emotions—such as joy, gratitude, contentment, inspiration and pride—are not just great at the time. Recent research shows that regularly experiencing them creates an “upward spiral,” helping to build our resources. So although we need to be realistic about life’s ups and downs, it helps to focus on the good aspects of any situation—the glass half-full rather than the glass half-empty.
What are you feeling good about?

9. ACCEPTANCE

Be comfortable with who you are.
No one’s perfect. But so often we compare our insides to other people’s outsides. Dwelling on our flaws—what we’re not rather than what we’ve got—makes it much harder to be happy. Learning to accept ourselves, warts and all, and being kinder to ourselves when things go wrong increases our enjoyment of life, our resilience and our well-being. It also helps us accept others as they are.
What is the real you like?

10. MEANING

Be part of something bigger.
People who have meaning and purpose in their lives are happier, feel more in control and get more out of what they do. They also experience less stress, anxiety and depression. But where do we find “meaning and purpose”? It might be our religious faith, being a parent or doing a job that makes a difference. The answers vary for each of us, but they all involve being connected to something bigger than  ourselves.
What gives your life meaning?

01 August, 2018

How to Live A Great Life | Lewis Howes | Goalcast



Challenges are Inevitable. Look inside yourself, who you are?
Get clear and get a personal philosophy...

Do Not Give Up On The Person You Are Capable Of Becoming (Inspirational ...

Do Not Give Up On The Person You Are Capable Of Becoming