Your Daily Choices: Thoughtless or Purposeful?

You must weed your mind as you would weed your garden. ~Terri Guillemets

Seeds of Greatness, written by Denis Waitley, has inspired many to examine their personal and professional lives and ask:  What am I doing today that will determine my life tomorrow?  We make hundreds of thousands of choices every single day, but the question is whether they are thoughtless or purposeful.  

We are faced with life altering decisions on a daily basis, but most of us don’t realize it.  We believe our purpose is to put out fires and to work tirelessly to prevent new fires from erupting.  But if we take the time to evaluate the “seeds” we are sowing in the various aspects of our lives, then we open the door enough to peek at the future and what will “grow” from those seeds.  

To give you a glimpse into Waitley’s Seeds of Greatness, read on to see how his book is divided.

1. The Seed of Self-Esteem:  From Self-Love to Self-Worth
2. The Seed of Creativity:  Releasing Your Creative Energy
3. The Seed of Responsibility:  We Become What We Do
4. The Seed of Wisdom:  What it Means to Live Without Wax
5. The Seed of Purpose:  The Gold Mine in Your Goals
6. The Seed of Communication:  Reach Out and Touch Someone
7. The Seed of Faith:  The Power of Positive Believing
8. The Seed of Adaptability:  Turning Problems Into Opportunities
9. The Seed of Perseverance:  The Will to Win is Everything

There are areas in both personal and professional life that we are excellent at.  Maybe you have fostered your creativity in a way that you have found fulfilling.  Others may be excellent communicators, and have seen the positive results from practicing active listening and body language skills.  

But every person, no matter their circumstance of life, has areas of life which they are unwilling to look at.  Why?  If there are aspects of our personality or daily habits that are destructive to ourselves, others, our future, our business, then why wouldn't we be willing to look at them squarely and work on them?  

Do You Have What It Takes To Change?
We all have hang-ups to changing, and yet, the cycle continues: mismanaging finances, yelling when we don't get our way, trying to control others, worrying about the what-ifs instead of appreciating today.  Tony Schwartz, President and CEO of The Energy Project and author of "Be Excellent At Anything", wrote a blog post some time back on Six Keys To Changing Almost Anything.  He writes, 

In order to make change that lasts, we must rely less on our prefrontal cortex, and more on co-opting the primitive parts of our brain in which habits are formed.  Put simply, the more behaviors are ritualized and routinized — in the form of a deliberate practice — the less energy they require to launch, and the more they recur automatically.

His six keys to change include:

1. Be Highly Precise and Specific
2. Take on One New Challenge at a Time
3. Not Too Much, Not Too Little
4. What We Resist Persists
5. Competing Commitments
6. Keep the Faith 

What specific steps have you taken to incorporate change into your life?  We'd love to hear what has worked in your journey to improve your personal and/or business life.

You will also want to read the post on How To Stop Worrying and Start Living.

{Book 6} Required Entrepreneur Reading: How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

What has been your most meaningful lesson in learning how to work well with difficult people?  Or what changes have you made in yourself to become a person that is easy to work with?

Written in 1936, this book has sold over 15 million copies around the globe.  What has drawn millions to read a book by someone who is not only from a completely different era, but quite a few generations distant from us?  

Here’s a little snippet from the opening chapter, entitled “Nine Ways to Get The Most Out of This Book:"

“If you wish to get the most out of this book, there is one indispensable requirement, one essential infinitely more important than any other rule or technique.  Unless you have this one fundamental requisite, a thousand rules on how to study will avail little.  And if you do have this cardinal endowment, then you can achieve wonders without reading any suggestions for getting the most out of a book.  What is this magic requirement?  Just this:  a deep, driving desire to learn, a vigorous determination to increase your ability to deal with people.”(emphasis added)

What is the most foundational aspect of business?  Our ability to work with people in a mutually respectful manner, in a way that generates positive outcomes for all parties involved.  Dale Carnegie focuses on providing insightful strategies for you to connect and work with a variety of people and the challenges that often arise in such relationships.

The book is divided into the following major sections:

1. Fundamental Techniques in Handling PeopleSix Ways to Make People Like You
2. How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking
3. Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

The beauty of this book is that these principles are not only useful and applicable to our business relationships, but also can be utilized in personal relationships.

What has been your most meaningful experience or lesson learned in knowing how to approach challenging people in a positive way?

{Book #5} Required Entrepreneur Reading: Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Can Your Thoughts About Yourself Actually Influence Your Business Success?

As entrepreneurs, we are constantly on the lookout, not only to find ways to enhance our business purposes, products, and practices, but we are also willing to look deeper into ourselves to understand what drives us in all aspects of life.  What is it inside of each person that makes them believe they can achieve whatever they put their mind to?  On the other side of the coin, what is it that makes us believe we absolutely don't have what it takes to achieve x, y, or z?  

Ironically, we are so good at analyzing others' hang-ups and downfalls.  We nominate ourselves as "Chief Analyzer" and we say, "If Suzy would just realize her talent and focus less on her downfalls, she would be so successful at ________."  

However, many of us don't want to take the time or simply just lack the interest to explore the psychology of what makes a business person successful.  But what if exploring this avenue turns out to be the eye-opening-factor that changes a person's business approach, and ultimately their entire life course for the better?    

{Book #5}: Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Author Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon, who performed corrective surgeries for people who were dissatisfied with what they deemed as "defects" in their appearance.  What surprised him the most were the different responses of these patients, after having the surgery.  For some, their lives changed dramatically for the positive, as their self-confidence blossomed and they were able to connect with others socially as a result of not feeling self-conscious about their perceived defect.  For other patients, while their outward appearance had become what they always wanted, they reported not feeling any differently about themselves and their life situation.  

Maltz wanted to help his patients to find the root of satisfaction in life.  He writes, "Our self-image and our habits go together [because we formed our habits to fit our image of ourselves].  Change one and you will automatically change the other."  He specifically addresses how our self-perceptions shape and form our actions, and even our ability to pursue the goals we truly desire to achieve.  

What have you learned and changed about yourself, that has enhanced your ability to think and act in more positive (and ultimately  more successful) ways?