Kill That Belief System and Let It Die!

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. – Napoleon Hill.

For hundreds of years, “seeing is believing” has been held with high regard especially by those we would easily refer to as doubting Thomases. This however had been countered by several experts to be “believing is seeing”.
It has been noted that every change in your life comes with changing your beliefs about yourself. Your positive growth and improvement will naturally come from changing your belief system about what you can or cannot do. Many claim they have changed their belief systems but keep on hanging to them by indulging continuously in those things that they have been doing.
The following points will guide you to see the need to and how to change your belief system.

· Work on your self – concept: Psychologists have said that your self concept is the total of all your beliefs. Everything you achieve or fail at is as a result of your self-concept. All of your attitudes, feelings and views about yourself and your surroundings make up your self-concept.
So whatever self-concept you build in the inside, whether limiting or uplifting, in such manner will you act on the outside. It will be as if you are acting on a set of facts. The truth is you are.

· Don’t always give in to expert opinion: We have many classic cases of expert opinions that turned out exactly opposite. For instance, Albert Einstein was sent home from school as a young man with a learning disability. His parents were told he could not be educated. His parents refused that judgment and he went on to obtain his doctorate degree before age twenty.
Thomas Edison was sent home from school in the sixth grade on the reason that it would be a waste of money to try and have him educated. His mother home-taught him and he went on to become the greatest inventor of modern age. There are many of such stories. Don’t always give in to such opinion.

· You are unique: Many times people are always caught in the web of drawing conclusions on their ability as a result of some other individual’s experience or out come in life that look exactly like theirs. Let me remind you that the fact that no two individuals, even identical twins, have same finger print is enough evidence for you to know that you are YOU.
It then brings me to another fact that negative habits are very easily picked up. If not, why do humans easily key in to self- limiting beliefs than to success stories? The fact that the other person whose situation is similar (note: similar can never be same) to yours has failed does not mean you must also. If you have, it is because you accepted it on the inside as a fact. You are YOU and YOU alone.

· Find a field you are an expert in: Look earnestly for something you can do; and do very well. There always is that field in which you are very good. Everybody is capable of achieving excellence in an area of life. You are however responsible in discovering this field that you have extraordinary talents in. You just need to tap into your ability pool and fetch out some of which you can use.

· Beliefs learned? Of course!: No man was born into this world with a belief system. All were acquired here by learning. The good news however is that whatever is learned can be unlearned. If you have belief systems that are self- limiting all you have to do is unlearn it. Motivation speaker John Mason’s book titled “Letting go of what is making you stop” aptly describes what you should do with such belief systems. Let go of them so you can have space for that which will lift you up.

· In every negative find a positive: This is the habit of successful people. No matter how a situation turns out, they always expect a good from it. They never fail to pick up a lesson from any of their experiences. Always, believe that something good is in the offing for you.

Managing Your Time!

Have you ever been swamped with schedules, appointments or activities that you felt additional six hours in your day might just be the solution? You are not unique in this. Most productive and functional people feel this way and it is because they have goals or targets they want to meet up with. This however will remain but a mirage if time is not put under control.

Robin Sharma said that, “Time slips through your hands like grains of sand, never to return again. Those who use time wisely are rewarded with rich, productive and satisfying lives.”

Many people have lived their productive years out with little or nothing to show for it due to poor time management and you might be heading the same way if time management is not an integral part of your life either as an individual , a student, a sit-at-home mother, a manager or even a Chief Executive.

There is cheering news however. Time management is a skill and like every other skill, it can be learned. No matter how disorganized you have been in the past or how much you have tended to procrastinate or get caught up in low-value activities, you can change.

The following tips will help get you organized and fired up to always keep yourself on track no matter the type and amount of distractions that come your way. Before I break these tips down, I will like you to know that time management begins with your being able to set out your goals and on a short-term, medium term and long term scale. Time management actually begins with clarity. You must be clear about what you want to accomplish in every area of your life. Once you are clear, come back to the present and plan every minute and hour in everyday of your life; on paper, so you can accomplish what you desire.

Make a list- You must start your time management practicing with a list. The list must be anchored on priorities. The fact about time management that most people are ignorant about is the fact that you cannot manage time. You can only manage yourself and your priorities, better put. This is what makes time management hinged on self- discipline and self- control. It actually requires that you make well informed choices and decisions that will enhance the quality of your life and work.

Have an action plan- Now that you have the list of your goals, you must begin to plan each day in advance; each week in advance and likely the months ahead in advance. The things you plan to do the next day should be written down the night before. When you do this, experts say that your subconscious mind works on the list as you sleep all night long. When you wake in the morning, you will often have ideas and insight to help you accomplish the item on your list.

Do worst things first- You must make a divide while trying to manage your time. Place urgent task on one side and important ones on the other side. Most times, people spend most of their day responding to urgent task that normally include telephone calls, interruptions especially from colleagues, emergencies etc. Important tasks are those that bring positive impacts to your long-term plans. They include planning, organizing, studying etc.

Now when you have a list of the things you want to do the next day, one task will contain more value than everything else put together. Against all odds, ensure that you do it. How will you identify such a task you might be asking? Normally, it is that thing that puts you off easily. That one thing that pains you the most to think of. That one thing that even if you have accomplished ten other tasks, you will still go home and feel you had a bad day and it will keep flashing in your subconscious. That is the worst thing you should do first. You will most naturally feel accomplished and will have a burst of energy to overcome the other tasks.

Concentrate and practice focus – The difference between rays of light and laser beam is that while the rays are scattered and cover a larger area, the beam converges and cover a very small area. The results? The rays only light up while the beam can be used to light up, burn and even cut through a particular area. In time management, it pays to single-handle a task, work on it with a single minded concentration until it is a 100% complete. Thomas Edison once wrote, “My success is due more to work continuously on one thing without stopping than any other single quality.” That’s the power of focus. When you try to catch up on so many things, you tend to spend much more time than you should have. Many more time management tips abound from several experts that will propel you to being an achiever when you finally get time under your control.

Stand Alone! It is Better Than Being With A Worthless Crowd.

The saying that, “Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are” can never be more true. The Book of Proverbs concurs that, "A mirror reflects a man’s face but what he is really is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.”

Many experts have said and I personally have come to agree that, two things (the books you read and the friends you keep) determines to a great extent more than all other factors put together, the direction of a person’s life.

It is common knowledge from experience that you become more and more like the person you are closely associated with. I often tell people when I speak or during one- on- one coaching that many do not exercise fully their right to the choice of who becomes their friend. I would normally go on to point that when you don’t choose the type of friends you want, then just anybody will choose you as a friend.

Without mincing words, I had often told people to dissociate themselves from certain categories of people they related with if they wanted to see an improvement in their situation or life. Of course, it is not always that easy for them but the truth remains that good things don’t come easily. There would always be a sacrifice to make.

Another fact is that the more you associate and tolerate mediocrity around you, the greater the mediocrity in you. I have come across people who from their statements truly (?) desire to be like certain successful individuals but the kind of company they keep does not say anything positive to that effect. I saw an advert once which said, "those that pay peanuts end up with monkeys." See, mediocrity will always give birth to mediocrity, period!

The saying that If you want to fly with the eagle, then you must stop scratching with the ducks completely describe the attitude of one who is striving for excellence. Choose your company carefully: “He who lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.”

Good company will always want to increase you in the right direction while a wrong one on the other hand will not want you to go on. They will always want you to remain where you are or even reduce you.

One way to know the right or wrong type of friends is by what they say or think about your vision or dream no matter how outrageous or insensible they may be. Good friends, no matter what will advice you on how better to go about it but not so with bad friends. They are always ever critical of ideas you come up with even when they seem very good. They are dream killers. Always keep your dreams away from them. Not everyone is entitled to give you advice.

One last thing though: before you start looking out for good friends, consider if you are a great one yourself because the best way to make a true friend is to be one. Those friends will surely be on the look out for what you too can offer them.

You Must Fail!

I know you must be taken aback by the topic of this post to the extent that it has pushed you to want to see what I am talking about here. Yes I repeat it, “You must fail.”

I must confess that when I first came across a statement of this manner sometime ago, I was not in agreement with it. “How can he write such a thing”, I retorted to myself. “With all my positive thinking and preparation, I just could not fail”, I continued. But how wrong a perception I had as I have now out- grown that.

With all the successful people around, one can just easily assume that they just went from one victory to another victory over challenges. The experience from the study of successful people, mostly from their biographies and auto- biographies show that they moved from one failure to another failure until they finally found success.

For example, the life of one of the world’s most renowned leaders, America’s President Abraham Lincoln’s was described as a biography of failure; one the World’s most remembered inventors, America’s Thomas Edison experienced what may be tagged as The World’s Most Persistent Failure when he went on to invent the light bulb. That’s just but the few I want to put down here for now. Think through this story:

A high school commencement speaker was the president of a large corporation. He was actually chosen for the occasion because of his success. Yet his speech came with a most unusual wish for the graduates. The speaker told the students sitting before him in their graduation gowns, “if I could have one hope for you as you go out into the world, it would be this: I hope you fail. I hope you fail at something very important to you.” He went on to say how his own early life had been one failure after another, until he learned to see failure as an effective teacher.

That’s just the point I want to make. Many people out there don’t just want to think about failure. They see failure as a God- forsaken monster that they should have nothing, absolutely nothing to do with. Some according to certain doctrinal teachings don’t even believe such a word should exist.

Most people will always want to run to the place of success while treating the place of failure with disdain. One thing they don’t realize is that on the road to success, one must pass through the den of failure. Someone said that whenever you fall down (fail), pick something up (learn a lesson).

I was listening to a successful entrepreneur being interviewed on TV and when asked what his message was for up- coming entrepreneurs, he said, “know it that you must fail at one point in time or the other.” It was really a hard one for me to chew let alone swallow but it was really a truth of a message.

Failure is good I always tell people when ever I speak formally at seminars or during coaching sessions I give to people. Embrace failure, learn everything you can from it; pick out why you failed and what should have been done to prevent such failure; what were those things that shouldn’t have been done that contributed to your failure and on the whole find a positive from the negative. What do I mean by that? In every failure, find a success.

A popular football coach Vince Lombardi always told his teams, “if you cant stand failing, then you will never be able to understand the true meaning of success.” How about that?

Get on the fast-track to success!

Ever wondered why some people keep suceeding and moving on in life while others are nothing but failures or are stagnated? Several factors have been considered even as uncountable researches have been conducted but one clear cut fact stand out: the successful and the unsuccessful have both made a choice of their present status; either conciously or unconciously.

The tips below and many more will serve to guide you to becoming an achiever. The choice is yours.

• Lean on God-In Him lies the secret of all success because without Him everything will amount to nothing.
• Read good books, attend seminars, watch and listen to educative programs- Your mind, it has been found out, acts on what you feed at. You must then be mindful that the information you take in are those that will build you up positively.
• Be a person of character- Note here that character refers to the person you are when you are alone and is contrast with reputation which is what other people think about you. i tell you a good character will always give birth to a good reputation while teh reverse is not always the case.
• Launch out without fear of mistake but rather befriend your mistakes- All sucessful people make the most of their failures. They always looked out for what wasnt done right and make amends. The number of mistakes made should not be an issue but teh number of lessons learnt. In a few words, enlarge your mistake quota.
• Work for everything you desire and dont grab anything you did not work for- Be sure to check that your desire to go round the back door to obtain anything no matter how insignificant it may seem as this will biuld a get- it- the- right- way- attitude in you. Mike Muddock said, "you do not deserve anything you did not pursue."
• Have a vision or dream, a focus and a sense of mission- It has been discovered from the study of people that people who have a direction go farther and faster and actually get more done in every area of their lives than those who have none. Setting goals is the first major step in achieving success in life. You must plan ahead for your life by setting goals for yourself. Shop for Brian Tracy's book, Goals! on www.briantracy.com
• Keep an enlightened circle of friends- Two things have been said are most responsible for the level of success we attain in life: one is the type of books we read and the other, the class of friends we have around us. Someone has said that if you want to fly with the eagle, then you must stop scratching with the ducks.
• Love whatever you are doing- Put into your job much more than the required effort. Have a passion, a motivation from within and a heart that looks not out for immediate rewards or accolades. ‘Be ready to Live for what is worth Dying for and to Die for what isworth Living for.’
• Strive to be effective and not efficient- Efficiency is doing things right while effectiveness is doing the right things.
• Make time work for you and not you working for time- This is the most precious of all commodities because it is offered in the same quantity to all. Never say I don’t have enough time ‘cause you will never have enough of it till you die. Create time for every important task!
• Work with your convictions- Ignore the “this is how it has always been done” syndrome. He that commands a great orchestra must back the crowd; go against outward conventions and go for inward convictions.