The Success Principles by Jack Canfield

Book Site - www.thesuccessprinciples.com

I. The Fundamentals of Success
Quote: Learn the fundamentals of the game and stick to them. Band-Aid remedies never last.

1. Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life
Quote: You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances,
the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.

• 100% responsibility for everything.
• Give up all your excuses. [ Event + Response = Outcome ]
• Change your responses, to change the outcomes.
• Everything you experience today is the result of choices you have made in the past.
• If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep on getting what you have always got.
• Give up blaming.
• Give up complaining.
• Are you complaining to the wrong person ?
• You either create or allow everything that happens to you.
• Pay attention to you results, they do not lie.

2. Be Clear Why You're Here
Quote: Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in life has a purpose.

• What were you put on this Earth to do ?
• Have personal life purpose statements.
• What's the "WHY" behind everything you do ?
• Your inner guidance system is your joy.
• Stay on purpose.

3. Decide What You Want
Quote: The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

• Childhood programming often gets in the way of what you want.
• Do not live someone else's dreams.
• Stop settling for less than you want.
• Make an "I want" list.
• Stop worrying about making a living.
• Clarify your vision of your ideal life.
• Use your inner global positioning system.
• High achievers have bigger visions.
• Do not let anyone talk you out of your vision. [ Dream Stealers! ]
• Vision exercise: What you want in following areas ?

• Your financial area of life.
• Your job or career.
• Your recreation time.
• Your physical health.
• Your relationships with your family and friends.
• Your personal arena.
• Your community and social condition.

• Share your vision for maximum impact.

4. Believe It's Possible
Quote: Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

• You get what you expect.
• You got to believe.
• Believe in yourself and go for it.
• It helps to have someone else believe in you first. [ Coach/Mentor ]

5. Believe in Yourself

• Believing in yourself is an attitude.
• The choice of what to believe is up to you.
• You have to give up "I can't".
• Don't waste your life believing you can't.
• It's all about attitude.
• Don't assume you need a college degree.
• What others think about you is none of your business.

6. Become an Inverse Paranoid
Quote: Every negative event contains within it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

• How do I use this experience to my advantage ?
• Look for opportunity in everything.
• God must have something better in store for me!

7. Unleash the Power of Goal-Setting
Quote: If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspire your hopes.

• How much, by when ?
• Change the idea to goal.
• Write it out in detail.
• You need goals that stretch you.
• Create a breakthrough goal.
• Reread your goal three times a day.
• Ignore considerations, fears, and roadblocks.
• Mastery is the goal.
• Do it now!

8. Chunk It Down
Quote: The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

• Use Mind Mapping to break the goal into steps.
• Make a daily to-do list.
• Do first things first.
• Plan your day the night before.

9. Success Leaves Clues

• Checkwho has already done what you want to do ?
• Seek out clues. [from coach/mentor/manual; by interviewing/volunteering. ]

10. Release the Brakes
Quote: Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone.

• Get out of your comfort zone.
• Don't be as dumb as a trained elephant.
• Stop re-creating the same experience over and over.
• Change your behaviour for better.
• Change your self-talk with positive affirmations.

11. See What You Want, Get What You See
Quote: Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.

• Visualization works to enhance performance.

12. Act as If
Quote: Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.

• Start acting as if you are already where you want to be.
• Be, do, and have everything you want .. starting now.

13. Take Action
Quote: What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
Quote: No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes.

• The Universe rewards action.
• Nothing happens until you take action.
• Have a bias for action.
• Ready, fire, aim! [ not aim, fire! -- see the difference. ]
• Quit waiting.
• Satisfaction comes from enough action.
• Fail forward: You can never learn less; you can only learn more!

14. Just Lean into It
Quote: You cannot cross a sea by merely staring into the water.
Quote: For every failure there's an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

• Leaning into it creates momentum.
• Be willing to start without seeing the whole path.
• Keep leaning and the path will appear.

15. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
Quote: Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

• Be willing to feel the fear.
• Fantasized Experiences Appearing Real [ FEAR ].
• Get rid of fear:

• Replace the physical sensations fear brings with those feelings you would like to be experiencing instead - courage, self-confidence, joy, calm.
• Remember when you triumphed in the face of fear.
• Scale down the risk.
• Take a leap!

16. Be Willing to Pay the Price
Quote: It's not the will to win that matters -- everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters.

• Pain is only temporary, the benefits last forever.
• Practice, practice, practice!
• Whatever it takes!
• Putting in the time.
• It's about building momentum - to overcome the initial resistance.
• Go through the awkward stage - anything worth doing well is worth doing badly in the begining.
• Find out the price you have to pay.

17. Ask! Ask! Ask!
Quote: You have to ask. Asking is the world's most powerful and neglected secret to success and happiness.

• Don't be afraid of experiencing rejection or hearing no.
• Simply ask for what you want!
• You have nothing to loose and everything to gain by asking.
• Start asking today!

18. Reject Rejection
Quote: We keep going back stronger, not weaker, because we will not allow rejection to beat us down. It will only strengthen our resolve. To be successful there is no other way.

• Rejection is a myth! - it doesn't really exist.
• SWSWSWSW - some will; some won't; so what - someone's waiting.
• Just say "Next!"

19. Use Feedback to Your Advantage
Quote: Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

• To reach your goals more quickly, you need to welcome, receive, and embrace all the feedback that comes your way.
• Ways of responding to feedback that DO NOT work.
• Caving in and quitting.
• Getting mad at the source of the feedback.
• Ignoring the feedback.
• Ask for feedback : What would it take to make it to 10 on a scale of 10 ?
• Be willing to ask and be grateful for it.
• Respond appropriately to the feedback and keep moving forward.

20. Commit to Constant and Never-Ending Improvement
Quote: He who stops being better stops being good.

• Kaizen: Constant and never-ending improvement. How can I make this better ?
• Improve in small increments.
• Decide what to improve on.
• Don't skip steps.
• Make a commitment to keep getting better and better every day in every way.
• It takes only a little extra bit of performance to go from good to great.

21. Keep Score for Success
Quote: You have to measure what you want more of.

• Measure what you want, not want you do not want.
• Make sure to keep score in all the areas of your life: financial, professional, recreation, health, family, personal, and social.

22. Practice Persistence
Quote: Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

• Sometimes, the universe will test your 'commitment' to the goal you are pursuing.
• Never give up on your hopes and dreams.
• Hang in there.
• Deal with obstacles: persevere until you find a way that works.

23. Practice the Rule of 5
Quote: Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

• Everyday do five specific things that move you toward your goal.

24. Exceed Expectations
Quote: If you are willing to do more than you are paid to do, eventually you will be paid to do more than you do.

• Go the extra mile.
• Give more than people expect.
• Give something above and beyond what is expected.

II. Transform Yourself for Success
Quote: The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspect of their lives.

25. Drop Out of the "Ain't It Awful" Club . . . and Surround Yourself with Successful People
Quote: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

• You become like the people you spend the most time with.
• Be selective about people you hang with.
• Avoid toxic people.
• Surround yourself with successful people.

26. Acknowledge Your Positive Past
Quote: You are a living magnet. What you attract into your life is in harmony with your dominant thoughts.

• The more you acknowledge your past successes, the more confident you become in taking on and successfully accomplishing new ones.
• Create a victory log.
• Display your success symbols.
• Reward your inner child: We have a parent like ego, an adult ego, and a childlike ego.
• A sense of completion: Rewarding yourself for your wins powerfully reinforces your subconscious mind's desire to want to work harder for you.

27. Keep Your Eye on the Prize

• Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them.
• The most important 45 minutes of the day: Whatever you read, see, listen to, talk about, and experience during the last 45 minutes of the day has a huge influence on your sleep and your next day.
• Get into the habit of visualizing your ideal next day the night before.

28. Clean Up Your Messes and Your Incompletes

• Cycle of completion: Decide -> Plan -> Start -> Continue -> Finish -> Complete.
• When you don't complete the past, you can't be free to fully embrace the present.
• Failing to complete robs you of valuable attention units.
• Get into completion consciousness.
• Four 4 D's of completion: Do it, delegate it, delay it, or dump it.
• Making space for something new : When you clear out the old, you make room for something new.

29. Complete the Past to Embrace the Future
Quote: None of us can change our yesterdays, but all of us can change our tomorrows.
Quote: As long as you don't forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy rent-free space in your mind.

• Release negative emotions from the past and come back to your natural state of love and joy in the present.
• Forgive and move on! Forgive and bring yourself back to the present.
• Steps to forgiving:
• Acknowledge your anger and resentment.
• Acknowledge the hurt and pain it created.
• Acknowledge the fears and self-doubts that it created.
• Own any part you may have played in letting it occur or letting it continue.
• Acknowledge what you were wanting that you didn't get, and then put yourself in the other person's shoes and attempt to understand where he or she was coming from at that time, and what needs the person was trying to meet-however inelegantly-by his or her behaviour.
• Let go and forgive the person.

30. Face What Isn't Working
Quote: Doing more of what doesn't work won't make it work any better.

• Successful people face the circumstances squarely, heed the warning signs, and take appropriate actions, no matter how uncomfortable or challenging it might be.
• Successful people are committed to finding out why things are going wrong and fixing them than they are to defend their own positions or maintaining their ignorance.

31. Embrace Change
Quote: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

• Change is inevitable. When change happens, you can either cooperate with it and learn how to benefit from it or you can resist it and eventually get run over by it.
• Embrace a change: If you can always remember that you've been through changes in the past - and they have largely worked out for the best - you can begin to approach each new change with the excitement and anticipation you should.

32. Transform Your Inner Critic into an Inner Coach
Quote: You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

• Negative thoughts actually control our behaviour. Negative thoughts affect our body negatively and positive thoughts affect our body in a positive way.
• Talk to yourself like a winner.
• Replace Automatic Negative Thoughts[ANTs] with more positive and affirming thoughts.
• Ask your inner critic about improvements that you can follow rather than judgments.

33. Transcend Your Limiting Beliefs
Quote: Your subconscious mind does not argue with you. It accepts what your conscious mind decrees. If you say, "I can't afford it", your subconscious mind works to make it true. Select a better thought. Decree, "I'll buy it. I accept it in my mind."

• Moving beyond your limiting beliefs is a critical first step toward becoming successful.
• Identify those beliefs that are limiting you and then replace them with positive ones that support your success.
• How to overcome any limiting belief ?
• Identify a limiting belief that you want to change.
• Determine how the belief limits you.
• Decide how you want to be, act or feel.Create a turnaround statement that affirms or give you permission to be, act, or feel this new way.

34. Develop Four New Success Habits a Year
Quote: Success is a matter of understanding and religiously practising specific, simple habits that always lead to success.

• Whatever habits you currently have established are producing your current levels of results.
• More than likely, if you want to create higher levels of success, you are going to need to drop some of your habits and replace them with productive habits.

35. 99% Is a Bitch; 100% Is a Breeze
Quote: There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.

• Successful people adhere to the "no exception rule" when it comes to their daily disciplines.
• No matter what it takes, commit 100% to the outcome.

36. Learn More to Earn More
Quote: In a humble state, you learn better. We can't find anything else very exciting about humility, but at least there's that.

• Decrease you television time.
• Leaders are readers. Learn to read faster to read more.
• Be teachable and be prepared when opportunity knocks.
• Commit to lifelong learning.

37. Stay Motivated with the Masters
Quote: A successful person realizes his personal responsibility for self-motivation. He starts with himself because he possesses the key to his own ignition switch.

• Negative conditioning is often so ingrained that it takes continual external motivation to overcome the decades of negative effects and move toward more success-oriented thoughts and attitudes.
• What truly successful people do is listen daily to audio program from the world's renowned motivational masters.

38. Fuel Your Success with Passion and Enthusiasm
Quote: Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

• Passion is something within you that provides the continual enthusiasm, focus, and energy you need to succeed.
• Enthusiasm and passion come as a result of caring about what you do. If you love your work, if you enjoy it, you're already a success.

III. Build Your Success Team
Quote: Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

39. Stay Focused on Your Core Genius
Quote: Success follows doing what you want to do. There is no other way to be successful.

• Successful people focus on their core genius and delegate everything else.
• Do what you love - the money will follow.

40. Redefine Time

• Maintain a balance among work, family, and recreation.
• Three kinds of days: Best Results days, Preparation days, and Rest & Recreation days.
• Best results days: 80% of time operating in your core genius.
• Preparation days: Prepare and plan for best results days.
• Rest & Recreation days: No work-related activity of any kind.

41. Build a Powerful Support Team and Delegate to Them
Quote: If you don't have an assistant, you are one.

• Every high achiever has a powerful team of key members.
• Once you've chosen your team members, trust them.

42. Just Say No!
Quote: You don't have to let yourself be terrorized by other people's expectations of you.

• Successful people know how to say no without feeling guilty to all of the people and distractions that would otherwise devour their time.
• Don't just delegate, eliminate! - Create a "stop-doing" list and make them as your policies.
• Successful people view the decision to say no as equally acceptable as the decision to say yes.
• It's not against you; It's for me. [ .. that I am saying no. ]

43. Say No to the Good So That You Can Say Yes to the Great
Quote: Good is the enemy of the great.

• Concentrating on merely good often prevents the great from showing up.
• Stop majoring in the minors: mundane, non-productive, time-stealing activities.

44. Find a Wing to Climb Under
Quote: Study anyone who's great, and you'll find that they apprenticed to a master, or several masters. Therefore, if you want to achieve greatness, renown, and superlative success, you must apprentice to a master.

• Constantly seek out guidance and advice from experts in your field.
• Determine in advance what you want from a mentor.
• Mentors help you overcome "possibility blindness" both by acting as a role model for you and by conveying a certain level of expectation as they communicate with you.
• Take action on your mentor's advice.
• Be prepared to return the favour!

45. Hire a Personal Coach
Quote: People, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities.

• A coach will help you clarify your vision and goals, support you through your fears, keep you focused, confront your unconscious behaviors and old patterns, expect you to do your best, help you live by your values, show you how to earn more while working less, and keep you focused on your core genius.

46. Mastermind Your Way to Success
Quote: When two or more people coordinate in a spirit of harmony and work toward a definite objective or purpose, they place themselves in position, through the alliance, to absorb power directly from the great storehouse of infinite intelligence.

• Two heads are better than one when it comes to solving a problem or creating a result.
• Mastermind group: Made up of people who come together on a regular basis to share ideas, thoughts, information, feedback, and resources.
• By getting the perspective, knowledge, experience, and resources of the others in the group, not only can you move beyond your own limited view of the world but you can also advance your own goals and projects more quickly.

47. Inquire Within
Quote: All the resources we need are in the mind.

• Trust your intuition. [ Gut feelings, inner guidance and the voice within. ]
• Use meditation to access/deepen your intuition.
• Make time to listen to your intuition.
• Follow your intuition: Trusting your intuition is simply another form of trusting yourself, and the more you trust yourself, the more success you will have.

IV. Create Successful Relationships
Quote: Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancements, all success, all achievements in real life grows.

48. Be Hear Now
Quote: Listen a hundred times. Ponder a thousand times. Speak once.

• Listening: The art of paying thoughtful attention with a mind toward understanding the complete message being delivered.
• Listening insures fairness and accuracy - two important qualities of any relationship.
• Argue less and listen more.
• Be interested rather than interesting.
• Powerful questions to connect with another person:
• If we were meeting three years from today, and what has to have happened during that three-year period for you to feel happy about your progress ?
• What are the biggest dangers you'll have to face and deal with in order to achieve that progress ?
• What are the biggest oppurtunities that you have that you would need to focus on and capture to achieve those things ?
• What strengths will you need to reinforce and maximize, and what skills and resources will you need to develop that you don't currently have in order to capture those oppurtunities ?

49. Have a Heart Talk
Quote: Most communication resembles a Ping-Pong game in which people are merely preparing to slam their next point across; but pausing to understand differing points of view and associated feelings can turn apparent opponents into true members of the same team.

• People can't listen until they have been heard.
• Allowing people to express unexpressed emotions without fear is a powerful tool that would release them to be totally present to deal with business at hand.
• Unexpressed emotions if left unexpressed can block team work, synergy, creativity, and intuition, which are vital to productivity and success.

50. Tell the Truth Faster
Quote: When in doubt, tell the truth.

• The truth allows us to be free to deal with the way things are, not the way we imagine them to be or hope them to be or might manipulate them to be with our lies.
• The truth also frees up our energy. It takes energy to withhold the truth, keep a secret, or keep up an act.
• There is no "perfect time" to tell the hard truth.
• Hiding the truth always backfires. The longer you withhold it, the more disservice you do to yourself and to the others involved.

51. Speak with Impeccability
Quote: Impeccability of the word can lead you to personal freedom, to huge success and abundance; it can take away all fears and transform it into joy and love.

• Successful know that if they don't take dominion over their words, their words will take dominion over them.
• To speak with impeccability is to speak only words that are true, that uplift, and that affirm other people's worth.
• Successful people speak words of inclusion rather than words of separation, words of acceptance rather than words of rejection, and words of tolerance rather than words of prejudice.

52. When in Doubt, Check It Out
Quote: There is no substitute for hard facts!

• Don't waste time and resources wondering what other people are thinking, intending, or doing. Simply check it out.
• People always imagine the worst when they don't know what is true and they make bad decisions.
• Don't hesitate - ask/check it out ! -- "Do you mean ... ?"
• Checking out your assumptions improves your communication, your relationships, your quality of life, and most especially your success and productivity.

53. Practice Uncommon Appreciation
Quote: There is no man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.

• To be successful with other people, you must master the art of appreciation.
• Three kinds of appreciation: Auditory[to hear it], Visual[to see it], and Kinesthetic[to feel it].
• If you want to be remembered for being important to someone else's life, make them feel appreciated.
• Take time to appreciate yourself, too.

54. Keep Your Agreements
Quote: Your life works to the degree you keep your agreements.

• Every agreement you make is ultimately with yourself.
• Your integrity and self-esteem are worth more than a million dollars.
• If you want to have the respect and trust of others, which is crucial to accomplishing anything big and important in life, then you will take keeping your agreements more seriously.
• Make only agreements that you intend to keep.

55. Be a Class Act

• Strive to become the kind of person who acts with class, who become known as class act, and who attracts other people with class to his or her sphere of influence.
• Live by your own highest standards.
• Maintain dignity and grace under pressure.
• Focus and improve the behaviour of others.
• Operate from a larger, inclusive perspective.
• Increase the quality of every experience.
• Counteract meanness, pettiness and vulgarity.
• Take responsibility for actions and results.
• Strengthen the integrity of all situations.
• Expand the meaning of being human.
• Increase the confidence and capability of others.

V. Success and Money
Quote: There is a science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty.

56. Develop a Positive Money Consciousness
Quote: There is a secret psychology to money. Most people don't know about it. That's why most people never become financially successful. A lack of money is not the problem; it is merely a symptom of what's going on inside you.

• Financial success starts in the mind.
• Identify and turn around your limiting beliefs about money.
• Visualise what you want as if you already have it.

57. You Get What You Focus On
Quote: If you don't put a value on money and seek wealth, you most probably won't receive it. You must seek wealth for it to seek you. If no burning desire for wealth arises within you, no wealth will arise around you. Having definiteness of purpose for acquiring wealth is essential for its acquisition.

• Decide to be wealthy.
• Become conscious about your money.
• Determine your net worth.
• Determine what you need to retire.
• Become aware of what you are spending.
• Become financially literate.
• Wealth has many aspects: Human assets[enrich/love], Intellectual assets[capture/learn], Financial assets[capitalize/earn], and Civic assets[contribute/give].

58. Pay Yourself First
Quote: You have a divine right to abundance, and if you are anything less than a millionaire, you haven't had your fair share.

• A part of all you earn must be yours to keep. [compounding]
• Make saving and investing a priority.
• Build assets rather than liabilities.
• Protect what is yours with insurance.

59. Master the Spending Game
Quote: Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.

• Spend less money!
• Reduce the cost of your rich lifestyle.
• Take steps to become debt free.

60. To Spend More, First Make More
Quote: Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich.

• Three steps to earn more:
• Decide how much more you want to make.
• Ask yourself what product, service or additional value can I deliver to generate more money ?
• Simply develop and deliver the product, service, or extra value.
• Create multiple sources of income.

61. Give More to Get More
Quote: Money is like manure. If you spread it around it does a lot of good. But if you pile it up in one place it stinks like hell.

• Tithing - giving 10% of your earnings to the work of god - is one of the best guarantees of prosperity ever known.
• Two types: Financial tithing [10% of your earnings], and Time tithing [volunteering your time].
• Share the wealth with others!

62. Find a Way to Serve
Quote: It is one of the beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

• The greatest level of contentment and self-satisfaction are experienced by those who have found a way to serve others.
• Volunteer your skills. Volunteering is a powerful way of networking and often leads to business and career oppurtunities.
• You'll get more than you give : service always come back multiplied.

VI. Success Starts Now
Quote: No amount of reading or memorizing will make you successful in life. It is the understanding and application of wise thought which counts.

63. Start Now! . . . Just Do It!
Quote: Everyone who got to where they are had to begin where they were. A journey of 1000 miles must begin with one step.

• You cannot do everything at once. But if you keep adding a little progress every day, over time you will have built a whole new set of habits and self-disciplines. Remember, anything valuable takes time.
• You just begin, and the path of oppurtunities just keeps unfolding in front of and to the side of you.
• You and you alone are responsible for taking the actions to create the life of your dreams. Nobody else can do it for you.

64. Empower Yourself by Empowering Others
Quote: If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others. If your actions create a legacy that inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are an excellent leader.

• The greatest contribution you can make to the world is to grow in self-awareness, self-realization, and the power to manifest your own heartfelt dreams and desires. The next greatest thing you can do is to help others do the same.
• One of the powerful ways to learn anything is to teach it to others.
• When you lift up others, they will lift up you!

Job or money: Which do you want?

Source

Life can be very taxing for those who are unable to take a concrete decision in life about better job. And problems begin when they enter the organisation. In a hurry to create an impression, they either end up over-doing things or underplaying themselves. Both ways, they end up unsuccessful. The following tips will help you build a sound career, and not just a job:

Don’t be in a hurry

Never be in a hurry to take up a job, especially if it is your first one. Look around, meet people, and go for a few interviews to evaluate what the industry has to offer. Then, sit back and ask yourself what kind of a job you really want to do. You will always have an advantage if you pick a job that you enjoy. Your focus should be on a career and not just that one, particular job.

Great job or great salary?

The eternal dilemma! Many people evaluate themselves on basis of how much they earn on their first job and give little importance to their job profile. Such people are rarely satisfied with their work in the long run. Therefore,, gather as much information as possible about the job you are being offered. Be clear about the profile before agreeing to work for someone. One should work with a great team and a good boss who you can learn from. Money follows good performers, and it will come to you as well. So, for now, simply concentrate on getting a good job.

Put in long hours

Your first job is an opportunity to learn, make mistakes and experiment at the cost of your employer. The objective of the organisation that your work with is to train you as quickly as possible and make you productive from their business point of view. Thus, the time you take to grasp and master things becomes important. Work hard, for long hours and be sincere. Learn as much as you can. The faster you learn, the more you will be noticed .

Be open to criticism

It is only natural that you will take time to get things right on your first job, and people may get critical of you. The best way to deal with such situations is by accepting your mistake without justifying yourself. Also, express your commitment to perform the job well the next time.

Concentrate on quality

Every boss loves quality. You must be careful while doing your job and make sure that you deliver results .Your performance can improve drastically by asking questions for clarification. If you have a point of view, discuss it with your boss and take his concurrence on things before executing your idea. Always cross-check what you have done before meeting your boss with updates, work that you would have done. So be careful.

Do not get influenced

Everyone in the team will have an opinion about everybody else, so don’t get influenced by fellow employee opinions or judge others. This can create bias and may hinder your work. So take your own time and evaluate people on how they treat you. Maintain a positive attitude even if you feel that someone is being negative. Finally , good luck and have a great career!

Secret behind a successful manager - BRIAN TRACY

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One of the most listened to audio authors on personal and business success today, Brian Tracy’s seminars on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy are loaded with ideas that people can apply to get better results in every area. Here are some of Tracy’s ideas on management success:

• Your goal is to become a transformational leader, the kind of person that motivates and inspires people to perform at levels far beyond anything that they had previously thought possible. Transformational leaders empower others by keeping them “in the know,” by keeping them fully informed on everything that effects their jobs.
• People want and need to feel that they are “insiders,” that they are aware of everything that is going on. There is nothing so demoralising to a staff member than to be kept in the dark about their work and what is going on in the company.
• An empowering behaviour practised by transformational leaders is regular feedback on performance and results. People need to know how they’re doing so they can improve if performance is below standards and so that they can be proud of their successes.
• The more feedback you give to people, the better it is, as long as the feedback is objective and not critical. My friend, Ken Blanchard, says that, “Positive feedback is the breakfast of champions.”
• Learn how to get more done through others and how to plan, organise, staff, delegate, supervise and measure performance. Loaded with practical, proven ideas and methods you can apply immediately to get better results.
• Be generous with your praise and encouragement. Remember, people are the only asset that can be made to appreciate in value by giving them warmth, respect, approval and by creating a climate of positive expectations.
• What companies and countries and institutions need today are courageous visionary leaders who’re committed to creating an exciting future for themselves and others. You have the ability to evolve and grow as a leader and to make a real difference in the world around you.
• And the one thing you can know for sure about yourself is that, no matter what you’ve accomplished up to now, there is far more that you can do. As you practice the behaviours of effective leaders, you will grow more and more toward the realisation of your full potential. It’s completely up to you.
• Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action in your work. First, hold regular meetings with your staff and tell them everything that is going on. Invite their comments, questions and concerns. Make everybody feel as if he or she was an insider in the organisation.
• Second, continually look for opportunities to give positive feedback, praise and encouragement. People need praise and encouragement like roses need rain and sunshine. Take very opportunity to make people feel better about themselves and their work.

Autograph Your Career and Your Life with Excellence by Denis Waitley

In 1644, a child was born. He lived to be 93 at a time in history when the average life span was but 35 to 40. He taught himself his trade and began his career. He often worked alone with primitive tools, but his focus every day was to put the best he had into his work. The man made violins. He labored over each and every process and step to ensure that he had "autographed" them with excellence and the best that was in him. He created his own personal standard of excellence for his craft, and he actually signed his name on each instrument that passed the test.

Today, some three hundred years later, the name of this craftsman who was committed to excellence is the benchmark for the best in musical instruments. His name? Antonio Stradivari! His Stradivarius violins sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars because they are the best.

When Stradivari labored, he did not know of the legacy he was creating. He was doing his best, day in and day out, to reach his standard of excellence. He didn't spend the extra time and care to get the accolades of upper management or to be the top producer in the company. He did it because excellence was part of his focus, mission, and obsession.

It is easy to do world-class work when a boss is looking or a supervisor is around. But the test is in what you do when no one is looking. High achievers have developed the ability to stay focused when no one else is around. Does your quality or performance fluctuate based on who is in the office or which customer you are serving? Excellence is not something that you can just turn on and off whenever you feel you need it. It is a habit rooted in your attitude about your life and career.

Are you just going through the motions day to day, or are you creating a masterpiece? Autographs are valuable because they are rare and are tied to excellent performance. In today's world, superior effort and service are becoming endangered species. Is the autograph you place on your work and service each day a Stradivarius or a Michael Jordan? Or is it unknown, with little value? Autograph your career and your life with excellence.

Having a firm commitment to excellence, like Stradivari, has an amazing effect on your achievement motivation. When people who are simply going through the motions or who are just working for a paycheck hit a challenge or obstacle, they often run to their boss and get him or her to do it, or they procrastinate by getting a cup of coffee or shuffling the papers on their desk. On the other hand, when individuals who are committed to excellence hit a similar challenge, they immediately bounce back with energy, and they are actually exhilarated by the chance to stretch themselves to overcome the problem. A commitment to excellence will create focus, and focus will assist you in maintaining your positive motivation and in creating a balanced life.

So, start today and autograph your work with excellence!