Today’s Quote & Question For 6/30/09

Today’s Quote: "Never say more than is necessary." - Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Today’s Question: Are you a capable manager of your economy of words?

My Thoughts: Are you using just the right amount of words to get your point across? Are you not using enough words and having your message fall short? Are you using too many words and confusing the message or turning away the receive before transmission? We all know people (and some of us are those people) who talk well past the selling point of an idea, and will actually turn others away from great ideas. How well are you managing your word count to get your point across?

ANSWERS REMINDER #5: DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY

ANSWERS REMINDER #5: DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY

Your customers are on the rampage today. Your cab driver is having a family crisis. Your suppliers have lost your shipment. Everything that could go wrong today has gone wrong. But that is nothing for you to worry about.

THIS WEEK'S TIP: Remember, whatever problem the rest of the world is having, this has nothing to do with you personally. It’s not your fault that everyone else’s world decided to crumble around them today, so you make due. Take a deep breath, and plug away with your day. Give a smile and a few words of sympathy. If you can help, help. Otherwise, focus on keeping your day on track.

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/29/09

Today’s Quote: "One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do." - Henry Ford

Today’s Question: Is fear the largest barrier between you and success?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/28/09

Today’s Quote: "You are accountable for what you do, and no one else is accountable." – Edith Martin

Today’s Question: Are you living up to your own responsibility for yourself?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/27/09

Today’s Quote: "The superior person's learning goes in his ear, attaches to his heart, expands to the end of his limbs, and is established in his actions. Even in his smallest word or slightest action, he sets an example." - Mencius (Mengzi Meng-tse)

Today’s Question: How much time do you set aside for continued learning?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/26/09

Today’s Quote: "The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come." - Lee Iacocca

Today’s Question: Are you spending your days sowing for prosperity or hoping to reap from the work of others?

Today's Quote & Question For 6/25/09

Today's Quote: "It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared." - Whitney Young, Jr.

Today’s Question: If your opportunity were to come knocking today, would you be afraid to answer the door?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/24/09

Today’s Quote: “To try to be better is to be better.” - Charlotte Cushman

Today’s Question: How hard are you really trying?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/23/09

Today’s Quote: "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” - J. R. R. Tolkien

Today’s Question: Do you like the people you hang out with?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/22/09

Today’s Quote: "Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives." - A. Sachs

Today’s Question: What is missing to keep you from calling your life a 'life?'

ANSWERS REMINDER #4: IT IS IMPORTANT TO DO SOMETHING

ANSWERS REMINDER #4: IT IS IMPORTANT TO DO SOMETHING

Procrastination and fear are two enemies of motivation that will cause a person to not take needed action. Living your life and fulfilling your dreams is what you should be doing, not worrying about whether the wrong decision will destroy you. Problems from making the wrong decision can usually be recovered from. Indecision can leave you completely in the cold.

THIS WEEK'S TIP: Don't just sit there…do something! Even if you’re not sure what to do, that is really when it is important to do something. Even if you wind up doing the wrong thing, sometimes it’s the only way you can figure out what is the right thing to do. Take a page in your daily journal every day to write down all the things you took a chance on, even if it is a small as trying a new dish at your favorite restaurant. Very soon, you will have a long list of new accomplishments.

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/21/09

Today’s Quote: "The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself." - Anna Quindlen

Today’s Question: Are you the person who defines your personal standard?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/20/09

Today’s Quote: "Eliminate something superfluous from your life. Break a habit. Do something that makes you feel insecure." - Piero Ferrucci

Today’s Question: How often do you step out of your comfort zone?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/19/09

Today’s Quote: "Making good judgments when one has complete data, facts, and knowledge is not leadership - it's bookkeeping." - Dee Hock

Today’s Question: What are you waiting for?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/18/09

Today’s Quote: "The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

Today’s Question: Do you give advice good enough to follow it yourself?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/17/09

Today’s Quote: "Progress always involves risks. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first." - Frederick Wilcox

Today’s Question: How would you fare in a personal risk assessment?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/16/09

Today’s Quote: "We are all salesmen every day of our lives. We are selling our ideas, our plans, our enthusiasms to those with whom we come in contact." - Charles M. Schwab

Today’s Question: How well have you crafted your sales pitch for your life?

ANSWERS REMINDER #3: KNOW YOUR LIMITS

ANSWERS REMINDER #3: KNOW YOUR LIMITS

I read an article once on people who do extreme-type outdoors sports—mountain climbers and white water rafters and the like—having what they call a 'bad pain memory'. When at their limits, they will push themselves just a little harder to go a little further, and end up paying the consequences in longer recovery time, and sometimes, with the loss of their life. They usually swear they will never to do it again, but just a few hours later, they’re planning their next excursion—or maybe or just heading straight to the trail with no plan whatsoever.

THIS WEEK'S TIP: There is a point of excess and exhaustion to every activity, and a good part of being responsible for yourself is to know your personal limits, and then actually stopping well before you have reached dangerous levels. Overextending your time, money and obligations are just as bad as overextending your body, for whatever reason.

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/15/09

Today’s Quote: "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." - John F. Kennedy

Today’s Question: Are you willing to lead and ready to learn?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/14/09

Today’s Quote: "When you are in any contest you should work as if there were - to the very last minute - a chance to lose it." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Today’s Question: Have you been known to coast to the finish when you near the completion of a task?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/13/09

Today’s Quote: "Quit now, you'll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you'll be halfway there." - David Zucker

Today’s Question: When the going gets tough, what keeps you from giving up?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/12/09

Today’s Quote: "You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think." - Mortimer Adler

Today’s Question: Do you have the patience to wait for things to come to you?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/11/09

Today’s Quote: "Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil and still more the man who is indifferent to everything." - Johann K. Lavater

Today’s Question: What steps do you take to maintain a balanced mind?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/10/09

Today’s Quote: "Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today’s Question: Are you afraid to take the risk?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/9/09

Today’s Quote: "It ain't bragging if you can back it up." - Dizzy Dean

Today’s Question: Are you proudly displaying your accomplishments?

ANSWERS REMINDER #2: THINGS TAKE TIME

ANSWERS REMINDER #2: THINGS TAKE TIME

Rome wasn’t built in a day, remember? Its rise took decades of careful planning, and its fall was the result of a series of problems that made the situation grow steadily worse day by day. Why would you expect instant weight loss, instant financial freedom, instant career success, or even love at first sight?

THIS WEEK'S TIP: Start by relaxing. Take a deep breath and remember you can only progress one move at a time. Progression works best when you have a plan to follow. Only a plan will help you know if you are going in the direction you think you want to go, instead of hoping that one day you will just end up there. Think things out logically, write down how you want to get there, and remember that every journey will take as long as it is supposed to take. Take your time, and enjoy the journey!

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/8/09

Today’s Quote: “Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.” - President Calvin Coolidge

Today’s Question: Are you wasting your talents?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/7/09

Today’s Quote: "One single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer." - G. E. Lessing

Today’s Question: How do you take the time to show gratitude?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/6/09

Today’s Quote: "It is not giving children more that spoils them; it is giving them more to avoid confrontation." - John Gray

Today’s Question: What do you do to avoid conflict?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/5/09

Tday’s Quote: "To me success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents 1% of your work that results from the 99% that is called failure." - Soichiro Honda

Today’s Question: Does a fear of failure keep you from obtaining true success?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/4/09

Today’s Quote: "No matter how good you are, there's a lot of luck involved." - Reggie Miller

Today’s Question: How much of your success can you attribute to luck?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/3/09

Today’s Quote: "Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day's work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition." - Sir William Osler

Today’s Question: Are distractions of the future or the past keeping you from living in the moment?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/2/09

Today’s Quote: "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." - Frederick Douglass

Today’s Question: What struggles in your life have been key to your current successes?

Today’s Quote & Question For 6/1/09

Today’s Quote: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

Today’s Question: What are some of the really stupid things you have done that you could have prevented?

ANSWERS REMINDER #1: YOU'VE GOT TOO MANY IDEAS

ANSWERS REMINDER #1: YOU'VE GOT TOO MANY IDEAS

Admit it. You are an 'ideas' person. Of the uncountable number of random events that happen, any one of them could be the idea that will help you make your second, third, or 300 million. But you haven't figured out how to make that first million yet.

THIS WEEK'S TIP: Take a sheet of paper and write down your ideas. Anything you would like to accomplish or comes to mind, as crazy as it might seem. Go over that list, and then strike out all the ideas you know you don't have the time, support, or desire to truly pursue. Prioritize whatever is left as what you think you can accomplish first, second, third, and so on, until you reach the end of your list. Stick to this list for a week, then reevaluate. If you need to subtract some items from your list, now is the time. Finally, pick a regular period of time you would like for evaluation of your list, and stick to it.