Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Wealth File #7 Rich People Associate with Positive, Successful People

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by T. Harv Eker’s Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

Wealth File #7:

Rich People Associate with Positive, Successful People.

Poor People Associate with Negative or Unsuccessful People.

Why reinvent the wheel? “The fastest and easiest way to create wealth,” said Eker, “is to learn exactly how rich people, who are the masters of money, play the game.” If you want to fly with eagles, don’t swim with the ducks! Why reinvent the wheel? The logic is simple: If your goal is to be rich, then study the rich people. Do what they do. There is a reason why they are rich. The easiest way of studying them is being near to them. It’s simple. It’s similar to entering the corridor (refer to the previous post) to get to know the business. From the inside, you learn much, much more in much, much less time. Again, if you want to be rich, model rich people. If you want to be a great leader, for another example, then model great leaders! This is logic: If you take the exact same actions and have the exact same mindset, chances are good you will get the exact same results.

Another way to say this wealth file is associated with people who have achieved what you want to achieve. They know a lot. They know how to act and what to do. They have the skills needed to succeed. Associate with them, study them. Let’s take an example from the animal kingdom if a chicken just swims with the ducks, how is it going to learn how to fly like an eagle? Guess what, it’s not… and the same holds true for you. If you hang out with poor people* only, you’re never going to be rich (By hangout with the rich, this can also mean ‘hangout’ with their books, videos, and podcasts). Talking of birds, you’ve probably heard the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” This saying basically says that people of the same kind often hang out together. People spend time with people who are similar or they become the people they hang out always. What’s first come to your mind: Do you flock together because you are similar or do you become similar because you flock together?

Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time.” Have you read this quote? Yes? Good. No? Read it. Jim Rohn just gave the answer to my question. What matters is who you spend MOST time with (of course you may hang out with anyone you like, no discrimination). If the people you hang out with are positive, chances are high you’re positive too. If they’re complaining, chances are high that you complain too. “Rich people hang around with winners. Poor people* hang around with losers. Why? It’s a matter of comfort,” said Eker, somewhat hard-truth, “Rich people are comfortable with other successful people. They feel worthy of being with them. Poor people are unfordable with highly successful people. They’re either afraid they’ll be rejected or feel as if they don’t belong. To protect itself, the ego then goes into judgment and criticism.” Either you agree or disagree with Eker’s statement, this principle remains solid: If you want to get rich, model and associated with rich people. If you don’t have rich friends (like me, not yet so far), read their books – the books that they wrote or the books that they read or both. Or watch their videos on YouTube or listen to their talks and interviews on podcasts. Do it!

[*I need to note that the Harv Eker makes it clear in this book that he does not mean to degrade poor people. He does not think that rich people are better than poor or middle-class people. They’re just richer.]

I Have A Millionaire Mind!

12 Rules for Life #12 Pat a Cat When You Encounter One on the Street (Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Set aside some time to talk and to think about the illness or other crisis and how it should be managed every day. Do not talk or think about it otherwise. If you do not limit its effect, you will become exhausted, and everything will spiral into the ground. This is not helpful. Conserve your strength. You’re in a war, not a battle, and a war is composed of many battles. You must stay functional through all of them. When worries associated with the crisis arise at other times, remind yourself that you will think them through, during the scheduled period”

(Jordan Peterson)

This final rule is mainly autobiographical and Peterson tells us about tragedy and pain. When tragic things are in front of us and we’re powerless, we must keep our eyes open for those little things that make life worthwhile. The title of this chapter inspired from the author’s experience of observing a local stray cat and watching it adapt to its surroundings in a harsh environment. “

When you feel that your life is crewed up there is a way to make it easier to handle until you make it back on your feet. That is to shorten your “temporal horizon.” Stop thinking about what’s going to happen in the next months. Think about what and how you can improve today’s day or maybe just the next hours. Shrink the time frame until you can eventually handle the rest of it and this is how you adjust to devastation. It’s very important to not give up even in the worst situations, even if you’re at a place you’d rather not be, always try to look for what’s meaningful and worthwhile. “When you are going for a walk and your head is spinning a cat will show up and if you pay attention to it then you will get a reminder for just fifteen seconds that the wonder of Being might make up for the ineradicable suffering that accompanies it,” wrote Peterson, “Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.”

Keep Your Eyes on What’s Meaningful and Worthwhile.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People #1 Be Proactive

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by late Stephen R. Covey, writer of the most-effective personal development book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (first published 1989). One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Grow!

“Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are ‘response-able.’ They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior”
(Stephen R. Covey)

Covey categorizes people into two main groups: the ones that are proactive, and the ones that are reactive:

“Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase… Reactive people, on the other hand, focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern. They focus on the weakness of other people, the problems in the environment, and circumstances over which they have no control. Their focus results in blaming and accusing attitudes, reactive language, and increased feelings of victimization. The negative energy generated by that focus, combined with neglect in areas they could do something about, causes their Circle of Influence to shrink.”

So, every one of us has a circle of influence and a circle of concern that both share the same center in our personality. As we encounter each part of the problem, we are to choose on how to react to it. If it is something we can’t fix no matter what, we stop concerning about it and focus on the other parts that we can change.

For example, if we live in a society that is characterized by unemployment, reactive people do nothing at all and being passive to the reality. Proactive people focus on what they can do to improve themselves, create new jobs (or part-time) and be more competitive.

Effective People are Proactive People

With Winning In Mind: Catch Yourself Doing Something Right (Chapter 5)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Lanny Bassham's With Winning in Mind (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Stop catching yourself doing things wrong and trying to find out why you are failing. Instead, only think about your successes, never your failures. An example is a golfer. The mentally uninformed golfer hits a good shot and says, ‘Well, I guess I just got lucky that time.’ When he hits a bad shot he says, ‘Why do I always do that?’ The mentally informed golfer hits a bad shot. He knows it is bad, but says, ‘Next time I will hit a better shot.’ Then he hits a good shot and says, ‘That’s a good shot. What did I do right?’ See the difference?”

(Lanny Bassham)

Instead of catching ourselves doing something wrong, let’s from now on catch ourselves doing right and improve our chances of repeating that positive behavior in the future. You can catch yourself doing anything right. Be it cleaning your room, studying, reading, meditating, being kind to someone, having fun, practicing something… whatever it is: Catch yourself and pat yourself on the back. Applaud yourself. Better yet, celebrate yourself.

“I know it’s counterintuitive,” writes Bassham, “but that’s because our society is seriously messed up. We’re all programmed to focus on the negative, to complain, to make excuses, to behave like little bitches, and to use negative reinforcement. Let’s stop that.” Instead, be nice to yourself and others, focus on the positive, talk about the good things in life, and positively reinforce them.

Have A Winning Mindset!

With Winning In Mind: Negative Reinforcement (Chapter 4)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Lanny Bassham's With Winning in Mind (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Be careful not to complain. I often hear people, in business as well as sport, complaining about their circumstances. Complaining is negative reinforcement. I teach my students not to reinforce a bad shot by getting angry. Do not reinforce a bad day at the office by complaining to your spouse. Remember something that you did well each day instead. Fill your thoughts only with your best performances and you cannot help but be successful!”

(Lanny Bassham)

Ugh… negative reinforcement, it’s terrible! Yet, funny enough, it’s what most of us are absolute pros at. Do something right and nobody gives a sh*t (= no positive reinforcement). Do something wrong and people are all over you telling you what a loser you are and bla bla bla (=negative reinforcement). Ourselves, we are often the worst offenders or critics. Somehow we were just never taught to reinforce our good behaviors, but instead, we were taught to get down on us when we did something wrong. Anyway, it’s obvious that we want to reinforce our good behaviors, not our bad ones.

So what are some ways we negatively reinforce our bad behaviors?

• We talk about our bad performances
• Someone else talks about our bad performances
• We complain
• Someone else complains
• We get angry at the bad behavior
• We tell ourselves that we’re idiots for a certain bad behavior

Remember (previous articles): Every time you think, talk or write about a bad performance/ behavior/whatever, you improve the probability of having another bad performance/ behavior/whatever just like it in the future.  

“One thing I especially remember about training with them,” says Lanny Bassham about his toughest competitors in shooting, “was that they never talked about their failures in front of me.” If Lone Wigger (World and Olympic Champion) had a problem, he kept it to himself. Jack Writer (World and Olympic Champion) on the other hand was a talker. It was not that Jack bragged on himself (“Although I can understand how those who didn’t know him would think that,” write Bassham), he just liked to talk. His favorite subject was shooting and he was his favorite shooter. No matter how many low scores he shot, Jack would only talk about the high ones. The important lesson here is that Jack never reinforced a bad performance and rarely shot a low score in a big match. On the opposite, Margaret Murdoch (World and Olympic Silver Medallist) rarely talked at all. If she did, it was to compliment others on their performance. “I wonder if she knew that every time she praised another shooter, she also improved her own chances of winning?” reminisced Bassham.

The point is: The top athletes do NOT negatively reinforce their bad performances.
And neither should you.

Have A Winning Mindset!

With Winning In Mind: Positive Reinforcement (Chapter 3)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Lanny Bassham's With Winning in Mind (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“You've done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.”

(Ralph Marston)

Remember that the more we think about, talk about, and write about something happening, the higher the probability of that thing happening. When you reinforce a positive behaviour, you increase the likelihood of that behaviour happening again.

Arrived at the summit? Reinforce it.

Just read and meditate the Scripture? Reinforce it.

Had a great study session without being distracted? Reinforce it.

Ate a healthy meal? Reinforce it.

Just exercised? Reinforce it.

Finished a work project? Reinforce it.

Won a game? Reinforce it.

The point is: Whenever you do something beneficial, you want to reinforce it. Because reinforcing it improves the likelihood of that thing happening again. So that begs the question: How do you positively reinforce something? By thinking, talking or writing about it. Here are some ways to do it:

• Praise Yourself (“I think I did a great job today”)
• Praise Someone Else (“You absolutely rocked this. Greatly done!”)
• Write Down 5 Wins at the End of Every Day
• Talk About Your Good Behaviour/Performance With Your Friends or Family

“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones,
you'll start having positive results.”

(Willie Nelson)

Have A Winning Mindset!

With Winning In Mind: How Mental Picture Is Formed (Chapter 2)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Lanny Bassham's With Winning in Mind (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

Let’s keep this short and simple, Lanny Bassham writes: “Our conscious picture is formed from what we think about, talk about, and write about” (as mentioned in the previous post, or by what someone else talks to you about). So controlling your mental pictures happens by controlling what you think, talk, and write about. Simple enough.

Be careful what you wish for a picture. “The more we think about, talk about, and write about something happening, we improve the probability of that thing happening!” Now it gets really interesting. Every time you think about, talk about or write about something happening (or you picture something in your mind), you increase the odds of that thing happening.

Are you constantly telling yourself that you’ll fail a certain exam? Well, congrats! Every time you do that, you improve the probability of failing the exam. Are you telling yourself that you’ll miss the crucial penalty kick? Too bad! Every time you do that, you improve the probability of missing that penalty kick.

Lanny calls this reinforcement. Every time you create a picture in your mind, you reinforce that picture and increase the likelihood of making it a reality. You can either use positive reinforcement (great idea!) or negative reinforcement (a terrible idea!).

Think that you gonna win!

Talk about winning!

Write about winning!

Have a Winning Mindset!

How to Choose Optimism #5 Put Things in Perspective

Why take the full force of everything that happens to us? Instead, take a step back and put an event into perspective by comparing it with others that we have experienced. That’s not distancing ourselves from reality – it’s actually giving its rightful place. To those who doubt this, I recommend listening to the stories of people who had cancer from early period and who were fighting and even finding new reasons to live and hope. I’ve been with students at hospital and most of them displayed incredible desire to improve their mindsets.

Joel Osteen, a motivational teacher, once said: “Nothing happens to you, it happens for you. See the positive in negative events.” When things happen “to” you, you feel helpless and victimized. However, if you look at things as happening “for” you, then you take some of your power back. This allows you to look at the lessons and blessings (a.k.a. silver linings) within anything you might experience. Give the right and positive perspective from your experience.

How important are your frustrations and upsets, really?

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

How to Be Innovative #2 Don't Think About Failure, Think About What Have You Learned

“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat”

Steve Jobs, 2010

Many of us are brought up believing that failure is a bad thing. Our early childhood experiences typically involve being laughed-at for getting things wrong. Although we have to learn the difference between right and wrong and what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’, we are often not taught how to learn from our mistakes.

The famous inventor Thomas Edison story tells of how he invented the light bulb. He tried more than 2,000 experiments before he got the electric bulb to work (although, I suspects that it was not exactly 2,000 experiments. It just mean lots of failed experiments). A reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times, Edison responded, “I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000 step process.” At every stage, he learnt what worked and what did not. If he had given up at stage one, the world would be a darker place today!

The problem we have today is that we have a low tolerance for failure, especially in evangelism and business environment. Failure or the perception of failure is often treated with dismissal, although the reality is that although the expected results may not have been achieved, those involved learned a valuable lesson. A 1976 study carried out by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, on the reasons for major engineering failures, found insufficient knowledge to be their primary cause. The more information we have, the less likely we are to fail, so engineers today are more likely to get things right by learning from what didn’t work in the past.

This is true for all aspects of our lives, whether it is work, at home or during leisure. We need to learn from our mistakes rather than trying to forget them and move on. In every situation, it can be worthwhile jotting down or take a mental note on what has worked and what hasn’t. Commits it to memory because it can provide a useful reference when you face a similar situation or a new challenge. Don’t think about failure, instead think about unexpected outcome!

Practical Suggestions:

§  If something hasn’t worked, don’t focus on the failure, instead think about what did work and learn from it

§  Think about what hasn’t worked for you in the past and reflect on how you dealt with the situation and what you leaned. What this a positive or negative or growing experience? Did you come out of the situation a better person?

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

How to Choose Optimism #2 Don't Simply Count on Good Luck

After a setback, many people tell themselves: “I’m not lucky.” But there’s no such thing as luck. People who are thought to be lucky go out to meet what Niccolò Machiavelli, the philosopher called good fortune. They take initiatives and make contact with many people, increasing their chances of finding reliable friends, a job, even business/ministry opportunities. It is energy – not luck. It is willpower, the spirit of conquest, moving forward. It’s crucial to never lose your motivations.

Don’t believe luck is always with you. Let’s say you present a project. Everything is going wonderfully. But nothing comes of it. The explanation is simple: the person you were talking to is not interested but does not wish to upset you or waste his time discussing it. By contrast, many proposals that get a negative response end up having a positive outcome.

The basic principle: nothing is ever going as well as we think, but nothing is ever going as badly, either. Optimists know nothing can be taken for granted, that everything has to be earned. So work hard!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

How to Choose Optimism #1 Cultivate Positive Thinking

It’s better for our health to seek positive emotions – affection, joy, satisfaction. The links between the heart and brain are well established. A single positive thought can trigger beneficial neurotransmitters and hormones. Oxytocin is the hormone of love, pleasure and orgasm. Serotonin regulates our mood positively. Dopamine stimulates and encourages us. A thought, look or smile is enough to bring down our blood pressure, and make us feel better.

Test these scientific principles. When you wake up, dwell a moment on a dream, or something pleasant. When you arrive at work, forget your dreadful journey or the bad weather. Share something positive. When a friend or college look at you, smile and say hi or wave. In these moments, you’ll feel your face relax and a good mood take hold.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Change Your Life: Love and Respect Those Close to You

Watch Fast & Furious movies sometime, they value family together (minus guns and explosions)

“Respect is love in plain clothes”
(Frankie Byrne)

Often we save our best behaviour for strangers. We tend to take greater liberties (I mean taking for granted) with those who are closest to us – those who care about us most and about whom we care – than we do with total strangers. We may say painful and hurtful things to family members; we may act hostile to our partner or best friend. Although we may feel intimate and shared long history with them (no worthwhile relationship is going to be free from hurt and pain), there is no excuse for us to show hostility, insults or contempt.  

When I was a child, I often think that my parents are perfect. The same thing happens when I fall in love. But at some point, reality set in, and I discovered that my parents – including those that I loved – is human, just like everyone on earth! And then, whether it’s because of the disappointment or because we know their shortcomings so intimately – we attack them more than we do other people. This is not right! I learned that instead of focusing on my parents’ imperfections and weaknesses, I need to focus on those traits that I admire and appreciate in them, and treat them with love and respect.

I propose a slightly modified version of Golden Rule, namely: Do not do unto those close to you what you would not have done unto others (who are not close to you). We can get angry and upset, we can be disappointed and hurt, but if we want our relationships to flourish over time, we must treat those we love with at least as much respect as we do those we have just met.

Don’t simply insults and disrespect those close to you,

Learn to love and respect those whom you care the most.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Change Your Life: Be Hopeful and Optimistic

a movie

Tal Ben-Shahar in his book Choose the Life You Want writes that until 1954, running the mile under four minutes was considered a physical impossibility. Doctors and scientists all agreed that the four-minute mark represented the physiological limit of human ability. The best runners in the world confirmed the experts’ view by closing in on the four-minute mile but never bettering it. Runners spoke of the “brick wall,” an impenetrable barrier that existed at the four-minute mark.

Despite the prevailing conventional wisdom, Roger Bannister, a medical student at Oxford University, believed that he could run a mile in under four minutes. He was dismissed by other athletes and the scientific community as detached, unrealistic. On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister broke the world record for the mile, running the distance in three minutes and fifty-nine seconds. The impossible had become reality! But there is more: only six weeks after Bannister’s achievement, John Landy, an Australian runner, ran the mile in three minutes and fifty-eight seconds. A year later, three runners broke the four-minute barrier in a single race. Since 1954, the four-minute mile has been surpassed thousands of times. The impenetrable barrier, it turned out, was a product of the mind – and it was broken by the mind.

The lesson to be learned from this story is that our beliefs – whether we are optimistic (I can!) or pessimistic (I can’t…) – play a significant role in creating our reality. This does not mean that we can throw reality out the window and that everything that we hope and wish for will come true, but it does imply that being hopeful and optimistic about life and believe in one selves can make it happen. George Bernard Shaw once says, “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” Where do your beliefs limit you? What barriers can you overcome on your way to fulfilling your dreams?

Don’t be a pessimist,

Be hopeful and optimistic.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Change Your Life: Bring Humour and Lightness to Life

“A person without a sense of humour is like a wagon without springs.

It’s jolted by every pebble on the road” (Henry Ward Beecher)

I read psychologists use the term cognitive reconstruction to describe our ability to look at a situation from different perspectives. In difficult times and in tough situations it can be beneficial for us to look at things from a new angle, including seeing the humorous element – the lighter and brighter side – of our troubles. Of course, there are times when solemnity and gravity are the appropriate response, but more often than not we take ourselves – and life in general – too seriously, and we miss out on the comical and the playfulness of life. I personally think that Jesus was also a humorous and fun person to be with. If He was a serious man all the time, why do you think that children were drawn to him and wanted to be around him?

“After God created the world, He made man and woman,” writes Guillermo Mordillo, “Then, to keep the whole thing from collapsing, He invented humour.” Gordon W. Allport said, “So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter.” Regaining that spark of laughter and fun that we may have lost long time ago will make life more pleasant, contribute to our psychological and physical health, and will, of course – make us more pleasant to be around. “Anyone without a sense of humour is at the mercy of everyone else” (William Rotsler).

Don’t treat life with solemnity and gravity,

Bring humour and lightness to life.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012) Buy this book!

2. Exuberance: The Passion for Life by K.R. Jamison (New York: Vintage, 2005).

Change Your Life: Accept Reality and Act on It

“Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be”
(Jack Welch)

While we can change certain things, other things are out of our control. And if something is really out of our control, we have to learn to accept it regardless of how much we wish it were different. We may not like the law of gravity and may hope it did not exist (so we can fly!), and yet most of us accept it and learn to live with it. If we refuse to accept the reality of this law, we will not survive for long, and even if we do, we will experience constant frustration. The same applies to every fact of reality, such as the fact that it is impossible to literally go back in time and undo something that was done, or the fact that all of us have some real physical limitations.

Instead of evading reality and spending our life engaged in wishful thinking, we ought to spend our time and effort on real thinking. “You cannot tailor-make the situations in life,” said Zig Ziglar, “but you can tailor-make the attitudes to fit those situations.” See things as it really are, but then don’t let those that are beyond our control paralyzed us. Facts and our limitations may seem impossible to change – accept reality - but we have the choice of how we are to react about it (attitude) and act on it (positive actions).

Don’t refuse to accept reality,

Accept reality and act on it.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 Reference: Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012) Buy this book!

Change Your Life: Experience Your Work as a Calling

Don't like your job?
1) Find work that is meaningful, or
2) Find something meaningful in your work

“This is the true joy in life –
being used for a purpose, recognized by yourself as a mighty one”

(George Bernard Shaw)

We spend a good part of our working hours at work, and yet many people derive little meaning from what occupies them for several thousand hours each year. If we do not experience a sense of purpose in our work, we can choose to do one of two things (aside from resigning ourselves to being unhappy): find work that is meaningful or find something meaningful in our work.

We don’t all have the luxury of having the perfect job – the one that reflects our values, where we work only with people we like, and whose atmosphere precisely suits our temperament. But even if we do not find ourselves in that ideal setting, we have a great deal of choice as to how we experience our daily work. Whether as a CEO or a salesman, an investment banker or a community organizer, a minister or a manager, a janitor or a cleaner – not complete control, perhaps, but some – over what elements of our work we focus on, and consequently, on how we experience our working life.

We can, for example, remind ourselves how our work is making a difference in other people’s lives; we can focus on the elements that we find exciting and interesting, the meaningful interactions that we have with colleagues and customers; or we can appreciate the opportunity our work gives us to develop or expand our professional skills. If we can find no inherent value in our current occupation, we can tell ourselves that our work is our current occupation, we can tell ourselves that our work provides for us and for those we care about, or that it enables us to engage in meaningful activities after hours.

Researchers have found that those who made the choice, conscious or not, to see their work as merely a job, were less happy, were less satisfied with their life, than were their colleagues who viewed what they did a calling. “Even in the most restricted and routine jobs,” the study concluded, “employees can exert some influence on what is the essence of their work.”

Don’t treat the work you do as a job,

Experience your work as a calling.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012) Buy this book!

2. The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life by D. William (New York: Free Press, 2009).

Change Your Life: Make a Difference

Pay It Forward is a 2000 American drama film based on the novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,

Committed people can changed the world.

Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”

(Margaret Mead)

Don’t resign yourself to the status quo – make a difference. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of serious problems that our world is facing. The falling standards in education, the rise in corporate scandals, the economic crisis in Malaysia and the world – not to mention wars, pollutions, and terrorism. How can I, one person among so many, make a difference? How can I, with my shortcomings and insecurities, possibly bring about meaningful change? While it is true that much of what happens in the world is beyond our control as individuals, our capacity to bring about change is greater than we imagine.

I can make a world of difference – if I choose to put my mind and heart to a cause, and take action.

Tal Ben-Shahar writes: In the movie Pay It Forward, a schoolteacher assigns his class the task of finding a way to bring about positive change in the world. Trevor, one of the students, decides to do three good deed for others – three acts of random kindness – and in return ask them to do three good deeds for three other people, who will be asked in return to do the same for others, and so on. If every person who has just been helped pays this help forward to three others, then within twenty-one rounds, everyone on earth would have been helped. The movie follows Trevor and shows how his acts create a positive ripple effect that touches numerous people whom he never meets in profound and meaningful ways. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can changed the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Make a positive difference in the world. Pay forward what has been given to you, and encourage others to do the same. You can make a difference!

Don’t resign yourself to the status quo,

Make a difference.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012)

2. Change the World: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Extraordinary Results by R.E. Quinn (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000)

Change Your Life: Carry Yourself with Strength and Confidence

“A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind”

(Morihei Ueshiba)

When we walk into a room with slumped shoulders, dragging our feet, or with our head down, we communicate lack of confidence and energy. When we enter with a natural posture, with a strong stride, shoulders open and relaxed, we send a very different – and positive – message to those around us. So crucially, the way we hold our body sends a message not only to others but also to ourselves. When we walk like someone who is confident, we actually become more confident; the physical act of sitting up straight actually boosts our motivation and increases our energy; when we shake hands firmly, we become assertive.

Assuming the posture of how we would be if we were more assertive and energized in fact boosts our confidence and invigorates us. Our behaviour changes our attitude. Sit up straight. Walk confidently. Carry yourself in a way that communicates to the world – and to yourself – strength and confidence.

Don’t neglect your posture,

Carry yourself with strength and confidence.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012)

2. The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem: The Definitive Work on Self-Esteem by the Leading Pioneer in the Field by N. Branden (New York: Bantam, 1994).

Think Big

For more than 40 years, Stanford psychologist Carol S. Dweck has studied the science of how our self-conceptions influence our actions. Her work offers great insight into why thinking big is such a big deal.

Dweck’s work with children revealed two mindsets in action – a “growth” mindset that generally thinks big and seeks growth and a “fixed” mindset that places artificial limits and avoids failure. Growth-minded students, as she calls them, employ better learning strategies, experience less helplessness, exhibit more positive effort, and achieve more in the classroom than their fix-minded peers. They are less likely to place limits on their lives and more likely to reach for their potential. Dweck points out that mindsets can and do change. Like any other habit, you set your mind to it until the right mindset becomes routine.

When Scott Forstall started recruiting talent to his newly formed team, he warned that the top-secret project would provide ample opportunities to “make mistakes and struggle, but eventually we may do something that we’ll remember the rest of our lives.” He gave this curious pitch to superstars across the company, but only took those who immediately jumped at the challenge. He was looking for “growth-minded” people, as he later shared with Dweck after reading her book.

Why is this significant? While you’ve probably never heard of Forstall, you’ve certainly heard of what his team created. Forstall was a senior vice president at Apple, and the team he formed created the iPhone.

-         Taken from The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Garry Keller with Jay Papasan (Bard Press, 2012), page 91-92.

In the same way, growth-minded people are highly creative people.

Change your mindset, think big, think growth, think creatively.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Begin with the End in Mind and Take Actions

“[Begin with the end in mind] is based on imagination –

the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes”

(Steven R. Covey)

I love Dumb and Dumber To (2014) the movie – yesterday’s series, today’s movie. I love to watch Jim Carrey acting. I love Jim Carrey and I think he is one of the most creative people in the entertainment industry. Let me tell you his story before he become a megastar. Carrey spent a lot of his earlier time dwelling on his future. He believed he possessed the talent, but he wondered if his fifteen years of experience in the comedy clubs would make him go further. Until he did, he said, he could only practise, work hard, and maintain a positive attitude.

There was one time when he could not send money home or when his comedy appearances did not fare well, a depressed Carrey would lie awake at night questioning if he had done the right thing. In his book People in the News: Jim Carrey, John F. Wukovits quoted Carrey as saying: “You lay on your bed and the thing that you think about most is, ‘What is it about me that’s special and different? What’s my thing?’ I would struggle with that, trying to define myself.”

One time he wrote a fake cheque to himself in the amount of $10 million for ‘Acting services rendered’ post-dated it for Thanksgiving 1995, and placed it in his wallet as both an encouragement and a reminder that one day he would triumph. Carrey did not sign the cheque because he hoped to be wealthy, but “I wrote it as an affirmation of everything I learned. It wasn’t about money. I knew if I was making that much, I’d be working with the best people on the best material. That’s always been my dream. My parents taught me to believe in miracles. My life is proof that they exist.”

John F. Wukovits further wrote, “Jim Carrey often drove up Mulholland Drive and parked where he had a clear view of Los Angeles. Staring at the sprawling city below, Carrey promised that one day he would succeed in the entertainment business and that he would be the toast of the town.” Yes, no doubt, Carrey did it! See what he have become today. Creative people like Jim Carrey see the future with the end in mind. They dream dreams and they ask questions that will empower themselves to do whatever it take to achieve it. Creativity in itself it not enough. Awesome idea is not enough. Talent is not enough. Like Carrey, we must work hard, practise and maintain a positive attitude. In other word, creative people take actions. But first, creative people begin with the end in mind.

Begin with the end in mind and take actions, massive actions!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)