Daily Thought Archives: March 2008

March 1
THE LEADER'S PACE
An organisation's pace really comes from the pace of their leader. The way the leader makes decisions, takes actions and follows up with his or her people sets the example that everyone in the organisation will follow. Are you setting the right pace for your people?

March 2
FROM I "GOT TO" TO I "GET TO"
Most people go through life saying "I got to"...go to work, etc. Everything in life for them is a "Got To", as they have not focused their life on the things that they are passionate about. People who have focused their life around their passions are constantly saying I "Get To". They view it as a pleasure to invest more time in their passions. Why not invest more time in your passions and create an "I Get To" life.

March 3
YOUR MENTORS ARE EVERYWHERE
People who can help you grow and achieve more are everywhere. All successful people have had very important mentors at each stage of their success. Take the decision to focus on finding those mentors that can help you the most right now, and go ask for their help and advice. Your mentors will help you see the possibilities, where you thought there were none before.

March 4
COMMITMENT = NO EXCUSES ARE ACCEPTABLE
There's a big difference between successful people to others. To them, commitment really means no excuses are acceptable. They have the passion and commitment that drives them to do what's necessary for success, and understand that making excuses is simply really just breaking a commitment with themselves. In fact, "excuse" is a word that is not even in their vocabulary.

March 5
WHY? THE MOST POWERFUL WORD
The most powerful word you have in your vocabulary is "Why?". A why can only be answered with "thought", and this is where the power comes from. We often act out of habit until we ask ourselves "Why?". To become even more successful, ask yourself "Why?" more often.

March 6
IS WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SAY WORTH IT?
It is what you say to others that will often get you in trouble. There's the old advice of counting to ten before responding to someone who has made you angry. Another option is to ask yourself, "Is what I am about to say worth it?" Ask this question the next time someone makes you angry. Sometimes the best is what is left unsaid.

March 7
YOUR ATTITUDE CREATES THE ATMOSPHERE
There are so many people who understand this backwards. Your attitude really creates the atmosphere around you, and your attitude is something that you always decide ahead of time. Successful people create their own atmosphere around them, while others let the atmosphere determine their attitude. Be the one who creates your own atmosphere around you by deciding to have a great attitude ahead of time.

March 8
THE FIRST STEP IN ANYTHING IS TO BEGIN
The first step in anything we want to accomplish is to begin. The starting action is what gets the effort moving and the mind engaged on how to make it happen. For many people, the majority of what they want never reaches that first most important step, "to begin". Find that first step (the action) in everything you want to accomplish.

March 9
FAITH IN YOURSELF COUNTS THE MOST
There's one thing that drives success more than anything else, and it is the faith you have in yourself. It is not ego, but a belief that you can do whatever it takes to succeed, and that you will develop yourself to meet any challenges that are put in your way. Focus on building the faith in yourself, and then nothing will seem impossible.

March 10
ATTENTION TO DETAILS ENABLES CONSISTENCY
No one can ever achieve consistent successful results without having an attention to details. When you pay attention to the details, you can see the improvements necessary to always improve and continue to deliver on your responsibilities in a consistent way. It pays to pay attention to the details.

March 11
LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE BIG IMPRESSIONS
You have often experienced this in your own life. Your friends or co-workers did something for you or remembered something little you had said, but that was very important to you. Those little things had made a big impression on you, as it showed that the others had "cared". Remember, little things can make big impressions.

March 12
LACK OF TIME IS ALWAYS AN EXCUSE
You hear it often in people every day; "I just don't have the time", but lack of time is really just an excuse. The real problem is not a lack of time, but a lack of focus and discipline. Why? Everyone gets the same amount of time, right? However, you have proof that some people get more accomplished with their time than others, so you know that time is not the problem. It is all about what the time is focused on, and the discipline needed to keep that focus, that gets things accomplished.

March 13
PREACH ONLY WHAT YOU PRACTICE
There are many people that always want to tell you how to do something. However, it is very often that these are the very people who "don't really do" what they are telling you to do. Basically, they never practice what they preach. To both gain and keep the respect of others, make sure that you are always practicing whatever you are preaching.

March 14
CONTINUOUSLY REVIEW YOUR FOCUS
Everything is changing so fast these days, and you often see new opportunities each and every day. However, you need to continuously review your focus so that you decide which ones to take action on. By reviewing your focus each week, you make those key decisions on what new opportunities you will action (say yes to), and what other things are no longer as important as you thought (say no to). Continuously review your focus to say "yes" to the "right" things.

March 15
GIVE UNCONDITIONALLY, THE WORLD PAYS YOU BACK
Successful people have learned to give to others without any conditions, and that means doing something for others and not expecting something directly back in return. When you give unconditionally, the world will pay you back, and usually when you least expect it, as well as when you could really use the help. Give without conditions and the world pays you back in very special ways.

March 16
TO BE GREAT, BE WITH GREAT PEOPLE
One of the best ways to move ahead is to associate yourself with people you would like to be like. There have been so many people who became close to and learned so much from great people, and soon they became great themselves. To move ahead faster, it is important to learn from others. To be great, be with great people.

March 17
MAKE COMMON SENSE, COMMON PRACTICE
If we consider the key habits of success (Focus, Action, Discipline, etc), we see that it is nothing more than common sense. It should be easy to do, but since it is easy to do, it is also easy not to do. Why not make the "commitment to yourself" and make common sense, common practice from today.

March 18
MAKING THE MOST WITH YOUR ABILITIES
Successful people are often not the smartest, but have one trait in common that others lack. They know themselves very well and their abilities, both their strengths and their weaknesses. They make the most of their abilities by surrounding themselves with people who possess abilities they don't have.

March 19
PEOPLE WANT TO MAKE AN IMPACT
Your best people always want to make an impact, and see the results of the contributions they are making in their work. For leaders, it is always good to focus on how your people could "see" the impacts they make, and "recognise" them for their contributions. This will drive even greater creativity and ownership in your best people as they take on any new challenges and opportunities.

March 20
OUR FAILURES ARE OUR BEST TEACHERS
Take a look at successful entrepreneurs and you will notice that they actually fail more than they succeed. Also, if you ask them in what ventures did they learn the most; they would always say it was their failures. What have you learned from your failures? When you take the time to learn from your failures, you gain the learnings and insights that help create your future successes.

March 21
BEST WAY IS TO REPLACE A HABIT OR BEHAVIOUR
The very best way to break a habit is to replace it, versus just trying to break it. To break a habit, you have to think of the very thing to stop each time in order to not do it. The best way is to replace a habit, and replace one action with a different action. Also, it is the same with changing a behaviour. The best way to change a behaviour is to create a new behaviour that can replace the old one. Think replace, versus break or eliminate, to change habits & behaviours faster.

March 22
THE MOST DIFFICULT THING IS TO BELIEVE
For many people, the most difficult thing is to believe in themselves that they can actually accomplish what they want in their life. How about you? If you are like many others, it is often not your abilities that are holding you back, but your belief. Therefore, focus all your energy on building the belief in yourself big enough to match the size of what you want to accomplish.

March 23
LIVING UP TO YOUR COMMITMENTS
We all need to set goals in our lives in order to keep our passion and energy alive. However, we also need to set some key behaviour goals as well. A key behaviour goal is to always live up to your commitments, both to yourself and to others. It is a fantastic goal to set and it will help you in all parts of your life.

March 24
EMBRACE RISK AND MANAGE IT
Risk is a part of life and very important if we are to achieve to our potential. We have risk in everything we do, even in our normal daily lives. However, only those people who accept the risk and manage it, will take the necessary actions to achieve their true potential. Embrace risk, manage it, and it will be your friend versus your enemy.

March 25
UNCOVERING IT FOR THEMSELVES
Great leaders understand that always telling their people what to do never works in getting long-term results. These leaders know that their people need to uncover key learnings for themselves and look to create the right conditions of those learnings to happen. The right mix of assignments and coaching (questions) can be much more powerful than just telling the answers.

March 26
THE FIRST THING YOU SELL IS YOU
Everyone is in sales and the most successful sales people understand one key factor in their success. They first need to sell themselves first, and so do you. In whatever you want to accomplish in your business and personal life, you are always selling YOU to others first. Remember, it is often your ACTIONS and not your words that sell YOU to others.

March 27
YOU WILL BE WHOM YOU SEE
You really take action and behave in a way that is consistent with how you see yourself, and basically, this is your self-image. To change your behaviours, first decide to change the way you see yourself, and then any change is then possible. You will be whom you see.

March 28
TAKE ACTION AND MAKE CHOICES
Life is not something to observe, but to live. It is about taking action and continually making choices on what and how to take those actions. A fulfilling and happy life is always based on action, and if you are not making choices in your life, then someone else is probably making them for you. Remember, take action and make choices.

March 29
BUY-IN DOES NOT REQUIRE CONSENSUS
Many leaders are unsuccessful because they think that they need to have total consensus before moving forward with key initiatives. Anything that involves risk taking will almost always never achieve total consensus. If the people with different points of view are recognised and heard, you will often get the buy-in from these people because they had the chance to weigh-in.

March 30
AND, WHY NOT ME
There are so many people in this world with great ideas, but then don't really take any action on them. The ones that do take action create great success with those ideas. They basically said, WHY NOT ME, and started taking action. So can you. Opportunities are always there or can be created for the people who take action on their ideas.

March 31
POTENTIAL LEARNING MOMENTS TODAY
A great way to look at your day is to define ahead of time the potential learning moments you will have today. What new people will you meet and what could you learn from them? What key activities will help you learn new skills or abilities? Think about this upfront and you will learn more from each and every day.