I want this week to be memorable. I want to to see you finish your week
with the type of personal success that produces massive momentum, enough to
carry you through next week, next month and beyond!

So let’s start with a little self-examination.

1) Did you accomplish what you needed to move forward?

2) Everyday this week did you move yourself forward by doing at
least 1 thing each day that you didn’t want to do?

3) What is it that you need to do to make you week?

Write it down. Now!

Go to work on it. Now!

You can do it. – Push yourself – Finish your week strong.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

Technorati Tags: momentum, outrageous success, personal success, success

You Gotta Take Action

I’m going to be flying out of Albany International airport tomorrow to Wilmington, North Carolina. But I’ll get back to that in just a minute.

I recently had one of the saddest conversations with a mentoring client I’ve ever had. The social economic currents were really spinning this person around in circles. Uncertainty and fear were stopping this person from going on the offensive and accomplishing anything useful.

Well Bill, there really is some scary stuff going on!

Yes, I there is. But you still need to act, your actions are your choice and within your control.  I know you’ve heard it before but many of the world’s great fortune’s were made during bad economic times.  Personal success requires action!

The saddest epitaph for any tombstone says:
“could have, might have and should have, but never did“.

Oh, almost forgot! I’m so psyched because I’m flying out to meet my brand new grandson, Tyler. All 8 pounds 5 ounces of him. We’ll talk again when I get back next week.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

Technorati Tags: action, conrad hilton, economic times, personal success

Personal Success Benefits

When you’re thinking about your goals and objectives, visualize the benefits that will come from accomplishing them. Focusing on benefits, rather than the goals themselves will help you to understand how accomplishing your goals will palpably improve your life.

For example, when you think about a goal, you might consider:

1.How accomplishing it will make you feel
2.How accomplishing it will improve your business
3.How accomplishing it will make you richer
4.How accomplishing it will your schedule freer, so that you have more free time to spend with your family

Focusing on these benefits will help you develop a clearer, stronger motivation for accomplishing your goals.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

Technorati Tags: accomplishing your goals, goals and objectives, henry david thoreau, personal success

When we think about goals, we either think in terms of all or nothing “either I will accomplish this goal in one week or I will never accomplish it at all.” Unfortunately, things don’t always work out this way. More often then not, we’ll run into a snag when we attempt to accomplish goals; and we’ll need to reformulate our plans accordingly.

And this is precisely why it is important to think in terms of shades of gray, rather than black or white (success or failure). If things don’t work out this week, it’s okay. Take stock of your progress; and then figure out how you can do things differently over the course of, say, the next week to ensure that you don’t miss that goal again.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

Technorati Tags: Bill Watterson, failure, personal success, progress

Here are three personal success tips to keep you building personal momentum.

1) Avoid Ignorance

“The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.” – Elbert Hubbard

What you don’t know can hurt you. Whenever an individual or  company ceases to learn or reduces its storehouse of knowledge, decline swiftly follows. In today’s climate, change happens too quickly for businesses and individuals to fore go learning. Unless individuals make a concerted effort to gather information and re-educate themselves, their organizations will suffer the negative momentum of ignorance.

2) Guard Against Negligence

“Negligence is the rust of the soul, that corrodes through all her best resolves” – Owen Feltham

Executives at Philip Morris were well aware of the health hazards of smoking,  yet they chose not to warn customers about the harmful effects of their products. When the truth about tobacco became widely known, the public was outraged at the company’s negligence. Scads of lawsuits were filed against Philip Morris, alleging that it deliberately withheld information from customers. To date, the company has paid out millions of dollars in court-ordered settlements, and is on the hook for millions more.

When companies refuse to act on important information – then they are said to be negligent. Philip Morris failed to respond properly to the information at its disposal, namely that its products fostered addiction and had adverse health effects. In the end, the company paid dearly in financial penalties and lost significant momentum.

3) Take Action

“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch

In 1987, Merck realized it had a drug that could counteract river blindness, a disease endemic to impoverished regions. At great expense to its pocketbook, Merck agreed to provide the drug to all who needed it, as long as they needed it. In the 20+ years since making that commitment, the company has provided over 600 million treatments.

Merck’s public image was boosted exponentially as a result of its generosity. The best and brightest minds in the pharmaceutical industry flocked to Merck to associate themselves with an organization that genuinely seemed to care. By putting its knowledge to work in such a benevolent way, Merck enjoyed a surge of momentum.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

Technorati Tags: personal success, sucess, tips for personal success

What’s This Uncertainty About?

Well, according to Seneca uncertainty has been with the human race for quite some time. Where’s this uncertainty come from? Fear about the future? Fear of the unknown almost always cause stress. However, experts estimate that at least 90% of the things we worry about never come true! Yet, how much time and energy do we waste worrying about what may never come?

If you’re feeling anxious or worried about what might happen, use these tips to help alleviate your fear and stress:

Avoid worrying about the “What ifs.”

Instead of sitting around imagining all the bad scenarios that could possibly happen, funnel your energy into taking action to improve your situation, find a solution to your challenge, or work around the problem.

Adopt an optimistic attitude.

Redirect your thoughts so you vividly imagine good outcomes. It’s a funny thing, but expecting good outcomes more often results in the positive outcomes you desire!

Live in the moment.

As mentioned earlier in these posts, when you’re focused on this moment, worries about the future just don’t exist.

Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!
BB

Technorati Tags: personal success, Seneca, stress reduction, uncertainty

Bill, what on earth did you mean by that title?  Well,  I’m glad you asked. Both a bottle rocket and the guide missile both operate using the same basic Newtonian laws of physics. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. But do you why do you understand why the flight’s of the two are so different?

Feedback makes the difference.

The bottle rocket has no real target and no mechanism to direct it to a target. Once fired off, it’s in free flight. Any structural imbalance or shift in the wind can knock it off target. The rocket has no way to tell if it is getting closer or further away from the intended target.

The guided missile has the benefit of a constant feedback loop. The target is very clearly fixed (set) and once fired the feedback directs the missile’s flight mechanisms to constantly adjust the flight to stay on target. At any one point in the flight the missile may be blown off course but, the constant correction brings it back on target.

Fire and Forget

So, I’m suggesting that to achieve personal success, you must choose to be like the guided missile. The most important dynamic of achieving personal success is the “what” (the target), rather than the “how” (the path). Your conscious or thinking part of your mind devises the goal, or target. Stay focused on your goal and the subconscious mind will guide you on the path to its attainment. Put the “fire and forget” mechanism of guided missiles to work for you.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

Technorati Tags: achieving personal success, Maxwell Maltz, personal success

We had a little health scare in the Becker household (everyone’s OK, thanks for asking) Wednesday. Since our family physician was away on vacation, we ended up in the emergency room. It was the usual drill, health insurance info, blood work, x-rays, awaiting results, working to the top triage queue, finally leaving after 8 hours.

As it happened, I had a copy of  Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You–At Work And In Life by Spencer Johnson, M.D. in my bag. I took advantage of the “wait time” to do a little reading.  “Peaks and Valleys” is a great little (101 pages) book which I recommend highly.

Let me share a favorite passage from the book which is “Make Reality Your Friend”. As I sat waiting for my wife to return from a CAT scan, I tried to ascertain the reality of our situation. The reality was that Joan and I were tied of the process, but in truth things weren’t so bad. A group of skilled professionals were working to find the problem and get it fixed. Due to that effort, we found out her condition was not life threatening, treatment was straight forward and both of us walked out under our own power. None the worst for the wear.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

P.S. Bob Proctor of the movie “The Secret” has a great new program that can change your life in only 6 Minutes A Day. You can check it out at : http://sixminutestosuccess.com

Technorati Tags: Bob Proctor, peaks and valleys, personal success, spencer johnson

During my yearly physical in June my physician was pleased, even though he went through all the reasons I need to loss some additional weight. All the numbers that are suppose to be up are and all the numbers that are suppose to be down are headed that way.

Life is interesting isn’t? As we age the things that should be thick get thin – like my hair. Yet at the same time the things that should be thin – like my waist – get thick. Life is just a grand comedy, make sure you take time to laugh.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

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Technorati Tags: personal goals, personal success, success, tips for personal success

Do you ever find yourself getting stuck in negative thought patterns and expecting the worst possible outcome in every situation? It’s a far too common mind-set that can be near impossible to change, even when you’ve finally decide you’ve had enough. Much like weeds, negative thoughts tend to multiply on their own – even when you’re not consciously trying to think negatively.

The good news is turning a negative outlook into a positive one requires just a little patience and persistence.

Here’s three simple steps to begin forming positive expectations on a daily basis:

1) Develop self-awareness to recognize negative expectations.

One problem with negative thoughts is that they often form below your conscious level of awareness, and you get so used to them being in your head that you hardly notice anymore. To turn from negative to positive, you’ll have to develop a stronger level of self-awareness. One good way to start is by performing self-checks several times a day. Pay attention first to how you feel. If you’re feeling positive and productive, most likely you’ve been thinking positive thoughts.

However, if you notice that you’re feeling stressed, pessimistic or irritable, you’re probably focusing more on negative thoughts. When that happens:

2) Challenge and change the negative thoughts.

Believe it or not, it’s fairly easy to challenge and change negative thoughts with a little willpower and concentration. For example, if you find yourself feeling doubtful about your ability to finish your work on time, you might engage in a bit of self-talk like this: “Okay, so I’m feeling a bit worried right now, but really everything is okay. I’m strong, I’m smart and I’m capable of finishing my work on time. I’ll do my best and everything will work out fine.” Even though nothing has changed in your outer circumstances, this type of self-talk can get you thinking and feeling more positive.

3) Work everyday on developing a general positive expectation habit.

Each day when you wake up, affirm confidently, “Today is going to be a great day! Everything will go my way and I’ll enjoy plenty of lucrative opportunities and fun!”

When you encounter obstacles or problems, see them as opportunities to learn, grow and strengthen yourself. Perception is 99% of the game! If you simply work on shifting the way you look at the experiences of your life, you can easily conquer your negative thought habits.

The more you focus on changing your perspective to emphasize the positive, the more you’ll empower yourself to create better circumstances in your life. Before you know it, you’ll be enjoying better and more frequent opportunities and attracting other like minded, successful people to connect with.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

Technorati Tags: Dr. Seuss, expectations, personal improvement, positive attitude