BECOMING AN INFORMATION FILTER AND A KNOWLEDGE SPONGE

As the title states, “Become an Information filter and a knowledge Sponge.” On your daily journey to achieve your WHY, you will travel through many different avenues and sometimes you will ask yourself, “Why do I need to meet this person or experience this situation?” The key is to truly understand that you must become an information filter and use your personal God-given filters — your eyes and your ears. I always say that you were born with 4 inputs (2 eyes, 2 ears) and 1 output (mouth).

When you decide to become a filter and filter through all the information that is taken in through your inputs, you will begin to find answers to the reasons for certain experiences in your life. What you learn from each situation that you experience will be the foundation for future decisions. My personal view is that “every failure is a stepping stone to success, which in turn will become a very long and lovely stone walkway into the castle of your dreams.” Very simply, this quote means out of every failure you will filter information that will empower you to make wiser decisions based on information you learned from your personal failures!

As you begin to realize you must become a filter – listen and observe more than you talk, you will be amazed at the insight you gain. When you combine becoming a knowledge sponge, along with being a filter, you will empower yourself to achieve your WHY! Becoming a knowledge sponge is very simple. You must immerse yourself in the knowledge of the #1 people in your field of endeavor. When I first became a distributor in a direct sales organization, I simply did some research and found out what the #1 earners in direct sales/network marketing were doing. As I result, I broke all records and built enormous sales organizations. I was nothing special, but the methods I used were special because they were proven to work. Remember, the smartest people are those that realize they are not the brightest or the best.

Each day that you embark upon your journey toward your Why, you need to be constantly absorbing as much information as possible. Success leaves clues, and usually it is a long list of failures accompanied with one major success. I can tell you that if you have failed in the past and right now are questioning your actions, just become an information filter and knowledge sponge. Start to utilize your four inputs and before you know it, you will hit the mark and succeed! I highly suggest listening to positive personal development tapes and reading some positive material EACH AND EVERY DAY in order to saturate your sponge with the proper knowledge.

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT OF THANKSGIVING

As I was thinking about my article to write this week, I decided to speak about the entrepreneurial spirit of Thanksgiving. I would like to pay a special thanks to all of the entrepreneurs of our era who have paved the way for us to live in such a wonderful world. While celebrating this type of Thanksgiving, we need to give Thanks to all the special people who had the dreams to invent, discover and explore all the wonders we experience everyday. Let us never take for granted and fully appreciate all of the work those people have done over the years and all the future visionaries who will shape the way of the future.

As part of this Thanksgiving, we all should put into practice the “Attitude of Gratitude” in our daily plan. As we act in the attitude of gratitude, our results in life will change for the better. As you are building your business and designing your life, practice the Attitude of Gratitude and people will listen with more of open-mind because they feel from you a sense of respect – which is very powerful! The Attitude of Gratitude is the little bit of extra that will move you from excellent to the outstanding level in your field of endeavor. I would highly suggest beginning right now to take on the enhanced attitude of gratitude and your results will increase dramatically. Begin to truly internalize the meaning of the words “Thank You” and watch the results of your new passion for The Attitude of Gratitude begin to prosper. As I always say, a small improvement over a long period of time will produce outstanding results!

Today, I challenge you to integrate the Attitude of Gratitude in your daily life and begin to reap the rewards of your Thanksgiving!

PERSISTENCE

The theme for this week is PERSISTENCE. I feel that persistence is one of the main keys behind all successful people. Every successful person will tell you that their ongoing persistence is what separated them from those who gave up. Persistence is the power to hold on in spite of everything else — to endure. This is a winner’s quality. Persistence is also the ability to face defeat again and again without giving up — to push on in the face of great difficulty. It also means taking pains to overcome every obstacle, to do all that’s necessary to reach our goals.

I am a true believer that you must pay the price for success in life. There is no such thing as a free lunch or a “get-rich-quick” scheme that is going to fulfill you on a long-term basis. “P” is the first letter in the word Persistence and the first letter in Price, which is the key to understanding that you must be truly persistent and willing to pay the price in your endeavor in order to achieve your goals!

Most people do not really internalize what being persistent really means. Persistence means when everyone looks at you and says “What do you think you’re doing?” or “Who do you think you are? You continue on your quest for success! The successful person who truly understands the meaning of Persistence will know that this is part of the price you pay – not succumbing to the limitations put on you by others. Anyone who has hit the wall in their success journey has had to turn to their “persistence gene” to see how strong and internalized it really is! I can tell you all the pieces work together for you because if you know your “WHY” you will be able to look inside and pull through. This is persistence!

As you are growing in life, you will always remember the times when you needed to be persistent in your efforts to pull through! A major tip to pulling through is to have a mastermind group of people who believe in what you are working toward!

Are YOU persistent?

FAILING ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP (Part 2 of 2)

In my last article, I spoke about how you need to look at each failure as a stepping stone to success. The following is a powerful example of someone that we all are very familiar with who just would not quit and always envisioned his ultimate goal/WHY:

1831 – Failed in business.
1832 – Defeated for Legislature.
1833 – Second failure in business.
1836 – Suffered a nervous breakdown.
1840 – Defeated for elector.
1843 – Defeated for Congress.
1848 – Defeated for Congress.
1855 – Defeated for Senate.
1858 – Defeated for Vice President.
1858 – Defeated for SENATE.
1860 – ELECTED PRESIDENT.

Guess WHO?

Abraham Lincoln. Unbelievable, huh? Lincoln is one of the most highly-recognized presidents of the United States. Most people would have quit after just experiencing one of his defeats, but he persevered until he became the president of the United States.

Lincoln’s failures made him one of the best presidents ever because he struggled all the way there. When an individual earns his/her position in the spotlight, they are full of pride and will do the best possible job. Abraham Lincoln’s stepping stones to the presidency empowered him to become a legend in U.S. history. You need to look at your own journey and see where you have failed in order to learn from the experience. Every failure makes you a stronger person and when you reach your pinnacle of success you will be the best there ever was because you earned the right to be there! I would suggest that you print out this issue and read the story of Abe Lincoln while you are progressing on your journey, because you will be able to relate to the words defeat/failure. Abe Lincoln definitely knew what his WHY was!

Do you truly know your Why? If not, then it would be a good idea to invest in my “Find Your WHY” CD. Every morning as you start your day, listen to the program and reread Abe’s story. This combination will ignite you to fight through whatever challenges you are presently facing as you endeavor to find your ultimate WHY!