MLM Business Building – 5 – Getting it Done

 Articles, MLM Business Building, Nonfiction, Self Improvement  No Responses »
Sep 252010
 

Self Improvement – Getting it Done

Commit to goals – visualize the results

What do you want to achieve? Knowing your destination is a crucial step in getting there.

Written goals are best; they have real power. The act of committing your goals to paper forces you to clarify and refine them. Until you write it down, a goal is just a wish or a hope. Commit.

Identifying goals actually reduces stress. Psychiatrists have discovered that helping their patients to establish personal goals is the most effective way to help them cope with problems. Establishing clear goals puts you in charge of your life.

A fixed goal, something that you can see clearly in your mind’s eye, increases motivation; you can take the measure of your progress towards that goal. And, as you progress, anticipate the satisfaction of its completion.

“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lively apparition to reveal it to the other’s eyes as mine see it.”
-Michelangelo

“A man’s dreams are an index to his greatness.”
-Zadok Rabinowitz

Set priorities

What is the most important thing to do next? If you haven’t figured out what is most important, I’ll bet that you’ll do something relatively unimportant or nothing at all.

You may have success with a to-do list revised each morning. When something new comes up, evaluate against your list of most important tasks. You will get more done just by knowing what is most important. It focuses your attention and stimulates your energy. A common mistake is to confuse urgent matters with truly vital ones. You should look for things that have the largest payoff and focus on them first.

You can evaluate your priority-setting by keeping a detailed record of how you spend your time for a week. What did you do and how long did it take? Also think carefully about what your personal responsibilities are and write this down separately. At the end of the week, compare your lists and decide if you are spending your time effectively. Make adjustments.

“Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.”
-Andrew Jackson
[Don’t stop deliberating too soon. I take exception to some of President Jackson’s decisions. ed.]

Just don’t do it

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
-C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinson’s Law, (1958)

Parkinson wasn’t being funny; he was dead-on serious. You’ve seen it happen. A perfectly reasonable job gets blown out of all proportion. It might be your fault or maybe the decision just had to be run back past a committee which decided to form a sub-committee for further investigation.

If the task will produce a valuable return and it is straight-forward and clear, just do it. On the other hand, tasks that can’t be nailed down and done right away often grow into evil dragons. Ignore evil dragons. Walk away from them and refuse to pay them any attention. They will disappear and quit bothering you if ignore them.

It really is amazing how many really urgent (but actually trivial) things can simply be ignored without the world coming to an end. How wonderfully liberating!

Success ain’t easy

If you want to succeed at something truly worthwhile, be prepared for the struggle. Many have given up families, property and security in their homelands to pursue opportunity elsewhere. Many poor and disadvantaged have committed to making sacrifices to create desired changes in their circumstances. The world’s classic stories involve the struggle to overcome intimidating obstacles.

To succeed in any difficult endeavor we need to overcome fear and reach deep within ourselves for courage and determination. You may not be in favorable circumstances but there is always something more that you can try to improve your situation. Have realistic expectations. It takes about 7-10 years of persistent practice to truly master any art, craft, sport or business.

“It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.”
-Sidney Smith

“Do what you can with what you have, where you are.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
-Anais Nin

Hard work

It’s easy to work hard when you love what you’re doing.

Hard work is needed to build a secure business. It can take extra hours each day and can require continued work over a span of years.

Sometimes it happens that people begin coming from hundreds of miles away for help. When you can offer renewed hope and eventually, renewed health, it’s hard to say “no.” Your hard work can be a labor of love.

“Go the extra mile”

This popular motto is a reference to Matthew 5:41. The point is to not be miserly with your commitments. When you hold back and only do something reluctantly you might as well have not done it; you only did what you were forced to do. If you are going to do something for someone else, give it all you’ve got. Do more than expected. This kind of behavior gets noticed and in time gets rewarded.

Honesty and Integrity

Throughout recorded history it has been a tendency of men to set their own rules and do whatever seems best for themselves. “Business ethics” become especially loose with no hesitation to profit from the ignorance or misfortune of others, especially “if they are not of our own.”

Some people worry that they will be at a financial disadvantage if they are not as “sharp” as their competitors. Others understand that people appreciate obvious integrity and prefer to do business with people that they like and trust.

If you have cheated or taken advantage of someone, it is very hard to respect or even like them from that point forward. Bad relationships are death to a network marketing business.

“Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self-respect, to hate any person, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls and curtains about it.”
-Marcus Aurelius

“Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris. (It is part of human nature to hate the man you have hurt.)”
-Tacitus

Dare to dream

Walt Disney’s Cinderella sings: “A dream is a wish your heart makes.” Would it have been better for Cinderella to have never seen the castle? Would she have been happier never knowing anything but the cinders?

Most times we are so limited by what we think is practical that we don’t see what is possible. Look up for a moment from the ground directly in front of you and see the world of possibilities all around you! You don’t have to be daring to dream of improving your situation. In fact, if you never visualize a desired future, you cannot start to make it happen.

Some people actually do live happily every after. Why shouldn’t you?

“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.”
-Joseph Campbell

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”
-Thomas Jefferson

Set outrageous goals

Miracles happen. Outrageous challenges have a special mystique and have the potential to generate unusual excitement.

  • Impress yourself with dramatic results.
  • Amaze your friends.
  • Pump up your determination to do the unusual.
  • Focus on a single goal.
  • Keep that goal constantly in front of you.
  • Put up signs and stickers everywhere to remind yourself.
  • Infect everyone with your enthusiasm.

“Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.”
-Helen Keller

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
-Goethe

Preparation + Opportunity = Advancement

If you aren’t prepared, you probably won’t even notice opportunities when they happen. In fact, preparation seems to have a way of CREATING opportunities. Without preparation, you are not in a position to take advantage of opportunities even if you recognize them.

Opportunities ARE available. Some have to be created. Others will wander by when you least expect them. They may not wait around for you. You may have to already have your resources (and willingness to commit them) ready. Then, when the right opportunity comes, just reach out and grasp it. This boldness to advance seems to create a momentum toward success.

“Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.”
-W.H. Murray, Member of the Second Himalayan Expedition

Hard work

It’s easy to work hard when you love what you’re doing.

Hard work is needed to build a secure business. It can take extra hours each day and can require continued work over a span of years.

Sometimes it happens that people begin coming from hundreds of miles away for help. When you can offer renewed hope and eventually, renewed health, it’s hard to say “no.” Your hard work can be a labor of love.

“Go the extra mile”

This popular motto is a reference to Matthew 5:41. The point is to not be miserly with your commitments. When you hold back and only do something reluctantly you might as well have not done it; you only did what you were forced to do. If you are going to do something for someone else, give it all you’ve got. Do more than expected. This kind of behavior gets noticed and in time gets rewarded.

Honesty and Integrity

Throughout recorded history it has been a tendency of men to set their own rules and do whatever seems best for themselves. “Business ethics” become especially loose with no hesitation to profit from the ignorance or misfortune of others, especially “if they are not of our own.”

Some people worry that they will be at a financial disadvantage if they are not as “sharp” as their competitors. Others understand that people appreciate obvious integrity and prefer to do business with people that they like and trust.

If you have cheated or taken advantage of someone, it is very hard to respect or even like them from that point forward. Bad relationships are death to a network marketing business.

“Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self-respect, to hate any person, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls and curtains about it.”
-Marcus Aurelius

“Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris. (It is part of human nature to hate the man you have hurt.)”
-Tacitus

Keep on keeping on

Some people just seem to have trouble with everything they try. When things don’t seem to be working out fast enough, they give up and try something else. The problem is that by not sticking persistently to any one thing, they consistently discard their efforts by moving on too soon.

Jonas, a National Manager, explained his formula for success. “Keep on keeping on. The world will make room for the man who knows where he is going.” He explained: “If I could give the reason for our success, I could do it with just a couple of words: consistent persistence. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. There’s no formula to guarantee success in a few months’ time. You have to keep with it. We’re very excited about our business, and that helps others get excited.”

“There’s no substitute for hard work.”
-Thomas Edison

“Do not turn back when you are just at the goal.”
-Syrus

Copyright 1996, 2010, David Satterlee

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, which essentially says that you are free to share the work under the conditions that you attribute it fully, do not use it for commercial purposes, and do not alter it.

MLM Business Building – 4 – Mastering the Vision Thing

 Articles, MLM Business Building, Nonfiction, Self Improvement  No Responses »
Sep 252010
 

Self Improvement – Mastering the Vision Thing

Personality types – your approach to work

How do you interact with those around you? How do you see yourself? How do you resolve problems? If you understand these things about your personality, you can make more progress with less confusion. You will engage your creative energies consciously and constructively. Consider some typical psychological models:

Hero - The explorer, decision-maker, adventurer, leader, servant of humanity.

Showman - The entertainer, artist, master of perception, imaginative creator.

Warrior – The persistent achiever, master of focused concentration, craftsman; powered by aggressive energy.

Scholar – The eternal student, wise teacher, steward of knowledge, compassionate nurturer.

“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”
-Marcus Aurelius 

Life and love as art

Life should be rich, full and satisfying. Life is our gift to enjoy. Life is our obligation to produce and serve. Life should be lived with style and grace; it is its own art. When you create something, make it appealing as well as functional. Your extra effort is an act of love for yourself, your Creator and your society.

“We have come to think of art and work as incompatible, or at least independent categories and have for the first time in history created an industry without art.”

“The vocation, whether it be that of the farmer or the architect, is a function; the exercise of this function as regards the man himself is the most indispensable means of spiritual development, and as regards his relation to society the measure of his worth.”
-Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

“To love is to transform; to be a poet.”
-Norman O. Brown

“The secret of art is love.”
-Antoine Bourdelle

“The art of life, of a poet’s life, is, not having anything to do, to do something.”
-Henry David Thoreau

“… a first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.”
-Abraham Maslow

The entrepreneurial personality

Do you have what it takes to run your own business? There are some personality traits that are common to entrepreneurs.

A representative of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, explains about entrepreneurs: “They have a high need for achievement. They have a high tolerance for ambiguity and are comfortable adding their own structure to ambiguous situations. They usually have a single vision they do not swerve from, and they believe they control their own destinies.” Entrepreneur, February 1996, p. 30.

“Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.”
-Albert Einstein

“I call intuition cosmic fishing. You feel the nibble, and then you have to hook the fish.”
-Buckminster Fuller

Decide to be Manager

Anything less than achieving “manager” leadership level in a network marketing plan is haphazard. It’s OK to be a distributor, but both the commitment and the rewards are limited. The big jump in responsibility (and financial reward) comes with being a manager. It takes planning to stay a manager.

The first step up the “ladder of success” is deciding that you want to be a manager. This is an important commitment. You want to start out well balanced and firmly committed. Once you begin climbing and you take others along with you, your responsibilities increase. You will want to plan first and know what you need to do.

Learn how to become a manager. Go back and read the marketing plan brochure and the distributor manual. Ask your sponsor or their manager for advice.

Learn how to stay a manager. One company ran a statistical analyses of their computer records and found that managers with 10 or more active distributors rarely had problems staying managers.

“No one knows what he can do until he tries.”
-Publilius Syrus

“One comes to be of just such stuff as that on which the mind is set.”
-Upanishads

… and then you get letters …

Once you have achieved “Manager” status, you’ll realize that you certainly didn’t do it alone. Your distributors will teach you more than you ever taught them. And, you’ll get letters like this (real) one:

Dear [Manager],

I’d like to take the time to thank you for being a great manager and a good friend and for all of the good things I’ve learned from you. You are why I am where I am today. Last month I ranked 2nd among recruiters (Area Managers). I have 7 first line managers and 2 second line managers. I have been invited to Convention again this year, all expenses paid. My husband and I have been invited to [the president’s] house for dinner next Saturday night and to a special photo session before the Awards Banquet. I am very excited but also overwhelmed by all of this. I still don’t know why. I do nothing but educate my people and it just makes my organization grow. Again, I’d just like to tell you and [your spouse] ….

Thank You

Cast your bread upon the water

“Casting your bread upon the water” is a reference to the scripture at Ecclesiastes 11:1. It refers to the rewards of exceptional generosity. Bread is the “staff of life.” When you are willing to part with something valuable, your generosity will be repaid. (As long as we’re on the subject, compare Luke 6:38.)

Lillian from Bakersfield, California, says “Caring and giving genuine service is like casting bread upon the water: it always comes back. I just keep going at the business of helping people to better health, and I keep talking about the benefits of the business. There always seems to be people who want to hear more.”

One of the most valuable things we have to share with others is our time and attention. Time is stuff of which our lives are made.

“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.”
-James Allen

Time: Use it or lose it

Every moment that is wasted is time you will never get back.

Take advantage of every available opportunity to advance your purposes. Feel free to share the Nature’s Sunshine philosophy with just about anyone you meet. Share your success with others and help to enrich their lives.

Make time to relax and enjoy the rest that you have earned – and then get right back to work doing good and enjoying every minute of it!

“I was so full of sleep at the time that I left the true way.”
-Dante

“Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus. (But meanwhile it is flying, irretrievable time is flying.)
-Virgil

“Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.
-Dion Boucicault, London Assurance (1841)

“No time like the present.”
-Mrs. Manley, The Lost Lover (1696)

I see (I. S.E.E.) what I should do

Integrity - the things that you choose to do should not conflict with your best values. Your actions should have purpose and meaning. They should be responsible and honest.

Service – Your actions should build up and create rather than destroy or take. Contributing to the welfare of others out of love will make you stronger and “make the world a better place.” “Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large.” Mahatma Gandhi

Enjoyment – When you find joy in doing what you love to do, your life will flow. Your creativity and enthusiasm will bring success. It is a gift that we can rejoice and do good and see good for all our hard work.

Excellence – If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Why commit to doing something if you don’t care enough about it to be persistent, determined and see it through to a conclusion you can remember with satisfaction?

“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Help for a hurting world

If your neighbor was lost and confused and you knew how to solve his problem, wouldn’t you speak up? Who really is your neighbor? The world is filled with people who know that they’re getting progressively less healthy. They are confused and frightened. They don’t know where to turn and they don’t like it. You can help. You’ve tried something that worked for yourself and your family and you can tell them about it.

At one NSP convention, the Senior National Manager shared his philosophy with the attendees when he pointed out that “There’s a hurting world out there. Who is going to help them? If not me, who? If not now, when? If not, why?”

“Today … we know that all living beings who strive to maintain life and who long to be spared pain – all living beings on earth are our neighbors.”
-Albert Schweitzer

“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”
-Joseph Campbell

Draw a treasure map

If you haven’t been somewhere before you may need good directions and a road map to get there. When you have a goal to reach, decide how you want to get there and plan your route ahead of time. Follow your map and you will find your treasure.

Verlyn tells distributors to map out a plan. “Draw a ‘treasure map’ – things you’d like to have or accomplish within one year’s time. Don’t quit until you accomplish them. Don’t just dream… also have it come true! Decide you can do it, then do it with enthusiasm. If you can get on fire about what you are selling, others will feel your excitement.”

We start from the foundation of our values. This allows us to develop a vision of where we want to go. When we commit to that vision, we have goals. Next we develop a strategy to guide us in achieving our goals. We commit to specific tactics; the things we must do next. If the things we do are truly consistent with our values, then we will be happy and feel productive.

“Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
-Seneca

Copyright 1996, 2010, David Satterlee

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, which essentially says that you are free to share the work under the conditions that you attribute it fully, do not use it for commercial purposes, and do not alter it.

Self Improvement – Getting it Done

 Character, Character Development, Self Improvement  No Responses »
Sep 242010
 

Self Improvement – Getting it Done

Commit to goals – visualize the results

What do you want to achieve? Knowing your destination is a crucial step in getting there.

Written goals are best; they have real power. The act of committing your goals to paper forces you to clarify and refine them. Until you write it down, a goal is just a wish or a hope. Commit.

Identifying goals actually reduces stress. Psychiatrists have discovered that helping their patients to establish personal goals is the most effective way to help them cope with problems. Establishing clear goals puts you in charge of your life.

A fixed goal, something that you can see clearly in your mind’s eye, increases motivation; you can take the measure of your progress towards that goal. And, as you progress, anticipate the satisfaction of its completion.

"In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lively apparition to reveal it to the other’s eyes as mine see it."
-Michelangelo

"A man’s dreams are an index to his greatness."
-Zadok Rabinowitz

Set priorities

What is the most important thing to do next? If you haven’t figured out what is most important, I’ll bet that you’ll do something relatively unimportant or nothing at all.

You may have success with a to-do list revised each morning. When something new comes up, evaluate against your list of most important tasks. You will get more done just by knowing what is most important. It focuses your attention and stimulates your energy. A common mistake is to confuse urgent matters with truly vital ones. You should look for things that have the largest payoff and focus on them first.

You can evaluate your priority-setting by keeping a detailed record of how you spend your time for a week. What did you do and how long did it take? Also think carefully about what your personal responsibilities are and write this down separately. At the end of the week, compare your lists and decide if you are spending your time effectively. Make adjustments.

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in."
-Andrew Jackson
[Don’t stop deliberating too soon. I take exception to some of President Jackson’s decisions. ed.]

Just don’t do it

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
-C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinson’s Law, (1958)

Parkinson wasn’t being funny; he was dead-on serious. You’ve seen it happen. A perfectly reasonable job gets blown out of all proportion. It might be your fault or maybe the decision just had to be run back past a committee which decided to form a sub-committee for further investigation.

If the task will produce a valuable return and it is straight-forward and clear, just do it. On the other hand, tasks that can’t be nailed down and done right away often grow into evil dragons. Ignore evil dragons. Walk away from them and refuse to pay them any attention. They will disappear and quit bothering you if ignore them.

It really is amazing how many really urgent (but actually trivial) things can simply be ignored without the world coming to an end. How wonderfully liberating!

Success ain’t easy

If you want to succeed at something truly worthwhile, be prepared for the struggle. Many have given up families, property and security in their homelands to pursue opportunity elsewhere. Many poor and disadvantaged have committed to making sacrifices to create desired changes in their circumstances. The world’s classic stories involve the struggle to overcome intimidating obstacles.

To succeed in any difficult endeavor we need to overcome fear and reach deep within ourselves for courage and determination. You may not be in favorable circumstances but there is always something more that you can try to improve your situation. Have realistic expectations. It takes about 7-10 years of persistent practice to truly master any art, craft, sport or business.

"It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can."
-Sidney Smith

"Do what you can with what you have, where you are."
-Theodore Roosevelt

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage."
-Anais Nin

Hard work

It’s easy to work hard when you love what you’re doing.

Hard work is needed to build a secure business. It can take extra hours each day and can require continued work over a span of years.

Sometimes it happens that people begin coming from hundreds of miles away for help. When you can offer renewed hope and eventually, renewed health, it’s hard to say "no." Your hard work can be a labor of love.

"Go the extra mile"

This popular motto is a reference to Matthew 5:41. The point is to not be miserly with your commitments. When you hold back and only do something reluctantly you might as well have not done it; you only did what you were forced to do. If you are going to do something for someone else, give it all you’ve got. Do more than expected. This kind of behavior gets noticed and in time gets rewarded.

Honesty and Integrity

Throughout recorded history it has been a tendency of men to set their own rules and do whatever seems best for themselves. "Business ethics" become especially loose with no hesitation to profit from the ignorance or misfortune of others, especially "if they are not of our own."

Some people worry that they will be at a financial disadvantage if they are not as "sharp" as their competitors. Others understand that people appreciate obvious integrity and prefer to do business with people that they like and trust.

If you have cheated or taken advantage of someone, it is very hard to respect or even like them from that point forward. Bad relationships are death to a network marketing business.

"Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self-respect, to hate any person, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls and curtains about it."
-Marcus Aurelius

"Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris. (It is part of human nature to hate the man you have hurt.)"
-Tacitus

Dare to dream

Walt Disney’s Cinderella sings: "A dream is a wish your heart makes." Would it have been better for Cinderella to have never seen the castle? Would she have been happier never knowing anything but the cinders?

Most times we are so limited by what we think is practical that we don’t see what is possible. Look up for a moment from the ground directly in front of you and see the world of possibilities all around you! You don’t have to be daring to dream of improving your situation. In fact, if you never visualize a desired future, you cannot start to make it happen.

Some people actually do live happily every after. Why shouldn’t you?

"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living."
-Joseph Campbell

"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."
-Thomas Jefferson

Set outrageous goals

Miracles happen. Outrageous challenges have a special mystique and have the potential to generate unusual excitement.

  • Impress yourself with dramatic results.
  • Amaze your friends.
  • Pump up your determination to do the unusual.
  • Focus on a single goal.
  • Keep that goal constantly in front of you.
  • Put up signs and stickers everywhere to remind yourself.
  • Infect everyone with your enthusiasm.

"Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing."
-Helen Keller

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
-Goethe

Preparation + Opportunity = Advancement

If you aren’t prepared, you probably won’t even notice opportunities when they happen. In fact, preparation seems to have a way of CREATING opportunities. Without preparation, you are not in a position to take advantage of opportunities even if you recognize them.

Opportunities ARE available. Some have to be created. Others will wander by when you least expect them. They may not wait around for you. You may have to already have your resources (and willingness to commit them) ready. Then, when the right opportunity comes, just reach out and grasp it. This boldness to advance seems to create a momentum toward success.

"Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way."
-W.H. Murray, Member of the Second Himalayan Expedition

Hard work

It’s easy to work hard when you love what you’re doing.

Hard work is needed to build a secure business. It can take extra hours each day and can require continued work over a span of years.

Sometimes it happens that people begin coming from hundreds of miles away for help. When you can offer renewed hope and eventually, renewed health, it’s hard to say "no." Your hard work can be a labor of love.

"Go the extra mile"

This popular motto is a reference to Matthew 5:41. The point is to not be miserly with your commitments. When you hold back and only do something reluctantly you might as well have not done it; you only did what you were forced to do. If you are going to do something for someone else, give it all you’ve got. Do more than expected. This kind of behavior gets noticed and in time gets rewarded.

Honesty and Integrity

Throughout recorded history it has been a tendency of men to set their own rules and do whatever seems best for themselves. "Business ethics" become especially loose with no hesitation to profit from the ignorance or misfortune of others, especially "if they are not of our own."

Some people worry that they will be at a financial disadvantage if they are not as "sharp" as their competitors. Others understand that people appreciate obvious integrity and prefer to do business with people that they like and trust.

If you have cheated or taken advantage of someone, it is very hard to respect or even like them from that point forward. Bad relationships are death to a network marketing business.

"Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self-respect, to hate any person, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls and curtains about it."
-Marcus Aurelius

"Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris. (It is part of human nature to hate the man you have hurt.)"
-Tacitus

Keep on keeping on

Some people just seem to have trouble with everything they try. When things don’t seem to be working out fast enough, they give up and try something else. The problem is that by not sticking persistently to any one thing, they consistently discard their efforts by moving on too soon.

Jonas, a National Manager, explained his formula for success. "Keep on keeping on. The world will make room for the man who knows where he is going." He explained: "If I could give the reason for our success, I could do it with just a couple of words: consistent persistence. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. There’s no formula to guarantee success in a few months’ time. You have to keep with it. We’re very excited about our business, and that helps others get excited."

"There’s no substitute for hard work."
-Thomas Edison

"Do not turn back when you are just at the goal."
-Syrus

Copyright 1996, 2010, David Satterlee

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, which essentially says that you are free to share the work under the conditions that you attribute it fully, do not use it for commercial purposes, and do not alter it.

Self Improvement – Mastering the Vision Thing

 Character, Character Development, Self Improvement  2 Responses »
Sep 242010
 

Self Improvement – Mastering the Vision Thing

Personality types – your approach to work

How do you interact with those around you? How do you see yourself? How do you resolve problems? If you understand these things about your personality, you can make more progress with less confusion. You will engage your creative energies consciously and constructively. Consider some typical psychological models:

Hero - The explorer, decision-maker, adventurer, leader, servant of humanity.

Showman - The entertainer, artist, master of perception, imaginative creator.

Warrior – The persistent achiever, master of focused concentration, craftsman; powered by aggressive energy.

Scholar – The eternal student, wise teacher, steward of knowledge, compassionate nurturer.

"Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig."
-Marcus Aurelius 

Life and love as art

Life should be rich, full and satisfying. Life is our gift to enjoy. Life is our obligation to produce and serve. Life should be lived with style and grace; it is its own art. When you create something, make it appealing as well as functional. Your extra effort is an act of love for yourself, your Creator and your society.

"We have come to think of art and work as incompatible, or at least independent categories and have for the first time in history created an industry without art."

"The vocation, whether it be that of the farmer or the architect, is a function; the exercise of this function as regards the man himself is the most indispensable means of spiritual development, and as regards his relation to society the measure of his worth."
-Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

"To love is to transform; to be a poet."
-Norman O. Brown

"The secret of art is love."
-Antoine Bourdelle

"The art of life, of a poet’s life, is, not having anything to do, to do something."
-Henry David Thoreau

"… a first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting."
-Abraham Maslow

The entrepreneurial personality

Do you have what it takes to run your own business? There are some personality traits that are common to entrepreneurs.

A representative of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, explains about entrepreneurs: "They have a high need for achievement. They have a high tolerance for ambiguity and are comfortable adding their own structure to ambiguous situations. They usually have a single vision they do not swerve from, and they believe they control their own destinies." Entrepreneur, February 1996, p. 30.

"Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions."
-Albert Einstein

"I call intuition cosmic fishing. You feel the nibble, and then you have to hook the fish."
-Buckminster Fuller

Decide to be Manager

Anything less than achieving "manager" leadership level in a network marketing plan is haphazard. It’s OK to be a distributor, but both the commitment and the rewards are limited. The big jump in responsibility (and financial reward) comes with being a manager. It takes planning to stay a manager.

The first step up the "ladder of success" is deciding that you want to be a manager. This is an important commitment. You want to start out well balanced and firmly committed. Once you begin climbing and you take others along with you, your responsibilities increase. You will want to plan first and know what you need to do.

Learn how to become a manager. Go back and read the marketing plan brochure and the distributor manual. Ask your sponsor or their manager for advice.

Learn how to stay a manager. One company ran a statistical analyses of their computer records and found that managers with 10 or more active distributors rarely had problems staying managers.

"No one knows what he can do until he tries."
-Publilius Syrus

"One comes to be of just such stuff as that on which the mind is set."
-Upanishads

… and then you get letters …

Once you have achieved "Manager" status, you’ll realize that you certainly didn’t do it alone. Your distributors will teach you more than you ever taught them. And, you’ll get letters like this (real) one:

Dear [Manager],

I’d like to take the time to thank you for being a great manager and a good friend and for all of the good things I’ve learned from you. You are why I am where I am today. Last month I ranked 2nd among recruiters (Area Managers). I have 7 first line managers and 2 second line managers. I have been invited to Convention again this year, all expenses paid. My husband and I have been invited to [the president’s] house for dinner next Saturday night and to a special photo session before the Awards Banquet. I am very excited but also overwhelmed by all of this. I still don’t know why. I do nothing but educate my people and it just makes my organization grow. Again, I’d just like to tell you and [your spouse] ….

Thank You

Cast your bread upon the water

"Casting your bread upon the water" is a reference to the scripture at Ecclesiastes 11:1. It refers to the rewards of exceptional generosity. Bread is the "staff of life." When you are willing to part with something valuable, your generosity will be repaid. (As long as we’re on the subject, compare Luke 6:38.)

Lillian from Bakersfield, California, says "Caring and giving genuine service is like casting bread upon the water: it always comes back. I just keep going at the business of helping people to better health, and I keep talking about the benefits of the business. There always seems to be people who want to hear more."

One of the most valuable things we have to share with others is our time and attention. Time is stuff of which our lives are made.

"He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly."
-James Allen

Time: Use it or lose it

Every moment that is wasted is time you will never get back.

Take advantage of every available opportunity to advance your purposes. Feel free to share the Nature’s Sunshine philosophy with just about anyone you meet. Share your success with others and help to enrich their lives.

Make time to relax and enjoy the rest that you have earned – and then get right back to work doing good and enjoying every minute of it!

"I was so full of sleep at the time that I left the true way."
-Dante

"Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus. (But meanwhile it is flying, irretrievable time is flying.)
-Virgil

"Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.
-Dion Boucicault, London Assurance (1841)

"No time like the present."
-Mrs. Manley, The Lost Lover (1696)

I see (I. S.E.E.) what I should do

Integrity - the things that you choose to do should not conflict with your best values. Your actions should have purpose and meaning. They should be responsible and honest.

Service – Your actions should build up and create rather than destroy or take. Contributing to the welfare of others out of love will make you stronger and "make the world a better place." "Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large." Mahatma Gandhi

Enjoyment – When you find joy in doing what you love to do, your life will flow. Your creativity and enthusiasm will bring success. It is a gift that we can rejoice and do good and see good for all our hard work.

Excellence – If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Why commit to doing something if you don’t care enough about it to be persistent, determined and see it through to a conclusion you can remember with satisfaction?

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Help for a hurting world

If your neighbor was lost and confused and you knew how to solve his problem, wouldn’t you speak up? Who really is your neighbor? The world is filled with people who know that they’re getting progressively less healthy. They are confused and frightened. They don’t know where to turn and they don’t like it. You can help. You’ve tried something that worked for yourself and your family and you can tell them about it.

At one NSP convention, the Senior National Manager shared his philosophy with the attendees when he pointed out that "There’s a hurting world out there. Who is going to help them? If not me, who? If not now, when? If not, why?"

"Today … we know that all living beings who strive to maintain life and who long to be spared pain – all living beings on earth are our neighbors."
-Albert Schweitzer

"When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness."
-Joseph Campbell

Draw a treasure map

If you haven’t been somewhere before you may need good directions and a road map to get there. When you have a goal to reach, decide how you want to get there and plan your route ahead of time. Follow your map and you will find your treasure.

Verlyn tells distributors to map out a plan. "Draw a ‘treasure map’ – things you’d like to have or accomplish within one year’s time. Don’t quit until you accomplish them. Don’t just dream… also have it come true! Decide you can do it, then do it with enthusiasm. If you can get on fire about what you are selling, others will feel your excitement."

We start from the foundation of our values. This allows us to develop a vision of where we want to go. When we commit to that vision, we have goals. Next we develop a strategy to guide us in achieving our goals. We commit to specific tactics; the things we must do next. If the things we do are truly consistent with our values, then we will be happy and feel productive.

"Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind."
-Seneca

Copyright 1996, 2010, David Satterlee

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, which essentially says that you are free to share the work under the conditions that you attribute it fully, do not use it for commercial purposes, and do not alter it.

Lecture: Stanford: Kwabena Boahen: Googling the Brain on a Chip

 Biology, Future Technology, New Technology  No Responses »
Jan 172010
 
Lecture 5 – Googling the Brain on a Chip (Kwabena Boahen)

Kwabena Boahen is using the human brain as the blueprint for designing radically more powerful and energy-efficient computers.

In this short demo, Boahen describes how his Brains in Silicon lab at Stanford University has created computer chips with "synapses" and "neurons" — and how these chips might revolutionize computing.

Watch it on Academic Earth

New Institutions Required for Energy Innovation and Transformation

 Economics, Future Technology, New Technology  No Responses »
Nov 172009
 

Source: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

“The United States must change the way it produces and uses energy by shifting away from its dependence on imported oil and coal-fired electricity and by increasing the efficiency with which energy is extracted/captured, converted, and utilized if it is to meet the urgent challenges facing the energy system, of which climate change and energy security are the most pressing.  This will require the improvement of current technologies, and the development of new transformative ones, particularly if the transition to a new energy paradigm is going to be timely and cost-effective. [Click link, above for full story.]

Also of interest…

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