I appreciate the enthusiastic response to the 90-day Success Plan. I’ve received some very encouraging feedback indicating that you are making important changes in your lives.
We’re nearing the one-third mark and there are adjustments to make in order to be sure we hit our targets.

Let’s review our progress by going back to our original commitment and ask ourselves, “What’s working and what’s not working?”
As an example, do you have a person to whom you are holding yourself accountable? Are you keeping daily records of your progress i.e. weighing yourself, keeping a food diary writing in your journal?

Success thought for today:

“DO NOT TRY TO BE ANYTHING BUT WHAT YOU ARE, AND TRY TO BE THAT PERFECTLY.”
-de Sales

Byron
byronethompson.com

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I get up early most mornings when the house is quiet and when the weather permits sit outside, have my coffee, look at the sunrise over the mountains and I think.
I frequently think about the possibilities for my life. What could be?

As a child I always had an active imagination, seeing things and events that were not real. It made my playtime everyday take on a magical quality. It was a heavenly existence. I learned in Sunday school that Jesus said “Except that you become like little children, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.” and also, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.”

Regardless of our religion or beliefs, the philosophy and psychology expressed in those statements are sound. The lightness and joy in abiding in this imaginary realm is its own reward.

One of the most delightful and enduring memories of my life is the experience I had with my two daughters when went we to Disneyland for the first time. They were four and six years old at the time and we were on the “it’s a small world” ride. As we went from one country to another, with the sights and sounds of “it’s a small world after all” playing continuously, I was as fascinated with their reactions as I was to the charm of the experience itself. Their eyes were as big as saucers and they gave out little squeals of delight as they tried to look everywhere at once. I never loved them more and felt privileged to be a part of their world. Tears well up in my eyes, to this day, whenever I hear the song.

I feel fortunate to have never lost that child-like quality of being able to dream and think of possibilities. It has been a tremendous source of delight to me and from a very practical standpoint it has helped me in planning and creating solutions to all manner of challenges.
A dream is merely a possibility that has not yet been actualized. It is a blueprint for a reality that has not yet been made real. Every great accomplishment in history started with a dream or a vision and then was made real. Let’s turn our dreams into realities.

Here are 3 things you can do to develop and nurture that same creative quality in yourself.

1. Watch children at play. If you don’t have any close at hand, go to a nearby playground or a schoolyard at recess. See their spontaneity and ask yourself, “How can I incorporate that same freedom into my own thinking and day to day activities?”

2. Have conversations with children whenever the opportunity presents itself. Ask questions and listen to their answers. See the world through their eyes.
3. Approach your work with this new mind set and framework of a child-like worldview and see what a difference it can make. You’ll enjoy it and be more creative. You’ll discover that it’s a small world after all.

Success thought for today:

“IF YOU HAVE BUILT CASTLES IN THE AIR, YOUR WORK NEED NOT BE LOST, THAT IS WHERE THEY SHOULD BE. NOW GET BUSY AND PUT FOUNDATIONS UNDER THEM.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Byron
byronethompson

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Winnie Miller’s boss at the radio station in Yreka California enrolled her in the Dale Carnegie Course. She said even though she was terrified at the thought of participating in the self-improvement program she knew she needed it. She had been working as a receptionist and knew her lack of self-esteem was holding her back. Three months later when she completed the program things changed. Her self-esteem had grown to the point that she got a promotion to her dream job; her own radio show, “Strictly For Women”
I saw so many similar examples of totally competent people who had extraordinary potential being held back by a lack of appreciation for how good they were that I took such breakthroughs for granted.
I also know that a lack of self-esteem is very common shared by people at all levels of society.

One that just caught my eye in an article in USA Today was Serena Williams, who at the time was competing for her eleventh Grand Slam tournament singles title at Wimbledon England. “People see me as superwoman”, she said laughing, when asked about her public persona of being almost invincible. Actually, I suffer a little bit from LSE, low self-esteem. I’m a little insecure and I’m working on it.”

I’ve fought the same battle myself for years, so I understand Winnie and Serena and any of you who have felt as though you were not “good enough”.

Here are some things for you to try that I’ve found to be helpful in shoring up my self-esteem.

1. Make a list of your of your positive qualities and assets. Things that others have said they like respect or admire about you. As Dale Carnegie said, “be lavish in your praise” of yourself.

2. List your achievements in your career, education, church, community, socially, in your relationships, etc.

3. Seek out and associate with your ‘Fans’, people who love you and care about you, people who admire you and appreciate you. You might have to draw them out a little to get the kind of supportive feedback that will be helpful. Start by telling them what you like about them.

4. Keep a running list as you gather those qualities and achievements, turn them into affirmations, positive statements about yourself; i.e. I am a loving (husband, wife, son, daughter, friend, etc.) I am a totally competent (your profession or job) You get the idea.

Success thought for today:
“HE WHO SETS A VERY HIGH VALUE UPON HIMSELF HAS THE LESS NEED TO BE ESTEEMED BY OTHERS”
-Samuel Butler

Byron
byronethompson.com

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I tell the story in my book of my meeting and passing one of my most difficult tests. It was included in the chapter on motivation but it could have deserved a chapter of its own on persistence.

Briefly, I told the story of how I qualified for my promotion to Area Manager when I worked for Dale Carnegie Training in Northern California. It was an important step toward my goal of owning my own Dale Carnegie business. I won’t go into all the details here but the obstacles that I encountered and my not giving up because of the quality of persistence was an important lesson I learned and have been able to use over and over since then. That experience inspired me then and does to this day.

There is nothing special about my life or me but the quality of persistence is one I’ve seen repeatedly in people of achievement. The “I won’t give up” attitude is a hallmark of winners in every field. Look at people of achievement in every area of life, athletics, the arts, business, politics, etc. and you’ll find one inspiring story after another.

Here are three things you can do to find the achiever within.
(Hey maybe that should be the title of the next book. What do you think?)

1. Look at your own history and you’ll see the numbers of times when you persevered and achieved significant goals. You are probably your own best example of persistence.

2. What personal qualities did you draw on to “score that win”? What motivated you to do it?

3. How can you use that same those same qualities and motivation to achieve the goals you have set for yourself now?

Success thought for today:

I WILL PERSIST UNTIL I SUCCEED. SO LONG AS THERE IS BREATH IN ME, THAT LONG WILL I PERSIST. FOR NOW I KNOW ONE OF THE GREATEST PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS; IF I PERSIST LONG ENOUGH I WILL WIN.
I WILL PERSIST.
I WILL WIN.
-Og Mandino
“The Greatest Salesman in the World”

Byron
byronethompson.com

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Maury O’Connell walked into my office, “We gotta talk.” he said, without his usual big smile. He’d been working for me as a salesman for about three months, not having a lot of success. I was excited when he joined our team because of his background; MBA from Notre Dame, ex-Marine Captain, successful track record in sales with IBM. If anybody was guaranteed to succeed in our company it was Maury. “I love this business but I’m frustrated. I hate being a rookie. I hate having to start all over and learn a new job. Everything was so easy before.”

I’m sitting here with the same conflicting emotions Maury felt that day and I’ll bet many of you can relate to them: frustration and excitement.

I feel that way as I’m having to learn new skills as I’m writing my new book and marketing my current book “Build Your Dream: 12 Essential Tools For Successful Living.”
My 90-day success plan is geared to demonstrating the practical application of the tools on a single project. I’m hoping that many of you have also set and are pursuing your own 90-day goal.

I’m aware that what you and I go through any time we undertake any radically new job is what futurist, Joel Barker called a “paradigm shift” in his book, “Future Edge”. Essentially paradigms are rules, boundaries, the way things are. I expand on this in my book and Barker’s book gives a more complete explanation of paradigms. The thing to remember is when a paradigm shifts and the old rules or ways of doing things change, everyone goes back to zero.

It doesn’t matter how good we were on the old job or in the previous activity, unless we are just hanging on to some version of the status quo. If we continue to do what we’ve always done we will not keep pace with change and we’ll not grow. We run the danger of being the person who after working for twenty years does not have twenty years experience but one year’s experience twenty times.
So, in a sense we are all “rookies” in these changing times.

A paradigm shift is what happened for the very accomplished Maury and is happening for me. It’s frustrating and at the same time exciting, I’m experiencing an ongoing thrill of learning a new set of skills and meeting new challenges.
Let’s embrace new opportunities and challenges. Let’s learn new ways of doing things in our present job or primary activity. The reward for us is we’ll have a fresh outlook on life and be able to greet each new day with enthusiasm.

Success thought for today:

“THE REAL ACT OF DISCOVERY CONSISTS NOT IN FINDING NEW LANDS BUT IN SEEING WITH NEW EYES.”
-Marcel Proust

Byron
byronethompson.com

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I sat in my tiny room in the Central YMCA in Toledo Ohio on the verge of tears. I was 22 years old, failing at my first real job. I was trying to sell Dale Carnegie training courses on straight commission. My money was almost gone and I dreaded the thought of having to move back home and making my mother right. She said I’d fail.

I picked up a copy of James Allen’s book “As A Man Thinketh” and started to read. The ideas in that little book are so profound that they started me on a journey, which has resulted in a life of adventure, satisfaction and rewards. I’ve re-read it many times over the years along with about a thousand other serious books all directing me toward my goals. That reading deepened my understanding of what it takes for human beings to be happy and successful, by their definition.

Finally, I experienced a tipping point, a time when I realized that I was worthy, good enough, and deserving of happiness and success.

In his book by the same name, Malcolm Gladwell, said “The Tipping Point is the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.”

Now I’m engaged in pursuing a 90-day success plan to become healthier and more physically fit, using the 12 tools for success that I’ve detailed in my book.
The challenges I’m facing now are the same ones we all face, as we aspire to make our lives worth living, to make our time here matter.

Those challenges are:

1. How do I identify that which will make me the happiest?

2. What are the barriers to achieving it?

3. What are the tools I need to be successful?

4. How do I use those tools?

Here’s a way to get started.
Examine the books you are reading, the TV you are watching, the people you are associating with and how you’re spending your time. Those are the influences that will determine what you think about and who you’ll become.

Success thought for today:

“AIN’T NO MAN CAN AVOID BEING BORN AVERAGE, BUT THERE AIN’T NO MAN GOT TO BE COMMON.”
-Satchel Paige
Former Baseball Pitcher

Byron
byronethompson.com

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We’ve completed week 3 of our 90-day goal pursuit. It’s time to sum up and review the progress we’ve made so far and look at what we’ve learned.

Now is the time for us to demonstrate to ourselves how serious we are about achieving our 90-day goals. Let’s put the pedal to the metal.

Here’s our assignment for today.

1. Go back to Day 1 and re-read your original goal and your plan.

2. Ask yourself, “Am I still committed to that goal and plan or do I need to adjust it either up or down?”

3. Review your day to day activities, as best you can, either from journals, notes or memory and make a list of things that you liked. Call this list IGID (I”m Glad I Did).

4. Make another list of things you would have liked to have done differently. call this list IWIH (I Wish I Had). Both of these lists are valuable. We grow from our successes and we learn from our failures.

5. Make a new 7-day plan with any changes you feel you need to make to achieve your goal.

Good luck.

Success thought for today:

“LIFE SHOULD NOT BE  A JOURNEY TO THE GRAVE WITH THE INTENTION OF ARRIVING SAFELY IN AN ATTRACTIVE AND WELL PRESERVED BODY, BUT RATHER TO SKID IN SIDEWAYS, CHOCOLATE IN ONE HAND — MARTINI IN THE OTHER, BODY USED UP, WORN OUT AND SCREAMING , WOO HOO – WHAT A RIDE!”
-Anonymous

Byron
byronethompson.com

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On two different occasions in my life I’ve gotten into debt and had to work my way out. In the process I learned some valuable lessons about money. John D. Rockefeller once said,”I believe every young man should go as deeply into debt as possible, then work his way out.” I thought at the time, he meant me. I used that philosophy to justify irresponsible behavior. I do not necessarily agree with that approach to accumulating wealth now. That’s the hard way. Do it the hard way, if you have to, but there is an easier way.

The approach to wealth is basically simple.

1. Spend less than you earn. Learn the difference between needs and wants.

2. Save and invest at least 10% of every dollar you earn. Re-invest the earnings on your investment. Always invest prudently, get the maximum return on your investment with the minimum risk.

3. Remember, there are 4 ways to make money.
1) Work with your own hands. (Skill)
2) Work with others skills. (Management)
3) Work with money. (Investment)
4) Work with ideas. (Creativity)
Of the four the last is the most powerful.

4. Remind yourself that money cannot buy happiness. Money is only good for the things money is used for. Don’t let it become your master. Thoureau said, “When a man owns a piece of property, the piece of property also owns the man.

Success thought for today:

“MONEY WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY, IT WILL MERELY KEEP YOU FROM BEING UNHAPPY.”
-Andrew Carnegie

Byron
byronethompson.com

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Michael Dalton was dramatically reminded of the importance of time on the day he left the hospital.
He said ” I looked in the rear view mirror and saw my wife sitting next to our newborn daughter in her car seat. It jolted me into realizing the urgency for me to take action. I have become an adult and I can’t put off growing up any longer. I have to set about realizing my potential and start behaving like an adult. I remembered a line from a song “Don’t waste your time or your time will waste you.”

What a valuable reminder for us as we are working toward achieving our 90-day goals. Regardless of where we are in life, working, looking for work, retired or on vacation, our time is precious. Peter Drucker, considered by many to have been the foremost authority on management, said, “Time is our most important resource.” I would agree, and it is a non- renewable resource. We all have the same 24 hours each day and when they are gone we can’t replace them. We are trading each hour for whatever activity we’re engaged in. A legitimate question for us to ask is; “Are the benefits I’m deriving from this activity worth the hour I’m trading for it?”
This kind of thinking and questioning enables us to be sure we are creating a life worth living.

Here are 3 ways to take control of our time:

1.Keep a time log for seven days. Make a note of what you are doing at 15-minute intervals. Review it at the end of the week and ask yourself “which of these activities were worthwhile and which ones should I not repeat this next week?”

2. Make a prioritized daily To Do list. Work on the most important item until it’s completed or you have gone as far as you can with it. Even if you only complete one item, it will be the most important one.

3. Review your goals each day to be sure they represent your values and the quality of life you want.

Success thought for today:

“DOST THOU LOVE LIFE? THEN DO NOT SQUANDER TIME; FOR THAT’S THE STUFF LIFE IS MADE OF.”
-Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard’s Almanac 1746

Byron
byronethompson.com

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One of the most common complaints I hear from career oriented people is how stressed they feel and how little time they have for themselves. With the advent of email, instant messaging, PDAs,Twitter, the ubiquitous cell phone with its ever expanding capabilities, and emphasis on multitasking, thinking gets squeezed out.

Lack of thinking time was always a problem for me until one day some years ago I learned a valuable lesson from my friend Bob James. He was sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on the coffee table, his hands behind his head and his eyes closed. He was thinking instead of rushing around looking for something to do as I was. He has always impressed me with his ability to think in depth on complex subjects. He demonstrated this quality in his books and speeches and when he achieved his Ph.D. in Theology. He made taking time to think a priority, and it paid big dividends for him.
So, I started spending time every day thinking, and it’s paid off for me as well. I believe it will do the same for you.

Here are three actions you can take starting today.

1. Schedule “Think Time.” I like to do it first thing in the morning when the house is quiet. Make it an appointment with yourself and honor it as you would with an important client.

2. Keep a pad and pen beside you to capture worthwhile ideas as they come to the surface.

3. Focus on your purpose, your mission or your goal. You might recite or read your affirmations at this time.
I cover all of these tools for success in depth my book but this should be enough to get you started. If you have any questions about specific applications for yourself, email me through my website www.byronethompson.com and I’ll answer as many as I can.

Success thought for today:

UNTIL THOUGHT IS LINKED WITH PURPOSE, THERE IS NO INTELLIGENT ACCOMPLISHMENT.
-James Allen

Byron
byronethompson.com

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