Personal Excellence and Growth – Success and Failure Formula
A New Headstart for the New Year! This is the topic of Personal Excellence and Growth meetup last January 2011 organized by the dynamic couple, Mr. Patrick Yc Lim and Ms. Jessica See.
Success purely depends on the choices we make in life. There are two choices that we can decide to do.
1. Simple Disciplines – these are small steps of action you take that will lead you closer to your goals. Some good examples are choosing to eat less carbohydrates or sweets in a day, reading a book 30 minutes a day, or a simple exercise 15 minutes a day. A few simple disciplines practiced everyday is the key formula for success. All disciplines affect each other since one discipline always lead to another discipline.
2. Simple Errors in Judgment – these are things that you do that will drift you further away from your goals. This is the opposite of simple discipline, the lack of discipline. A surefire formula of failure is a few errors in judgment repeated everyday.
First, let us define what is discipline. It means training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement. It also mean a: control gained by enforcing obedience or order b: orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior or c: self-control
I remember a colleague who was on a diet plan. She told me she's not taking her lunch because she was on a diet. So everyday she was consistent on skipping her meal for a diet. Not until I saw her during an afternoon break, she was eating chocolate like a child. There was another colleague who was also on a diet by just eating few apples instead of the normal rice and meat meal. After more than a month, he was back to his comfort level of eating food. Here's another classic story that I've been hearing from most people I've talked to, I asked"Hey why are you eating that food (high cholesterol)? Most of the response sync each other, "Just once in a while (until it became once is a month or once in a week) and besides I am still young. " We've been living in the world of instant gratification against temporary inconvenience. These are deliberate acts of errors in judgment or simply the lack of discipline.
Here's a question worth pondering, how can we change the errors in judgment formula for failure into simple disciplines required in the formula of success? The answer is by making the future an important part of our philosophy and value system.
"We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons." – Jim Rohn
You got to live above the line. People who live below the line are fond of always blaming, making excuses and justifying their own failure or lack of success. People who live above the line are those who take responsibility of their own actions, whether it's a failure or success.
The results are almost immediate once you practiced a few simple disciplines everyday. Reading a book for 30 minutes to an hour a day had brought me positive results. It helped me refine my philosophies, increase my self esteem, improved my relationship by being a better father, husband and a friend. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become better at developing new disciplines.
Here' a classic Jim Rohn seminar about Formula for Success and Failure
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PS
If you’re looking for an environment of positive and personal development in your life then Personal Excellence and Growth meetup is place that will help you become the person you want to be. Its free of charge, no obligation. Bring your pen and paper to capture ideas for personal development.
Please read related articles.
How to Coach Yourself to Success
Achieving Your Goals and Dreams
Persuasive Communication – the Art of moving people through to action
How to Get Laser-Focused–3 effective ways to achieve your goal
- laser focused affirmations
How to Get Laser-Focused – 3 effective ways to achieve your goal
I must say that the ability to stay focused is a great force in what you want to achieve in life. If you can master this skill you are on your way to success. The best definition that I’ve seen about focus is the concentration of attention or energy on something. Another good one is the maximum clarity or distinctness of an image rendered by an optical system. Keywords here are concentration, attention and, clarity.
But how can you get focus in this chaotic world that we live in? In my work as a mechanical cad engineer in a marine engineering industry, it has been a stressful environment. Noise generated from colleagues (even boss) can create distraction from the work you want to accomplish. Life in the MRT can be stressful too specially jostling for a position on your way to the office and way back home.
So here are the top three keys on how to master your focus and achieve the activities that you have set;
- Write it Down– (Begin with the end in mind.) You must be able to have a clear picture about what you want to accomplish. The best way is to write down your goals. I know lots of ideas have been written about this topic. This may sound easy but in reality it will take some time and a good practice of self-discipline. I still have challenges about this but one thing for sure that this worked out great for me. I’m still in the process of mastering this skill. I am still very much working on a 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. job though it has been a culture of practice to spend more extra time at work. I’m telling you this since I’m practicing this skill mostly outside of my work. Even as I write this article, I am distracted by lots of other things like Facebook, (this is very addictive as tons of information are shared from each of your friends), email, twitter, digsby, IM, YM, and other social media platforms. The best way is to shut off every single form of tools that will not help you in accomplishing your current activity. Never multi task as this can hamper what you want to accomplish. I must admit that this had been a struggle for me but I am doing my very best to overcome this challenges.
- Make it clear and compelling – (If you can’t then you must.) There is a need to create a compelling reason why you need to do the task. If you don’t do this, imagine what will happen to your dreams or your goal. Say, you want to build a school for the children, what will happen if you failed on this dream. Imagine the thousands of children that will be deprived of that education, there’s a possibility for them to do illegal ways of making ends meet. If you dream on spending more quality time with the family, imagine the pain of not being able to spend with your children the growing years of fun, play and education. If you will not do it then you will never be. Make it a habit to do it now. One of my worst enemies is procrastination or locally called as mañana habit (mamaya na – in Tagalog), means tomorrow or indefinite time in the future. A bad habit that most of the Filipinos have inherited from our Spanish conquistadores. Here’s a good advice from the famous Michael Jordan, “Just Do It”. No wonder, he is considered as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
- Persistence – (Money grows on the tree of persistence.) This is an act of continuing or a repeating behavior. It is almost synonymous with commitment and perseverance. Repetition is the mother of skill. I’ve heard this from Tony Robbins a number of times even during his UPW seminar here in Singapore. This goes hand in hand with focus since you got to have persistence before you advance to another level of activity that is in alignment with what you want in life. Never give up on what you want to achieve whatever it takes. As long as you do it in an ethical way. Keep on practicing the skill; master it until you can consider yourself as a world-class player in your own right. Your ability to visualize yourself of achieving your dreams or goals is a key in your dogged pursuit and practicing your skills in a consistent basis.
Frankly speaking, I’ll tell you that this is not an easy task as I’ve told you that I still face this challenge even when I was writing this article. It has been always a battle for me and I will always fight it until it becomes a habit.
Here’s another tip that might help you. As I was writing this article, I am listening to a classical music. I think it helped me in my concentration and attention to this activity. Your environment plays an important role too so create any possible ways of convenience for you as you do your task.
It’s good to post some affirmations on your wall, or post it note. I made this habit of posting some form of powerful quotes or declarations even on my Facebook or twitter to motivate myself. It is a good form of autosuggestion. It’s a great feeling for me and even more when other friends like it too.
Here are some personal selection about focus affirmations and quotes from successful personalities.
The Holy Scripture says “Let your eyes look straight ahead. Keep looking right in front of you. Make level paths for your feet to walk on. Only go on ways that are firm. Don’t turn to the right or left. Keep your feet from the path of evil.” Proverbs 4:25-27 (New International Reader’s Version)
“What you focus on consistently, you tend to manifest in your life” -Tony Robbins
“Where attention goes, energy flows and results show” – T Harv Eker
“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives”. – Tony Robbins
“My main focus is on my game.” – Tiger Woods
“The first rule of focus is this: “Wherever you are, be there.” – Unknown
“It’s not what’s happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it’s your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you’re going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.” – Anthony Robbins
Achieving Your Goals and Dreams- How To Overcome Barriers?
Do you have the power to believe in your goals and dreams? You have the power to achieve anything.
Last Thursday April 22, 2010, I attended the monthly Personal Excellence and Growth Meetup. It was fun and engaging experience as facilitated by the inspiring Patrick Yc Lim. We were given this questions and made us write down.
1. What is Your Dream? an example is what lifestyle do you want to have/live when you retire? We were divided into groups and made us to share our dreams. When you share your dreams with another person it becomes a commitment. This will make you more accountable. The goals and dreams should be as specific as possible.
2. Why is your Goals and Dreams important to you? You need to ask this question, Why? The more it is emotional to you the more likely you will motivate yourself to achieve your goals.
3.What could stop you from achieving your goals? There were lots of reasons and sometimes can be considered as excuses such as your job, friends, money, limiting beliefs, procrastination, health (sickness), out of focus. If you noticed these are mostly about oneself. So the old age saying by Socrates,"Know Thyself" is something that we have to start with. A great book reference is Thick Face, Black Heart by Chin-Ning Chu
We need to keep on asking deep questions. Say, when you say no money, what do you really mean no money?what are the ways of finding money? Is there a way to do it? Do I know someone who can support my ideas? Are there venture capitalists or angel investors that can help? There was a suggestion of about asking Google for help regarding the common questions.
4. What will happen if you did not achieve your dreams? The key is to associate with some sort of emotion such as pain say if you did not achieve your goal of creating the Personal Development School for the children, they will suffer the consequence of ignorance or poverty.
The Master-Servant principle - the idea is the master determines the goals and dreams. The master orders the servant to do or carry out the activities.The servant also looks for other partners who can help him with his tasks.
Another Principle is the Big Yellow Circle – the idea is to close your eyes and imagine yourself achieving your dreams and goals when you step inside the circle. The color intensifies by changing the color to orange as you become emotional with what you feel using all your senses. In my case, I imagine my self as a Dragon Ball Z character Goku turning into a Super Saiyan. If you don't know what I am talking here take a look at his picture above. I used to watch this Japanese anime back then. I remember doing this kind of exercise that I attended at Unleash the Power Within Event.
Some words of wisdom that can help to motivate were;
"Success is Not What you Know – It is What You Do with What You Know" The key here is your ability to take action.
"Failure is not because you lack ideas or knowledge, It is because you lack courage."
Ask yourself this question, "Are you afraid of the known or the unknown?" You can make similar analogy in life as the level of your comfort zones. You have to embrace the challenges in life because it means that you are stepping out of your comfort zone. Be afraid of the known because it is where you are now, your comfort zone. Go into the unknown where the infinite possibilities lay waiting for you.
Personal Development Leadership – a Leader Without a Title
Myth – I can’t be a leader if I’m not at the top or a title is needed like CEO, president, manager, supervisor, team leader. This is definitely a fallacy. Anyone can definitely become a leader without a title needed. The most important thing you need to do before you can lead other people is to lead yourself first. To become a great leader, one must first become a great person. To attract other people you need to be attractive first.
Personal development leadership is challenging yourself to become someone more than mediocre. Here are some fundamental ideas that I can share with you to develop your personal leadership.
Continuous Learning – to quote the great Jim Rohn, “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” So make it a habit to read books or in my case listen to audio books. I make sure that I visit the library as often as I can or when I have finished the books that I listened. Read books that will inspire you, strengthen your character and get to know and model the life story of the greatest leaders of our world.
Positive Affirmations – another habit that you can practice (though it may look weird) is to get in front of the mirror and talk to yourself with positive statements. In my case, I say to myself “I’m the best; I like myself “over and over again. It is best if you reinforce the statement with intense emotions. Gratitude is the best affirmation you can give to yourself. Everyday I make it habit to thank God for the day he had given me like when I finished working.
Book Journal – this is a must have. This is your book of life. Write down your insights, feelings, dreams, and goals, ideas from a seminar, mission, or purpose.
Visualize – close your eyes and envision yourself achieving your goals or the person you want to be by playing at your very best. The mind works best with pictures of yourself in the future.
Goal Setting – Goals make you move forward. It generates hope and positive energy. Definitely you need to write down your goals because it works. Believe that you can achieve and exercise concentration and focus. Begin with the end in mind.
Exercise – you need to sweat it out. Doing something physical each day boosts brain function and fuels high energy levels. Everyday I walk a kilometer long from office to the MRT train station. I do also a 2-3 kilometer jog just along our home vicinity and some occasional aerobics at my room.
Nutrition – your performance depends on the food you eat. Be organic as much as possible, eat green in moderate amounts. Just like an automobile you need to feed it with premium oil and gasoline to maintain its peak performance. Take nutritional supplements as necessary.
Here’s an experience that I want to share with you during one of my son, Justin Daniel, swimming lessons when he was still 5 years young. At that time his coach was teaching older batches of teenagers on how to jump on a 10 ft diving platform. The coach took him a lot of time convincing or motivating the student to jump. This is part of their training to conquer their fears. His coach noticed my son where we are on the other side of the pool to come over the platform and to show how a very young kid can jump over the platform. Without hesitation, Justin Daniel climbed up and jump down the board. This scene inspired the student to finally dive down the pool. My point is anyone can become a personal leader. You just have to start to conquer yourself first before you can influence others.
Here’s how Justin Daniel dived down the 10 ft deep swimming pool.
My Happy Birthday Wish for 2010
First of all, I would like to thank God for adding another exciting year into my life. I am very thankful for the person that I become and the person I will become. I am thankful for my family, my wife Helen and my son Justin Daniel for the unquestionable love they have shared with me. They are the reason for my pursuit of continuous personal development. If I work hard on my self-improvement I become a better husband and a father to them. Next, I would like to thank God for the friends that I have met physically and virtually. I learned a lot from other people’s inspiration in life spiritually, emotionally,financially, physically. I thank the mentors for giving me the business skills of inspiration and what I can become as a person.
My wish for my birthday is for God to continue to develop my character of a potential person that I will become. To continue the hunger for knowledge, wisdom and skills of the person that I want to be, that is to make a little difference to my neighbors, friends. To become a better husband to my wife, Helen and a better father to my son, Justin Daniel.
This year I wish (i preferred the terms – will make it happen) to put the learned skills in internet marketing into action. To continue to learn and improve the skills together with like minded individuals through mastermind groups. I want to start my own projects like BayanihanOnline (still under construction) that I just started with the intention of being a service and inspiration to the many.
Thank You 2009 and An Exciting 2010 Goals!
WOW! 2009 will be my most memorable year! It was the year where I learned to develop my skills in internet marketing. My objective at that time was to learn how I can generate more leads to my network marketing business through pay per click. I learned more than what I expected and the thought of passive residual income while you sleep is such an inevitable and powerful tool. Internet marketing is such a lonely business if you do it by yourself so I highly recommend that you find a mentor just like when you enroll to get a college degree. I developed my skills in the field of search engine marketing – both in search engine optimization and Google adwords. It was my first time to buy a domain name for jeromecastaneda.com and learned to use this powerful blog resource of WordPress. Actually, I managed to rank on the first page for some keywords about my blog. Woohoo! I was able to dominate almost all the sites on the first page for my name Jerome Castaneda and hope to totally dominate it next year 2010. Indeed, wordpress is the king!
I had the chance to attend Tony Robbins Unleashed the Power Within 4 day’s seminar at the Singapore Expo. In those 4 days I had the chance to shape my destiny in my thoughts and managed to do a firewalker on burning coals. It was also in this event that I truly take care about my health especially the food that I ate. I just developed the love for green stuffs, vegetables and fruits. Wow, it was truly an awesome time to remember.
It was the year where I regularly attended a Personal Excellence and Growth Meetup with great life coaches, Mr. Patrick Lim and Ms. Jessica See. I’ve met like minded people and exchanged life experiences and philosophies to grow and become the person that I want to be. There were 2 things that I learned if you want to succeed or grow in life, 1. the people you know or associate with and 2. the books that you’ve read.
2009 was the year I started to grow my spiritual relationship with the Lord God through CFC-FFL Singapore (Couples for Christ – Foundation for Family and Life) as a member for the Servants of the Lord (SOLD) group. Here I got the chance to meet God filled spirited people where there’s no inhibitions about telling your personal challenges in life. Here we prayed for each one’s personal success, family and health miracles. I highly suggest to any individual to join a spiritual or religious group especially if you’re working away from your family just like me.
Now, some people (especially with hardcore employee mindsets) may ask me why on earth should I spend much time learning stuffs that is outside of my job skills as a Mechanical Engineer. My answer is very simple my friend, I have Big Dreams. I am taking Jim Rohn’s advise to work hard on myself than what I do on my job. Personal development builds up my character and my attitude at work. I have the power of concentration and the focus to become a very productive engineer not only at work but with my relationship and communication with my colleagues.
As I looked forward about my 2010 goals, I am very excited about the potential person I can become. Year 2010 will be the start of my 10 year master plan. I’ll continue the commitment of my never ending personal development blog, to become the best father to my son and a loving husband to my wife. I’ll continue to read or listen to books or audiobooks, to meet like minded individuals in personal development and internet marketing fields. I’ll continue to work and apply my skills in internet marketing, to help local businesses generate more sales to their business. I’ll continue to take care of my health by having a regular exercise and watch out on the food that I take. Most of all, I’ll continue to praise and worship God for all the blessings and for the person I become.
Success Journal
success journal
Finally with the help of my wife, I managed to create a success journal. This will be my greatest gift to myself of all occasions (father’s day, birthday, new year, etc) so far. Btw, thanks to my wife for creating it patiently. You see I do a lot of note taking whenever I attended a talk, seminar, learning experiences, ideas, from books I read, friends that I talked to but I wrote this mostly in sheets of paper, notebooks (runs out of pages quickly). So this time I make sure its a thick one that will last longer.
