The Will to Win in Every Part of Life

Have you ever felt to be in bad mood when you get up in the morning? Do you need too much time to get running and functioning at high speed? Do you need many coffee breaks? Off course, sometimes everybody has a hang through phase, be it after a lot of work, long time school or study, boring work or what ever.

I have thought a bit about how to improve the small things of life to the positive and how to get up with a great smile every morning. Actually I just reflected what I am doing for years and which helped me through many difficult situations. Funny enough, to get up positively in the morning has its roots in the evening before and how you go to bed. That's what I do:

After our work day, Eliane and I sit down for a short while just talking to each other about the nice and frustrating things we encountered over the working day. Then, while she prepares a small meal, I help her with some jobs to be done in the household, going to the cellar for milk or what else is needed. After the meal, often together with our adult children, we do no more speak about business but about our dreams, holidays, the book we a re reading, etc. Now it comes: we go to bed with an absolutely positive feeling and mind.

The alarm clock rings! There it is very important to get up slowly and with a first and positive thought. This is easy since I already slept with a positive mind, so I just restart where I left. Be not hectic, enjoy the shower, look out of the window, see the birds, the sunshine, and enjoy your life. Go on to have joy the whole day!

My conclusion and recommendation:

- Chose to be happy, be grateful
- Avoid bad news and stress
- Manage your time well, do not waste it, it's just too precious
- Laugh heartily, this is medicine
- Express your feelings and passions
- Work hard but not to exhaustion
- Enjoy your achievements and accomplishments
- Learn something new everyday, broaden your horizon
- Exercise your mind, soul and body, feel alive, eliminate depression
- Find Inspiration and success, be enthusiastic
- Take some minutes for meditation and religion

Following these simple but powerful small steps every day will increase your health (mind and body) dramatically. If you learn to avoid negative exposures, enjoy what you feel and what is around you, you are set for a long and prosperous life. Start reading motivational books.

Cognitive thinking is the mechanism we use to unleash innovation. To be mentally engaged in a cognitive way requires us to have our attention focused. We must be in "observation mode" and we must be actively engaged in processing - or thinking about - what we are observing.

Let's look at it another way. The human mind is at its highest cognitive level when we receive input from our senses that does not match an existing pattern. It's new. Because the mind always makes matches, even if they are grossly incorrect, the degree of the "non match" impacts the level of "cognizance" we have. Our minds are hard-wired to place everything we see, smell, taste, feel, touch or think into perspective in what is often called our "personal world view."

That's why when we see something that doesn't make sense or that we don't recognize we often call to mind images that we mentally start testing. We check them off as "no way, that's not it" until we find something we think might match. Our mind is offering partial pattern matches to us to see if we can cognitively give it that verification. However, this only happens when we actively observe something in a focused, questing way.

Observations - The Fuel We Need

So if you think about thinking (ugh) you should be able to see that we need observations that raise our cognitive level. Let's call this Innovation Fuel.

The innovation technique I developed is very likely the simplest and most elegant way to challenge process. The technique puts us into a cognitive state on purpose by zeroing in on isolated characteristics of a process (Moments of Truth) and challenging them within that isolation. This forces us outside of all our normal reference points.

This gives us the observation input (fuel) we need then propels us into the State of Innovation by challenging us to find a unique way (a change that could be made) to eliminate that characteristic from the process. No "changes" can be reused so as we sift through the stack of possibilities our minds are pressed more and more to "think outside the box" for any unique patterns they can find that could be a fit to what is effectively a pattern-matching request. That's a rough outline of what happens.

A Physical Reality

The State of Innovation is a real condition and we can measure that condition with sophisticated sensory devices used to monitor the changes in brain activity, heart rate, breathing patterns, chemical changes, and body posture that go along with it. That's another important observation because if we don't move into this real and measurable state it is highly unlikely that we will succeed in being innovative.

So if we are able to create the observational context, the challenge (and it does need to be the right challenge), and what I call the "empty bucket" (meaning we run you out of all the obvious and easy answers to the challenge) AND you continue to tackle the challenge you WILL begin to innovate.

When does this not work? Only when we cheat my friend, only when we cheat. Why would that happen? Because it's uncomfortable and it's hard work! Answering a question where all of the obvious answers are already used is no simple thing. We have to really kick things in gear (hence the reason why this condition can be physically measured). While the instructions may be simple and success is there for everyone that follows them, good old human nature often shortcuts the process - leaving us well rested but holding an empty bag.

Unleashing the Opportunity

Unleashing innovation requires us to identify a variety of potential changes that could be taken, to identify even those we are unlikely to seriously consider, and in that experience to uncover novel new steps that can produce competitive, differentiating, trendsetting and even radical advancement of our customer value proposition. It's the one technique that can do this for any industry, market, or geography and it's the one technique that doesn't succumb to rote application.

Observation, challenge and enough effort for us to address the challenge once our "idea bucket" is empty is all it takes to trigger real innovation. The technique is simple; the requirement on people is not. It requires the willingness to be uncomfortable, to often be frustrated as we struggle with new ways to answer the challenge, and the willingness to work at it - hard. Like some many other things in life, you get from it what you put into it.

Wow, almost 2 weeks into 2009 are you moving forward? Life happened to many in a negative way during the past year, we can not change what has happened however, we can choose to embrace the new and move in positive ways. Many times this action requires you to tell your mind you are moving then do it. What needs to be understood in this volatile time in your life is a choice must be made to either embrace the new or dwell in the past. Worry, fear and all of the other emotions are very real; you just have to choose to move through them not allowing them to paralyze you.

Our natural nature is to focus on all the negative and fuel the worry. Here is my question to you; can you fix what you are worrying about? If the answer is no then move on, do not waste your precious creative energy on something you can do nothing about. Instead save that energy to move you through the things you can change. You will be amazed at the end result, you will feel better about you, more empowered and willing to move into that amazing you that is inside waiting to come to the surface.

We each have a choice to make as we move into the next week of 2009, how do you want to embrace it? I see it as if we have to be present in that moment let's make it inspired and positive moving forward with empowered action. Of course, there are those that say phooey let's just sit and wallow in our past, we were hurt, attacked, and lost so much...

Which response brings you more power? It is time to make the choice to embrace inspired movement and do something with our life. We went to see Yes Man last night and what a true statement the movie made. So many of us sit by and allow life to fly past us happening around us and yet we do nothing. Jim Carey realized after a crazy "rah, rah" meeting that he needed to say yes to life, of course it had its twists however in the end saying yes to life was a powerfully positive decision he made.

Are you ready to say Yes?

We have express mail delivery today. A couple of years back, imagine what it was like to get letters and messages across to people. We have mobile phones today. Twenty years ago, what was telephony like? Today, air and rail travels are cheaper and faster. What were they like fifteen years ago? Unlike before, money can now be transferred within seconds from one part of the world to the other.

On a daily basis, inventions and technologies that will make people save money and time, live easier lives and much more are being churned out. Humanity has not found a cure for AIDS but progress is being made. Some types of cancer are being taken care of today if detected early unlike ten years ago.

Because life is changing slowly, if you fail to tag along, you run the risk of being left behind, battered by change in the process. Of course, it is happening to nations, businesses and individuals. The world has become a global village. Advantages that existed in the past due to communication, location, cheap labor and the likes have vanished. Organizations like NOKIA and SONY ERRICSSON are in CHINA today doing good business.

It is said that the greatest man that ever lived was once a day old baby. At every stage in life, there are changes that must be made or adapted to. Anything to the contrary, will make you a looser. Change which is a life time phenomenon connotes growth.

To be successful, you must be open to change. You must constantly review your options and chances to deal with threats and take advantage of opportunities that must come. Destruction/extermination will be knocking at your door if you do otherwise. Change is that powerful. You must seek information and knowledge constantly in order to be relevant. This way, you will avoid failure or at least minimize mistakes and maximize opportunities.

SPICES

Life is a progress, and not a station....Ralph Waldo Emerson

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal....Arthur Schopenhauer

The most successful people are those who are good at plan B....James Yorke

Become a student of change .It is the only thing that will remain constant...Anthony J. D'Angelo

I am always doing that which I can not, in order that I may learn how to do it...Pablo Picasso

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world....Nelson Mandela

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent but the one most responsive to change....Charles Darwin

More findings from my good friend Mr. Jay Niblick', The Genius Project.

A Simple Problem
The problem he found was that the vast majority of people assume there is no real difference between natural and acquired talents. They assume that all talents can be developed through intelligence, training and hard work. They fail to appreciate just how fixed these neural networks really are. Instead, because they assume that all talent can be acquired, they set about identifying what talents they need for a given role and then start trying to develop them. They take training programs, they read books, they attend seminars, they get mentors and coaches and they do a whole host of things to try and develop their talents for their job.

What happens, though, is that they manage to develop only the acquired talents. They don't change their neural networks. They don't create new natural talents and so in the end they become one of the most knowledgeable sales people in the company, but they still don't think like the great sales people. They become the greatest knowledge expert on the planet for the rules of accounting and workings of mathematics, but they still don't think like the great accountants do. They become the pilot who knows more about the technical manual than the engineer who wrote it, but they still don't meld with the controls and become one with the plane as an extension of their own body - like the great pilots do.

By assuming that training and development will develop all the talents they need many people, and organizations, fail to understand that they are only building up half of the picture. When the other half of the picture isn't there (the natural talents half) they wonder why they continue to struggle; continue to be emotionally unengaged and continue to lack a certain passion for their work. Unfortunately, when people fail to achieve the level of performance they want, the solution is often even more training and knowledge.

People spend a great deal of time trying to put in talents that are just not there to begin with, and aren't going to be put in regardless of the effort. They exert a tremendous amount of energy attempting to change themselves, when in reality it is the job that needs to be changed. That's what geniuses do.

What Geniuses Do
The most successful people he studied, those who people refer to as geniuses at what they do, don't make this simple mistake. Remember the two things that Geniuses do. First, geniuses possess a superior level of self-awareness, so they know what their natural talents are (and are not). Second, they are also very authentic, so they find ways to achieve success that rely on these talents. They find jobs that rely on their natural talents, not their ability to develop new talents. They find roles that play to their strengths, not their weaknesses. When they do this, they find that the work comes more naturally and success more frequently.

The most successful among us don't spend their lives trying to become the A%2B student in that difficult class we mentioned in my last article. Because they understand that they are who they are, instead of wasting energy trying to become something they are not, they invest it in trying to better apply that which they already are. In a sense, they stop trying to put in what God left out and instead work with what he put in! This frees up a lot of extra energy. Imagine how much more successful you would be if 100% of your energy was directed towards just using your natural talents.

By being as authentic as they are, geniuses are free to pour all of their time and energy into doing more of what they already do naturally well, instead of being distracted by trying to develop what they don't already have. This is not to say that Geniuses don't grow or continue to refine themselves. Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, one of the Geniuses interviewed for this study, says of refining himself, "I constantly try to refine the strengths I have, but that doesn't mean I try to develop things I don't already have. One danger in the message of only focusing on strengths is that people may perceive this to mean that they don't have to improve at all. Rather within their natural talents they must always improve. The key is to find a role that depends primarily on what you do well, and then continue to get even better at it through practice, awareness and acquired knowledge and experience."

If they need to acquire new knowledge or experience, Geniuses definitely do. But if the job calls for natural talents that they don't possess, they either find another way to do that job, or they find another job. That's what the very best do, and that's what my last few and next few articles are all about. Remember the formula for 5th level performance; Self-Awareness %2B Authenticity = Success.

The key to being "true", however, is not about identifying weaknesses so you can turn them into strengths, which is what most theories on personal improvement would argue. The Genius Study shows that the best among us take a very different approach to their weaknesses. While the best do indeed seek to understand their weaknesses very well, they do not do so for the purposes of fixing them, rather they use this knowledge to create objectives, goals, and roles that simply do not depend on those weaknesses. Such thinking runs counter to conventional wisdom, which teaches us that the key to greater success lies in eliminating weaknesses. Geniuses wouldn't argue that eliminating weakness is the key to success, but it's how they eliminate them that is so different. Instead of eliminating the weakness, they eliminate their dependence on it. There are lots of things Geniuses do, so let's let them tell you what some of those things are. Here's what just some of the geniuses Jay interviewed for the study had to say about their natural talents, self-awareness and authenticity when it comes to being successful.

Marshall Goldsmith on Self-Awareness
"I think I am very aware of my strengths. My strengths are being very good at coaching others - specifically the teaching aspect of coaching due to my love and passion for teaching. I love teaching and I'm very good at it because, in part, I am very good at taking complex concepts and organizing them in a simple way that is easy to understand and therefore one of the gifts I have for teaching others. My job is helping others set realistic goals, evaluating them in those goals, and teaching them how to reach them better. As for my weaknesses, I am not good at managing people, but I just don't do it. I have lots of weaknesses, I just don't do them and I have no interest in correcting them. I constantly try to refine the strengths I have, but that doesn't mean I try to develop things I don't already possess. One of the keys to my success is that I've been able to find a role, or create one actually, that depends primarily on the natural talents I already possess."

Francis Hesselbein on Authentic Passion
"Peter Drucker would say all the time, 'your job is to make the strengths of your people effective and their weaknesses irrelevant!' I think I've always been very aware of my strengths and weaknesses. When I am at my best it is when I am focusing on what I do best, when I am less effective it is when I am ignoring those talents but choose to carry out those practices which rely on my non-talents. The thing to keep in mind is that success is a matter of how to be, not how to do. People like you and me have never had a job. They have been called to do what they do best. Warren Bennis calls it the leader within or the spirit within.

When you are doing things that align with your talents and strengths, you don't consider it work. It is your passion. I think the purpose of a good leader is to mobilize people around a passionate mission, but it has to be in their way to reach their passion. Great leadership requires the best and to be the absolute best you can't be false, you can't be trying to be great at something you aren't
naturally great at."

There are five simple steps that if you follow them will make it much easier to achieve success. Of course, before we even get into the five steps, you have to define what success means to you. But, once you have defined success for yourself, here are the five "must do" steps to achieving success:

1. Set Goals. This is only common sense but it is shocking to me how many people do not set goals. Only about 2% of the world's population set goals but, those 2% control approximately 95% of the wealth in the world. You want to make sure that you are part of that 2%. It is really rather simple, if you don't have a target then how can you hit it. Without a target, you are going to miss every time. If you have a gun and go out to the shooting range and just start firing off rounds, the bullets are going to go somewhere and if you are real lucky, you won't shoot yourself in the foot. However, If you have a specific target that you are aiming at, you are going to come a lot closer to your target and closer to your goal. With a little study, training and practice, you can get to the point that you will hit the bulls-eye every time.

2. Use positive thinking. I am sure that you have heart the cliche: "If you think you can or you think you can't, your right." You have to believe in yourself. There can be no doubts. Know in your heart that you can be successful and you will find success beyond your wildest dreams. A note of caution with this one-you must know your field of expertise. You must gain all of the knowledge necessary to be a success but, once you have gained the proper background and knowledge, use positive thinking to help you achieve your goals.

3. Visualize yourself successful. Go into the bathroom and look into the mirror but, instead of just seeing your reflected image, see the image of what you will look like when you have achieved your dream. What kind of clothes are you wearing. Now take a whiff-what kind of cologne are you wearing. What does your house look like. Is that a 65 inch big screen TV that I see on the wall. Go out to the garage and look at your car. Do you see your old junker or are you now looking at that new Mercedes AMG. Go for a drive in your new car. Can you smell that new car smell. Do you hear that throaty sound of that massive V-12 engine. Feel the incredible acceleration and remember to keep an eye out for the police. They are jealous of you and your new car so watch your speed. Are you getting the picture? See the new you as if it has already happened. Walk like, talk like and act like the success that you are.

4. Don't quit. No matter how far away success may feel, remember that you can and will achieve it. The only people who fail are the quitters and the worst part of it is that they quit just before they were about to make the big breakthrough. Always remember and live by the creed that failure is not an option. Success is the only option for you.

5. Be abnormal. Please don't ever call me normal-that is the biggest insult that I could receive. Normal people settle for a life of mediocrity and mediocrity is my greatest fear. I am gladly taking the abnormal route-the route to limitless wealth and success and I am thankful for this because with all of my wealth and success I can do great good for mankind.

Five simple little steps but it will make the difference between a life of misery or a life filled with great wealth and accomplishment.