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Most people believe that in order to make an important change in their lives–pursue their dream career, become a published author, find a way to create multiple streams of passive income, learn to play the guitar, and so on–they need to have a large chunk of free time at their disposal.

At the same time, few people have the luxury of taking a long sabbatical–lasting from six months to a year–which they can devote exclusively to achieving an important life goal.

However, in order to achieve your dreams all that you really need is one hour a day. Discover how to carve an hour out of you day–and how to use that hour to achieve your life goals–in my eBook, “The One-Hour-A-Day Formula: How to Achieve Your Dreams In Just One Hour a Day”. Click here to read more . . .

Ray BradburyRay Bradbury was an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Author of some 500 short stories, novels, plays and poems, his most famous works include “Fahrenheit 451”, “The Martian Chronicles”, and “Dandelion Wine”.

As Bradbury would say, “There’s no way to thank my own teachers, except by teaching others.” Therefore, he was always very generous with aspiring writers in sharing his writing advice. Below you’ll find nine of his tips for writers, as well as sixteen of his best quotes on writing.

Six Pieces of Writing Advice From Ray Bradbury

In 2001 Bradbury gave the keynote address at Point Loma Nazarene University’s Writer’s Symposium By the Sea. During the keynote address he offered the following six pieces of advice for writers:

1. Don’t Start Out Writing Novels. Bradbury advises not to start your writing career by trying to write a novel. He explains that the problem with setting a goal of writing a novel to begin with is that you can spend a whole year trying to write one, and it might not turn out well. After all, if you’re just starting out you haven’t learned to write yet. Beginning and intermediate writers should write short stories; that way, you can write one short story a week.

When you start writing short stories, the quality doesn’t really matter; you’re practicing your craft. At the end of the year, you’ll have 52 short stories. Bradbury adds that it’s almost impossible not to have at least one good story among those 52. Writing short stories will teach you to be constantly looking for ideas. In addition, every week you’ll be happy, because by the end of each week you’ll have something to show for your efforts.

2. Read Great Short Stories. Of course, Bradbury recommends that you read a lot of short stories by great authors. Some examples of authors whose short stories you should read are Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Edith Wharton, and Washington Irving.

3. Stuff Your Head. In addition, Bradbury recommends that for one-thousand nights, before you go to sleep, you do the following:

  • Read one short story a night.
  • Read one poem a night.
  • Read one essay a night, from very diverse fields: politics, philosophy, religion, biology, anthropology, psychology, and so on.

At the end of the one-thousand nights you’ll be full of stuff! All this stuff will be bouncing around in your head, and you’ll be able to come up with lots of new ideas. Here’s a quote in which Bradbury emphasizes that you must read everything that you can in a variety of different fields:

“I absolutely demand of you and everyone I know that they be widely read in every damn field there is; in every religion and every art form and don’t tell me you haven’t got time! There’s plenty of time. You need all of these cross-references. You never know when your head is going to use this fuel, this food for its purposes.”

4. Get Rid of Friends Who Don’t Support You. The next thing that Bradbury recommends is that you fire all of those friends who don’t believe in you, and who make fun of your aspirations to become a writer.

  • “If any girl doesn’t like what you’re doing, ‘Out of your life!'”.
  • “If your friends make fun of you, “To hell with them. Out!'”

5. Live In the Library. Bradbury didn’t go to college, because he couldn’t afford to do so. However, he would go to the library religiously and read everything he could get his hands on; he indicates that he graduated from the library at the age of 28. Here’s what Bradbury has to say about libraries:

  •  “I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it’s better than college. People should educate themselves – you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I’d written a thousand stories.”
  •  “You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads.”

6. Write With Joy. Bradbury would often say that writing is not a serious business; it’s not work. Writing is a joy, a celebration . . . you should be having fun at it. Bradbury shares that he never worked a day in his life; the joy of writing propelled him from day to day, and from year to year. Here are two of his quotes which reflect that sentiment:

  • “Love is easy, and I love writing. You can’t resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you’re in love.”
  •  “Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.”

Three More Writing Tips From Ray Bradbury

In the 1963 documentary titled “Ray Bradbury: Story of a Writer“, Bradbury talks about his life and the creative process. (Watch the documentary while you’re having lunch, or when you have twenty-five minutes to spare. I think that you’ll enjoy it.) In the documentary, Bradbury shares several tips for writers, including the following three tips:

1. Know That It Takes a Long Time for Your Writing to Pay the Bills. It took Bradbury a long time to start making money from his writing. He says the following:

“The first year I made nothing, the second year I made nothing, the third year I made 10 dollars, the fourth year I made 40 dollars. I remember these. I got these indelibly stamped in there. The fifth year I made 80. The sixth year I made 200. The seventh year I made 800. Eighth year, 1,200. Ninth year, 2,000. Tenth year, 4,000. Eleventh year, 8,000 …

Just get a part-time job! Anything that’s halfway decent! An usher in a theater … unless you’re a mad man, you can’t make do in the art fields! You’ve gotta be inspired and mad and excited and love it more than anything else in the world! It has to be, ‘I gotta do it!’, and if you’re not that excited, you can’t win.”

2. Be a Pack Rat. Bradbury indicates that he’s kept everything that he’s ever cared about since childhood. He explains as follows:

“A writer’s past is the most important thing he has. Sometimes an object, a mask, a ticket stub, anything at all, helps me remember a whole experience, and out of that may come an idea for a story.”

3. Take Creativity Breaks. Bradbury urges writers to take breaks in order to allow ideas  to percolate in the subconscious. Here’s what he says: “The time we have alone, the time we have in walking, the time we have in riding a bicycle, is the most important time for a writer. Escaping from the typewriter is part of the creative process. You have to give the subconscious time to think. Real thinking always occurs at the subconscious level.”

Sixteen Quotes on Writing by Ray Bradbury

Here are sixteen of Bradbury’s best quotes on writing:

  • “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” (In this video you can see that Bradbury had a piece of paper with the words “Don’t Think” written on it taped to the wall of his basement home office.)
  • “The trouble with a lot of people who try to write is they intellectualize about it. That comes after. The intellect is given to us by God to test things once they’re done, not to worry about things ahead of time.”
  • “What can we writers learn from lizards, lift from birds? In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth which is the only style worth deadfalling or tiger-trapping.”
  •  “I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.”
  • “We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”
  • “I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.”
  •  “Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.”
  •  “You fail only if you stop writing.”
  • “I always say to students, give me four pages a day, every day. That’s three or four hundred thousand words a year. Most of that will be bilge, but the rest …? It will save your life!”
  • “Don’t talk about it; write.”
  • “You will have to write and put away or burn a lot of material before you are comfortable in this medium. You might as well start now and get the necessary work done. For I believe that eventually quantity will make for quality. How so? Quantity gives experience. From experience alone can quality come. All arts, big and small, are the elimination of waste motion in favor of the concise declaration. The artist learns what to leave out. His greatest art will often be what he does not say, what he leaves out, his ability to state simply with clear emotion, the way he wants to go. The artist must work so hard, so long, that a brain develops and lives, all of itself, in his fingers.”
  • “You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do—and they don’t. They have prejudices. They may like Henry James, but what if you don’t want to write like Henry James? They may like John Irving, for instance, who’s the bore of all time. A lot of the people whose work they’ve taught in the schools for the last thirty years, I can’t understand why people read them and why they are taught.”
  • “A writer is a magnet passing through a factual world, taking what he needs.”
  • “A story should be like a river, flowing and never stopping, your readers passengers on a boat whirling downstream through constantly refreshing and changing scenery.”
  • “My readers must become the main character. In ‘Dial Double Zero’ they must be Tom, confronted by a miracle, trying to understand . . . the mysterious voice that keeps calling him on the telephone.”
  • “The real fear isn’t rejection, but that there won’t be enough time in your life to write all the stories that you have in you.”

Conclusion

The biography released by Ray Bradbury’s publisher upon his death quoted a story in which Bradbury recounted meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. Electrico touched the 12-year-old Bradbury with his sword and commanded, “Live forever!”

“I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard,” Bradbury said. “I started writing every day. I never stopped.”

For more advice for writers, from writers on how to hone the craft of writing, get my ebook, “350 Tips For Writers, From Writers”. Just how do you go about facing an empty page, coaxing your ideas into the world of form, and steering the end result toward shore? You can start by studying the tips and advice for writers, from writers presented in this ebook.

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3.57 Tips For Writers, From Writers
4. Stuck for An Idea? Try SCAMPER

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2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done
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Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

One of the best ways to generate ideas—whether it’s to create something new, find a solution to a problem that you’re having, or just bring more creativity into your everyday life—is to use creativity techniques.

SCAMPER is one of the most powerful creativity techniques out there. It’s based on the notion that everything new is a modification of something that already exists. The technique—which is attributed to Bob Eberle– consists of a set of directed questions (or you can think of it as an idea spurring checklist). By answering these questions with your particular problem or situation in mind, you’ll be generating new ideas.

SCAMPER is an acronym for the following:

  • S – Substitute
  • C – Combine
  • A – Adapt
  • M – Modify (or Magnify)
  • P – Put to Other Uses
  • E – Eliminate (or Minimize)
  • R – Rearrange (or Reverse)

Each of these elements is explained, in detail, below.

SCAMPER – Substitute

scamper-substituteThe first step is to ask yourself if there’s any aspect about the problem or the situation that you’re facing for which you can find a substitute. Anything is subject to being substituted: parts of a product, steps in a process, the place, the people, and so on. Substitution is a trial-and error method of replacing one thing with another until you find the right idea.

Instead of just asking yourself: “What can I substitute?”, you can also ask yourself questions such as the following:

  • Can I replace or change any parts?
  • What can I replace with something better?
  • Who can I use instead?
  • What can be used instead?
  • Is there another approach?
  • Can the rules be changed?
  • Can I use other ingredients or materials?
  • Can I use other processes or procedures?
  • Can I use a different source of energy?
  • What if I change its name?
  • Can I substitute one part for another?
  • Can I substitute the time?
  • Can I change my feelings or attitude towards the problem or the situation?
  • What else instead?
  • Can you substitute a part with an inexpensive alternative?

SCAMPER – Combine

scamper - combineThe second step is to think about combining two or more elements of the problem or the situation that you’re facing in order to come up with something new. As many creativity experts hold, creativity is just about combining things that already exist in a new way. Here are some questions you can ask yourself in order to start thinking about how to combine two or more parts of your problem or opportunity to enhance synergy:

  • Can I combine this product with another to create something new?
  • Can I combine the purposes of the different parts?
  • What can be combined to maximize the number of uses?
  • What materials could be combined?
  • How can I combine talents and resources to create a new approach to this product?
  • What can I bring together?
  • Can I package a combination?
  • Can I combine tasks?
  • How about an assortment?
  • Can I make it multifunctional (think of the Swiss army knife)?

SCAMPER – Adapt

scamper - adaptThe third step is to ask yourself if there’s a solution out there to a different problem which you can adapt to your situation. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you with this:

  • Is there something similar to it, but in a different context?
  • What’s like this?
  • What lessons have I learned in the past which I can apply to this situation?
  • What could I copy, borrow, or steal?
  • Whom could I emulate?
  • What processes can be adapted?
  • What ideas outside my field can I incorporate?
  • What else can be adapted?
  • Can I adapt another product to fit my needs?
  • What are other people doing to solve this problem? Can I do the same?
  • What could be adapted to suit my purpose?

SCAMPER – Modify or Magnify

scamper - modifyThe fourth step is to ask yourself what ideas you can come up with if you modify or magnify your problem or situation. Ask yourself questions such as the following:

  • What can be magnified or made larger?
  • What can be exaggerated or overstated?
  • What can be duplicated?
  • What can be made higher, bigger or stronger?
  • Can I increase its frequency?
  • How can I modify the process?
  • How can I take this to an extreme?
  • Is there a new twist?
  • Can I change the color, the shape, the smell, or the sound?
  • What other form could this take?
  • Can I increase the price by adding more value?
  • Can I give it a different meaning?
  • How can this be altered for the better?

SCAMPER – Put to Other Uses

scamper - put to other usesThe fifth step is to ask yourself how you can put your current idea, product, or service to other uses. Ask yourself questions such as the following:

  • What else can it be used for?
  • Can it be used by people other than those it was originally intended for?
  • Who else might be able to use this? How would they use it?
  • Could children use this? How?
  • Can it be used in a different context?
  • Is there a different problem out there that this could be a solution for?
  • If I knew nothing about it, would I figure out the purpose of this idea?
  • Can I use this idea in other markets or industries?
  • Can I use this idea in a different place?

SCAMPER – Eliminate or Minimize

scamper - eliminateThe sixth step is to ask yourself what you can eliminate or minimize. That is, what can you simplify or reduce? Ask yourself questions such as the following:

  • What can be eliminated?
  • Can you eliminate extraneous details?
  • How can I simplify it?
  • What parts can be removed without altering its function?
  • What’s non-essential or unnecessary?
  • What features can I take out?
  • Should I split it into different parts?
  • Can I narrow it down to its core functions?
  • Can I lower the price by taking something out?
  • What can be made smaller or minimized?
  • How can it be made more compact?
  • Can I decrease the frequency?
  • How can this be streamlined?
  • Can this be made into a miniature?
  • Can this be condensed?
  • Can I make it lighter?
  • How can cost, time, or effort be minimized?
  • Can waste be minimized?
  • Can you make it portable?
  • What’s not necessary?
  • What could you do without?

SCAMPER – Rearrange or Reverse

scamper- rearrangeThe seventh and last step is to ask yourself what you can rearrange or reverse. The idea is to look at your problem or situation from a different angle. Ask yourself questions such as the following:

  • What if I reverse the process?
  • What if I did it the other way around?
  • What if I turn it upside down?
  • What if I were to use a different sequence?
  • Can I transpose positives and negatives?
  • What if I consider it backwards?
  • What if I try doing the exact opposite of what I originally intended?
  • How would I achieve the opposite effect?
  • How can I reverse roles?

Conclusion

Ask yourself each of the questions above for your problem or situation and generate as many ideas as you possibly can. Many of the ideas that you come up with won’t be viable, but that’s fine. When you’re generating ideas by using the questions above, don’t stop to judge or criticize. Once you’re done generating ideas the final step is to look through them and determine which ones deserve further exploration.

You can use SCAMPER to generate ideas for anything:

  • Get ideas for a book you’re writing.
  • Come up with ways to generate more revenue from an existing product.
  • Find new, creative uses for an existing product.
  • Look for ways to improve an existing service.
  • Find ways to improve a marketing campaign.
  • Take a current social or political problem and come up with a list of possible solutions.
  • Apply SCAMPER to get ideas for blog posts.

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2.Creativity Tools: 24 Free Online Creative Thinking Tools
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Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

In order to live your best life, you should have large goals you want to tackle–such as visiting San Francisco and riding a cable car, or studying French in Paris–as well as simple pleasures you can enjoy at a moment’s notice. To help you with the latter, here are 75 simple pleasures to help you enjoy the little things:

Simple Pleasures and Ways to Enjoy the Little Things With Friends

simple pleasure play scrabble

New Game

1. Invite your friends over for a night of dominoes, Scrabble, Risk, and charades.

2. Have a wine and cheese tasting party.

3. Scheme a harmless prank together.

4. Have a potluck dinner; ask each person to bring their signature dish.

5. Create rituals and traditions to celebrate each season with your friends. For example, go to an Irish pub each St. Patrick’s Day and have green beer, go to a screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” every October, and play Secret Santa each December.

6.  Get a group of friends together when it’s hot out, find a hill, and go ice block sledding.

7. Start a book club with your friends.  Take turns holding the meetings in each others’ homes; the host is in charge of the refreshments.  You can read the classics, current bestsellers, or any literary genre you’re all interested in.

8. Have a foam sword fight.

9.  Join a pillow fight flash mob with your friends (if you’re reading this by email, click over to the blog to watch the YouTube video):

Simple Pleasures and Ways to Enjoy the Little Things With Family

simple pleasure eat a banana split1o. Create a scrapbook to document cherished family moments.

11. Make homemade mini pizzas.

12. Try a science experiment: make a lava-spewing volcano or make a battery from a potato.

13. Have a water balloon fight.

14. Play with squirt guns.

15. Have a tickle fight.

16. Make banana splits.

17. Brush up on the constellations and go for a star-gazing walk.

18. Draw a mural together.

19. Have a family awards night and find something positive to highlight about each member of the family.

simple pleasure go to a lake and feed the ducks

Ducks on Qios Lake

20. Create a “time capsule” with a few personal items and bury it in the backyard with the intent to dig it up in ten years time.

21. Visit a nearby pond and feed the ducks.

22. Put together a family recipe cookbook.

23. Create skits and plays. Have a talent show.

24. Have a family movie night. Make popcorn, put on your pajamas, and huddle under a large blanket.

25. Make miniature boats and float them in a nearby body of water.

26. Create a Compliment Board by hanging up a Dry Erase Board which everyone in the family can use to compliment each other. For example:

  • “Dad’s hamburgers were great.”
  • “John did the dishes without being asked. Thank you!”
  • “Ann made her bed every day this week.”

27. Have a themed dinner night –Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and so on. Cook a national dish from that country, put up the country’s flag, and play music and watch a movie from that country.

28. Have a treasure hunt (if you need help planning one, you can use this guide: The Treasure Hunt Book).

29. Put together a jigsaw puzzle. Better yet, get several jig saw puzzles that are all the same and have a contest to see who can finish putting together their puzzle first.

Simple Pleasures . . . It’s About the Little Things

simple pleasures have a lollipop

Lollipop

30. Listen to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

31. Get a night mask, mist Lavender Pillow Mist spray into the air and/or directly onto your pillow, turn on some white noise, and get a really good night’s sleep.

32. Cuddle up with a loved one in bed.

33. Go out and buy a pair of jeans that fits you perfectly.

34. Slip into your favorite sweat pants and t-shirt.

35. Get some bubble wrap and pop every last bubble.

36. Bake a cake and lick the batter off the beaters of the cake mixer.

37. Put a $10.00 bill in the pocket of a jacket you don’t wear often and forget about it. When you wear the jacket again a few weeks later you can enjoy “finding” the money.

38. Blow dandelion seeds from a seed-puff and watch to see how far they go.

39. Have a lollipop or a tootsie roll.

40.Have an “old TV series” marathon and watch your favorite old TV show (Classic TV), such as “The Andy Griffith Show”, “I Love Lucy”, “The Twilight Zone”, or “Bonanza”.

41. Get a mug and fill it with a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils. Open a brand new notebook and start a journal. (You can use the journal prompts here for inspiration.)

42. Whistle your favorite song.

43. Get a running start and slide across the tile floor in your socks. Re-enact the scene from “Risky Business” in which Tom Cruise’s character slides across the floor in his socks playing air guitar as “Old Time Rock N’ Roll” plays on the stereo.

44. Make a decorative memo board: display photos, favorite quotes, leaves you find along your walks, fun to-do lists, and so on.

simple pleasure read a novel45. Check out a great novel from the library, find a quiet corner, and spend the afternoon reading.

46. Take out your old mixed-tapes and sing along with your favorite songs of yesteryear.

47. Look for a falling star and make a wish.

48. Get a Pez dispenser in a shape you love and fill it with cherry-flavored Pez (then watch Seinfeld and the Pez Dispenser).

49. Have your favorite breakfast in bed. Make sure to add a rose in a vase, just because.

50. Get a recording of a rooster crowing and use it as your wake-up alarm.

51. Enjoy the smell and feel of clean sheets.

52. Wrap yourself in a towel that you just took out of the dryer.

53. Dig your fingers deep into the soft earth.

54. Take 10 slow, deep breaths every hour on the hour.

55. Hang up a wind chime; place it where it will pick up the breeze. Sit back and enjoy its gentle melody.

56. Re-read your favorite children’s book (mine is “Charlotte’s Web”).

57. Change your passwords on all of your online accounts to words that make you smile.

58. Hang a dart board and practice your aim.

Simple Pleasures and Ways to Enjoy the Little Things Outdoors

simple pleasure - swing on a tire swing

Tire Swing

59. Go for a hike in the woods.

60. Run a mile.

61. Spend the afternoon lying in a hammock.

62. Hang up a tire swing. Swing to your heart’s content.

63. Run through your garden sprinkler.

64. Walk barefoot in the grass.

65. Bounce up and down on a trampoline.

66. Pick some wildflowers for your table.

Simple Pleasures and Ways to Enjoy the Little Things  – Pamper Yourself

simple pleasure drink a mimosa

Mimosas

67. Get a hot rock massage.

68. Take a long bubble bath. Better yet, make it an aromatherapy bath.

69. Spend the day at a spa.

70. Have bagels, cream cheese, and lox on Sunday morning.

71 Have waffles covered with strawberries and syrup; consider adding Nutella (hazelnut spread).

72. Make a list of everything in your house that needs to be fixed and hire someone to fix it.

73. Take a nap in the middle of the afternoon.

74. Wear a pair of warm, fuzzy slippers.

75. Have a Mimosa (chilled orange juice and champagne) with your Sunday brunch. Make sure to drink it in a Champagne Flute and garnish with raspberries.

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how to make yourself luckyA moment of bad luck can unravel years of hard work in seconds, while a sudden stroke of good fortune can instantly transform your life for the better.

Is luck simply a mysterious, unpredictable force–the whim of the gods, if you will–, or is it something that you can attract more of into your life? The two authors I discuss below argue that there are steps that you can take and mental attitudes that you can adopt in order to make yourself lucky.

Scientific Research on How to Be Lucky

Many people believe that “luck” is simply something that happens by chance and is completely out of their control. However, Richard Wiseman, psychology chair at the University of Herfordshire in England, conducted scientific research with a group of 400 exceptionally lucky and unlucky people from all walks of life.

As a result of his research, Dr. Wiseman claims that lucky people simply possess four basic psychological traits which unlucky people don’t:

  1. They have the ability to maximize chance opportunities.
  2. They listen to their “gut feelings”.
  3. They expect good fortune.
  4. They see the bright side of bad luck.

Read more about each of these below.

Lucky People Maximize Chance Opportunities

Within the principle of maximizing chance opportunities there are three sub-principles: lucky people build and maintain a strong “network of luck”; lucky people have a relaxed attitude toward life; and lucky people are open to new experiences.

Lucky People Build and Maintain a “Network of Luck”

Wiseman indicates that lucky people build a strong “network of luck”.  The more people someone meets, he explains, the higher their opportunity of running into someone who could have a positive impact on their life.

Lucky people tend to exhibit behavior that attracts others, such as smiling, making eye-contact, and using open body language (they point their bodies toward the person they are speaking with, uncross their arms and legs, make gestures that display open palms, and so on).

Wiseman adds that lucky people are better at building long-lasting attachments and at keeping in touch with a larger network of friends and colleagues than unlucky people are.

Two exercises that Wiseman suggests to become luckier are the following:

  • Each week next month strike up a conversation with someone who looks friendly and approachable, and who you know very little or not at all.
  • In addition, each week next month go through your list of contacts and reach out to someone you haven’t heard from in a while.

Lucky People Have a Relaxed Attitude Toward Life

Lucky people also have a relaxed attitude toward life, which means that they’re more likely to notice chance opportunities.  Wiseman reached this conclusion after carrying out an experiment in which he did the following:

  • He gave a group of lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell him how many photographs there were inside.
  • He secretly placed a message halfway through the newspaper that said “Tell the experimenter that you saw this and you’ll receive $250″.  The message took up half the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high.

The unlucky people tended to miss the message and the lucky people tended to spot it.  Wiseman notes that unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected.  (Source).

Wiseman reports that many lucky people describe using various forms of relaxation techniques to lower their stress levels. Therefore, you should identify techniques that you can use to become more relaxed and thereby draw more luck into your life.

Lucky People Are Open to New Experiences

As an additional character trait, lucky people like variety and novelty in their lives. They love trying new experiences, new foods, and new ways of doing things.  This greater openness to new experiences helps promote new opportunities.

Wiseman suggests that in order to attract luck into your life you play “the dice game”: make a list of six experiences you’ve wanted to try for a while, number them from one to six, roll a die, and carry out whichever experience is selected.

Lucky People Listen to Their Intuition

Dr. Wiseman had over a hundred lucky and unlucky people answer a short questionnaire concerning the role of intuition in their lives. He found that lucky people listen to their intuition and to their hunches, whereas unlucky people tend to dismiss their gut feelings.

Wiseman also discovered that lucky people do things to enhance their intuition, such as clearing their mind, meditating, and spending time in peaceful settings.

Lucky People Expect Good Fortune

Wiseman found during the course of his research that lucky people’s expectations of good things happening were far higher than the expectations held by unlucky people.  He explains that our expectations have a remarkable effect on the way we think, feel, and act.

Expecting positive results makes people act in a way that is more effective and more conducive to achieving what they want.  In addition, lucky people’s high expectations motivate them to persist, even in the face of adversity.

Lucky People Look for the Bright Side of Bad Luck

Another interesting finding Wiseman made was that lucky people do encounter negative events, but when they do they have an uncanny ability to transform the negative event into something positive.

For example, when something negative happens, lucky people will think of how things could have been worse, which makes them feel much better about themselves and about their lives.  In addition, when bad things happen, lucky people tend to take a long-view and expect that things will turn out for the best in the end.

An exercise that Dr. Wiseman suggests you try is to create “a phoenix from the ashes“.  You do this by spending a few minutes thinking of the positive things that could come out of an unlucky or unfortunate event that has happened in your life.  Then ask yourself these two questions:

  • What evidence is there to suggest that these positive events won’t actually happen?
  • What evidence is there that something even more positive won’t come out of your ill fortune?

The answer to both of these questions is “none.” You don’t know what the future has in store for you.  It could very well be that what looks like a negative event in the short-term turns out to have a positive effect on your life in the long-term.

In addition, lucky people don’t dwell on their bad luck.  There’s a two-way relationship between mood and memory: when unlucky people ruminate on a negative event that has happened in their life they feel bad, which makes them think of other bad things that have happened to them, and they continue down a spiral of negative feelings and sad memories.  This plunges them down further and further into a negative worldview.

Lucky people do the opposite: they focus on the good things that have happened to them, which makes them feel happy and lucky, which then brings up more memories of positive events in their lives, and so on and so forth.

As a last point, lucky people approach negative events in a much more constructive way than unlucky people do.  While unlucky people have a tendency to give up when something goes wrong, lucky people do the following:

  • They see negative events as a challenge that they need to overcome;
  • They try to discover why they weren’t successful;
  • They try to learn from their mistakes;
  • They examine their options and look for ways to move forward.

Getting Lucky by Influencing Others to Send Luck Your Way

Marc Myers, author of “How To Make Luck: Seven Secrets Lucky People Use To Succeed” says that luck “depends on the actions of other people and whether or not they decide to help you get what you want.” If you stop to think about it, most of the good or bad things that come into your life have come by way of others. So how can you influence others to send opportunities your way?

Myers writes that you can’t attract good luck to yourself unless you know what you’re trying to achieve. Once you know what you want, a big part of attracting luck is identifying “the gate-keepers of opportunity” or the people who can help you achieve your goals. It’s not just about meeting these people, it’s about being prepared when you meet them.

As an example, Myers talks about a woman who won $34,000 on “Wheel of Fortune”. Why was she lucky enough to be selected for the show when there are hundreds of people trying to be contestants on “Wheel of Fortune”?

She watched several past episodes of the show and noted how the contestants dressed, their body language, their mannerisms, and how they reacted when they did well and when they didn’t.

Then, when the producers asked possible contestants to play a mock game, she mimicked the behavior she had observed in those who had been picked as contestants in the past. Myers writes that she “influenced the odds of getting in the game by convincing the producers to give her what she wanted.”

Myers notes that another characteristic of lucky people is that they take risks. In addition, although it’s important to take an active role in your life and pursue what you want, you have to be careful not to be too aggressive. The more people you rub the wrong way by being too pushy or overbearing, the less help is likely to come your way. Lucky people are assertive, but not aggressive.

Here’s what Myers suggests that you do:

  • Start by getting clear on what you want and then go through your address book and identify everyone you know who has expertise in that area. These are your gatekeepers.
  • The trick is to come into contact with as many people as you can who can help you get closer to what you want.
  • You have to be careful of how you ask for what you want.  Make others want to help you by finding ways to help them first. In fact, if you’re a resource for people in general, your luck should improve.

You can increase your luck and increase the likelihood of having good stuff come your way by following the tips and strategies explained above.

Related Posts:

1.How to Get Out of the Victim Mentality
2.Rule of Adulthood: You Have to Rescue Yourself
3.The Cavalry Ain’t Coming
4. Dealing With Life’s Challenges – Life Is Like a Game of Chutes and Ladders

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victim mentality

Chaos Inside

Most of us take on the role of victim at least once in a while. Adopting a victim mentality takes away our personal power, it limits our resourcefulness, and it leaves us feeling like we’re not in control of our lives.

“The Power of TED”, a book written by David Emerald, is about moving from a Victim Orientation to a Creator Orientation. The book sets forth a process for shifting from the disempowering view that you’re being acted upon by forces outside of yourself which you can do nothing about, to the more resourceful world view of seeing yourself as being in the driver’s seat of your life.

TED is an acronym for “The Empowerment Dynamic” which presents a way out of the Drama Triangle, a highly dysfunctional framework within which most people interact with one another. The Drama Triangle consists of the following three roles:

  • Victim
  • Persecutor
  • Rescuer

The Victim sees themselves as being at the mercy of a Persecutor–a person, event, or situation that’s having a negative impact on their life–, and they’re waiting for a Rescuer to come to their aid.

TED is a powerful method for getting out of a victim mentality–in which you feel helpless and taken advantage of–and becoming a Creator who asks “What do I want to happen?” and then takes baby steps to start moving in that direction.

If you’re ready to get out of the victim mentality and become a powerful Creator, or if you’re looking for a useful tool to help a loved one who’s always playing the role of the Victim, continue reading below.

The Drama Triangle: Victim – Persecutor – Rescuer

The Drama Triangle is a model of human interaction first described by Stephen Karpman, MD. It describes three psychological roles (or ego states) which people often take in response to a situation: Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer.

The three roles are very interdependent on one another. In addition, people shift in and out of playing each of these three roles. Within the same situation the roles that people play can shift; for example, when a couple is fighting and they each blame the other for whatever it is that they’re fighting about, they’re both trying to take on the role of the Victim and place the other in the role of the Persecutor.

Also, a person can be a Victim under certain circumstances but assume one of the other two roles in other circumstances. Needless to say, the Drama Triangle is a very unhealthy relationship dynamic. Below you’ll discover more about the Victim, the Persecutor, and the Rescuer.

The Victim

“Frozen in fear, you avoid responsibility because you think your experience is beyond your control. This stance keeps you from making decisions, solving problems, or going after what you want in life.”

– From “The Power of TED”

David makes a distinction in “The Power of TED” between victimization and victimhood. Victimization is a fact of life; we all experience it. Maybe someone cuts ahead of you in traffic all of a sudden, forcing you to brake abruptly or risk being in an accident. In that moment you’ve been victimized. In addition, there are people on Earth who live under severe victimization.

Victimhood, however, is a way of being; it’s a self-identity which is challenged by TED. When someone sees themselves as a victim, they’re giving in to a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness. Behind every Victim there’s usually a dream or desire in that person’s life that has been thwarted, and that they’ve given up on.

The Persecutor

The Persecutor does not necessarily have to be a person. It can be a condition (such as an illness) or a situation (for example, a natural disaster). It’s anything that creates a sense of paralysis, hopelessness, and helplessness in the Victim.

When the Persecutor is a person, it’s someone who seeks to dominate, blame, and tear others down. What most Persecutors fear is their own victimization; they therefore adopt a strategy of “it’s better to dominate than to be dominated”. The Persecutor tries to maintain a one-up position so that they’re in the dominant role in the drama.

The Rescuer

Just as with the Persecutor, the Rescuer doesn’t have to be a person. It can be anyone or anything that helps the Victim escape their feelings, including substance abuse and compulsive behavior such as gambling, workaholism, and so on.

When the Rescuer is a person, they do want to help, but they unintentionally reinforce the powerlessness of the Victim because of the approach that they use.  Their attitude toward the Victim is usually along the following lines:

  • “Oh, poor you.”
  • “I’ll take care of this.”
  • “Don’t worry, I’ll fix this.”

This approach doesn’t help the Victim become empowered and more resourceful.  Rescuers often fear not being needed; they need Victims around them in order to feel a sense of meaning and purpose.

Basic Overview of TED – The Empowerment Dynamic

TED provides an escape from the toxic relationship dynamic of Victim-Persecutor-Rescuer that is present in the Drama Triangle.

The basic shift is in moving from a Victim Orientation to a Creator Orientation in which you own your capacity for creating outcomes in your life and choosing your response to life experiences.

Once you become a Creator you begin to see Persecutors as Challengers; that is, people and situations that have come into your life to help you learn and to spark growth and development. Rather than look for a Rescuer, which is what a Victim does, the Creator will often look for help and guidance from a Coach.

Each of the roles in the Drama Triangle has a TED antidote.  For the Victim it’s the Creator, for the Persecutor it’s the Challenger, and for the Rescuer it’s the Coach.

The Creator

The central role in TED is the Creator, which represents an antidote to the Victim role in the Drama Triangle. As you make the shift from being a Victim to being a Creator you begin to develop the capacity to envision outcomes and take baby steps toward manifesting these outcomes.

In addition, a Creator knows that he/she always has a choice, regardless of circumstances. You can always choose how you’re going to respond.

An example used by David of someone who was a Creator is Victor Frankl. He was a young psychiatrist who spent years in three different Nazi concentration camps under the most disempowering, difficult, and challenging of life experiences. And yet while he was there he realized that he had a choice as to how he would respond to his circumstances.

Here’s a famous quote from Frankl that illustrates the power of the Creator: “Everything can be taken from a man but …the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

The Challenger

The Challenger is the antidote to the Persecutor, and it can be a person, circumstance, or condition. The purpose of the Challenger is to spark growth or development.

When the Challenger is a person they can take on one of two forms: the unconscious, deconstructive Challenger or the conscious, constructive Challenger.

The unconscious, deconstructive Challenger is someone who does not have the intent to help you grow, but rather to get something for themselves, even if it’s at your expense.

You therefore need to deconstruct what is happening and try to find the lesson that is hidden in the experience. That is, you have to change your perspective from “Why is this happening to me?” or “Why is this person doing this to me?” to looking for ways in which you can grow and expand as a result of this challenge.

The conscious, constructive Challenger is someone who’s a Creator and looks at you as a Creator, and they’re challenging you with the intent to help you grow.

We all need a little push once in a while to learn a new skill, acquire some knowledge or insight, make a decision we’ve been avoiding, or take action to move toward achieving one of our dreams. The Challenger–whether conscious or unconscious–can help us do that.

The Coach

The Coach is the antidote to the Rescuer. The Rescuer reinforces the powerlessness of the Victim; they want to feel that the Victim needs them. The Coach, on the other hand, sees you not as a Victim, but as a Creator who is capable and resourceful.

A Coach assists and facilitates, and they can help you in assessing the situation and recognizing recurring patterns. In addition, they can help you analyze how you’ve been responding to the situation in an ineffective manner, and they can help you decide what steps to take in order to move forward. However, they never take power away from you. Instead, they empower you to make your own healthy choices.

What if You Find Yourself in the Middle of a Drama Triangle?

David explains in “The Power of TED” that if you find yourself in the middle of a drama triangle, you need to take the following three steps in order to move toward empowerment:

  1. The first step is to realize that the situation you’re in is a Drama Triangle and that you want to break the cycle. Call a “time out!”
  2. The next step – if possible–is to take a break in the interaction, whether it’s ten minutes or two days. You need to stop your participation in the drama and shift toward TED.
  3. When you’re ready, reengage with others, but this time from the role of Creator, Challenger or Coach.
  • If you’ve been playing the Victim (fearful, defensive, submissive) you must become a Creator (focused on a vision, working toward a goal). You can do this by asking “What do I want?” and by moving from reacting to choosing.
  • If you’ve been playing the Persecutor (exerting power over others) you must become a Challenger (gently pushing others to acquire new knowledge or skills and strive to be their best). You can do this by asking “What is my intention?” and by shifting your focus from putting others down to building them up.
  • If you’ve been playing the Rescuer (overly protective, making decisions for others) you must become a Coach (supporting, assisting, facilitating). You can do this by asking “How am I seeing the other?” and by shifting from telling to asking.

Do you recognize yourself in any of the three roles of the Drama Triangle?  Are you ready to make a shift from Victim to Creator? Are you playing the role of the Persecutor in someone’s life? If so, are you ready to become a Challenger instead of a Persecutor? Are you playing the role of the Rescuer in someone’s life? If so, are you ready to become a Coach instead of a Rescuer?

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Related Posts:

1.Rule of Adulthood: You Have to Rescue Yourself
2. 5 Life Lessons From Motivation Mega Star Jim Rohn
3. Succeed by Cultivating a Growth Mindset
4. Dealing With Life’s Challenges – Life Is Like a Game of Chutes and Ladders

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Yesterday I published a post titled, “Rule of Adulthood: You Have to Rescue Yourself“. Two readers left comments indicating that the post reminded them of Chris Gardner’s “The Cavalry Ain’t Coming”. You may recall that the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” (starring Will Smith) was based on Gardner’s life.

I did a Google search for “The Cavalry Ain’t Coming”, and I found the video which I embed at the bottom of this post (and thank you to the two of you who brought it to my attention).

In the video, Gardner recalls that when he was small, one day he was watching a Western on TV with his mother. Toward the end of the movie, it seemed that all was lost for the good guy. He had no horse and no sidekick, and he was running out of ammunition. At that point, the good guy looks out across the desert, and there’s nothing but tumbleweed and cacti.

Gardner’s mother turned to him and said, “See that, the cavalry ain’t coming.” She wanted Gardner to understand that the cowboy was on his own. He was going to have to save himself. In the end, the cowboy did save himself. But the point was that his resolve and ingenuity did not kick in until he accepted that no cavalry had been sent to bail him out. He had to become his own cavalry.

Accepting that “the cavalry ain’t coming” is a state of mind. It’s an attitude. The process is as follows:

1. Take stock of where you are.
2. Understand how you got to where you are.
3. Take the steps necessary to get to where you want to be.

Gardner adds the following: “When the road gets tough, and you find yourself gazing hopefully out toward the horizon, remember this: the cavalry ain’t coming.” In order to live your best life, you have to become your own cavalry.

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Related Posts:

1. How to Get Out of the Victim Mentality
2. 5 Life Lessons From Motivation Mega Star Jim Rohn
3. Succeed by Cultivating a Growth Mindset
4. Dealing With Life’s Challenges – Life Is Like a Game of Chutes and Ladders

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rescue yourself

Sculpture, Briancon

A while ago I wrote a blog post about David Emerald’s fabulous book, “The Power of TED: The Empowerment Dynamic”. In his book, David explains a model of human interaction called “The Drama Triangle”, which was first described by Stephen Karpman. The model describes three psychological roles (or ego states) which people often take in response to a situation: Persecutor, Victim, and Rescuer.

Here’s a description of each of these:

  • Persecutor: If you’re having a problem, or you’re facing an obstacle to achieving a goal that’s important to you, you’re likely to see that problem or obstacle as if it were a persecutor (the persecutor can be a person, an event, a situation, and so on).
  • Victim: You act like you’re being victimized by the persecutor, and you feel helpless to do anything to remedy the situation.
  • Rescuer: Since you feel like you can’t remedy the situation yourself, you wait passively for someone or something to come to your rescue.

A lot of our culture is made up of this drama triangle. For example, you can recognize the drama triangle in stories which involve a damsel in distress, a villain holding her captive, and a hero who sweeps in to rescue her. Of course, this dynamic doesn’t apply just to women; it applies to men as well. A lot of us are harboring rescue fantasies.

An area in which it’s quite common for people to harbor rescue fantasies is when it comes to money. People with financial problems—or people who think that they can’t pursue their dreams because they don’t have the money to do so–are very likely to tell themselves that their problems are going to be solved at any moment by one of the following:

  • They’re going to win the lottery.
  • They’re going to meet and marry someone who’s wealthy.
  • They’re going to win the jackpot in Las Vegas.
  • A lawyer is going to show up at their doorstep and hand them a check from a long-lost relative who died and left them a large inheritance.

Although in the glaring light of reality all of the above seem highly unlikely, a surprisingly large number of people pin their hopes on having one of these things come to pass.

Keep in mind that rescue fantasies don’t just apply to the area of finances. They can apply to any area in which we’re not getting what we want from life and, instead of taking action, we’re passively waiting for a benefactor to take some action on our behalf, or for some highly improbable event to take place. The problem with rescue fantasies is that it doesn’t matter how long you wait: no one is coming to the rescue.

You need to accept the following.

  • Whatever problem you’re having, you’re going to have to fix it yourself.
  • Whatever it is that you want from life, you’re going to have to go out there and get it yourself.
  • Things are not going to happen by themselves; you have to make things happen.

Below you’ll read about Brian Tracy’s realization that no one was coming to the rescue, the importance of self-reliance for your self-esteem, and how you have to help yourself before you’ll get any help from others.

No One Is Coming To the Rescue

Brian Tracy writes in his book “Goals! How to Get Everything You Want–Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible” that when he was twenty-one years old he was broke, he had a job working construction, and he lived in a small one-room apartment.  One night he was sitting at the small kitchen table and he had a sudden flash of awareness that changed his life: “No one was coming to the rescue.”

Tracy realized at that moment that everything that happened to him from that moment on was completely up to him.  He was responsible for his life. If he didn’t change, nothing else would change.

However, instead of thinking of this as something scary or overwhelming, coming to this realization was empowering for him. Likewise, it can be an empowering realization for you. Accepting that your life is in your own hands, and that whether you succeed or fail in life is up to you, is a liberating experience. Look at the following:

  • You don’t have to wait for anyone else to say or do anything to help you solve your problems, or to get what you want from life.
  • You can begin to take action right away, and begin moving in the direction of your dreams immediately.

Self-Esteem and The Practice of Self-Responsibility

 “Self-esteem, fully realized, is the experience that we are appropriate to life and to the requirements of life.” – Nathaniel Branden

Today there are tons of self-growth experts who recommend that you work on your self-esteem by doing things such as standing in front of a mirror telling yourself how wonderful you are and blowing little kisses at yourself. However, Nathaniel Brendon, widely regarded as the world’s foremost expert on the subject of self-esteem, recommends a much more practical approach.

In his book, “The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem”, he explains that self-esteem is made up of the following two components:

  •  Self-Efficacy: The confidence that we have in our ability to cope with the basic challenges of life.
  • Self- Respect: The feeling that we are worthy of happiness and success.

In turn, we can enhance our self-efficacy and our self-respect through six practices. These practices are the following:

  1. The practice of living consciously.
  2. The practice of self-acceptance.
  3. The practice of self-responsibility.
  4. The practice of self-assertiveness.
  5. The practice of living purposefully.
  6. The practice of personal integrity.

When it comes to the third practice, self-responsibility, Branden explains that we all have a need to experience a sense of control over our own existence. This requires that we be willing to take responsibility for our actions and the attainment of our goals. Branden adds that self-responsibility is essential to our self-esteem.

In the chapter of the book which Branden devotes to self-responsibility, he has a section that’s titled, “No One is Coming”. In that chapter Branden explains that after having worked with so many people in helping them to build their self-esteem, he’s always looking for that moment in which a “click” seems to occur in the client’s mind and new forward motion begins.

Branden adds that one of the most important such moments is when the client grasps that no one is coming. That is, no one is coming to make things right, no one is coming to fix their problems, and no one is coming to rescue them. If they don’t do something themselves, nothing will get better. Here’s a quote from Branden:

“The dream of a rescuer who will deliver us may offer a kind of comfort, but it leaves us passive and powerless. We may feel ‘If I only suffer long enough, if I only yearn desperately enough, somehow a miracle will happen’, but this is the kind of self-deception one pays for with one’s life as it drains away into the abyss of unredeemable possibilities and irretrievable days, months, decades.”

Take responsibility for yourself; rescue yourself. No one is coming.

Help Yourself

There are people out there who can lend you a hand if you have a problem, or if there’s some obstacle that you need to overcome. And learning how to ask for help and how to ask for what you want is an important part of achieving your dreams. However, as a general rule, people will not help you unless they see that you’re taking action to help yourself.

This point is well illustrated in the following Aesop’s Fable:

A CARTER was driving a wagon along a country lane, when the wheels sank down deep into a rut. The rustic driver, stupefied and aghast, stood looking at the wagon, and did nothing but utter loud cries to Hercules to come and help him. Hercules, it is said, appeared and thus addressed him: “Put your shoulders to the wheels, my man. Goad on your bullocks, and never more pray to me for help, until you have done your best to help yourself, or depend upon it you will henceforth pray in vain.”

Self-help is the best help.

Here’s a quote from the book “The Royal Path of Life” that presents a similar sentiment: “Let not, then, the young man sit with folded hands, calling on Hercules. Thine own arm is the demi-god. It was given thee to help thyself.”

P. T. Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and entertainer, who founded what became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He became a very wealthy man and he shares some advice on how to acquire wealth in his book “The Art Of Money Getting”.  Here’s a passage from his book:

 “People have got to do as Cromwell said: ‘Not only trust in Providence, but keep the powder dry.’  Do your part of the work or you will not succeed.  Mahomet, one night, while encamping in the desert, overheard one of his fatigued followers remark: ‘I will loose my camel, and trust it to God.’  ‘No, no, not so,” said the prophet, “tie thy camel, and trust it to God!’  Do all you can for yourselves, and then trust to Providence, or luck, or whatever you please to call it, for the rest.”

Pablo Picasso once said that inspiration does exist, but it has to find you working. In much the same way, luck does exist, but it has to find you working.

Conclusion

Be honest with yourself: is there an area of your life in which you’re passively waiting for a stroke of luck or for someone to come out of the blue and save you? Are you telling yourself, “Someday, when this or that happens, I’m finally going to be able to . . .” Stop waiting for a rescuer or for some chance event to take place, and begin taking steps to rescue yourself.

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Related Posts:

1. The Cavalry Ain’t Coming
2. 5 Life Lessons From Motivation Mega Star Jim Rohn
3. Succeed by Cultivating a Growth Mindset
4. Dealing With Life’s Challenges – Life Is Like a Game of Chutes and Ladders

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success quotes

A good quote can inspire and motivate you to do what needs to be done in order to succeed in life.

You may have heard that success leaves clues. By reading quotes from those who have succeeded, you’ll be absorbing their wisdom and picking up pointers that you can apply to your own life. Below you’ll find 72 of the best success quotes to help motivate you to go after your dreams.

You can consider doing any of the following:

  • Get a notebook and start filling it with your favorite success quotes.
  • Write the quotes that you like best on index cards and tape them to places where you’ll be sure to see them often.
  • Memorize your three favorite success quotes.
  • Share you favorite success quotes on Twitter.
  • Bookmark this page and come back to it whenever you need a dose of motivation.

Here, then, are 72 of the best success quotes:

1. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” — Herman Cain

2. “Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand.” — Bruce Barton

3. “Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person we become.” — Jim Rohn

4. “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it.  So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.” — Thomas J. Watson

5. “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” – Bill Cosby

6. “Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want.” — Jim Rohn

7. “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” — Napoleon Hill

8. “Success is not a destination, it’s a journey.” — Zig Ziglar

9. “The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.” — Dale Carnegie

10. “Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.” — Earl Nightingale

11. “You have achieved success if you have lived well, laughed often and loved much.”– Anonymous

12. “Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.” — George Sheehan

13. “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is the way great spiritual giants are produced.” — Swami Vivekananda

14. “One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”– Arthur Ashe

15. “God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.” — Swedish Proverb

16. “When a man is willing and eager, the gods join in.” — Aeschylus

17. “An Unfailing Success Plan: At each day’s end write down the six most important things to do tomorrow; number them in order of importance, and then do them.” — Anonymous

18. “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” – William Feather

19. “One of the commonest mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic — something or other which we do not possess. Success is generally due to holding on, and failure to letting go. You decide to learn a language, study music, take a course of reading, train yourself physically. Will it be success or failure? It depends upon how much pluck and perseverance that word “decide” contains. The decision that nothing can overrule, the grip that nothing can detach will bring success. Remember the Chinese proverb, “With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes satin.” — Maltbie Davenport Babcock

20. “Choice, not circumstances, determines your success.” — Anonymous

21. “I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one’s business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.” — George Bernard Shaw

22. “The real contest is always between what you’ve done and what you’re capable of doing. You measure yourself against yourself and nobody else.” — Geoffrey Gaberino

23. “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” — Anonymous

24. “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.” — Dr. Joyce Brothers

25. “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” – George Elliot

26. “Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” — John Maxwell

27. “You must do the very thing you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

28. “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” – Abraham Lincoln

29. “Success comes before work only in the dictionary.” — Anonymous

30. “Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.” – Ross Perot

31. “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” — Oscar Wilde

32. “One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” — Anthony Robbins

33. “Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” – Barack Obama

34. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison

35. “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” — Beverly Sills

36. “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.” — Henry David Thoreau

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

38. “If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.”– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

39. “If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

40. “If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.” Anthony Robbins

41. “I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.” – Zig Ziglar

42. “Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they’re really not. They’re companions – the hero and the sidekick.” — Laurence Shames

43. “There are so many ways to fail but only one way to succeed; NEVER GIVE UP!” — Johni Pangalila

44. “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” — Stephen King

45. “I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings.” – Margaret Mead

46. “Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.” — Norman R. Augustine

47. “‘Tis a lesson you should heed, try, try again. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” — William Edward Hickson

48. “You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don’t think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.” — Anthony Robbins

49. “To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success.” – Anna Pavlona

50. “There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.” – Christopher Morley

51. “Men are born to succeed, not fail.” — Henry David Thoreau

52. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau

53. “Actually, I’m an overnight success. But it took twenty years.” — Monty Hall

54. “Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success depends at last upon yourself.” — Theodore T. Hunger

55. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier

56. “Some people dream of success… while others wake up and work hard at it.” — Author Unknown

57. “To succeed… you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” – Tony Dorsett

58. “For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?” — James Allen

59. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me?” — Ayn Rand

60. “Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.” – Napoleon Hill

61. “The winner’s edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner’s edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success.” – Denis Waitley

62. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

63. “I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.” – Thomas Edison

64. “You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.” – Oprah Winfrey

65. “Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself.” — Robert Collier

66. “You will be a failure, until you impress the subconscious with the conviction you are a success. This is done by making an affirmation which clicks.” – Florence Scovel Shinn

67. “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” – Arthur Ashe

68. “A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” – Elbert Hubbard

69. “We must be the epitome-the embodiment-of success. We must radiate success before it will come to us. We must first become mentally, from an attitude standpoint, the people we wish to become.” — George Herbert Allen

70. “When I was younger, I thought that the key to success was just hard work. But the real foundation is faith. Faith — the idea that ‘I can do it’ — is the opposite of fear (‘What if I fail?’). And faith creates motivation which in turn leads to commitment, hard work, preparation … and eventually success.”– Howard Twilley

71. “Give the world the best you have, and the best will come to you.” — Madeline Bridge

72. “Every achiever I have ever met says, ‘My life turned around when I began to believe in me.’” – Robert Schuller

Take these success quotes to heart, and start living your best life today.

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Jim Rohn lessons

Sailboat With Red Sails

Jim Rohn was a farm boy from Idaho who went on to become one of the world’s most influential and sought-after motivational speakers. He usually began his seminars by explaining that he was born on a farm in Idaho, and  that he quit college after having completed just one year.Yet he went on to become a multimillionaire.

Rohn had a rocky start. At the age of 25 he was broke and had no idea how to remedy his situation. That’s when he had the good fortune of meeting Earl Shoaff. Rohn went to work for Shoaff, who took a liking to Rohn and became his mentor. Rohn credits what he learned from Shoaff for much of his success.

Today anyone can learn what Shoaff taught Rohn by reading Rohn’s books and watching his seminars on DVD or on YouTube. Below you’ll discover five of the most important lessons taught by Rohn (he called them “The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle”).

Lesson One: Your Personal Philosophy – The Set of the Sail

Rohn explains that your personal philosophy is the major determining factor in how your life works out. Each person’s personal philosophy is the set of the sail. The winds of circumstance blow on us all, and yet we don’t all arrive at the same destination. What guides us to different destinations is the way in which we’ve chosen to set our sail. That is, the way in which each person thinks is the major difference in where he or she arrives.

Rohn adds that before meeting his mentor, Mr. Shoaff, he thought that circumstances determined how a person’s life turned out. At the age of 25, here’s what Rohn’s life looked like:

  • He wasn’t doing well.
  • He was broke, with no money in the bank.
  • Creditors were calling.
  • He was behind on his promises to his family.

He was a twenty-five year old man living in the United States—the land of opportunity—and yet Rohn was doing poorly. Rohn adds that it would not have occurred to him to blame his philosophy. That is, he would never have said to himself: “Well, I have pennies in my pocket and things aren’t going well because I have a lousy personal philosophy.” Instead, he found excuses and blamed everyone else. Here are some of the things he would say to himself:

  • The company that I work for doesn’t pay me enough.
  • Taxes are too high.
  • I come from a family of modest means.
  • I was born in obscurity on a farm in Idaho.
  • The banks won’t lend me the money that I need.
  • Things cost too much.

Rohn explains that all of the events that take place around you, and all of the information that you’re taking in from your environment through your five senses, is being processed through your personal philosophy. If things aren’t working out well for you, you have to change your mind; you have to change your thinking; you have to change your personal philosophy; you have to set a better sail.

Here are four things Rohn points out about the set of your sail:

  • “The set of the sail, how we think and how we respond, has a far greater capacity to destroy our lives than any challenges we face.”
  • If the winds change, reset your sail, instead of allowing yourself to be taken in a direction you did not wish to go.
  • “If we can alter the way we perceive, judge, and decide upon the main issues of life, then we can dramatically change our life.”
  • “The development of a sound philosophy prepares us for making sound decisions.”

Rohn indicates that once he changed his personal philosophy, everything changed for him. For starters, everything around him started to look different. In addition, his bank account changed for the better.

Here is Rohn’s definition of failure and success:

  • “Failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day.”
  • “Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every day.”

The difference between failure and success is the difference between eating a chocolate bar every day and eating an apple every day. It’s the difference between taking a walk around the block every day and not taking a walk around the block. It’s the difference between going out for dinner every night and cooking at home most nights so that you can save some money.

Your personal philosophy will determine whether you go for the disciplines, or for the errors in judgment. And you develop the right personal philosophy through education. You have to get the information that success and happiness require.

Lesson Two: Your Life is Affected by Your Attitude

While your personal philosophy is what you know and how you think, your attitude is how you feel. Specifically, it’s how you feel about the following five things:

1. Your Past. Use your past as a school, not as a club. Don’t beat yourself up with your past. Instead, look at your past as lessons that you can apply to do better in the present and in the future. Here’s a quote from Rohn:

“Until we have finally accepted the fact that there is nothing we can do to change the past, our feelings of regret and remorse and bitterness will prevent us from designing a better future with the opportunity that is before us today.”

2. Your Present. Seize this day and make a point of a new beginning.

3. Your Future. The thoughts and feelings that we have today are crucial, for they are contributing to our future. What vision are you holding of your future? Set goals that fill you with excitement and anticipation of the day when that dream will become a reality. Here’s a quote from Rohn:

“If we are intelligent enough to invest our experiences of the past, and wise enough to “borrow” the excitement and inspiration of the future by clearly seeing that future in the mind’s eye, then past experiences and future excitement become today’s servants.”

4. Other People. Everyone needs other people to help them achieve their dreams. No man is an island, and your attitude toward other people will have a huge impact on your future success.

5. Yourself. We can’t recognize our own innate gifts and talents if we have a poor attitude about ourselves. Recognize your value and applaud your accomplishments.

Lesson Three: Take Action

If you plant the seed, the tree will grow. You have to convert your knowledge (personal philosophy) and your good feelings (attitude) into activity. As Rohn points out, “What we know and how we feel merely determine our potential for achievement. Whether we actually achieve our goals is ultimately determined by our activity.” We have to put our assets to work.

The two rules of activity are as follows:

1. Do what you can. Rohn encourages others to ask themselves the following question: What simple thing could I do, which I’m not doing, which could increase my health and/or my wealth?

2. Do the best that you can. Follow this philosophy from Ecclesiastes 9:10 — “Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might.”

Lesson Four: Constantly Measure Your Results

Every now and then you need to measure how you’re doing with your philosophy, your attitude, and the action that you’re taking. That is, you need to measure the results that you’re getting.

When Rohn met his mentor, he told Rohn that they were going to do a little review (at the time Rohn was 25 years old and he had been out in the working world for six years). The mentor asked Rohn the following questions:

  • In the last 6 years, how much money have you saved and invested?
  • How many books have you read in the last 90 days?
  • In the last 6 months, how many classes have you taken?
  • How regularly did you exercise in the past month?
  • How many times did you write in your journal this week?

Your results will teach you a lot about your own philosophy, your own attitude, and your own action. Here’s what life asks you to do: make measurable progress in reasonable time. If you’re not getting the results that you want, it’s an indication that something needs to change. Here are some examples:

  • You may need to change your philosophy.
  • You may need to adjust your attitude.
  • You may need to change your current level of activity.
  • You may need to change the quality of your activity by acquiring new knowledge and skills.

There are some things that you’re going to have to check every day; there are some things that you need to check once a week; there are some things that you need to check once a month; and so on. As an illustration, if a salesman is supposed to make ten calls a day, his supervisor would ask him once a week how many calls he made that week. Measuring your results allows you to take corrective action.

Success is a numbers game; so check your numbers.

Lesson Five: Lifestyle – Learn How to Live Well

The results that we get from our personal philosophy, our attitude, and our actions lead to our lifestyle. That is, our personal philosophy, our attitude, and our actions are the cause, and our lifestyle is the effect. To change the effect, we must alter the cause. Therefore, if you’re not happy with your current lifestyle you need to re-examine your philosophy, your attitude, and the actions that you’re taking.

Conclusion

Tony Robbins was mentored by Rohn. Mark Victor Hansen, Brian Tracy, and T. Harv Eker also indicate that they were influenced by him. Now, after having read this post, you can add yourself to the list of people who have been mentored by Rohn, even if it’s been indirectly. Rohn passed away in 2009, but the legacy of this great man lives on.

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I Recommend:

1. How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List
2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done

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