"Each man is the architect of his own fortune."

This quote from Appius Caecus (Roman politician; "the blind"; ca. 340 BC-273 BC - more information) makes me think unlike a lot of people that all of what we do is not determined by an already set up fate or programmed destiny but by our own acts and decisions.

I look at it as a way to always think positive telling myself that eventually everything will work out great but I have to take the lead and do what I'm supposed to be doing (and not waiting for the right moment).

I think we always have to initiate instead of waiting for something to help us. We have to take control of what we do!

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"

This quote from Confucious is my favorite one!

It tells me how much one single thing at a point in time can have so much importance in the future. A decision we can make today can have so much impact one, two or three years from now.

In the past couple years, I realized that my success in the US was only based by my decision to let what I built in my own country and try something new that I always dreamed about. So if I had not taken this "small" step by making the decision to leave my country, I would not had done what I did or met all the great people I had to chance to encounter so far.

Just "a single step..."

Results... PERIOD!

It's all about results at the end of the day for me. So no matter what happened to me (financially, personally, emotionally or physically) I still need to show improvements.

It's a bit harsh to say and cut-throat but we live in a society that demands a lot of efforts and productions. So I just need to stop making excuses for not producing! PERIOD!

The more you stay simple, the more you get stuff done

It's just amazing how the more I keep myself doing simple things, the more I get done.

I need to force myself do simple things and not try to do way much more than I "THINK" I can do. I'm finding out there's a big and giant difference between what I "think" I can do and what I "actually" do and get done.

The simple the better... ALWAYS!!!

The way you think is the way you see things

Recently, I had a not great period and I realized that how I felt had a great impact on what I was perceiving. When I changed my way of thinking, my way of feeling got different and my overall observation changed a lot too!

Like I read in "The Richest Man in Babylon", there is a chapter when it is written that a man sees life through a mirror an when he expects a good outcome, everything he sees from that mirror will be going his way.

I guess, the whole point here to make sure that we put our mind right to see good things happening to each one of us, without thinking of bad outcomes and looking forward to positive results.

As for me, I need to always keep a positive attitude in order to have good things happen to me and everybody else reading my blog.

It's been way too long but I'm still hanging there!

Yes, since my last post in June, I've had a lot of things going on in my life, personally, emotionally, physically and professionally.
Well yes, a pretty busy and unexpected summer.
It's not an excuse whatsoever as I don't like to make any. I'm just realizing that compared to what I used to do so far, it's been way different for sure!!

Now what's new for me?? Well, on the good side, I've been working on reading more, searching for new opportunities. Maybe not as hard as I would wanted it but still on the way. Now I need to find a goal that will put me on the right track and keep me focus.

I am also working on making myself better by getting better habits. I think even if I had some good years (because I had a strong goal in mind... that helped a lot!) I didn't have good habits. Now I need to have better habits to help myself doing a better job with less effort in order to be more efficient and more productive.

Not an easy task to do but I'm on my way, and won't stop until I get there.

What gets measured, gets done

I read this in Brian Tracy's "Million Dollar Habits". Since I have been using this, it's amazing how clearly you look at things.
As simple as it is, as efficient it is. I think it puts everything at its right place and things tend to move forward the right way.

It might also another way of saying "failure to plan is plan to failure".

LET'S GOOOOO!

"All about rhythm"

I just wrote a note on my personal development journal about "rhythm".
As I keep things simple from now on, here's the deal:
1- when I need to work, I will listen to what I call my "success songs" to put me in the right mood.
2- the rest will take care of itself

Get started by listening to my "success songs"

LET'S GOOOOO!

Inconsistency

I don't know why it is so difficult for me to get going on a consistent basis. I guess thinking about it, it is maybe cause my goals are too vague, not well designed or my "whys" are not strong enough.

Especially on posting on my blog, I'd like to be more serious about that and post around one note every two days. Actually, I read not too long ago that "what gets measured, gets done". And it works, so I will just do the same for that!!!

I think I'm losing my skills in some ways. Like a friend told me one day, when I was not going as fast as i wanted:
"just believe it's gonna be better in 5 minutes and get going. If not, just wait another 5 minutes and so on until you get started. You'll see, everything will be alright if you keep believe you will go where you want to be."

I have to say he was really right on that... So I just need to do it all again!!!! LET'S GOOOOOOO!!!

Watch my time

Getting used now working from a written plan, I also need to watch the time I schedule for each task.

My time management is not yet to its best and when I schedule one hour to do a task, I need to control myself not being carried away doing the task. Having a high time management IQ is essential for me getting a lot more done overall.

Natural evolution

I guess the best way to get better would be to take a look at what Mother Nature has done.

To put it in a simple way, every thing she has done so far has been through a simple process and some patience. One thing at a time.

It's much harder to do a simple thing every day for 30 days and gets 30 items than to have 10 items in two consecutive days and only get 20 items after 30 days.

Like Jim Rohn used to say:"Success is just simple disciplines repeated every day".

I know I can do a much better job at that and develop simple disciplines.

Evolution and emotions

This is a graphic of my evolution as far as posting on my blog. It's obvious watching this that I did struggle last month.

I had some tough times to deal with emotionally. It is part of anyone's life and at the same time I need to do a way much better job to overcome those emotional obstacles, no matter what the situation is. I need to make sure my job gets done at the end of the day.
I can't no longer let my emotions take over and control my actions. I still can be touched by life but not stopped!

Always give my all

Very quick post here to mention that I realized today (thinking out loud) that the more often I give just a little bit less than my all, the more my activities, results or motivation go down as well.

Like Jim Rohn used to say:"Every thing affects every thing".

New method

After watching again a classic Jim Rohn event (the one in Dallas in 2001), I found out interesting that a lot of the main thing he said was at the end. Not that he didn't say much in the first parts of the program (on the contrary!) but he summed up a lot and that helps to get started in the "Personal Development quest". At least, he does for me and maybe for other people.

I'll make a post about it after summing up what he said to give it away in bullet-points

I will also put it on my wall to have it in front of me all the time and apply it on me.

Ups and downs

I'm trying to write at least as many post on my blog than I did the last month.

In April, it was the first time since my first couple months writing that I wrote less (way less!) than the previous month, which was a good month writing for me!

I guess, it goes up and down depending on our family and personal life. I didn't have a great month in April personally. At the same time, it's part of life and every body goes through it and deals with the same fortune or miss-fortune around them.
My main mistake I guess was not to have followed my written plan as closely as I should and could have done.

Any big company can't find or accept random excuses on why they fail to meet their goals. I just have to make sure it doesn't happen again and find no excuse to do the same anymore!

Writing right now is a proof of my intent of doing a better job and at the same time, I need to improve on my time management skills and moreover, on getting results!

"Results is the name of the game" by Jim Rohn.

"Don't look for the exotic until you discover the basics"

This is a Jim Rohn quote that I like a lot. Playing basketball when I was a little boy, my Dad used to tell me something very similar to this. He was telling me not to try complicated moves but to try first the simple ones, and then try the more difficult shots.

Maybe it's just a part of the human nature to go after something that is more than what we can do, comprehend or accomplish at first! Even though, (and I'm working on that) we have to find a way to understand the basics first so we can move on the next level of difficulty.
It's hard for me to discipline myself but I just have to do it! It's like trying to run under 10 seconds a 100-meter race before learning how to walk! I know it's an extreme analogy but I guess my point is clear now!

While you teach, you learn!

I've been trying to learn how to become more productive, manage my time better and develop myself. Lately, I've been helping out my Mom on some housing reorganization after a fire that took place a year ago.
Doing this, we talked a lot and I told her about how to be more productive and do more with the same amount of time she has.

I've been teaching her setting goals, set priorities and follow a written plan. It's a bit confusing for her at the moment but she told me she likes it as it feels clearer for her. She feels like she knows better where she's going with this.

In the meantime, I'm also learning a lot. Maybe just by listening what I'm telling her. I guess it strengthens my knowledge. It also appears more abvious for me that those productive tips and knowledge are so helpful.

Teaching is a great way to learn for the "student" as well as the "teacher".

"Don't accept an average life"

Darren Hardy said during his tribute to Jim Rohn to not accept an average life and to always do at least the best of what we are capable of.

This hit me a lot and I realized why most people don't succeed in life and prefer watching TV all the time wishing there were in the TV set or wishing they would win the lottery. As Darren Hardy said:" successful people just do what non successful people are not willing to do!"

There is no magic into that! It's just a matter of doing what 99% of the people doesn't want to do, or is afraid to do, or even worst too lazy to do!

I AM NOT like these people... I CAN DO what people are not willing to do and I will achieve it!!! NO MORE AVERAGE LIFE! ONLY THE BEST OF THE BEST!

The more they talk, the less they listen

Some people just want to talk. Even if you have more experience or more knowledge about a topic, they just want to talk.

I guess those people unless they realize what they are doing, won't progress as fast and as much as other people. It's very good to listen. Don't give me wrong, we also have to talk too! But there's a time a place for everything and sometimes, we rather shut up and listen rather than talk!

"Just a few simple disciple repeated each day"

That's what late Jim Rohn used to say.

Sometimes, when we learn too much information at the same time, it gets pretty hard to act upon them. So acting bite by bite and small steps at the time is the answer (without losing focus of our goals).

Take actions without looking back

Let's try to take actions without looking back at the results.
Let's just focus on the efforts and see at the end what comes out of it.

Understand the laws of the Universe

The more I understand them, the more I succeed.
The more I use them, the more I succeed.
The more I share them, the more we succeed!

Just a little bit

I heard yesterday in a comic TV show: "when a few people do a lot, we have a few. But when a lot of people do a few, we have a lot".

So no matter what we do, even if it's not a lot, it's going to be a lot if we have enough people doing it. At the same time, on a personal note, if we were doing just a little bit everyday, at the end of a 365-day year, we would accomplished a lot!

Some people use this technic to write books. Most people think it takes days and months to write a 300-page book. We need to stay up late at night for days in order to do so. Well, if we just commit to write a page or half a page per day, at the end of year we would have between 180 to 360 pages written down.

So just a little bit each time and the days will take care of the rest!

Distractions

I just realized a lot of what we don't do and what we shouldn't do is based on all the distractions we have around us.

I usually need to go out of my house, away from TV, music, Internet or phone ringing. It's amazing how a whole environment can disturb us from what we should be doing. It demands a lot of concentration to focus on something those days.

Part of success in life is to be able to isolate ourselves from all the distractions and do what we should be doing. We have to fight against ourselves (most of the time) as hard as we could and be strong enough to resist the temptation of doing something different than what we need to accomplish.

Be aware and careful of distractions. Stay focus! Stay focus!

Intuition

Why when we have a choice, we usually avoid on purpose to choose the wrong direction?

It's like our whole body and soul know what we should be doing (also called intuition) and we just take the easy way of making the wrong decision. Then afterwards, we say:"Oh, I knew it!" or "I should have known better".

When we have a great life, it might just be because we "just" always took the right direction and follow our intuition while people told us not to.

When we feel a decision is hard to make it's maybe because it's the right decision to take while wrong decisions are ALWAYS easy to take!

Consistency

I just watched the recap of an NBA game versus the Dallas Mavericks and the New York Knicks. The Mavs were on a 13-game winning streak while the Knicks continue to have a horrible season. Last time they met, the Mavs blew up the Knicks by 50 points!

Last night, at home, the Mavs lost by 34! It's an 84-point turnaround! I have never seen that before since I've been following the NBA.

The point here is about being consistent. How come the Mavs, on a 13-game winning streak, can:
1- lose against a sub .500 Knicks team?
2- end a streak that would have been the longest in the NBA this season?
3- lose at home while the playoffs are around the corner?

It is all about being consistent here and abviously about being focus too!

In basketball or any other sports but more importantly in life, I think it's all about being consistent about what we do. It is nice and ok to do something good or great once but only the best at what they do can do it over and over again.

Consistence is one of the "keys" to improve at what we do. We have to stay on top of our game and keep pushing harder and higher.

Feelings

I haven't talked about feelings in my blog so far. Personal development is a large subject but we don't talk enough about feelings and how we feel on a day-to-day basis.

After a recent event with some friends, even if I had a great time, something didn't feel right for me. Something wasn't good. I felt like I wasn't living my life the way I wanted it to be. I felt upset about myself and I knew deep in me I was the only one responsible for that situation.

When we feel those emotions and when we have this taste in our mouth that something is not how we want it, it looks like it's the right moment to do something drastically different. It might be the time to change direction and go straight to where we want to go or where we want to be.

Like Jim Rohn once said: "Make sure the only force that pulls you forward is the force of the future". He also said: "Make sure every steps you take, drive you in the direction you want to go".

Get going...

A friend of mine told me couple years ago that, to get going when we don't feel like it, we just need to say to ourselves:

"I'll do a little bit now and it will get better later. I'll do a little bit now and it will get better later."

Just a little bit now and later it'll get better. Just a little bit!

Staying focus

How come we can do something one day and forget about it the very next day?

I guess it's maybe something that only happens to me or people like me. I have this huge issue at the moment where I commit to do something today. I make plans for the future but just can't stay focus two days in a row and follow through with it! I just have the hardest time right now.

Taking some distance about the situation and after talking to a good friend of mine yesterday night, it appears to me now that it's just because i am lacking a vision or a sense of going somewhere with my life right now. I used to always have something to look for and go after but since I don't really have that right now, my whole body and mind can't just move by demand.

Still I need to find a way to get moving and get going. Actually this situation is great to start over and relearn some basics. I'll find greater and higher goals to reach in the process, one way or another and no matter how long it will take!

Failure to succeed

Failure to succeed

Can't fly without gravity

I like this quote from Jim Rohn. It basically means that we can't achieve anything in life without obstacles and difficulties.

We need challenges to get rich or to go somewhere. Jim Rohn used to say it would be like scoring a touchdown with avoiding the big guys here to beat you down. "Would it be a touchdown if the field were empty?"

A friend told me one day that we need to "embrace and get comfortable with difficulties." Not trying to get more obstacles and issues so we can be happy but more in a way of being aware that nothing will come easy. People get frustrated when the first obstacle comes up. So we need to be aware of that, be comfortable and accept the challenge in front of us. Then we have to develop new skills and more wisdom!

Efforts and rewards

Right after an effort, the great thing about it, even if it didn't go just like we wanted it, is that we can learn from our experience and it can give you a boost of motivation to keep pushing forward.

It gives tracks we can learn from and correct the mistakes we've been doing. Then rewards will come.

A lot of people want the rewards right away and without doing any mistakes along the way. I guess that's one of the mistakes a lot of people do. They are trying to shortcut the shortcut and want thing yesterday even if they didn't know they wanted it today. And in the process they get confused not having what they want and start blaming anything and everything.
Looks like in life, there are processes we need to follow in order to be successful at anything we do.

First, put the efforts and then get the rewards. It doesn't work backwards apparently!

Most people are just not good. Period!

Most people wonder why rich people get rich and why they don't.
Most people ask how rich guys manage to be rich.
Most people think being rich means being lucky.

Well my opinion on that is simple: most people are just not good! Period!

I don't think it takes luck or some kind of magic to be good or very good. It is "just" a matter and a combination of persistence, hard work, commitment, and practice.

If most of the people won't be diligent enough to do just some of this but at the same time would like to get the same result, well, the answer is very simple. IT JUST WON'T HAPPEN! If you have heard about the law of "Sowing and Reaping" you would know that everything in life is just a matter of what you put in. The more you put in, the more you get out of it.
it's very simple and if you take it backwords, you will understand why most people don't succeed: "the less you put in, the less you get of it."

So to get something out of your life, make sure you put a lot in. Don't think of what you will get, because you never really know all you will have. The only guarantee is that you will get something out for sure and most of the time, not exactly how you wanted it at first but usually more that you would ever thought!

"You get out of it what you put into it!"

Making the decision

Continuing on last post, a great friend of mine wrote on her Facebook profile: "Act is not difficult but making the decision of acting is the most difficult."

It hit me! Indeed, we can make all the decisions and plans in the world but if we don't act on them we won't do or have anything what so ever!

1/ plan and write down everything needed to do
2/ make the decision and commit yourself of acting and never quiting no matter the reason
3/ take action right away!

Why we don't do what we shoud and do what we shouldn't?

It's amazing how we can easily lose focus on what's important for us and just let ourselves do the non necessary things.

It's so easy, so tempting and so useless to spend major time on minor things. The most important thing is to keep our focus on what we have to be doing and spend major time on major things.

Here's a Facebook message from John Assaraf to stay focus:

"Do you want to get focused RIGHT now on achieving great results in one or more areas of your life/business?
Stop whatever you are doing right now and ask these TWO questions:

1- What am I doing or allowing right now that isn't supporting me in achieving my goals?
2- What can I do right now to support my goal of achieving___ Then do it!

Do this exercise twice daily for immediate adjustments and once weekly for strategic direction.Your results will grow exponentially."There is no such thing as Time Management- There is Only event management."
John Assaraf

For me now, I need to implement this simple discipline and put it on my daily calendar to make sure I work on it everyday.

Increase productivity

The more I work from a list, the more work I get done in no time!

It's incredible how much work we can do when we start by jotting down everything we want to do, then organize and prioritize all the tasks and then act on them until the list is done.

I was amazed this week when I wrapped up in less than 15-20 minutes what I thought would have taken me a long time! JUST AMAZING!

I found "why" people don't move forward in life

From a Jim Rohn's seminar, most people focus on past things that happened to them or are tripped in present routine where they can't focus on their future.

They keep on thinking back on why something in the past happened to them or who is to blame. It hit me a lot because that is what I've been trying to figure out lately. Why this? Why that? Why people don't understand a thing? Well that looks like a good start of answering those questions for me. It's probably not all but it gives me some clues for sure.

So for me and for other people who want to move forward in their lives, the main thing is to make sure we keep on looking at the future. We need to act to achieve our goals which will help us along the way like a "magnet" but also to pull us through all the obstacles along the way!

"Make sure the greatest pull of yourself is the pull of the future towards your goals."
- Jim Rohn (1930-2009)

In a slump

I've just listened today to a audio recording from the 2004 Jim Rohn's event in Anaheim, CA about being in a slump when we don't have goals lined up.

It is really important after achieving a goal to rebound with another one and another one and so on. They took the example of professional sports team which can't repeat after winning a title. Why? They can't reproduce the efforts of dreaming and going after a goal since they already achieved one. They are already on the top of the mountain or they have already been there.

If they don't have new and different goals to go after, even if with the same players, they won't be able to perform like they did just less than a year ago.

We need a exhaustive list of goals in order not to be missing ones when we start to check them off of our list.

A chapter per half a day

My goal is to read two full chapters from two different books per day.

I can focus on one book for one or two hours and then I get a little tired (mostly mentally) to read the next one. Since I usually read late in the afternoon or at night, it's even harder to keep my focus.

I had this idea yesterday. Simple and supposedly efficient:

=> I'm only going to read a chapter per half day (around 11am or 11.30am and 6. or 6.30pm)

Advantage: I will change positively my daily activities (which always help me get going since I don't really like doing the same thing over and over again).

That's what I'm going to do for now on!

Momentum

I'm still struggling in doing things done (especially the most important ones) and get going.

A little bit everyday or every morning gets me started. I should start and work from a list. I'm not too focused and committed about it even if I did it and it worked really well for me.

I really need to get going when the emotions are high and I feel like it. As of today, this is what is working for me. Moving forward and in a matter of couple days, I will be able to be committed to work only from a list and get going. Moreover, I will be able to not only doing it for couple hours or only a day but for a week, a month than a year and so forth.

I'm already liking this thought!

"Do it while the emotion is high and intense"

This is pretty much what Jim Rohn had to say about putting something into actions.

He also said a lot of things about getting things done but I like this one as I think it is very true that a lot of things we do are based around the emotions we have that gives us the boost of energy and moreover mental power to put whatever we want to do or accomplish into actions.

Just like the book I'm currently reading, I'm reading it because my emotion is high right now to know more about managing my money and be better at what I'm doing with it. I have a lot of books in my personal library, a lot of book I should have read a long time ago but never took the time to do it. So now that I have my emotion high and that I want to develop the habit of reading that will lead into reading more books this year and for the years to come... I just "do it while the emotion is high and intense."

Book summary

As I'm wrapping the reading of the book "Increase your financial IQ" by Robert Kiyosaki, I will put a little summary or recap of what I liked about the book. It will help me know what I took the most out if but also to give anybody the chance to know a bit more about that great book.

Also, I'm thinking of posting a list of books that I'm planning on to read this year. It'll be "my list of book to read for 2010."

At the same time, I hope it will be inspiring for anybody reading my blog who wants an idea of books to read.

Developing a new habit

I'm glad to be able to say that I'm developing a new habit. I always have been reluctant to read, no matter how small the book was!
Now I got excited about a book called Increasing your financial IQ by Robert Kiyosaki. It's a very good book about managing your money and I'm learning a lot from it.
The point here is that even if I was not the best fan of reading, I told myself that I will be reading one chapter everyday. I started only two weeks ago (I took a break due to New Year's eve celebration that went on longer) but even with that break I'm already wrapping up the book and tomorrow I'll be starting the last chapter.

I heard Brian Tracy said that we can develop new habits and for me I would never have thought I could. Now I know I can commit myself to read a book, obviously when if the book strikes my interest, it's easier but still, I'm sure I can do it with any book now. Plus, what amazes me is that I'm not trying to see how many pages are left in the chapter. I was doing it at first to manage my time, but now I don't. Today I read 28 pages straight without knowing it was done until I saw the last page of the chapter. "One small step for a man, a big step for the humanity..." Wasn't it something like that said by Neil Armstrong? That's how I feel about myself... a little step for anybody but a big step for me!

Like my friend advised me not too long ago (as I wrote in a previous post), reading a little bit at a time and not be distracted by another book is working really well for me. Plus, even with the long break that I took and some days where I just couldn't read, I'm amazed of how fast it's been and how excited I'm still about the book.

As Jim Rohn said in one of his successful talks, "we have to take actions when the emotions are high!" For me it's working really well. And the best part is that I don't beat myself up anymore for not reading all the other books I want to read. i'll do it when my emotion and focus will be on those books and one at the time!

Comments on working from a list

As I wrote couple weeks ago about working from a list, it is still amazing that doing it is helping me a lot and nonetheless, not even working from a list is good for me but crossing off task is a great feeling of accomplishment even if it's a meaningless task.

That feeling of accomplishment gets carried away to something else and it keeps on going. As Jim Rohn said, one small thing "gathers momentum and one thing let to another, let to another." I will find the exact excerpt but it is definitely working that way and it is only the first step of managing my time right as I need to prioritize more to accomplish more meaningful tasks in the shortest amount of time.

Change thinking and habits to become better

My habits determine all that i'm doing.

It's very naive to say it like this but the more I look at it, I realize that overall, I am who I am by the things that I'm usually doing. Moreover, I am who I am by how I am thinking. In my quest of becoming a better me, I need to dig deeper into what I want to become in life in order to refine my current philosophy (almost like Jim Rohn used to say).

It is really hard for me to do it as my thoughts and actions are so deep in my mind that even the I have the will to change, it is not strong enough right now. My focus and concentration are not at a high level which makes it even more difficult for me to achieve what I want to achieve.

As a matter of fact, looking back at what I was able to accomplish up until now, my drive, my focus and determination had come from being optimistic about an uncertain future. Listening to audiobooks by Jim Rohn or Brian Tracy, and realizing successful people have always been driven and most of all have always been doing things that if reproduce would let anybody achieve what's on their mind. Like Aristotle said: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit."
So in order for to change my outcome, my output, my results, I "simply" need to change the way I think to expect different and better results in my life.

So far, I've been thinking, therefore, doing different and it has already given me some signs of change. I will write again on that and see what's new and good will happen to me next week. I want to commit to write down what's happening to me from now on with my change of thinking.

I will push myself not to think like I use to in order to obtain different and better results. Not that what I did in the past was totally wrong but I just want to improve what I have been doing and be a better me!

Break It Down

I was at Barnes & Nobles talking to my friend over the phone about books we were currently reading. I told him that I usually get to excited about some books at the same time that I want to read all of them at the same time!

He gave me this great advice to only read one at time not to be confused with all the information! At the same time, it will be useful to stay focus on one book and understand the most out of it. So far so good as I'm enjoying reading a book called "Increase your financial IQ" by Robert Kiyosaki.