Tag Archives: Mac Anderson

YOU ARE YOUR HABITS

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#habits #GoodHabits #BadHabits

“Excellence … is not an act, but a habit.”
That Aristotle quote leads off a book called “Habits Die Hard: 10 Steps to Building Successful Habits,” by Mac Anderson and John J. Murphy.
The authors talk about ways not only to build good habits, but to break bad ones.
We think of most habits as bad, such as smoking, overeating, drinking too much etc.
We also think of habits as things we cannot help, or change. The authors disagree.
“Experts worldwide agree that one of the most essential characteristics among successful people is the ability to visualize where they want to be in the future,” the authors write.
“This powerful practice elicits passion and conviction, and if the vision is shared, … it inspires teamwork,” they write.
They apply that success principle to habits – replacing bad ones with good ones. “There are always options. We just have to let go of one to allow another,” they write.
Changing one’s belief changes one’s thinking. And changing one’s thinking can change one’s life, the book says.
Since we can all visualize bad habits, let’s see whether we can do the same with good ones.
Living above one’s means is a bad habit. Saving money out of every paycheck for one’s retirement is the corresponding good habit.
Overeating is a bad habit. It usually happens when one continues eating when he is full, or eats when he’s not hungry. Eating in moderation at mealtime, or until one is full, is a good habit. We can break it down further on what the best foods are, but if you are, say, a choco-holic, indulge your habit selectively and lightly.
Let’s go back to that quote from the book about success. Success is built on good habits. It’s also built on being able to visualize where one wants to be in the future.
In other words, if you’ve been taught not to dream, to accept your life the way it is, etc., it may be time to change your thinking.
When you visualize where you want to be, you are dreaming. That’s not only OK, it’s encouraged by experts on success.
If where you are now is not where you want to be in the future, and you are willing to look at something that may get you closer to where you want to be, there are many such vehicles out there to help you get to that place. To check out one of the best, message me.
In summary, you may have to adopt better habits to be successful. You may have to learn to visualize where you want to be and look for a way to get you there.
The book offers exercises in writing down bad habits, or a habit you have that you want to break. Habits are NOT permanent, not engrained, not carved into one’s brain.
But they may require one to change his way of thinking, if they are keeping him from succeeding. Only you know what you need to change to make you better.
Don’t let those who would urge you to settle for mediocrity influence your habits. The power to visualize is the power to change.
Peter

WHAT WILL YOU DO IN YOUR DASH?

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#TheDash #YourDash #YourLife
Your birth year, or date, and your death year, or date, will likely be engraved on your tombstone.
Between the two years, or dates, will likely be a dash. It could be a fancy dash, or just plain.
But that dash represents what you did between your birth and death.
Linda Ellis has written a poem titled, “The Dash.” The poem is a basis for the book, “The Dash: Making a Difference With Your Life,” written by Ellis and Mac Anderson.
“For it matters not, how much we own, the cars … the house … the cash. What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash,” the poem reads in part.
The book also includes testimonials of how the poem has inspired people who have read it.
When someone is speaking at your funeral, how would you like them to remember you? Most of us would probably like to be remembered as one who helped others. We also would like to be remembered, perhaps, as one who was successful.
We all define success differently, but if we can become successful by helping others be successful, we would probably say we hit a home run with our dash.
The verse also talks about change. “So, think about this long and hard. Are there things you’d like to change? For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged.”
Are there things in life that YOU can change? Perhaps not some circumstances, but certainly how you react to them.
Are you doing enough to make others successful? If you are looking for a way you could better bring success to others, and, as a result, to yourself, there are many such vehicles out there. To learn about one of the best, message me.
We may also look at life as a dash, meaning a sprint. The poem looks at it differently: “If we could just slow down enough to consider what’s true and real and always try to understand the way people feel.”
Yet, a testimonial by Michelle Landahl, included in the book, says, “It’s important not to save all your energy for the final lap; live your dash so hard it will be impossible to forget.”
Often, it’s the little things that will be most meaningful in life, the poet and many readers say.
So, don’t forget those little things as you, perhaps, pursue bigger things. Between your birth and death, make your dash the best you can make it.
One would rather make a life than a living. The life you make is your dash. Let those who would remember you speak of you as one who inspires them, and perhaps others.
As you inspire others, you will enrich yourself in so many ways. As much as we’d like our dash to be more of a marathon than a sprint, sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. We can’t do much about that.
But we can make the most of the time we have. Live your dash to the fullest.
Peter

THE MYSTERY OF PARADOX

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#paradox #mystery #change
Want to jump past the competition?
Want to be a better you, so you can better help others?
Consider the mystery of paradox, which includes these five statements:
• We know how to work less and accomplish more
• We know how to go more slowly, and move more quickly.
• We know how to sell more with fewer salespeople and efforts.
• We know how to get customers to chase us.
• We know how to communicate more effectively, often without saying a word.
Authors Mac Anderson and John J. Murphy discussed this mystery, among other things, in their book, “Leapfrogging the Competition: 9 Proven Ways to Unleash Change and Innovation.”
Regardless of what you do, working hard can be a waste of time, if you are working hard at the wrong things. Effective people indentify the tasks they should spend the most time on, and focus on those tasks.
Working hard on “busy work” won’t get you where you want to go.
Sometimes it’s best, and more cost-effective, to have others handle some tasks while you focus on what will make you successful.
How do you determine that? What tasks, if you concentrate strictly on them, will put the most money in your pocket? Which tasks will help make you grow more as a person? As a leader, do you lead by empowering others, and helping them succeed? Or, are you a “boss,” who gives orders for others to carry out?
Are you stuck in old ways, that don’t seem to work anymore? Do you tell people, “we’ve always done it that way,” or “we’ve never done it that way?” In the long run, sameness is the fast track to mediocrity, Anderson and Murphy write.
“While we don’t have a choice about whether change happens, we do have a choice about how we react to it,” the authors write. “The choice really boils down to this – either we manage change, or it manages us.”
If you need your life to change, but don’t quite know how to go about it, be open to looking at different solutions. There are many ways out there to improve one’s chances of success, that may require one to look outside his comfort zone. To learn about one of the best, message me.
Perhaps you are a person whose life needs to change, but you don’t know it. If so, take stock of where you are and ask whether you are where you want to be. Chances are, you’ll discover that you are not where you want to be.
Anderson and Murphy offer this checklist for success:
• Determine which behaviors will drive your values forward, and communicate those to all your employees (or all concerned, if you have no employees).
• Make your core values the guideposts that shape your decisions.
• Take every opportunity to reinforce those core values every day.
• Lead by example, especially when the going gets tough.
Success awaits anyone who wants it, is willing to look for it and willing to do what he or she needs to do to achieve it.
Peter