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Winning
Every Day - Jan 2003
The
Ultimate Achievement Challenge
The following challenge is for the daring few who are serious about making
their goals, dreams, and desires come true. Those afraid to dare might as well
stop reading right here. This challenge will weary the lazy because it calls
for immediate action. It will bore the sophisticated, and amuse the skeptics.
I don’t expect it to be popular because it calls for courage, guts and
perseverance. But for a few of you, for the priceless few who decide to go for
it, it will result in a renewal of purpose and an exciting, adventurous,
exhilarating life.
What I will ask you to do will take you less than 30 minutes a day. Thirty
minutes that over a period of time will change the way you think, will create
a burning desire for your goals, and will cause you to believe without a
shadow of a doubt that you are destined to make your goal a reality.
Once you reach that point, you will be mentally ready to take the journey to
your dreams. You will be so mentally strong that you will be absolutely
unstoppable. None of the inevitable struggles that you will face will stop
you. You will know that you truly are bigger than any circumstances and you
will do whatever it takes to make your goals happen.
For
the rest of the article click
here.
Book
of the Month
I've always believed that you have to be able to lead yourself before you can
lead others. I also believe that you can't accomplish great things by
yourself. You need to develop leadership skills so you can put together a team
through which you can accomplish great things. The principles in this month's
book of the month will help you become a stronger leader.
“What it Takes to be #1” by Vince Lombardi Jr. is this month’s featured
book.
Legendary coach Vince Lombardi - loved by some, feared by others, but
respected by all - was first and foremost a winner. His unparalleled ability
to inspire greatness and mold individuals into dominating championship teams
made Lombardi an icon on and off the field.
In "What it Takes to be #1", Vince Lombardi Jr. reveals the
principles behind his father's legendary methods.
You will learn the fundamental leadership qualities - character, mental
toughness, and integrity - that Lombardi considered essential to success. He
then shows how to skillfully apply those qualities, and inspire others to
achieve extraordinary results.
The following chapter titles will give you a better idea of the book's
content:
Self-knowledge: The First Step to Leadership
Character and Integrity
Developing Winning Habits
Inspiring Others to Greatness
Teaching, Coaching, and Leading
Building the Winning Organization
Motivating the Team to Extraordinary Performance
Vince Lombardi on Winning
Throughout "What it Takes to be #1", Vince Jr. shares inspiring
stories about the great man in action, both on the football field and off. He
also instills readers with the invaluable leadership principles they will need
to succeed in today's ever-changing workplace.
Thoughts
to Ponder
"Success tends to go not to the person who is error free, because he also
tends to be risk averse. Rather, it goes to the person who recognizes that
life is pretty much a percentage business. It isn't making mistakes that's
critical; it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task."
Donald Rumsfeld
When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that three of
his fingers are pointing at himself.
Zig Ziglar
"It's all right to hold a conversation, but you should let go of it now
and then."
Richard Armour
On
the Lighter Side
A teacher asked her third graders to write about their personal heroes. One
little boy brought his essay home and showed it to his parents. His father was
flattered to discover that his son had chosen him.
"Why did you pick me?" he asked expectantly.
"Because I couldn't spell Schwarzenegger," the little boy replied.
The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.
George Carlin
Family
Matters
In this issue, I will continue to share with you some basic principles of
parenting that come from McDowell and Day's "How to be a Hero to your
Kids". Last month's principle was acceptance. This month, you'll learn
about appreciation. In each of the next four issues, you will get details on
one of the other ingredients of effective parenting.
Affection
Availability
Accountability
Authority
Appreciation is the key to feeling important. It's a feeling that what we do
makes a difference to someone else.
The easiest way to develop the appreciation habit is to constantly look for
times when you can catch your kids doing something right. Catch your kids
doing something right and when you do, quickly show them appreciation and
encouragement for their efforts.
A few years ago Dr. James Dobson had four women as guests to his "Focus
on the Family" broadcast. All four had become sexually involved in their
teen-age years and were suffering the consequences of their actions. Three out
of the four made specific statements to the effect, "the fastest way to
get my dad's attention was to do something wrong."
Make it a daily goal to catch your kids doing something right at least twice a
day. Reprogram yourself to speak up and tell your kids what you see - give
them honest appreciation for their effort.
By doing this, you will be making them feel the same way you feel when your
boss praises you for doing your job.
Eventually, praise will become a motivator for proper behavior and you may
have to discipline them less.
Caution: Unless your children are absolutely sure you unconditionally accept
them, praise and appreciation can become manipulative. A child will start to
live on a performance basis, thinking, "If I do a good job...THEN my
parents will appreciate me." Living life on a performance basis is what
produces guilt feelings.
Have you ever failed at a task and felt guilty? As long as you gave it all you
had, failing should not produce guilt or shame. Because success of failure
have nothing to do with morality.
Living on a performance basis produces guilt and shame feelings when you fail
at a task.
That's why I bend over backwards to make my daughter feel accepted first, and
then appreciated. She needs to know in her heart that I love her no matter
what her results are.
Do you want your kids to learn it's better to play it safe in life, or do you
want them to develop the self confidence that will allow them to take risks?
Start with acceptance, then move to appreciation. Make your children feel so
secure, so loved, and so full of self worth that they know they have the
freedom to fail. Then they are much more likely to achieve their full
potential.
My parents did this for my brother and I. We always felt loved no matter what
our results were. Consequently, Marcelo and I have never been afraid to take
risks. What percentage of the people who start training for the Olympics
actually make it? Very small. Less than 1%. With those odds against you, you
will not even go for it if you fear failure. Neither Marcelo or I were great
athletes. That fact made the odds even worse. But we figured the possibility
of making it was worth the full effort. In 2002 we both made our Olympic dream
come true. I believe neither of us would have even made the attempt if we had
been raised to live on a performance basis.
Here's a rule of thumb:
I appreciate my child's effort more than my child's accomplishment, and I
appreciate my child's worth as a human being even more than my child's effort.
Does this stuff work in the real "dog-eat-dog" world or is it more
touchy-feely feel good stuff with no practical application?
Well, legendary coach John Wooden, considered to be the best college
basketball coach of all time (he led NCAA to ten National Championships
between 1964 and 1975), used the above philosophy with his players.
Coach Wooden says - "You never fail if you know in your heart that you
did the best of which you are capable."
Wooden definition of success is all about total effort - not results. Wooden
prepared his players for total risk and total effort by loving them
unconditionally and by catching them doing something right.
His old players; Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, attest that fact.
So remember, to make your kids "National Champions" in self
confidence, make them feel unconditionally loved and then catch them doing
something right!
Quotes
of the Month
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing...”
Vince Lombardi
"The quality of a man's life is the full measure of that man's commitment
to excellence and to victory."
Vince Lombardi
"If you're still under control, you're not going fast enough."
Mario Andretti - Race Car Driver
"Don't succumb to excuses. Go back to the job of making the corrections
and forming the habits that will make your goal possible."
Vince Lombardi
"Leadership lies in sacrifice, self-denial, love, fearlessness, and
humility. That is the difference beween great and little men."
Vince Lombardi
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