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Becoming a writer is not always an easy road to travel. Unless you are lucky enough to have a private income, or a partner who earns a good salary, you will probably at some point have had to sacrifice your art in order to earn money to pay the mortage or rent, to put food on your plate and pay for utilities.
Being a writer myself, I am particularly aware of how difficult it can be. Writing a book is a lengthy business, and without any guarantee of publication - or even if it is published, that people will buy it - all those hours sweating over the paper or keyboard may remain completely unpaid. You have to find ways of earning an income, but you also have to find a way of not sacrificing the thing you love.
There are times when we all feel like giving up. Perhaps our cherished goals have not been achieved, perhaps life has dealt some cruel blows, and some days you just feel so low it seems impossible to carry on. At times like this it is best to remember that the only way to fail is to give up, and those who are successful are not there by accident, but because they have refused to give up despite the obstacles and defeats that life throws at us. If you feel like giving up on your dreams, here are some words of inspiration about some of the most successful people on the planet that will help to keep you going.
As a young man, Abraham Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private. Afterwards, he was a failure as a businessman. As a lawyer in Springfield, he was too impr actical and temperamental to be a success. He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for the legislature, again defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for congress, defeated in his application to be commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his efforts for the vice-presidency in 1856, and defeated in the senatorial election of 1858.He later became the 16th President of the United States of America.
Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never -in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up.”
Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.” As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was “sub-normal,” and one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams.” He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. He did eventually learn to speak and read. Even to do a little math.
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.
After Fred Astaire’s first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, read, “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.” He kept that memo over the fire place in his Beverly Hills home. Astaire once observed that “when you’re experimenting, you have to try so many things before you choose what you want, that you may go days getting nothing but exhaustion.” And here is the reward for perseverance: “The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it’s considered to be your style.”
Charlie Chaplin was initially rejected by Hollywood studio chiefs because his pantomime was considered “nonsense.”
Decca Records turned down a recording contract with The Beatles with the evaluation, “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on their way out.” After Decca rejected the Beatles, Columbia records followed suit.
In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one performance. He told Presley, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin ‘ a truck.”
Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him “hopeless as a composer.” And, of course, you know that he wrote five of his greatest symphonies while completely deaf.
If you are going through some bad times and feel like giving up, take the attitude that this is just a stepping stone on your way to success. Choose to use it as a learning period. You might need to take a step back, take some time off, change the way you are doing things, or learn something new. But whatever you do, never, never, never give up. Remember these words of inspiration and just keep going.
Brian Mayne developed his goal setting method in 1995, using a combination of ancient wisdom and modern day scientific techniques.
In traditional goal setting, we tend to focus on just writing down our goals, and then repeating them endlessly in order for them to be effective. With Mayne’s technique, both the left and right brain is used to make extremely powerful goals that condition our subsconscious very effectively, allowing us to clearly move towards our goals quickly and efficiently.
If we only write our goals down, we are only using the left side of our brain, which controls words, lists and logic. But by using the right, creative side of the brain, we also control the side of the brain that deals with imagination, imagery and symbols. Mayne’s book shows us how to do this by drawing our goals in colour, and allowing our imagination full expression.
As Mayne explains, it really doesn’t matter if you cannot draw! You don’t have to show your goal maps to anyone - they are for you alone. The whole process of creating a goal map is fun and enjoyable - far more so than writing them down and repeating them as affirmations.
Mayne has a very easy-to-read style that fully explains scientifically why this kind of goal setting works. It is also an extremely motivating and positively empowering book that can also help to build confidence and self belief.
The book includes templates for the left and right brain goal maps (though these can also be downloaded from his website) as well as lots of examples of goal maps to work from.
This is definitely the way I will be setting all my goals from now on, and I will also be using this technique with my coaching clients.
If you are looking for motivation and goal setting methods that really work, I high recommend this book.
It could be argued that time is far more precious than money. After all, while money circulates and flows in and out of your life, time goes by and never returns. Time is often connected to money because there is often a monetary value on the way time is spent, hence the saying: “time is money”. If you work in a job, you often get paid an hourly rate. However, in a home business, the time you spend now relates to the money you will earn in the future, so it is important to get organised and develop some good time management strategies.
Whether you are looking for wealth, communication skills, career success, goal-setting, confidence, time management skills, sales skills, health management or relationship advice, Success University really does have it all. The new learning center at SU uses state-of-the-art technology to bring you courses from top personal development trainers in a range of mediums. Success University is the most popular online personal development website on the internet and its range of self empowerment courses online is truly amazing.
Would you attend self empowerment seminars and courses run by some of the best known trainers in the inudstry if all you had to do was buy a cheap cup of coffee every day? That’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? Well, SU costs no more than a cup of coffee every day, and you don’t have to go anywhere except to your computer. You can even download courses and play them on CDs and MP3s if you like.
But that’s not half of it. Success University has a business opportunity that is second to none. As well as access to all these courses, you also have the opportunity to earn money and build a successful business by telling others about this amazing company and changing their lives as well. A part of your subscription also goes to the charity, Feed the Children.
Success University has a mission to change the world. I am proud to be part of that mission.
I’ve just been setting myself some goals, and the first step is always to do a bit of day-dreaming. This is something many of us were told off for when we were at school, or even at home, but it really is extremely important if you want to get clear about what you want before you start doing any planning for achieving personal goals.
Albert Einstein did not speak very well as a child and at least one of his teachers said that he would never amount to much. He was a day-dreamer and thought mainly in pictures. His ideas about relativity came to him by day-dreaming about travelling on a ray of light to the edge of the universe.
Before we can know what we want we need to dream. Play some relaxing music, relax your body and shut your eyes. Breathe deeply for several minutes. Consciously relax all the muscles in your body, one by one. Imagine yourself walking on a sunny beach. Hear the waves lapping on the shore, feel sun on your skin and the sand between your toes.
Feeling good? Now project yourself into your future and see what success means to you. What are you doing? Where do you live? What are you wearing? What is the car you are driving? What do you do for a living?
Have fun envisaging and day-dreaming about your successful future - but most of all, get a sense of WHO YOU ARE BEING in this future.
When I did my day-dreaming session I had a feeling of great confidence and serenity. I was being confident and serene.
Now, we tend to think that it is the successful achievement of our dreams that leads to the way we are feeling and who we are being. But it actually works the other way round. Start being the person that you want to be and your inner being will seek to create the external circumstances to suit who you are.
The key to achieving personal goals starts with day-dreaming, and then BEING who you want to be. Only then can you start the practical planning process.
I hope you enjoyed the exercise. Now, I’m off to practise being serene!
I’ve been reading Brian Mayne’s Goal Mapping book - and in it he quotes this ancient poem which was written in ancient Babylon around 4,500 years ago. It is an eternal truth which expresses the principle of living in the present:
Look well to this day, for it is life, the very best of life.
In its brief course lay all the realities and truths of existence - The joys of growth, the splendour of action, the glory of power.
For yesterday is but a memory, and tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, if well lived, makes every yesterday a memory of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well to this day.
What a great philosophy for life. Be present, live well, for no matter what happens, we always have control over how we respond to every daily event. Choose to celebrate the good, and learn from the bad - and every day will then be great.
I was very moved to read the extract below from Success University’s newsletter in October, written by its founder, Matt Morris, and describing its active part in helping to end child poverty. If you are contemplating joining Success University, or are a member and thinking of cancelling your membership, please read on before you make your decision:
“As you know, we have a partnership with Feed the Children where every student enrollment allows us to donate enough to feed and educate a child for a week. One of Feed the Children’s major initiatives is the Abandoned Baby Center in Nairobi which we were invited to visit.
Before going in, I knew it would prove to be overly emotional. But nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced.
To see so many perfectly beautiful children that have been left on the streets and abandoned was heartbreaking. If it were not for Feed The Children, these children very well may have been left on the streets to die. Seeing this causes one to feel so much gratitude for those in the world who truly make a difference.
The ride back to our hotel from the baby center was a quiet and somber time. As we drove through one of the largest slums in the world, I sat and contemplated the vision of Success University to create a positive shift in the world.
Part of that vision includes living in a world where no child dies because of starvation. In looking at that issue, I think most of us would probably agree that it is without a doubt a challenge that we have the resources to solve. Personally I believe that living in a world where every child has food to eat and clean drinking water is 100% possible within my lifetime.
What we all must realize is that if we’re not part of the solution, we’re part of the problem. When I look at the tens of thousands of children we’ve been able to feed from the efforts of the students within Success University, it inspires me to know that we are all part of the solution.”
Members, please remind your downline that Success University is not just about making money. It has a mission to create change in the world. Be a part of that change.
I read this book several years ago, when I was just starting my life coaching business. I still use many of the systems and tips that he lays out in this book, both in my own life and when I am coaching clients. His chapters on building self belief and affecting change in your life are extremely powerful. Anthony Robbins’ Awaken The Giant Withinwas published in 1992, but it is still a highly recommended read for anyone who wants to create something different in their life.
Looking through his book again, I realise that much of my present thinking and attitudes come from this book. It has helped me to see certain life situations in a different way and to create leverage to push myself forward no matter what.
Anthony Robbins is a well known and well established leader in personal development, and is one of the most motivational speakers in the world. For more information on Anthony Robbins products and seminars, go to his website here.
As a home business coach as well as a career coach, I help people who run their own businesses, whether it’s an online business or a more traditional type of business or people such as writers and artists.
The online home based business industry is very popular, but it is important to find the right company to do business with because there are lots of scams out there and you need to find one that operates with integrity and honesty.
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