Ron White's Ezine
October 4, 2007
Issue 52

I want to share something with you that has been a tool of mine for over ten years and really comes in handy when I need a 'pick me up' or some motivation. It is a 'Success Journal' and whenever I accomplish something I am proud of, I write it in this journal. Some of the journal entries are dollar figures for product sales after a speech I gave, how I handled myself in a situation, tests of endurance that I saw through without quitting, business deals that were BIG for me or other goals accomplished.
 
I don't look at this journal often, however, in the last few weeks I have and it has really picked me up. I have committed myself to a task recently that if I said it was an endurance test would be an understatement, furthermore, a large part of the task plays to my weaknesses. So I have been getting incredibly frustrated and discouraged - and doubt about my abilities has snuck its way into my mind. Then just as it does I open up the 'Success Journal' and I am reminded of the cool things I have accomplished. Some I had forgotten and it was nice to be reminded.
 
You see, in life it is easy to get discouraged when all you look at is your current situation. On the other hand, when I go back and read this journal it reminds me of my past successes and my confidence shoots up. This boost in confidence is all I need to tackle the day in the hopes of another entry in my journal. It is your choice - you can allow the things you struggle with and difficulties in life to define you or you can remind yourself of the positives. It is a choice.
 
One lesson I have been reminded of as I work through this task is this: never forget who you are. Do not allow your current circumstances to define or negate a life full of accomplishments. I have also learned to avoid tackling tasks that play to weaknesses. While it is great to learn new skills - in life it is often more profitable to outsource your weakness. If you don't you will create a life full of frustration. Oh...I am 63.8% of the way through my current task that is the source of my frustration (but who is counting right?). When I complete this task it will be a BIG journal entry as having completed a test of endurance! I assure you that I will be looking at that journal many more times in the near future to get through this challenge and I encourage you to create one for yourself.
 
Get yourself a 'Success Journal' and start documenting your accomplishments and who you are today!

Go for More this Week!
Ron White

PS Today's issue is going out to more than 74,179 weekly subscribers. If you enjoy this week's edition and find it to be valuable, then if you would do me the favor of forwarding it to your friends, family and associates, it would be very much appreciated. If they would like to subscribe, have them send an email to: ronwhite@yoursuccessstore.com

In This Issue.....

1. Mentally Tough by Ron White
2. Quotes of the Week
3. Seven Qualities of Master Achievers by Brian Tracy
4. A Winning Combo!!
5. More Information

1. Mentally Tough by Ron White

One of the least talked about factors of success is being mentally tough. Mental toughness will allow you to endure adversity, hardship, setbacks and ultimately achieve success.

The next question is – What does it mean to be mentally tough?

• It means when trouble and heartaches head your way – you are not permanently knocked off the bicycle of life.

• It means when your plan is not going exactly the way you planned – you press on.

• It means when others criticize you – you refuse to allow someone else to dictate your thoughts or direction.

• It means you know who you are.

• It means you accept 100% responsibility for every action you have ever committed.

Now, if being mentally tough is so crucial to success – how do you become mentally tough?

Some of the most mentally tough people I have ever known are ones that I have served next to in the military. They are mentally tough because the military forces, and I mean forces you, to adopt three behaviors. In the military you will never be allowed to blame someone else, you will be required to be physically fit and you will be given daily goals and you will accomplish them!

1. The first key to being mentally tough is refusing to be a victim and accepting 100% responsibility for your actions. It is not your parent's fault, your bosses fault, the fault of the government or someone you knew when you were a teenager. How in the world can you be mentally tough when you blame others for your lot in life? It is empowering to accept responsibility for your fate.

When you consciously or subconsciously blame another (government, economy, family etc.) for the outcome of your life you are significantly reducing the chances of a happy life. This is true because you have given someone else the power to control your thoughts and actions.

2. Next, become mentally tough by becoming physically tough. Yes, there is a confidence that you will have when your muscles are toned and a walk on the beach does not exhaust you. Now, when I am 85 years old do I expect to bench 225 pounds and run 4 miles a day? Absolutely not! However, I do expect myself to put forth the maximum effort all the time so when I am 35, 45, 55 or 85 I am in the best possible shape for a 35, 45, 55 or 85 year old.

The confidence that comes from being fit is one that can't be found anywhere else. Watch what you eat and exercise. It is crucial in being mentally tough.

3. Set goals and then accomplish them! How many times do people make New Year's resolutions only to break them by January 20th? This is a much bigger deal than you may think. It is a big deal because subconsciously you are telling your mind, "I can't even keep a New Year's resolution!" When you tell yourself this subconsciously you then begin lose confidence in yourself and every aspect of your life is affected. When someone compliments you – it makes you feel awkward because deep down you think, "Gee, if they only knew that I can't even keep a New Year's resolution."

Conversely, if you set a small goal of reading a book a month and you accomplish it your self confidence begins to build. Subconsciously you are telling yourself, 'I am valuable – I am worth it – I can hit my goals – I am successful.' When you see yourself this way, you are well on the way to becoming mentally tough. In military boot camp, you are given a daily goal of folding your underwear in a set pattern and making your bed in a prescribed way. When you accomplish this goal day after day, even though it is so small, it is making a mental deposit into your self esteem bank account that says you can accomplish goals and are valuable.

Being mentally tough is often the last piece of the puzzle to focus on for success. Yet, I know very few successful people who are not mentally tough. It is easier to get there than you think. Become responsible for your life, stay in shape and set and accomplish your goals. When you do you will exit your own personal boot camp with a confidence to rival that of a Navy SEAL!

-- Ron White

2. Quotes of The Week

OVERCOMING THE NEGATIVE

"One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself."  -- Lucille Ball

"Living in the past is kind of like living in a coffin…it's totally constraining, and ends up being a lid on your growth…" -- Doug Firebaugh

"Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past." -- Tyron Edwards

"When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation -- it empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams." -- Les Brown

"If I had listened to the critics I'd have died drunk in the gutter." -- Chekov

"If you spend five minutes complaining, you have just wasted five minutes. If you continue complaining, it won´t be long before they haul you out to a financial desert and there let you choke on the dust of your own regret." -- Jim Rohn

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." -- Helen Keller

"Don't water your weeds." -- Harvey Mackay

"Let criticism motivate you." -- Jan Ruhe

"As long as you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem." -- Stephen Covey

"A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." -- Walter Gagehot

"The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments." -- Gustave Flaubert

"In the face of unjust criticism we can become bitter or better; upset or understanding; hostile or humble; furious or forgiving." -- William Arthur Ward

"I never see failure as failure, but only as the game I must play to win." -- Tom Hopkins

"We must all wage an intense, lifelong battle against the constant downward pull. If we relax, the bugs and weeds of negativity will move into the garden and take away everything of value." -- Jim Rohn

"No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes." -- William E. Gladstone
 

3. Seven Qualities of Master Achievers by Brian Tracy (excerpted from The Success Mastery Academy)

If you think the way successful people think and adopt their success habits, you too can be successful. Here are seven qualities of the top 1% of successful people.

1) They are Ambitious.
They see themselves capable of being the best. They see themselves with the capacity of being really good at what they do. This was a really big thought for me. It held me back for many years. When I saw people who were doing better than I was, I naturally assumed they were better than I was. And if they were better than I was, then I must be worse than them, so that would mean they were superior and I was inferior. That is a big problem in our society. We have feelings of inferiority, and these feelings of inferiority are often translated into feelings of undeservedness. We don't feel we deserve to be a big success. The word "deserve" comes from two Latin words meaning "from service." You deserve 100% of everything you make and enjoy as long as you get it from serving other people. Your rewards are in direct proportion to your service. If you serve better and serve more and serve at a higher level and serve more enthusiastically and serve a higher quality, then you'll have a wonderful income you'll deserve every penny of it. You must see yourself capable of being the best.

2) They are Courageous.
They work to confront the fears that holds most people back. The two biggest enemies to yours and my success is fear and doubt. Eliminating fear and doubt is the key. The key to eliminating fear: If you want to develop courage, then simply act courageously when it's called for. When you do something repeatedly, you develop a habit. Make a habit throughout your life of doing the things you fear. If you do the thing you fear, the death of fear is certain. To overcome fear of rejection in prospecting, you must realize that rejection in selling is not personal. Top salespeople do not fear prospecting. Face your fear. Do the things you fear. The ability to confront your fear is the mark of the superior person. If you have high ambition and you decide to be in the top 10%, and you can confront your fears and do the things that are holding you back, those two things alone will make you a great success.

3) They are Committed.
The top people in every field, especially the top salespeople, are completely committed. They believe in themselves; they believe in their companies; they believe in their products and services; they believe in their customers; they have an intense belief. We know that there is a one-to-one relationship between the depth of your belief and what happens in your reality. And if you absolutely believe in the rightness and the goodness of what you're doing, you become like a catalyst. You create what is called a transfer, like an electrical transfer of enthusiasm. People like to buy from people who truly believe in what they are doing. People who are not committed to what they do lead very empty lives. The second part is that caring is the critical element in modern selling. Caring is a critical element in life, as well. All men and women who enjoy great lives care about what they do! They have passion about what they do. They love what they do.

4) They are Professional.
Top salespeople see themselves as consultants rather than as salespeople. When you think of the word "consultant," what words come to mind? When do you call a consultant? A consultant is a problem-solver. What word does not appear when you think of a consultant--the word "salesperson". We don't think of consultants as salespeople. The most successful consultants in America are the very best salespeople of their services. When a person is positioned as a consultant in the mind and heart of the customer, he is not seen as a salesperson. Do people like to be sold? Do people like to be helped to improve their lives and work? So they look upon a salesperson as someone who sells them. Selling is something you do "to" someone, and people don't like to be done "to". So when you think of being a consultant, here is the key. How do you position yourself as a consultant with your customers? Of course, you act like a consultant, but even before you get the chance to act like a consultant, you build a rapport. And the most simple answer of all, and this is the most profound principle: People accept you at your own evaluation of yourself. Consultants come in and have a cup of coffee. Salespeople wait in the waiting room and have a glass of water. If you say you're a consultant, your customer will accept you as a consultant. >From now on, position yourself as a consultant. Think of yourself as a consultant. Remember, 80% of what you accomplish on the outside is determined by who you are on the inside. How you see yourself determines how the customer responds to you. The customer's perception of you determines how much they buy and how much they recommend you to other customers.

5) They are Prepared.
They review every detail in advance. To be in the top 10% requires additional efforts. It requires doing things that the average person is not willing to do. It requires making sacrifices the average person is not willing to make. It requires reviewing every detail of every call or situation before every business meeting. But the difference it makes is extraordinary. Before you go into a meeting, do your homework. Successful people are more concerned about pleasing results than they are about pleasing methods. When you sit down with a client, there is nothing more complimentary to a client than the feeling that you have prepared for the meeting.

6) They are Continuous Learners.
They recognize that if they're not continually getting better, they're getting worse. They read, they listen to CDs and they take additional training. The professional never stops learning. So read, listen to CDs, take continuous training.

7) They are Responsible.
They see themselves as President of their own personal services corporation. The top people in our society have an attitude of self-employed. 100% of us are self-employed. We are presidents of our own personal services corporation. You work for yourself. The biggest mistake we can ever make is to think we work for anyone else. We work for ourselves. The person who signs our paycheck may change; our jobs may change, but we are always the same. We are the one constant--we are always self-employed. The fact of the matter is -- this is not optional, it is mandatory -- you are the president of your own company, you're the president of your own career, your own life, your own finances, your own body, your own family, your own health. You are totally responsible. We are responsible. No one will ever do it for us. It's the most liberating and exhilarating thought of all, to think that you're the president of your own life.

A Word From Brian Tracy:

"I really consider The Success Mastery Academy one of my all-time, best programs. Kyle Wilson and I sat down and said if we could condense everything that we've learned on leadership, communication, setting goals, selling, negotiation, financial independence, etc. -- all the different subjects that people needed to know to be really successful -- what would they be? So we worked together. I spent many, many months writing this program and created a workbook that went with it. It covers time, money, relationships, leadership, family, every type of communications, self esteem, personal growth, secrets of self made millionaires, setting goals -- 16 subjects in all. We put it all together into a two-day live event and then I gave it to thousands of people all over the country and it just literally blew people away. And then we took the four best recordings, from our two day seminars, 16 hours each, and spent 6 months combining the very best sessions from each of these four seminars, into a seminar that is virtually a personal treat on personal success and achievement. I truly consider the SMA a masterpiece!" -- Brian Tracy

Another Word From Ron White:

I have to say without a doubt, this is one of my ABSOLUTE, all-time favorite programs -- by anyone!! Brian Tracy hits everything you need in just this one program and nails it with clarity and perfection! If you don't already have this on CD or MP3 then your personal learning library just isn't complete. To learn more or to purchase go to Success Mastery Academy

4. A Winning Combo!!

5. More Information

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