Wednesday, November 26, 2014

You Have To See It To Believe It (Chapter 9 - Act Like A Success, Think Like a Success)

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

- Albert Einstein

Key Concepts
-  Identify what you want to accomplish
-  Create a fist class vision
-  Let your imagination take over for your logic
-  Believe you can have it
-  Make a vision board to inspire you everyday

Your imagination is everything. If your focus is on where you are right now, then your right now becomes your forever. Until you change your focus and elevate your imagination, your present situation will define you.

It's important to make sure you have a first class vision for your life.  If you don’t think any higher of yourself, why should anyone else?  Believe in yourself and your worth, and your dreams can and will come true.

Make sure that you appreciate the blessings that you have right now.  How can you expect God to bless with you more if you are taking care of and taking advantage of what he has already given you? 

God bestowed upon you a gift and placed in you a vision for your gift that does not harm others, because he wants you to have your heart’s desire. Do not limit your vision because you don’t think you are in the right place or know the right people. The greatest thing about creating your vision is that it is as expansive as your imagination. You deserve a first-class future, and your vision should reflect this belief. Even if you had a past filled with failure, you can create a new vision now. Let go of the past and think toward the future. Leave a history of mistakes behind and dream of wonderful, successful tomorrows.

What you believe will come to pass. There will be some things that you know how to get and other things that you need to leave in God’s hands. People of faith often say, “Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will direct your path.” When you focus on your vision and connect it to your gift, you are on your way toward success.

The first step on your journey to success and living your gift is making the decision to live a life of success and doing what it takes to become successful.  The next step is to figure out exactly what your journey will be; what your path will be and to determine your vision.  
This written expression of your vision for your life is a literal manifestation of the lifestyle you will attain.

The article that follows is a great way to create a vision for yourself and your life and how to focus your efforts on what it takes to make that vision a reality.


http://www.businessy.net/2014/11/warren-buffetts-25-5-rule-how-to-master.html




Warren Buffett’s 25-5 Rule: How To Master Your Life In Your 20s

By James Clear

(ELITE DAILY) - With well over 50 billion dollars to his name, Warren Buffett is consistently ranked among the wealthiest people in the world. Out of all the investors in the 20th century, Buffett was the most successful.

Given his success, it stands to reason that Buffett has an excellent understanding of how to spend his time each day. From a monetary perspective, you could say he manages his time better than anyone else.

And that’s why the story below, which was shared directly from Buffett’s employee to my good friend Scott Dinsmore, caught my attention.

Let’s talk about the simple three-step productivity strategy that Warren Buffett uses to help his employees determine their priorities and actions.

The Story of Mike Flint

Mike Flint was Buffett’s personal airplane pilot for 10 years (Flint has also flown four US Presidents, so I think we can safely say he is good at his job.) According to Flint, he was talking about his career priorities with Buffett when his boss asked the pilot to go through a three-step exercise.

Here’s how it works…

STEP 1: Buffett started by asking Flint to write down his top 25 career goals. So, Flint took some time and wrote them down. (Note: you could also complete this exercise with goals for a shorter timeline. For example, write down the top 25 things you want to accomplish this week).

STEP 2: Then, Buffett asked Flint to review his list and circle his top five goals. Again, Flint took some time, made his way through the list and eventually decided on his five most important goals.

Note: If you’re following along at home, pause right now and do these first two steps before moving on to Step 3.

STEP 3: At this point, Flint had two lists. The five items he had circled were List A and the 20 items he had not circled were List B.

Flint confirmed that he would start working on his top five goals right away. And that’s when Buffett asked him about the second list, “And what about the ones you didn’t circle?”

Flint replied, “Well, the top five are my primary focus, but the other 20 come in a close second. They are still important so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit. They are not as urgent, but I still plan to give them a dedicated effort.”

To which Buffett replied, “No. You’ve got it wrong, Mike. Everything you didn’t circle just became your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top five.”

The Power of Elimination

I believe in minimalism and simplicity. I like getting rid of waste. I think that eliminating the inessentials is one of the best ways to make life easier, make good habits more automatic and make you grateful for what you do have.

That said, getting rid of wasteful items and decisions is relatively easy. It’s eliminating things you care about that is difficult. It is hard to prevent using your time on things that are easy to rationalize, but that have little payoff.

The tasks that have the greatest likelihood of derailing your progress are the ones you care about, but that aren’t truly important.

Every behavior has a cost. Even neutral behaviors aren’t really neutral. They take up time, energy, and space that could be put toward better behaviors or more important tasks. We are often spinning in motion instead of taking action.

This is why Buffett’s strategy is particularly brilliant. Items six through 25 on your list are things you care about. They are important to you. It is very easy to justify spending your time on them.

But when you compare them to your top five goals, these items are distractions. Spending time on secondary priorities is the reason you have 20 half-finished projects instead of five completed ones.

Eliminate ruthlessly. Force yourself to focus. Complete a task or kill it.

The most dangerous distractions are the ones you love, but that don’t love you back.

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