I often find myself being asked by people “What do I need to do to become successful?”  Some people want to know what “the secret” is or what are the “short cuts” or how they can “turn their lives around” over night.

The fact is, there are no secrets and there are no short cuts.  Success, like anything worth having, takes hard work, commitment and discipline.  I often explain to people that they are a number of things that they could begin to do to immediately place themselves on the road to self improvement.  For some people, it may involve finding a good counselor or therapist to help the overcome some serious issues.  For others, a good life coach or mentor may be what is required to help them set and achieve some worthwhile, achievable goals.  For others, it may be that what they need to do is to start a self-education process.  In fact, regardless of whether or not a professional consultant such as a clinical therapist or a life coach is required or desired, just about everybody can help themselves by investing in their own personal development education.

I’ve recommended many different books to many different people, but today, I wanted to take a few moments to share with you a book I recently completed reading call Take Charge - Get Results.  Written by George Morse, Take Charge - Get Results spells out 12 basic success principles that are necessary for achievement. 

I personally took about two weeks to get through Morse’s book—not because it’s long, in fact, it’s less than one hundred pages long. I took two weeks because I took my time to digest everything Morse has to say. Unlike many personal development authors, Morse is not some pie-in-the-sky motivational writer who sets out to make you feel good about accepting mediocre results. Instead, Morse has a writing style that is factual, direct, to the point and filled with common sense, down to earth, real life ways to address real life challenges. Although the book reads easy, to breeze through it with ease is unlikely to bring about any real understanding of all that Morse has to say. His examples are not only believable, but really help bring home the points.

In short, your self-development library is simply not complete without George Morse’s Take Charge - Get Results!

Thanks for stopping by and please visit again!

-Dr. Graf

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Have you ever noticed that for some people, no matter what they do, it just about always turns out to be a success, but others aren’t quite as lucky?  Well, the real secret is, it’s got nothing to do with luck.

There’s a BIG difference between successful people and those that aren’t so successful.  My advice for anyone who wants to be anything is to emulate someone who is the way you’d like to be.  If you want to lose weight, find some skinny friends and do what they do.  If you want to be a millionaire, get yourself a mentor or coach who has made a million.  Likewise for success; if you really want to be successful, do what successful people do.

Here are some hints:

Successful people are always a part of the answer.  Those lacking success are usually a part of the problem.

Successful people have a program.  Unsuccessful people have an excuse.

Successful people say “Let me do it for you.”  Unsuccessful people say “That’s not my job.”

The successful person sees an answer in every problem.  The unsuccessful see a problem in every answer.

Successful people say “It may be difficult, but it is possible.”  Unsuccessful people say “It may be possible, but it sure will be difficult.”

When it comes to setting yourself up for success, remember this old saying: “I must do something” will always solve more problems than “Something must be done.”

Want to learn more about making success a part of your life?  Allow me to recommend Jack Zufelt’s incredible book, The DNA of Success.

Thanks for stopping by and please visit again!

-Dr. Graf

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Labor Day weekend in the United States informally marks the end of summer and more formally “it constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country” (quotation from “The History of Labor Day” at www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm).

In addition to wishing you a Happy Labor Day, I would like to take a moment to draw your attention to your labors and ask yourself this question: “Am I engaged in a labor of love?”  To put it another way, do you love what you do?

Let’s face it—most of us work because we want or need money.  In other words, we believe that money can bring us pleasure, but the very thing that brings us money is something that many of us do not consider pleasurable!  Did you ever stop to wonder why it is that so many people are unhappy with their jobs and unhappy with their incomes?  Might there be a relationship between those two components that all-to-often leads to unhappiness?   Medical research even suggests that the most likely time to suffer a heart attack at work is on a Monday morning!  What does that say about the twenty-five or so percent of our week that we spend at work?

I would suggest that it is VERY possible to be happy at work and with one’s income and that for most people, those two variables are closely related. 

Now, I would be the first to admit that directly relating the presence or absence of money to the presence or absence of happiness is an extremely simplistic and unrealistic comparison.  While it may be true that many very wealthy people are indeed extremely happy people, I would submit to you that this is a case where correlation does not equate to causality.  In fact, I believe it’s actually more plausible to conclude that rather than wealth causing happiness, that happiness actually places one in a much more viable position to attract and experience prosperity.  Think about it for a moment.  Doesn’t it seem so much more likely that doing what you love and loving what you do would contribute to great happiness?  I would also submit to you that those who are involved in a labor of love are more likely to experience not just the reward of happiness but financial rewards as well.  Likewise, it would be next to impossible to truly achieve lasting wealth and all that it has to offer, doing something you really don’t enjoy. 

In working with people individually and in workshops, I’ll often have them answer this question: “If tomorrow I awakened independently wealthy, how would I spend my time?”  While the answer to this may not be THE answer to exactly what work you should be doing in order to achieve happiness and wealth, I’ll bet that if you’re currently not happy with your job or your income, then there is a good chance that the answer may be worthy of some greater exploration.

If you’re thinking that your future labor includes an attempt at good
old-fashioned entrepreneurship, may I suggest that you listen to Mike Litman’s free audio CD entitled Greatness Held Hostage.  Except for a small shipping and handling fee, the CD is absolutely free and it really can change your life!

Thanks for stopping by and please visit again!

-Dr. Graf

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