30 Days to Success | Steve Pavlina

A powerful personal growth tool is the 30-day trial. This is a concept I borrowed from the shareware industry, where you can download a trial version of a piece of software and try it out risk-free for 30 days before you’re required to buy the full version. It’s also a great way to develop new habits, and best of all, it’s brain-dead simple.

Let’s say you want to start a new habit like an exercise program or quit a bad habit like smoking. We all know that getting started and sticking with the new habit for a few weeks is the hard part. Once you’ve overcome inertia, it’s much easier to keep going.

Yet we often psyche ourselves out of getting started by mentally thinking about the change as something permanent — before we’ve even begun. It seems too overwhelming to think about making a big change and sticking with it every day for the rest of your life when you’re still habituated to doing the opposite. The more you think about the change as something permanent, the more you stay put.

But what if you thought about making the change only temporarily — say for 30 days — and then you’re free to go back to your old habits? That doesn’t seem so hard anymore. Exercise daily for just 30 days, then quit. Maintain a neatly organized desk for 30 days, then slack off. Read for an hour a day for 30 days, then go back to watching TV.

Could you do it? It still requires a bit of discipline and commitment, but not nearly so much as making a permanent change. Any perceived deprivation is only temporary. You can count down the days to freedom. And for at least 30 days, you’ll gain some benefit. It’s not so bad. You can handle it. It’s only one month out of your life.

Now if you actually complete a 30-day trial, what’s going to happen? First, you’ll go far enough to establish it as a habit, and it will be easier to maintain than it was to begin it. Secondly, you’ll break the addiction of your old habit during this time. Thirdly, you’ll have 30 days of success behind you, which will give you greater confidence that you can continue. And fourthly, you’ll gain 30 days worth of results, which will give you practical feedback on what you can expect if you continue, putting you in a better place to make informed long-term decisions.

Therefore, once you hit the end of the 30-day trial, your ability to make the habit permanent is vastly increased. But even if you aren’t ready to make it permanent, you can opt to extend your trial period to 60 or 90 days. The longer you go with the trial period, the easier it will be to lock in the new habit for life.

Another benefit of this approach is that you can use it to test new habits where you really aren’t sure if you’d even want to continue for life. Maybe you’d like to try a new diet, but you don’t know if you’d find it too restrictive. In that case, do a 30-day trial and then re-evaluate. 

There’s no shame in stopping if you know the new habit doesn’t suit you. It’s like trying a piece of shareware for 30 days and then uninstalling it if it doesn’t suit your needs. No harm, no foul.

Here are some examples from my own life where I used 30-day trials to establish new habits:

1) In the Summer of 1993, I wanted to try being vegetarian. I had no interest in making this a lifelong change, but I’d read a lot about the health benefits of vegetarianism, so I committed to it for 30 days just for the experience. I was already exercising regularly, seemed in decent health, and was not overweight (6’0″, 155 lbs), but my typical college diet included a lot of In-N-Out burgers. Going lacto-ovo vegetarian for 30 days was a lot easier than I expected — I can’t say it was hard at all, and I never felt deprived. Within a week I noticed an increase in my energy and concentration, and I felt more clear-headed. At the end of the 30 days, it was a no-brainer to stick with it. This change looked a lot harder than it really was.

2) In January 1997, I decided to try going from vegetarian to vegan. While lacto-ovo vegetarians can eat eggs and dairy, vegans don’t eat anything that comes from an animal. I was developing an interest in going vegan for life, but I didn’t think I could do it. How could I give up veggie-cheese omelettes? The diet seemed too restrictive to me — even fanatically so. But I was intensely curious to know what it was actually like. So once again I did a 30-day trial. At the time I figured I’d make it through the trial, but I honestly didn’t expect to continue beyond that. Well, I lost seven pounds in the first week, mostly from going to the bathroom as all the accumulated dairy mucus was cleansed from my bowels. I felt lousy the first couple days but then my energy surged. I also felt more clear-headed than ever, as if a “fog of brain” had been lifted; it felt like my brain had gotten a CPU and a RAM upgrade. However, the biggest change I noticed was in my endurance. I was living in Marina del Rey at the time and used to run along the beach near the Santa Monica Pier, and I noticed I wasn’t as tired after my usual 3-mile runs, so I started increasing them to 5 miles, 10 miles, and then eventually a marathon a few years later. In Tae Kwon Do, the extra endurance really gave a boost to my sparring skills as well. The accumulated benefits were so great that the foods I was giving up just didn’t seem so appealing anymore. So once again it was a no-brainer to continue after the first 30 days, and I’m still vegan today. What I didn’t expect was that after so long on this diet, the old animal product foods I used to eat just don’t seem like food anymore, so there’s no feeling of deprivation.

3) Also in 1997, I decided I wanted to exercise every single day for a year. That was my 1997 New Year’s resolution. My criteria was that I would exercise aerobically at least 25 minutes every day, and I wouldn’t count Tae Kwon Do classes which I was taking 2-3 days per week. 
Coupled with my dietary changes, I wanted to push my fitness to a new level. I didn’t want to miss a single day, not even for sick days. But thinking about exercising 365 days in a row was daunting, so I mentally began with a 30-day trial. That wasn’t so bad. After a while every day that passed set a new record: 8 days in a row… 10 days… 15 days…. It became harder to quit. 
After 30 days in a row, how could I not do 31 and set a new personal record? And can you imagine giving up after 250 days? No way. After the initial month to establish the habit, the rest of the year took care of itself. I remember going to a seminar that year and getting home well after midnight. I had a cold and was really tired, yet I still went out running at 2am in the rain. Some people might call that foolish, but I was so determined to reach my goal that I wasn’t going to let fatigue or illness stop me. I succeeded and kept it up for the whole year without ever missing a day. In fact, I kept going for a few more weeks into 1998 before I finally opted to stop, which was a tough decision. I wanted to do this for one year, knowing it would become a powerful reference experience, and it certainly became such.

4) More diet stuff…. After being vegan for a number of years, I opted to try other variations of the vegan diet. I did 30-day trials both with the macrobiotic diet and with the raw foods diet. Those were interesting and gave me new insights, but I decided not to continue with either of them. I felt no different eating macrobiotically than I did otherwise. And in the case of the raw diet, while I did notice a significant energy boost, I found the diet too labor intensive — I was spending a lot of time preparing meals and shopping frequently. Sure you can just eat raw fruits and veggies, but to make interesting raw meals, there can be a lot of labor involved. If I had my own chef, I’d probably follow the raw diet though because I think the benefits would be worth it. I did a second trial of the raw diet for 45 days, but again my conclusion was the same. If I was ever diagnosed with a serious disease like cancer, I’d immediately switch to an all raw, living foods diet, since I believe it to be the absolute best diet for optimal health. I’ve never felt more energetic in my life than when I ate a raw diet. 
But I had a hard time making it practical for me. Even so, I managed to integrate some new macrobiotic foods and raw foods into my diet after these trials. There are two all-raw restaurants here in Vegas, and I’ve enjoyed eating at them because then someone else does all the labor. So these 30-day trials were still successful in that they produced new insights, although in both cases I intentionally declined to continue with the new habit. One of the reasons a full 30-day trial is so important with new diets is that the first week or two will often be spent detoxing and overcoming cravings, so it isn’t until the third or fourth week that you begin to get a clear picture. I feel that if you haven’t tried a diet for at least 30 days, you simply don’t understand it. Every diet feels different on the inside than it appears from the outside.

This 30-day method seems to work best for daily habits. I’ve had no luck using it when trying to start a habit that only occurs 3-4 days per week. However, it can work well if you apply it daily for the first 30 days and then cut back thereafter. This is what I’d do when starting a new exercise program, for example. Daily habits are much easier to establish.
Here are some other ideas for applying 30-day trials:

• Give up TV. Tape all your favorite shows and save them until the end of the trial. My whole family did this once, and it was very enlightening.
• Give up online forums, especially if you feel you’re becoming forum addicted. This will help break the addiction and give you a clearer sense of how participation actually benefits you (if at all). You can always catch up at the end of 30 days.
• Shower/bathe/shave every day. I know YOU don’t need this one, so please pass it along to someone who does.
• Meet someone new every day. Start up a conversation with a stranger.
• Go out every evening. Go somewhere different each time, and do something fun — this will be a memorable month.
• Spend 30 minutes cleaning up and organizing your home or office every day. That’s 15 hours total.
• List something new to sell on eBay every day. Purge some of that clutter.
• Ask someone new out on a date every day. Unless your success rate is below 3%, you’ll get at least one new date, maybe even meet your future spouse.
• If you’re already in a relationship, give your partner a massage every day. Or offer to alternate who gives the massage each day, so that’s 15 massages each.
• Give up cigarettes, soda, junk food, coffee, or other unhealthy addictions.
• Become an early riser.
• Write in your journal every day.
• Call a different family member, friend, or business contact every day.
• Make 25 sales calls every day to solicit new business. Professional speaker Mike Ferry did this five days a week for two years, even on days when he was giving seminars. He credits this habit with helping build his business to over $10 million in annual sales. If you make 1300 sales calls a year, you’re going to get some decent business no matter how bad your sales skills are. You can generalize this habit to any kind of marketing work, like building new links to your web site.
• Write a new blog entry every day.
• Read for an hour a day on a subject that interests you.
• Meditate every day.
• Learn a new vocabulary word every day.
• Go for a long walk every day.

Again, don’t think that you need to continue any of these habits beyond 30 days. Think of the benefits you’ll gain from those 30 days alone. You can re-assess after the trial period. You’re certain to grow just from the experience, even if it’s temporary.

The power of this approach lies in its simplicity. Even though doing a certain activity every single day may be less efficient than following a more complicated schedule — weight training is a good example because adequate rest is a key component — you’ll often be more likely to stick with the daily habit. When you commit to doing something every single day without exception, you can’t rationalize or justify missing a day, nor can you promise to make it up later by reshuffling your schedule.

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Things you must do everyday | Abraham Hicks

Abraham recommends that we do these things every day... 
"The better you feel, the more you allow."
Why not give them a go, and let me know how you get on below?
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High Earners Dilemma | Steve Pavlina

Many of my readers have skills they can apply to earn incomes that are far above average — if they desire to apply those skills for that purpose. A lot of them are programmers or engineers. Some know how to invest or trade stocks. Some are just really good poker players. These people can earn six-figure incomes (sometimes more) without much difficulty.

Many of these people aren’t earning anywhere near their potential. They know this. And for the most part they aren’t particularly concerned about that. Many have found that earning lots of money isn’t fulfilling.

Some of these people made plenty of money in the past. They explored what it was like to have most of their material desires satisfied and then some. They went through that phase of material abundance, and it was fun for a while, but it no longer means anything to them now.

Others in this group never bothered to make much money in the first place, even though they had the skills to do so. They aren’t motivated to bother. The financial gains don’t excite them.

I remember talking to a programmer who was only doing the minimum amount of work necessary to cover his basic expenses, not because he couldn’t earn more but because he didn’t care to make the extra effort. He told me that he used to earn $40K per month programming device drivers, and then he shrugged and said, “So what though… it’s just money.”

Sometimes these people go through a period of mild depression, feeling down on themselves for not doing more with their skills. Some feel they should be earning more. Others feel they should stretch themselves or contribute more, regardless of the money.

Occasionally these people find temporary pleasure in interesting projects. They may still like getting paid now and then. But they don’t feel much ambition to go any further.

There may be still be some growth on this path, but it’s modest. Even learning new sub-skills feels too familiar after a while.

When considering more ambitious goals, financial or otherwise, the question that keeps coming up is: Why bother?

You explored more, and now more is boring.
You explored better, and now better seems pointless.
You explored different, and now different feels the same.
What do you do when more, better, and different are no longer satisfying?
Well… that’s when you get to have an existential crisis. 🙂

Finding the growth again

Many people find themselves with the skills to do more, but the motivation is lacking. They don’t care about earning more. They don’t care about contributing more. They barely care about covering their expenses.

Some are able to travel through this tunnel and find new fulfillment on the other side. Some seem to remain adrift indefinitely. What’s the difference between those who pull out of this funk and those who don’t?

I’d say that the main difference, if I may generalize it, is that the people who find fulfillment again perform a different kind of upgrade than those who don’t.

The ones who continue to struggle seem to circle around the same area looking for solutions. They look at their skills. They look at their habits and routine. They look at their projects. They look at their lifestyle. They may make some shifts, but they largely maintain their original philosophy of life throughout these shifts, and that philosophy keeps them trapped.

The ones who move beyond this struggle make deeper changes. They reassess their overall relationship with life, and other changes stem from there. But these people who upgrade their philosophy of life don’t all shift it in the same way. One person’s upgrade is another person’s downgrade.

These people reassess their relationship with reality, and they change that relationship. It’s almost like going through the breakup of a human relationship. The old relationship is finally done, and a new way of relating is envisioned and created.

Since your relationship with reality exists in your mind — as a collection of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs — you can change it. You can reinterpret old events to mean something different. Just as people reinterpret their human relationships before a breakup, they can reinterpret their relationship with life itself.

These people realize that little by little, a breakup has already been underway. They’ve been checked out from this relationship for some time. The effort and investment have been drying up. The rewards have weakened. Life seems dull and pointless. There’s no point in 
staying. It’s time to move on.

When someone redefines his/her relationship to reality, lifestyle changes often follow. I’ve seen people quit their jobs, go travel, do charity work, explore open relationships, and more. But these changes may have been on the person’s someday/maybe list for many years prior. What seems to flip the switch is the underlying reconfiguration of the person’s philosophy of life.

Profound shifts

These profound shifts don’t seem to have a pattern in terms of their direction, at least not one that I can discern. People go in wildly different directions. It’s much like a human relationship breakup. What happens after the breakup is different for everyone.

There’s usually a period of fear, excitement, and resolution all mixed together as the person gets moving. The word relief is frequently used to describe it.

Life is rarely perfect on the other side, but I can’t recall an instance where someone wanted to go back. They know the shift had to happen, but the shift by itself didn’t magically solve all their problems. There’s still more work to be done.

Although I can’t identify core commonalities in the new directions that people take, I have seen some patterns in how they create these shifts. These are essentially the same patterns that people go through when they transition out of a human relationship.

Usually these people begin to pay attention to the resistance and resentment they’ve been feeling. They see that they’re resisting their current situation and wanting it to be different. They resent their apparent lack of motivation. Many feel disappointed that their peers seem to have surpassed them. They begin to notice this resistance.

Next, they begin taking responsibility for creating this resistance. They see that it isn’t helping and is only keeping them stuck. They decide to stop resisting and to surrender themselves to the present situation. They gradually become less stubborn. They conclude that being stubborn hasn’t worked, so they loosen up and decide to be more flexible and observant for a while. They relax more.

In the past, these people saw the road to change as requiring a change in conditions. They needed a better lifestyle. Or better projects. Or a better workspace and tools. They needed more self-discipline. More focus. More control. This is like the person who tries to work on their partner to salvage the relationship. I need you to help me solve problems X, Y, and Z, and then our relationship will be better. How well does that usually work?

Sometimes the other person in a relationship doesn’t identify X, Y, and Z as problems. Sometimes reality doesn’t seem to agree that your problems are problems either. When you try to solve those problems, it may feel like reality is deliberately working against you. Or you may sense that you keep sabotaging yourself. You resolve to make changes, and your efforts have fizzled within a few days.

Eventually the person reaches the point of surrendering to the obvious: This whole relationship is broken. In this case, I’m referring to the person’s relationship with life, the universe, and everything. That relationship has become nonfunctional. You and reality seem to be at odds with each other. You’re not in agreement.

Many people enter into a period of stuckness here. They know the relationship is broken, so they try to fix it. That usually doesn’t work, partly because they’re still running the old patterns that perpetuate this stuckness, even as they consciously try to change it.

Those who succeed tend to do so by abandoning the goal of trying to change their partner. They surrender to another obvious notion: My partner wants something different from what I want. They finally decide to allow their partner to be someone else. And with that 
comes the realization that it’s time to transition out of this relationship.

How does this play out with your relationship with reality? It’s a similar dynamic. The person stops trying to change reality and finally allows reality to be what it is. There’s no point in fighting, resisting, or trying to solve problems since reality is only going to resist.
How does such a person break up with the old reality? They do this by envisioning a new way of living and a new way of relating to the world, to other people, and to life in general. 
They envision a new way of experiencing reality. To some it really feels like stepping into a whole new reality — a whole new life.

Surrender is the key. When you stop resisting and surrender to what is, you stop feeding what you don’t want, and the undesirable relationships tend to drop away. But as long as you keep fighting for change, you’ll experience a counter-force pushing back against you, keeping you stuck.

One man decides to no longer relate to life on the basis of fear avoidance. From now on he’s going to face, accept, and welcome what he fears. He’s tired of seeing his reality shrink as he sidesteps his fears. He adopts a new rule for himself: Whatever I fear, I must face. He stops resisting life’s challenges. And lo and behold, he finds that the fear was just an illusion anyway. He was the one feeding it all along.

One woman decides she’s tired of business as usual. Her life is filled with people who look up to her for accomplishments that no longer mean anything to her. She’s done fighting her lack of motivation, so she surrenders to it and lets her business decline, regardless of what people may think of her. Eventually she wraps up her business affairs and starts her own nonprofit foundation. Henceforth her relationship with life will be based on contribution and service, which she loves but could never give herself permission to do before. She had to surrender to the fact that her business was no longer the right vehicle for her future growth and self-expression.

From tolerance to completion

These people all have their Jerry Maguire moments. For many of them, the most powerful part of the shift is when they experience profound feelings of doneness with the old way of living. They’re tired of the fear, the inauthenticity, the disconnection, the shallowness, the indifference, or some other misalignment. They decide it’s time to throw out the old way of living and move on.

One friend described life after the shift with these words: Steve, I feel aligned now.
Another guy said, while going through the shift: I am so fucking outta here.

As people shift, it’s common to experience inconsistent progress for a while. Taking two steps forward and one step backwards happens to almost everyone. That’s okay. The seed has been planted. It may take time for that seed to mature, but it will continue to grow. The more we take an occasional step backwards, the clearer it becomes that the old territory can no longer be called home.

Those who remain stuck don’t seem to reach this point of doneness. The most common reason is that people get stuck in a state of tolerance. They continue to tolerate their relationship with life as-is, even though it doesn’t serve them.

Tolerance isn’t surrender. Tolerance is still resistance. When you tolerate a situation, you permit it to exist but you refuse to surrender to it, so you can’t extract the lessons from it. 
You can’t graduate.

Tolerance is like not wanting to go to school but going anyway. You show up, but you refuse to be a student. Consequently, you learn very little. What’s the point of showing up if you’re going to resist?

When that resistance finally drops, and the person surrenders to reality and decides to stop fighting, the remaining lessons can finally come through, and the person can progress. Graduation is within reach.

There are lessons to be learned from being broke. There are lessons in a difficult relationship. There are lessons in illness. There are lessons in periods of drifting. If we resist these experiences, we resist the lessons within them.

If an unwanted experience seems to be sticking to you like glue, try practicing non-resistance for a while. Try surrendering to that experience. Give reality the benefit of the doubt, and assume that there are valuable lessons to be learned right where you are. Let yourself complete the experience. Allow yourself to have the experience you’re having without stubbornly resisting it. Let yourself reach the point of doneness. Then you can progress.

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Triple Your Personal Productivity | Steve Pavlina

Have you ever had the experience of looking back on your week with the sinking feeling that you didn’t get as much done as you’d hoped? When building a successful career or a business of your own, your time is perhaps your most valuable asset, and your income is a direct result of how you spend your time. You cannot buy any more time than you’re given, and the clock is always ticking. A few years ago, I discovered a simple system that allowed me to nearly triple my productivity, and in this article I’ll share some very practical ideas you can apply right away to increase your effectiveness without working any harder than you do now.

Keep a Detailed Time Log

The first step to better managing your time is to find out how you’re currently spending your time. Keeping a time log is a very effective way to do this, and after trying it for just one day, you’ll immediately gain tremendous insight into where your time is actually going. The very act of measuring is often enough to raise your unconscious habits into your consciousness, where you then have a chance to scrutinize and change them.

Here’s how to keep a time log. Throughout your day record the time whenever you start or stop any activity. Consider using a stopwatch to just record time intervals for each activity. 
You can do this during only your working time or throughout your entire day. At the end of the day, sort all the time chunks into general categories, and find out what percentage of your time is being spent on each type of activity. If you want to be thorough, do this for a week, and calculate the percentage of your total time that you spent on each type of activity. Be as detailed as possible. Note how much time you spend on email, reading newsgroups, web surfing, phone calls, eating, going to the bathroom, etc. If you get up out of your chair, it probably means you need to make an entry in your time log. I typically end up with 50-100 log entries per day.

You may be surprised to discover you’re spending only a small fraction of your working time doing what you’d consider to be actual work. Studies have shown that the average office worker does only 1.5 hours of actual work per day. The rest of the time is spent socializing, taking coffee breaks, eating, engaging in non-business communication, shuffling papers, and doing lots of other non-work tasks. The average full-time office worker doesn’t even start doing real work until 11:00am and begins to wind down around 3:30pm.

Analyze Your Results

The first time I kept a time log, I only finished 15 hours worth of real work in a week where I spent about 60 hours in my office. Even though I was technically about twice as productive as the average office worker, I was still disturbed by the results. Where did those other 45 hours go? My time log laid it all out for me, showing me all the time drains I wasn’t consciously aware of — checking email too often, excessive perfectionism doing tasks that didn’t need to be done, over-reading the news, taking too much time for meals, succumbing to preventable interruptions, etc.

Calculate Your Personal Efficiency Ratio

When I realized that I spent 60 hours at the office but only completed 15 hours of actual work within that time, I started asking myself some interesting questions. My income and my sense of accomplishment depended only on those 15 hours, not on the total amount of time I spent at the office. So I decided to begin recording my daily efficiency ratio as the amount of time I spent on actual work divided by the total amount of time I spent in my office. While it certainly bothered me that I was only working 25% of the time initially, I also realized it would be extremely foolish to simply work longer hours.

Here’s the formula:

Efficiency ratio = time doing real work / time spent at work

Reduce Your Work Hours to Force an Increase in Efficiency

If you’ve ever tried to discipline yourself to do something you weren’t really motivated to do, you most likely failed. That was naturally the result I experienced when I tried to discipline myself to work harder. In fact, trying harder actually de-motivated me and drove my efficiency ratio even lower. So I reluctantly decided to try the opposite approach. The next day I would only allow myself to put in five hours total at the office, and the rest of the day I wouldn’t allow myself to work at all. Well, an interesting thing happened, as I’m sure you can imagine. My brain must have gotten the idea that working time was a scarce commodity because I worked almost the entire five hours straight and got an efficiency ratio of over 90%. I continued this experiment for the rest of the week and ended up getting about 25 hours of work done with only 30 hours total spent in my office, for an efficiency ratio of over 80%. So I was able to reduce my weekly working time by 30 hours while also getting 10 more hours of real work done. If your time log shows your efficiency ratio to be on the low side, try severely limiting your total amount of working time for a day, and see what happens. Once your brain realizes that working time is scarce, you suddenly become a lot more efficient because you have to be. When you have tight time constraints, you will usually find a way to get your work done. But when you have all the time in the world, it’s too easy to be inefficient.

Gradually Increase Work Hours While Maintaining Peak Efficiency

Over a period of a few weeks, I was able to keep my efficiency ratio above 80% while gradually increasing my total weekly office time. I’ve been able to maintain this for many years now, and I commonly get about 40 hours of real work done every week, while only spending about 45 total hours in my office. I’ve learned that this is ideal for me. If I try to put in more time at the office, then my productivity drops off rapidly. The interesting thing is that the system that allowed me to optimize my effectiveness at work also created a tremendous amount of balance in all other areas of my life. Even though I was able to use this approach to triple my business productivity, I still gained plenty of time to pursue personal interests.

Time logging is the intelligent choice to ensure optimal productivity without increasing your hours. But time logging need only be done periodically to provide these benefits. I do it for one week every 3-6 months, and over the years it has made a huge difference for me, always providing me with new distinctions. If I go too many months without time logging, my productivity gradually drops as I fall back into unconscious time-wasting habits. You’ll probably find as I do that your gut feelings about your productivity are closely related to how much real work you actually get done. When you feel your productivity is lower than you’d like, raise your awareness via time logging, measure your efficiency ratio, and then optimize your efficiency to boost your productivity back up where it belongs. Time logging is a high leverage activity that takes very little time and effort to implement, but the long-term payoff is tremendous.

Please let me know what you think below.

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The Most Powerful Success Factor: Personal Development and the Golden Hour | Brian Tracy

The most powerful success factor of personal development and lifelong success has to do with the “golden hour” of your day.

As an individual, you become what you think about, most of the time. You become the sum total result of the ideas, information and impressions you feed into your mind, from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night. Everything counts, but some impressions count more than others. The thoughts with which you flood your mind in the first hour of the morning, the golden hour, have a strong influence on how you think, feel and act for the rest of the day.

Improve Your Personal Development

Fully 95% of everything you do or say is determined by your habits, whether good or bad. Successful people have good habits that lead them to engage in positive, productive behaviors and improving their personal development throughout their lives. 

Unsuccessful people have inadvertently developed bad habits that cause them to act, or fail to act, in ways that lead to underachievement and failure.

The Most Important Success Factor

Perhaps the best success factor and habit you can develop is to take advantage of the golden hour and start every day in a thoughtful, productive way that sets you up for greater success in the hours ahead.

Here is a successful and effective formula that has worked for me, and for thousands of others, in going from rags to riches. Resolve to try it yourself for 21 days before you pass judgment on whether or not it is helping you. My promise to you is that, by the time you have practiced these behaviors for 21 days, your whole world will have changed in positive ways that you cannot even imagine.

The 21 Day Mental Diet

1. Starting tomorrow, arise each morning at least two hours before you have to be somewhere, and invest the first golden hour in yourself, and in your mind. If you exercise physically each morning, do this before you begin to exercise mentally.

2. Before you turn on the television, radio, or read the newspaper, take 30-60 minutes and read something motivational, inspirational or educational. Be sure that the first thing you put into your mind in the morning is positive, healthy and consistent with the kind of life you want to lead.

3. After you have completed your morning reading, take a spiral notebook and write out your top 10-15 goals in the present tense, exactly as if you have already achieved them. Write goals such as, “I earn $100,000 per year”; “I weigh 165 pounds and am superbly fit”; “I drive a brand new grey BMW”; “I live in a beautiful 3500 square foot home” and so on. Rewrite your list of goals every morning without referring back to the goals you wrote the day before. This is a very important success factor for you to practice in order to achieve your goals.

4. Plan every day in advance. After you have rewritten your goals, make a list of everything you have to do that day, and then organize the list by priority, value and importance.

5. Begin immediately to work on your most valuable and important task, before you do anything else. Resolve to focus single-mindedly on that one task until it is complete. When you start and finish your major task first thing in the morning during the golden hour, you will experience a surge of energy, elation and confidence that will propel you into your other tasks, and dramatically increase your overall productivity for the rest of the day.

6. Listen to educational audio programs as you drive around. Leave the radio off. Continually feed your mind with high quality mental nutrition that uplifts and inspires you to do your best. This is a great way to improve your personal development throughout your entire life.

7. Finally, develop a sense of urgency. Pick up the pace. Move quickly from one task to the other. Don.t waste time. The faster you move, the more energy you will have. The faster you move, the more you will get done, and the better you will feel. The faster you move, the more in control of your life you will feel, and the more you will like and respect yourself.

The Golden Hour

The golden hour is the rudder of the day. When you begin to arise early and invest the first hour in yourself, you will be amazed at the difference in the way you feel and in the results you will get. You will gradually transform your thinking about yourself and what is possible for you. You will become a money magnet and begin to improve on your personal development and achieve success in all levels.

I hope you enjoyed this article on the most powerful success factor of personal development and lifelong success. Do you have any other tips for what others can do during the golden hour for greater success throughout the day? Please feel free to share and comment below!

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Making Personal Development Fun | Vlad Dolezal

Think back to when you were a child, building a lego house. (Or using a similar building set.)

You would set off to build a house… then halfway through decide to make it a horse ranch instead… then get distracted by another idea and end up with a space ship with a pack of horses on one wing and a swimming pool on the other.

That’s how personal development feels when you approach it in a fun way. You have a certain intention, but then you get distracted by something interesting, experiment with a few different tidbits, and end up with something completely different than you intended. Yet the result is even more awesome than your original plan, and you had great fun along the way!

Still, some people insist on approaching personal development like building a lego house according to set-in-stone instructions. They stress about getting every brick in the right place, then get annoyed when they don’t progress fast enough, then start procrastinating because the process is boring and doesn’t challenge their mind and then they end up dropping the project and complaining that building lego houses doesn’t work.

Personal development can be just as fun as building a lego house, if you approach it the right way.

If you think personal development should be hard, it will be

There’s a funny thing called selective perception. Put simply, you only notice things you are looking for.

So if you’re looking for hard complicated ways to improve yourself, when you find an easy solution, you drop it because “that can’t possibly be right”. Then you come up with the most weird and convoluted ways to make your self-improvement difficult, because that’s what you’re looking for.

Here’s the thing. Personal development done right is easy. It’s effortless. It’s fun!

Building your own character is just like building a character in a computer game, or like building a lego spaceship:

• you tack on a bunch of random stuff because you feel like it
• you keep experimenting and see what you like the best
• the process is just as much fun as the result
• there isn’t a final outcome – it’s an endless fun process, where you keep changing and tweaking things because you feel like it. The fun of a building set comes from building things, and the same is true with personal development.

I have tried all sorts of habit changes myself, like waking up early, meditating, being vegetarian, keeping a daily to-do list, or consciously changing my body language (that one was especially fun).

Some of them have stuck and some haven’t. But every single one of them was fun to try! (Yes, even waking up early).

How to Make Personal Development Fun

Here are a few ways to make personal development fun:

1. Forget about the outcome
2. Think of it as a fun experiment to see what happens
3. When you read/hear about cool ideas, TRY THEM
4. Do it with a friend (either offline or online)
5. Tell other people about your experiments (that’s one reason starting a blog is great)

Aaaand… yeah. If I ended right here, you would most likely go off nodding, thinking you learned something interesting but leaving your behavior unchanged.

I’m not a big fan of list posts for exactly that reason. That’s why I let this list occupy such a small part of this post.

Instead, I will give you one thorough example, to help you drive the concept deep into your subconscious. This will stimulate your subconscious mind’s creativity and get it thinking of how to make other personal development ideas fun.

An example of making personal development fun

You can approach any part of personal development as a game. I’m going to take open-mindedness as an example here:

…

Think of lying on a grass meadow on a warm summer day, with a friend, watching the clouds above.

“That one looks like a car,” you say pointing at a cloud.

“It looks like a dog to me…” your friend replies.

What is your reply? Do you jump up angrily and shout “NO, it’s definitely a car! You’re completely wrong!” and storm off?

Or do you say “Wait… hang on… oh yea! I can see what you mean. I’d actually say it’s a bit more of a tiger, but I can definitely see where you’re coming from with the dog.”

And then you can have more fun guessing all the other interpretations for that cloud. Maybe it can also be a motorcycle, or a pretzel…

And considering other people’s point of view is just like that. For a moment, you suspend all judgment, and see the world as they see it. And then you think of all other interpretations of the same situation, just to see what fun things you can come up with.

You can even find a friend who’s also interested in practicing open-mindedness and challenge each other with issues and ideas to be open-minded about.

One more thing. Notice how I never once mentioned how will open-mindedness be useful to you? That’s because focusing on the outcome will make it seem like a chore. Consider the outcome when choosing what habits to try, but once you get started, forget the outcome, and enjoy it like a game.

Personal development is fun. All you have to do is approach it in the right way.

…

Now stay with me, this is important. You might be tempted to skip the last few paragraphs.

Maybe you’re thinking of commenting, or retweeting this post.

Don’t. Not yet. Before you do anything else, I want you to use the information here.

Because while comments and retweets are nice, they’re not the real thing. The real thing is helping you improve your life.

So in a moment, when I say the word “now”, I want you to stop reading and start thinking. Think about your personal development, and how you could make it more fun. Then think of some specific actions you can take in the next 24 hours to make it more fun.

When you’re done, then you can go do something else. And if you come up with an interesting way of making personal development fun, please share it in the comments! 

Okay, ready? Three, two, one…

This blog post ends now.

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The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant

How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals — including embracing failure. 

"The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they're the ones who try the most," Grant says. "You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones."

Originals are "quick to start, and slow to finish."

"Originals feel fear too.  They are afraid of failing, but what sets them apart from the rest of us is that they are even more afraid of failing to try."

"Know 

 - that being quick to start but slow to finish can boost your creativity, 
 - that you can motivate yourself by doubting your ideas and embracing the fear of failing to       try, 
 - that you need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones."  

"Look being original is not easy, but I have no doubt about this: it's the best way to improve the world around us."

Please let me know what you think below.

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Tips On Changing The Way You Feel | Tony Robbins

"Most people want to be happy but their habit is to be worried or frustrated or stressed," says motivational speaker Tony Robbins.

But changing that habit isn't as hard as you might think.

“We all want to be able to change the way we feel. Emotion is created by motion. The way you move determines the way you feel. I have this deal with myself called ‘priming.’ It’s ten minutes, I put music on , I do this massive change in my breathing and then I do this 3-step process,” said Robbins.

1. 3-minutes of gratitude—Think about 3 things I’m really greatful for.
2. 3-minute prayer for family and friends.
3. 3-minute process of the top 3 things I want to accomplish.

“My deal is 10 so there is no excuse not to do it,” said Robbins.

Let me know what you think below!

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Feel Good Now | Tony Robbins

If you want to have ongoing joy and fulfillment in your life, the secret is just one word – progress. Progress equals happiness. While achievements and material things may excite you for the moment, the only thing that's going to make you happy long-term is knowing that you're making progress.

"I don't need an excuse to feel good!"  

What do you think?

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25 Books for Success | Erin Casey

Out of hundreds, the editors of SUCCESS have narrowed our list to 25 must-read books for achievers. The task wasn't easy, although our criteria were simple. These are books we've read, liked and that made a difference in our lives. We chose books that take a comprehensive approach to money, life and personal development because we know that one-dimensional success really isn't success at all.

You might wonder why your favorite book didn't make the list. Well, we could've filled the magazine with dozens more books. Our top 25 are by no stretch of the imagination the only books you should read. To the contrary, we know reading about and applying techniques and success strategies are the best ways to discover and stay focused on your life's journey.

We hope our list opens your eyes to something new, inspires you to pick up that volume you've always meant to read or to re-read a favorite classic. If you have suggestions on what we didn't include, we want to hear from you.

We encourage you to find a book that interests you and carve out a few minutes every day to read at least a few pages. You'll be amazed at the difference it will make in your journey toward success!

1. How To Win Friends and Influence People

First published in 1937, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie was an overnight success with staying power. Today, this book is regarded as one of the all-time best for its lessons on dealing with people.

The chapter titles seem, at first, a little manipulative: "Six ways to make people like you," "12 ways to win people to your way of thinking." But the reality of Carnegie's teachings is that none will work if the intent is manipulation. The word "genuine" appears repeatedly throughout the book. Only with authenticity and honesty will Carnegie's methods work consistently.

How to Win Friends and Influence People is packed with anecdotes from historical leaders and lessons learned or taught by some of history's greatest businessmen, making the read as interesting as it is enlightening. And the methods--calling a person by his or her name or looking at the situation from the other's point of view--work in business and in personal life with family and friends.

Carnegie's book is a classic. Though he credits many people for inspiring his ideas, his methods are the foundation for many of today's personal-development and business-management books.

2. The Richest Man in Babylon

Too often, life doesn't turn out as expected. And money, or the lack of money, plays a large role in people's ability to handle life's ups and downs. Perhaps that's why, in the 1920s, banks and insurance companies decided to distribute short parables written to educate people on important financial principles. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason began in 1926 as a series of pamphlets, the most famous ones later compiled into one of the best-loved money guides of all time.

The book begins with two men realizing that, while they lived a meager existence, one of their childhood friends had become known as the wealthiest man in Babylon. Despite growing up in similar circumstances, their friend seemed to have created a life of gold while they barely scratched out a living.

The situation is all too familiar even today. And like the men who'd come to the realization that they'd failed to think beyond the day at hand, readers have the opportunity to sit at the feet of the richest man in Babylon and learn how to build wealth. They learn how to plan for the future, make wise investments and how to view money as a tool rather than a measure of success.

With time-tested principles and an engaging format, The Richest Man in Babylon is an excellent introduction to finance, and a classic.

3. Think and Grow Rich

Napoleon Hill, inspired by business legend Andrew Carnegie, spent 20 years of his life studying the lives of some of history's most successful people. The culmination of his research was the in-depth series, The Laws of Success. In 1937, Hill published another book, Think and Grow Rich, founded on the same philosophies of success. This book condensed the wealth of knowledge he's accumulated into 13 principles for successful living.

Shorter and perhaps easier to get through than its multivolume predecessor, Think and Grow Rich is as applicable today as it was when it was first released. The title's principles are founded on Hill's belief in the power of the mind, and his famous quotes, such as, "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve," have changed the way millions of people view their lives. When read in its entirety and its principles put into action, Think and Grow Rich not only helps people change their views on life, but also the way they behave and, ultimately, their reality.

More than 30 million copies of Think and Grow Rich have been bought by business students, entrepreneurs and goal-setters around the world. When it was re-released in 2004, it rocketed once again to the top, holding a place on BusinessWeek's Best Seller list for paperback business books for more than 20 months.

Think and Grow Rich is a timeless classic that should be read by everyone interested in improving their lives and reaching their goals.

4. The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying

Suze Orman (Crown, 1997) As a financial expert, Suze Orman offers advice on the nuts and bolts of managing money. But whether you're watching her on television or reading her advice in O, The Oprah Magazine, or in one of her best-selling books, such as 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, her message is clear: Wealth is an attitude and money isn't the key to acquiring true financial freedom.

In this acclaimed book, Orman challenges readers to face their financial fears and acknowledge the importance of planning for the future. With a three-pronged approach, Orman tackles the mental, physical and spiritual issues that keep people from reaching financial freedom. Also available in audio format, 9 Steps to Financial Freedom encourages personal growth while offering the education necessary to begin the process of building a rich life.

Again, it's the total approach to financial success that sets this and the other financial books on this list apart. Acquiring wealth isn't as simple as piling up the green stuff. Your beliefs about money, yourself and the world around you have as much to do with wealth as do the riches you acquire.

5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

While Stephen Covey wasn't the first to write a book on becoming a better, more effective person, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People marked the beginning of a revitalized interest in personal development. With a 15th anniversary edition released in 2004 and more than 15 million copies sold, this book has helped millions change their perspective and their lives.

Unlike many authors of books in this genre, Covey doesn't promise a simple, quick fix for creating a better life. In fact, mastering the seven habits he outlines could take a lifetime. But as with many personal-development efforts, it's what you learn as you work toward becoming a truly effective person that matters.

The habits are divided into three sections: Private Victory, Public Victory and Renewal. Private Victory focuses on the individual's view of himself. The first three habits are: becoming proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and putting first things first. These habits will challenge you to take responsibility for your thoughts, beliefs and actions. The Public Victory section focuses on creating meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships. And because being effective requires energy and focus, the seventh habit, "Sharpening the Saw," encourages you to engage in activities that promote mental and physical renewal.

Covey says that when our behavior contradicts our beliefs or when our relationships consistently fail, any successes we achieve feel hollow. This book takes a total approach to success and encourages growth and maturity beginning with self, which leads to stronger relationships and greater success at home and at work.

6. Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives

Dan Millman (HJ Kramer, 2006) The first of Dan Millman's writings, this book is an inspirational story based largely on his college years. The book delves into the notion that a person can be accomplished and successful without feeling alive or genuinely happy.

Millman learns "the way of the peaceful warrior" from a mysterious old man he names Socrates. His mentor leads him through a journey of self-discovery. The lessons the young man endures and later accepts are applicable for anyone searching for greater meaning in life.

7. The Law of Success In Sixteen Lessons by Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill (Combined Registry Co., 1966) Twenty-six years of research, including interviews with more than 500 self-made millionaires, laid the foundation for this massive collection. After studying the methods and accomplishments of masterminds such as Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt and Alexander Graham Bell, Napoleon Hill compiled what he learned, offering it to the world as the Laws of Success.

More than theories for a book, Hill applied the precepts to his life and discovered immeasurable success. The book's size might seem intimidating, but Hill wrote so it could be taught to high school students, keeping the text rich but easy to understand. This personal-development guru paves the road to success with timeless wisdom.

8. Acres of Diamonds: All Good Things Are Possible, Right Where You Are, and Now!

Russell H. Conwell (Filiquarian, 2007) Opportunities for success, wealth and happiness often lie under foot and yet go unnoticed. This little book, originally a speech by Russell Conwell, serves as a reminder not to overlook the abundance right on our doorstep.

This timeless work is freely available online, in both written and audio formats, and addresses the myth that fame and fortune are waiting somewhere "out there." He also dispels the notion that men and women of integrity shouldn't desire money or wealth. "Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it. You ought because you can do more good with it than you could without it," Conwell said. And to that end, he advises readers to begin searching for the diamonds in their lives… at home.

9. As a Man Thinketh

James Allen (Filiquarian, 2007) Published in 1902, "This little volume" as James Allen refers to it, has been a source of inspiration for millions and has influenced the work of many respected personal-development leaders. And with statements such as, "The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears," Allen paved the way for many contemporary philosophers.

At its core is the belief that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Allen uses eloquent period language to bring readers to the realization that thoughts and character are inseparably intertwined. Equally as important is the lesson of personal responsibility taking precedence over thoughts and actions. He prescribes focused time to reflect and discover yourself and your dreams, and to put forth energy and time to make those dreams reality. This book, now in the public domain and freely accessible on the Internet, should be in every achiever's library.

10. Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed

Brian Tracy (Simon & Schuster, 1995) As suggested by this book's subtitle, "Strategies and skills that will unlock your hidden powers to succeed," it's likely you already possess what's required to create success in your life. Those who apply these strategies provided by Brian Tracy can make changes that quickly produce results.

Learn how to create success that encompasses every area of life-health, personal and professional happiness, relationships and wealth. Whether you're already on the road to success or just getting started on your success journey, the principles outlined in the book will help you realize your true potential. Build the life you want and attain the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that you control your destiny.

11. The Seasons of Life by Jim Rohn 

Jim Rohn & Ronald Reynolds (Jim Rohn International, 1981) In The Seasons of Life, Jim Rohn and Ronald Reynolds draw parallels between life and the changing seasons. When you learn that change is the only guarantee, you can make the most of each season as it comes into your life.

It's possible to learn and grow from every experience. The authors help readers understand that every season is necessary and valuable-even winter, when life seems harsh and your actions unfruitful.

12. See You at the Top

Zig Ziglar (Pelican Publishing Company, 2000) There's room for you at the top! Zig Ziglar's message has inspired millions to change their lives by helping them do, be and have more than they dared dream possible.

Ziglar offers a nuts-and-bolts approach to developing the self-image, attitudes and habits that make people successful. Learn how to set and achieve goals, how to create momentum that propels you forward in life and why being focused on others is a critical aspect of success. This step-by-step guide will help you excel in every area of life.

13. The Magic of Thinking Big

David J. Schwartz (Pocket Books, 1995) Thinking big separates the achievers from the average. In this best-selling classic, David Schwartz suggests that it's not necessarily intelligence or work ethic that move people up the ladder of success, but the personal choice people make to believe that something bigger and better is possible.

Make time to reflect on your life's goals and expand them. Once you have a clear picture of what you want, focus your energy on achieving that goal. Keep your eyes fixed on your goal and do not allow the small thinking of the world around you to cloud your vision. Schwartz offers practical advice for putting the magic of thinking big to work in your life.

14. The Power of Positive Thinking

Norman Vincent Peale (Fireside, 2007) The belief that positive thoughts lead to a positive reality isn't a new phenomenon. Decades before The Secret, Norman Vincent Peale wrote The Power of Positive Thinking. The book teaches readers that focused, intentional and unyielding belief is required before they can achieve the lives they desire.

The philosophies from this best-selling book have helped millions reach their personal, financial, spiritual and relationship goals. Learn to replace negative thoughts with positive beliefs and to break the worry habit by cultivating a character that isn't swayed by circumstances.

15. Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny!

Anthony Robbins (Free Press, 1992) Within each person is a sleeping giant of greatness. With this book, motivational coach Anthony Robbins seeks to help you "take immediate control of mental, emotional, physical and financial destiny."

Not one to do things in a small way, Robbins found huge success, lost it all and then, using the techniques outlined in this book, took control of his life and his success. This personal-development classic delves into the specifics of goal-setting, achieving success in relationships, talking to yourself and discovering your true potential.

16. Developing the Leader Within You

John C. Maxwell (Thomas Nelson, 2005) Developing the Leader Within You makes the theories of leadership personal. For those struggling to take the next step in their careers or who doubt their leadership abilities, the book offers practical methods for developing leadership skills.

Recognizing that some people have innate leadership-personality traits, the book provides direction
for becoming more effective. But John Maxwell's book debunks the myth that only an exclusive few are born to be leaders. Instead, he suggests that everyone benefits from learning self-discipline, seeking mentors and adding to their skills through training.

Maxwell defines leadership as influence and points out that a management title isn't a prerequisite. Regardless of your career, position or personality, learn how to become an effective leader.

17. The One Minute Manager

Kenneth Blanchard (HarperCollins Business, 2000) Apply the principals taught in The One Minute Manager and watch your team's productivity and job satisfaction grow. This allegorical tale pulls together the wisdom gained through experience, allowing readers to prosper without making their predecessors' mistakes.

The One Minute management style allows leaders to be efficient and effective with their time. The short chapters in this easy read focus on interaction between managers and their teams. By setting goals that encourage, redirecting, reprimanding and praising appropriately, leaders can get more from their teams while earning their respect.

18. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

Jim Collins (Collins, 2001) If good is the enemy of great, can good companies become great? And if so, how is that transition made with lasting effect? These are some of the questions central to the research that led to the publication of Good to Great.

Five years of investigation uncovered the characteristics that made uncommonly great companies outshine their competition and earn significantly higher profits. Comparing the differentiating traits of good companies and their great counterparts, Jim Collins and his research team learned that, among other things, leaders who willingly work with their heads and hearts, rather than their egos, are required to take a company from good to great. Such leaders create the foundation for the culture and sustainable results that propel an organization to excellence.

19. The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich

David Bach (Broadway, 2003) Who wouldn't want to become a millionaire automatically? The truths related in this book, as in Bach's Finish Rich series, are that nothing great is accomplished without forethought. But with a little planning and by putting many aspects of your finances on autopilot, you can be on the road to wealth.

The automatic aspect plan allows readers to save time while saving money. And though many of the principles aren't new, Bach's easy-to-understand approach helps the reader understand them in a new way. Some of the highlights include principles such as paying yourself first, and advice about why and how to save for retirement-even if you're hard-pressed to make ends meet now. Bach also provides advice for accomplishing short-term savings goals and explains that giving is an important part of wealth.

20. Rich Dad Poor Dad

Robert T. Kiyosaki (Time Warner Paperbacks, 2002) The paradigm shift related to work, employment and entrepreneurship has been a long time coming. In one of his most-read books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki reveals the value of taking control of your financial destiny through entrepreneurship and investing.

In Rich Dad Poor Dad, Kiyosaki contrasts the differences between what the rich and the poor or middle classes teach their children. As a young man, Kiyosaki was taught by his "poor dad" to follow the path of least resistance: Get an education, get a job and work hard. His "rich dad," his friend's dad, mentored him to do the opposite. The book acknowledges education is important but it isn't always best received in a formal learning environment. Lessons include the value of self-employment, how to be self-employed without limiting yourself to the constraints of an employee, and how to create and take advantage of residual-income opportunities. Instead of working hard for money, use the principles in this book to make money work for you.

21. The Greatest Salesman in the World

Og Mandino (Frederick Fell Publishers, 2001) Ten ancient scrolls hold the key to wealth and happiness in this classic parable. A young camel boy wishing to improve his station in life takes his master's words to heart: "No other trade or profession has more opportunity for one to rise from poverty to great wealth than that of a salesman." Desiring success and wealth, the young man sets out to become the greatest salesman in the world.

This pocket-sized book can be read easily in an hour, but it's packed with wisdom for those pursuing a career in sales. Far more than a how-to book on closing the sale, the story encourages the reader to contribute to society and to grow in peace of mind and in heart. Those who apply the principles in the scrolls will learn how to overcome the challenges of sales, how to persist through trials and, ultimately, how to succeed.

22. The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource: Including The 10.5 Commandments of Sales Success

Jeffrey Gitomer (Wiley, 2003) Jeffrey Gitomer has an extremely low tolerance for lamenting salespeople and that comes through in the bold and fast-paced tone of his books. The Sales Bible puts more than 100 sales facts, tips and solutions at your disposal to help you "make sales while others are whining!"

This book magnifies the details of every aspect of sales. Learn the basics and understand how recent changes in selling affect you and your pitch. Discover the keys to setting yourself apart from the competition and finding your prospect's button. The table of contents is designed to help you quickly identify specific topics. Or just start reading from cover to cover for an excellent education from someone who knows the profession from the inside out.

23. Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

Dr. Spencer Johnson (Vermilion, 2002) For many people, change can be challenging. It can cause fear, anger and the feeling of being out of control. This popular parable examines change and what happens to those who choose not to embrace it.

"If you do not change, you can become extinct," is one of the many truisms the characters learn in Who Moved My Cheese? What's holding you back? Are you taking note of small changes that could lead to more significant changes in the future? In the maze of life, it's possible to successfully deal with change if and when you clear your mind of expectations and understand that while your comfort zone may be cozy, it's not necessarily the safest place to live.

24. Chicken Soup for the Soul Series

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, with other contributors (Health Communications Inc., 1993-2008) Need inspiration? The phenomenal success of Chicken Soup for the Soul offers inspiration on many levels. From the tenacity it took to get the first Chicken Soup for the Soul published (Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen were rejected by 140 publishers and their book agent before finding a publisher willing to take a chance on their idea) to the thousands of touching and thought-provoking stories, these books will warm your heart and may help you view life from a new perspective.

The original Chicken Soup for the Soul went to the top of the best-seller list in less than a year. Today, one or more of the Chicken Soup books is consistently listed on the New York Times and other major best-sellers lists.

As an entrepreneur, parent or business leader, staying at the top or your game requires regular jolts of passion and healthy doses of laughter. Find both by picking up a copy on a topic that interests you. With more than 170 titles in the series, you're sure to find one that inspires you.

25. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude

Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone (Pocket Books, 1991) Success through a Positive Mental Attitude was first published in 1960, written by two of history's greatest personal-development leaders, Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone. For almost half a century, this book has been the launching point for those who want to change the direction of their lives.

Hill and Stone recognize that each person has their own definition of success. But whether your desire is to build great wealth, own profitable organizations or be a world-renowned artist, the authors point out, "You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by trying. Success is achieved and maintained by those who keep trying with a [positive mental attitude]."

This book addresses all areas of life. From getting the job you want to building better relationships with those around you to living healthier longer (Stone lived to be 100 years old!), this book takes an inclusive approach to success, beginning with your state of mind.

Why a must-read? When you're looking for advice on how to create a successful and rewarding life, why not get the answers from those who have "been there, done that?" These thought leaders and business experts used the principles of positive mental attitude and experienced a lifetime of rewards.

Have you read some or all of these books?  What do you think?  Which one will you read next and why? Please let me know below.

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