Mastery Of Happiness

I Cannot Think Of Anything Better To Do With A Banana Except Eat It

De-Lard (as in "trim the fat from") Your Day

Happy people are effective people.  I have never met anyone that was truly happy that was not effective.  I once spent two weeks with Monks on the Island of Brac off of the Dalmatia Coast of Croatia.  It was such a great experience that my one week planned adventure turned into two.  The Monks were extremely happy and while they did not have great cards, speedboats or vast amounts of money they were extremely effective each and every day.  They wasted little if any time on things that did not matter.  There is a great lesson in living like that.

As soon as I got rid of all of the lard in my day my life began to change for the better.  I stopped responding to calls from people that had an "emergency situation" and voila... they stopped calling me with emergencies.  I put a 24 hour auto-responder on my email and stopped being wired 24/7 so that I could focus on the things that mattered most.  Getting rid of the lard in my day allows me to be more effective all day long in whatever I am doing.  As I write this blog I am in a productivity window of "Creation".  This is just what I call it but the point is that I am creating content that might help someone else create a better life.  You can call your productivity windows whatever you choose.  Just make sure you get rid of the lard my friend.  Focus on yourself and making "you" the most effective person on the planet at whatever you do.

Think of 7 things today that you can get rid of today to become more effective.  This process of ridding yourself of lard might mean that you delegate some things, that you completely erase others and that you change how you communicate with others.  Just do it and your relationships and effectiveness will improve.

To your success,
-PC

Learn From Masters Not Wanna Be Flunkies

I was on a plane flying into Orlando a few months back and sat with Lou Holtz. Coach Holtz is quite famous so he constantly had young men and women coming up to the first class cabin asking if he was "Lou Holtz". The first kid that came up with his camera and girlfriend in tow asked "Are you Lou Holtz"?  Coach Holtz said "Unfortunately Yes I am".  The kid, oblivious to the comment, said "Can I take a picture with you"? The Coach said "Sure".  So, the girlfriend snapped a photo.  This went on a few times before takeoff.  The Coach and I had some small talk and when we landed I asked - "Coach, why did you say "Unfortunately, yes I am" to the first young man that came up and asked for a photo?  Seems to me that it would be kinda good being Lou Holtz".  Coach Holtz told me that he said it because he knows that when there is one kid that gets a picture there are always more to follow and he said that maybe it teaches the kid a little humility.  I found the comment interesting.  Coach Holtz, always teaching.  Even when he does not mean to be.  That's a "Master".

Who are you learning from?  Make sure that you learn from successful people not miserable losers.  When I am coaching executives or training those in one of my organizations I feel like the only thing that I can teach them with credibility is either what I have done or what I am doing at the time.  I'm not comfortable coaching theory because I'm not comfortable something will work unless I know that it will.  So, learn from those that own the knowledge that they are passing along to you.  You'll be glad you did.

To your success,
-PC

The Importance Of Desire

I’m writing about this today because as I went through my journals for 2008 one thing became apparent.  People misunderstand “Desire” when it comes to developing an achievement mindset and building wealth.  Quite a few things that I blog about over the next few days will be based on my 2008 journal review.

There seem to be two polarizing sides to this discussion.  On the one hand you have the “Law of Attraction” crowd.  When taken in proper context this is powerful stuff so long as one does not forget that a certain amount of effort always precedes a result.  You will be sadly disappointed if you think that you can sit on your couch eating chips all day long using your power of thought to create some law of attraction vortex.  The Ferrari will not be pulling into the driveway by itself. 

The other side is made up of the pragmatic fundamentalist crowd.  These people are keen on the fact that effort precedes any result, which is terrific because it’s true.  The polarizing comes from the contingent of this crowd that believes that success is only all about “Self” and that “Greed” is good.  They will claim to be the happiest people on the planet.  Since they are the happiest people they know it must be true that being truly happy requires a complete focus on “Self”.  These are usually high achievers and they usually make great contributions to the world so it’s really not about “Self” for them after all.   Click Here To Read More

A Wealthy Tragedy

I was reading today where German Billionaire Adolf Merckle, one of Germany’s wealthiest men, committed suicide after weeks of talks with creditors designed to save his businesses from being consumed by disastrous investments and the global financial crisis.

My initial thought was "What a tragedy".  After I thought about it a bit more I realized that while this is certainly a tragedy for Mr. Merckle's family and those that cared about him most, there is possibly a bit of a lesson in the tragedy.  While nobody will ever know exactly what caused this highly successful 74 year old man to take his own life, one thing is for sure.  It seems that he considered himself "less" because he was going to end up having less.  I think the tragedy in this story and other similar stories is that people get so enthralled with their "stuff" that when it gets lost or stolen they consider themselves "less" of a person. The reality could not be further from the truth.  If you are struggling right now try this.  Turn your attention to gratitude and list the top 10 things that you have to be grateful for.  Focus on those things for a while.  You might be surprised at how it makes you feel. 

Achievement Fuels Happiness

I believe that people are most happy when they are in the process of achieving.  The desired outcome might be to achieve something material like a new car, house or a certain amount of money.  Or, the desired outcome might be to achieve a healthy body or peace of mind.  No matter the desired outcome the process of achieving is what will bring about the outcome.  People are in a constant state of getting a result.  If someone is sitting on the couch getting fat, they are in the process of getting a result.  If someone is engaged in a pattern of activities to create wealth, they are in the process of getting a result.  Achievevement fuels happiness because when people are in the process of achieving something they are creating something new whether new to just themselves or new to the world.  In order to achieve anything great one must clearly understand "Why" they want to achieve a desired result.  Figure out "Why" first because this will define your outcome.

The Four Components Of Achievement Consciousness

Achievement Consciousness is more than a "mindset" or some obscure law of attraction concept where people go away believing that they can "think" their way to happiness and prosperity.  I am not dumping on the law of attraction. I believe that the basic concepts behind the law of attraction are spot on important and necessary to achieving happiness.  I also believe that people have to do more than just "think" their way to anything.  It might be a bit of a stretch to believe that one can think about wanting a bigger home for their family and then wake up someday and somehow they are miraculously living in it.  Clearly, some effort beyond the thought would have to be applied to achieve the desired result.  Achievement Consciousness is about linking that thought with the required effort and achieving a desired result.  The reason I coined this technology "Achievement Consciousness" is that I believe Consciousness is the ultimate creator of any reality and that Achievement is the ultimate process of realizing a desired outcome.  I believe that everything begins with a thought.  There are four components that one must understand to put this technology to work.  CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE FOUR COMPONENTS.