Bryan C. Fleming

A good friend of mine just started a website design business a few months ago. I asked him how things are going, he said, “great”. He went on to tell me about all the wonderful things he’s going to be doing. All the plans he has for his new company.

You know what he didn’t tell me?

Anything that he’s actually done.

He’s a planner. A real big thinker. But he’s not a doer. How many people do you know like this?

The best idea in the world won’t get you anywhere without action. The truth is an idea is just that, an idea. You and I don’t know if it’s good until something gets done. We won’t know until the real world responds to it.

It’s better to do something, anything, rather than sit around planning what might happen. This catches us all from time to time. The trick is recognizing this failure disease and to move on. Think about it. When was the last time you got something done? How did you feel? Were you energized? Did you want to do more?

Getting something out the door, or trying something new is action. Action builds momentum. Momentum will get you to your goal faster. It feeds on itself.

I suspect my friend will still be planning his Internet business this time next year. He’ll probably have a lot more ideas, but nothing will have been done. Had he done anything at all he’d be a lot better off. Would it have been perfect? Most likely not. But he could have improved on it.

Human beings are remarkable creatures. We are very good at responding to our environment. If something’s wrong we’ll naturally fix it. That’s why it’s not very important to get it right the first time. You’ll respond to any problems just fine. It will get better with time.

Let’s all work on getting things done sooner. Let’s not spend so much time sitting around planning what might or might not happen. That type of thinking only slows us down and buries our ambition. Remember:

“It’s better to do something than to sit around worrying about nothing”

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One of the quickest sure-fire ways to get anything you want is to find someone who has already done it and do what they did. It’s easy to emulate their success provided they’re willing to tell you.

Today many successful people write books telling you what they did and how they did it. They drop nuggets of wisdom that can make your journey easier. There are two ways to gain experience at anything. Make your own mistakes or learn from someone else’s. The latter of course will cost you a lot less money.

So we should be following people, but how do you know whom you should follow? Might I suggest it would be the people who’ve actually done something?

This month’s issue of Fortune Magazine illustrates this principle right on the cover. If you walk by a magazine stand you’ll it with Jack Welch’s face right on the cover. In big letters it says his rules don’t apply anymore. You can read this article here:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/10/magazines/fortune/rules.fortune/index.htm

Let’s examine this closer. We have a journalist Betsy Morris telling us that one of the greatest business leaders of our time is wrong. I ask you, did Betsy turn around a multi-billion dollar corporation? How many companies has she been the CEO of? In short, what is her track record? I believe you’ll find she’s a journalist working a job for a paycheck. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, but the point is, she’s not a business leader. If you want to know how to get on the cover of Fortune magazine, I’m sure she has the best advice for you.

So who’s advice should you follow?

If you’re running a business you should certainly follow the leader who’s done it. Look for his principles, why he does things. Don’t get too caught up in techniques, because those change all the time. Principles never do.

Follow the right people, the people who’ve already done what you want, and you’ll short cut your path to success.

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Welcome to the July 25th edition of the Personal Growth Carnival. Drum roll please...

Here we go...

July 25th. Let's see. If I really wanted to draw attention to myself, I'd read up on David Maister's article of Writers and Performers. But then again, I might not be getting enough out of my day. So I'd follow the advice of Paul Newbury and start Getting up earlier. If I got up earlier. I'd probably feel better, but I'd always go back and forth between Passion or cash? Heaven? or hell?? Thank you Peter Kua for your thoughts on that one!

I might at this point, be a little confused so I'd want to know The Secret to Breaking Out of the Box. After doing that, I might not feel very motivated, so I listen to Jeannie Bauer and follow
her advice of 10 Fabulous Thoughts on Motivation and I think just then I'd be Bouncing Back. Life presents many challenges today. So I'd ask myself do I take the Simple or Complex Approach? Eventually, I'd find myself at work and David Lorenzo would help me out with his advice on Workplace woes and their solutions.

I do have a friend in the realestate business. Times are slow here in the state of Michigan. Consider yourself lucky if you can sell you house! I might share with my RealEstate friends Greg Swann's advice on Seven essential skills of the 21st century real estate agent...

Like always, thank you for all the submissions and keep them comming. That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of personal growth carnival using my carnival submission form.

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I'm sure everyone's seen what's going on in Lebanon right now. It's truely fascinating to see a real-life perspective of it. Consider these videos I found with a quick search on You Tube. It amazes me how much television waters down the reality:

Video of Girl in Isreal

Video of Bombing (adult language)

Video of Apartment Building Bombing (adult language)

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Look at the stock market after May 11th. It’s been backsliding horribly. Ask anyone how to make more money in the stock market and the answer’s obvious.

“Buy low and sell high”

Yet, nobody does that. People are so afraid of loosing their money that they sell low. Many people are selling right now. Why do they sell? For the same reason I stated above. The stock market has been going down since May 11th.

Now ask yourself. Does this make any sense at all?

Of course not.

If you follow my rule of saving 10% of what you earn. You’ll soon have a lot of money sitting around. After you have a few thousand dollars sitting in your night dresser, you starting thinking about how to invest it. That’s why it’s so important to see what’s happening even if you’re not in the stock market yet.

If you’ve been saving 10% of what you earn, you would have money to invest in the stock market right now. You’d be getting a good buy and your money would have great returns.

That’s the problem with people who are worried about their money in the market. They’re not putting more in. If they were, they’d be happy about what a great buy they’re getting.

Today is July 20th, 2006. The S&P 500 Index closed at 1249.13

I will refer back to this post in the future.

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Once upon a time there was a servant and a king. The servant was known by the people for having an impossibly positive attitude. No matter what happened he would say ‘it is good’.

One day the servant and the king were hunting in a forbidden part of the forest. The king fell into a trap and cut off his thumb. Completely outraged, the king blamed the servant and sent him to prison. The servant kept his pleasant attitude and said, “It is good”.

A year went by. The king found himself lost in woods. He stumbled upon a tribe of cannibals. They captured the king and planned to eat him. Once they noticed he didn’t have a thumb they let him ago. It was against their religion to eat a person who was missing a part of their body.

The king returned thankful for his life. He enthusiastically released the servant from prison saying, “If it hadn’t been for you, I’d be dead. I’m sorry for sending you to prison. Please accept my apology”.

The servant simply replied, “It is Good”. The king asked, “Why is it good you spent the last year in prison?” The servant simply replied, “If I was with you, who do think the cannibals would have eaten?”

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The clothes we wear speak volumes about us. It indicates our social status, makes statements about our likes, dislikes, and tastes. Consider this the next time you have a business meeting, job interview, or show up to work. What do you want to get out of these events? A promotion? A job? A new Client?

The next time you’re getting dressed for such an event, try this trick:

As you read the words below your mind will form a mental picture of that word. Focus on the picture your mind creates:

Apple



Tree



Rolls Royce



Mansion



Successful Business Person



When you read “Successful Business Person” what did you picture? That’s exactly how you should dress.

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Welcome to the July 17, 2006 edition of personal growth carnival.

It's been a busy week with lots of submissions. There's a lot of great writing going on out there. So here we go!

First I'd like to introduce Jerry Lopper with Believe in an Easy Life. This is a quick read on positive thinking. Next up is Peter Kua who has an interesting perspective on Innovation. Dave Cheong has a nice piece on 8 simple things you can do to encourage others.

Christine Kane has an excellent idea that I may beging trying myself. You should her read her article called Have an Adventure Day. I won't spoil her surprise but it's an extraordinary plan.
Joanne Hay has been up writing late into the night with her post on Bev's rave. From her writing style you can tell she's deep thinker.Jeannie Bauer brings up a good point about how we look at failing. I found her article on A Defeat is Not a Failure a very good read.
If you've read David Allen's book "Getting Things Done", then My Bubble Life has some interesting thoughts about his system.

Finally we can't forget David Lorenzo presenting an article on 10 traits of achievers. Do you have them? Find out at the Career Intensity Blog - David V. Lorenzo

That concludes this edition. Keep the submissions comming, they're a great resource for all my readers. Submit your blog article to the next edition of personal growth carnival using my carnival submission form.

 

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I had a conversation with a 14 old boy named Max the other day. He’s a pretty typical kid. He has two brothers and sister. He rides dirt bikes.

He told me if could do a no handed dirt jump it would be really cool. He thinks it would make him famous. “I’d be famous and end up on the Internet”, he said. His brothers and sister nodded in agreement.

Look at his words. Read them carefully. If you want to know where the world is headed listen to kids. They are the future. Sites like http://www.youtube.com will forever change entertainment once these kids grow up.

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Welcome to the July 10, 2006 edition of personal growth carnival. This is the first of Many Personal Growth Carnivals. What's a Carnival you ask? It's a collection of what's hot from around the web in Personal Growth.

Jerry Lopper presents Ten Steps to an Easy Life posted at Purposeful Growth.
Brandon Peele presents Is Cosmology for Quacks? posted at GT.

Pete presents How to Avoid Greed? posted at My Financial Awareness, saying, "Greed is not about money, yet the desire to overcome a sense of lack. Learn the secret to overcome greed."

Kavit Haria presents Your Inner Critic posted at Awareness and Consciousness.

lecentre presents Why I love Canada: An Immigrant Family's Story posted at Centrerion, saying, "A story about one family's evolution and something that affected my personal development."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
personal growth carnival using our carnival submission form.Past posts and future hosts can be found on our
blog carnival index page.

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A lot of you who read this blog are business owners or working on becoming one. One problem you can run into is being a victim of your own success. As your business grows you can find yourself doing more and more work. You end up with more money but less time.

There is a GREAT E-Book floating around that’s really driving the point home and hints at how to fix it. It’s published by http://www.strategicprofits.com/ but I’ve posted on my blog if you want to download it:

Part One
Part Two

I’d recommend it as a MUST read. Best of all, it’s free.

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There is a little known fact that has tremendous power over our lives. If you are acutely aware of it, you can change your life drastically. However, most people don’t give it much attention and make things much harder on themselves. So what is this powerful tool?

It’s your words

Yes, the words you speak out of your mouth have an amazing power. Why? Because your ears hear what you say. Since you mind can never believe you could say anything false, it believes whatever you say to be true. It sounds crazy doesn’t it?

Successful people are well aware of this. They know that you can actually create the results you want by speaking them over and over before they happen. You mind hears these instructions and will actually make them come true.

If you want to be Rich, speak about yourself as already being Rich. Speak about how you’re just getting started. Speak about all of the wonderful things that will be happening in your life. Make a conscious effort to speak positively about situations even if you don’t believe them to be true. Your mind will begin to believe them. You’ll actually feel better about the situation itself.

Think of the worst thing going on in your life right now. Now begin to speak about it positively. If you’re sick, talk about how much better you feel all the sudden. If you have money problems, talk about how you’re getting your finances in order and the problems will pass. If you have marriage problems, talk about how you’ll be a better spouse and how much your marriage is about to improve. Magically, the problems will begin to fix themselves.

Words work the other way too. Watch someone talking poorly about his or her spouse and I’ll show you a divorce about to happen. A good friend of mine told me about his second wife. Ever since she was 20 years old, she said she would die of cancer one day. She died of cancer at age 37.

Words are truly magic. Make sure that you think long and hard before you speak. It can literally change the direction of your life.

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