Inspirational

You see the real difference is inside you. In fact, the difference is you. Someone once said, “The magic is not in the products. The magic is not in the literature. The magic is not in the film. There isn’t a magic meeting, but the magic that makes things better is inside you, and personal growth makes this magic work for you.

The magic is in believing. The magic is in daring. The magic is in trying. The real magic is in persevering. The magic is in accepting. It’s in working. The magic is in thinking. There is magic in a handshake. There is magic in a smile. There is magic in excitement and determination. There is real magic in compassion and caring and sharing. There is unusual magic in strong feeling and you see, all that comes from inside, not outside. So, the difference is inside you. The real difference is you. You are the major key to your better future.

Direction determines destination. So here is a question you must ask yourself, “Are all the disciplines that I’m currently engaged in taking me where I want to go?” What an important question to ask yourself at the beginning of the month, the beginning of the week, the beginning of the day. Because here is what you don’t ever want to do - kid yourself. Kid your neighbor, kid me and kid the marketplace, but don’t kid yourself - fingers crossed - hoping you will arrive at a good destination when you’re not even headed that way. You have to ask yourself often, Am I? Am I doing the disciplines that are taking me in the direction I want to go? Don’t neglect to ask these important questions, questions that help determine your direction, the set of your sail, your destination.

Is this the direction I want for my life?
Is this someone else’s direction?
Is this a goal I have been ingrained with since my childhood?
Is this goal my parent’s, my spouse’s, my boss’, my children’s or is it Mine?

Ask yourself these questions and then debate them. After you have answered these questions within yourself, then take it one step further and ask, “What am I doing that is working or not working?” Debate it all. Work with your mind to figure out the best possible direction for you - your self-direction. And then ambitiously pursue your own self-direction. Let the power of your own ambition take you where you want to go, to do what you want to do, to create the life you want to live!

  
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - President Robert G. Mugabe faced deeper international isolation yesterday, with African states demanding that a discredited runoff election be postponed and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela rebuking the Zimbabwe leader for the first time.

Tougher sanctions, sporting bans and economic boycotts could be next - and world support may build for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who called yesterday for talks on power sharing.

Regional heads of state from southern Africa met in Swaziland and said tomorrow’s runoff should be postponed until conditions permitted a free and fair vote.

President Bush said the runoff election appears to be a “sham,” joining the international condemnation of Mugabe’s actions.

In London, Mandela made a carefully worded but pointed attack on Mugabe, saying there has been a “tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe.”

The speech, at a fundraiser that included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former President Bill Clinton, was the first time that the former South African president has spoken publicly about the political crisis in Zimbabwe. His words are devastating for Mugabe and will weaken his claim to be a champion of African interests.

Although out of office for nearly a decade, Mandela remains a commanding and respected figure. He uses his influence sparingly, and it is particularly rare for him to publicly differ with South Africa’s current president, Thabo Mbeki. South Africans and other Africans have been increasingly questioning Mbeki’s leadership on Zimbabwe, so Mandela’s brief but sharp comments will have particular resonance.

For Mugabe, they are a rebuke from a leader he sees as a fellow freedom fighter, and will be hard to dismiss or ridicule - so often Mugabe’s response to criticism.

Tsvangirai made the call for peacekeepers in a commentary published yesterday in the British newspaper The Guardian. Asked about it at a news conference later in Harare, Tsvangirai said: “What do you do when you don’t have guns and the people are being brutalized out there?”

He stressed he was not calling for military intervention.

Deploying peacekeepers requires an international consensus that can be hard to build, and efforts can be blocked by governments expected to host contingents. South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad noted that efforts to deploy an AU-U.N. peacekeeping force for Sudan’s Darfur have been stalled.

The international community, though, has been considering, and taking, other actions on Zimbabwe.

Queen Elizabeth II stripped Mugabe of his knighthood, acting on the advice of her Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has pointed to widespread violence and intimidation of Zimbabwe’s opposition ahead of the runoff in which Mugabe is the only candidate. Scores of opposition activists, including high-ranking party members, have been attacked or killed since the first round of the election in March.

Mugabe was made an honorary knight in 1994, when he was considered an anti-colonial hero.

The queen’s move put him in the company of the late Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu, whose title was taken away in 1989 at the height of his nation’s revolution.

Brown’s spokesman Michael Ellam said sanctions against the southern African country are under review but said Britain wanted to guard against hurting the population.

“We are mindful of the humanitarian impact on Zimbabwe, but we would not want to see anything that would prop up the regime in any way,” Ellam said.

European Union leaders threatened Zimbabwe last week with unspecified sanctions. Brown said then that that could include more targeted sanctions against members of Mugabe’s regime.

 

First, life is worthwhile if you LEARN. What you don’t know WILL hurt you. You have to have learning to exist, let alone succeed. Life is worthwhile if you learn from your own experiences, negative and positive. We learn to do it right by first sometimes doing it wrong. We call that a positive negative. We also learn from other people’s experiences, both positive and negative. I’ve always said it is too bad failures don’t give seminars. We don’t want to pay them so they don’t tour around giving seminars. But the information would be very valuable – how someone who had it all, messed it up. Learning from other people’s experiences and mistakes.

We learn by what we see - pay attention. By what we hear – be a good listener. Now I do suggest being a selective listener, don’t just let anybody dump into your mental factory. We learn from what we read. Learn from every source. Learn from lectures, learn from songs, learn from sermons, learn from conversations with people who care. Keep learning.

Life is worthwhile if you TRY. You can’t just learn; you now have to try something to see if you can do it. Try to make a difference, try to make some progress, try to learn a new skill, try to learn a new sport. Life is worthwhile if you try. It doesn’t mean you can do everything but there are a lot of things you can do, if you just try. Try your best. Give it every effort. Why not go all out?

 Life is worthwhile if you STAY. You have to stay from spring until harvest. If you have signed up for the day or for the game or for the project - see it through. Sometimes calamity comes and then it is worth wrapping it up. And that’s the end, but just don’t end in the middle. Maybe on the next project you pass, but on this one, if you signed up, see it through.

 Life is worthwhile if you CARE. If you care at all you will get some results, if you care enough you can get incredible results. Care enough to make a difference. Care enough to turn somebody around. Care enough to start a new enterprise. Care enough to change it all. Care enough to be the highest producer. Care enough to set some records. Care enough to win.

Four powerful little words: learn, try, stay and care. What difference can you make in your life today by putting these four words to work?

“To become financially independent you must turn part of your income into capital; turn capital into enterprise, turn enterprise into profit; turn profit into investment; and turn investment into financial independence.”

“We can have more than we’ve got because we can become more than we are.”

“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day, while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.”

“There is no better opportunity to receive more than to be thankful for what you already have. Thanksgiving opens up the windows of opportunity for ideas to flow your way.”

“Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.

“The greatest performers in all fields are those who always strive to get better. No matter how much acclaim they receive, they keep working to improve their performance. Continually work to surpass everything you’ve done so far, and your performance will always be greater than your applause.”
- Sullivan & Nomura

Thoughts on Performance

To make sure your performance stays a step ahead or your applause, be growth-driven instead of goal-driven. I’m not criticizing goals, but if we aren’t careful, they can limit our growth. If we set them too high, they de-motivate us. If we set them too low, we are tempted to relax when we hit them rather than pushing for our best performance. Growth is a long and consistent process. No substitutions can be made or shortcuts taken which avoid the day-to-day process of growth.

 

 

 

4) Are you teaching great people how your company works and wins?

In an effort to showcase their leadership skills, insecure leaders may rally their team to outperform others within the organization. The result: a counterproductive spirit of competition instead of togetherness.

Smart leaders are wary of silos. They define the win for their team and connect that win to the company’s overarching strategy. They recognize the power of a “we” mentality. As such, they prioritize connecting the performance of their people to the overall success of the company.

5) Are you as tough on yourself as you are on your people?

Bleed your creed. Undemonstrated or uncertain commitment on the part of a leader has a corrosive effect on that leader’s influence. Followers resent leaders who are unwilling to make the investment they demand of those they supervise.

Oppositely, leaders who pay the price to fulfill lofty self-expectations earn the right to place high standards on their people. By doing so, they are imbuing their authority with authentic influence.

1) Why should great people want to work with you?

Money without mission attracts mercenaries. Talent “for-hire” flows to the highest bidder, and refuses to drop anchor. In the absence of a compelling vision, leaders find themselves presiding over a collection of individuals rather than leading a team.

As Bill Taylor writes, “great people want to feel like they’re part of something greater than themselves.” By offering more than a paycheck, an aspiring leader attracts values-based performers. Such employees are likely to forge emotional ties to the organization, take ownership of its mission, and invest themselves to accomplish its vision.

2) Do you know a great person when you see one?

“When it comes to evaluating talent, character counts for as much as credentials,” writes Taylor. Aspiring leaders are wise to hire people who, in addition to being competent, fit smoothly into the company’s culture. To do so, it may be necessary to endure the inconvenience (and extra work) of a longstanding opening until a suitable candidate surfaces.

3) Can you find great people who aren’t working for you?

Aspiring leaders may want to polish their sales pitch to attract star performers from outside the organization. According to Taylor, “Leaders who are content to fill their organizations with people actively looking for jobs risk attracting malcontents and mediocre performers.”

Talent will not beat a path to your door. The best leaders are actively on the lookout for key contributors. They look to hire, not when the need arises, but whenever they locate peak performers.