Is success a giant step to take? An impossible leap? Or is success simply the result of a series of little steps taken over time to change, to take action and to move forward.
I want to use my own story, briefly, to illustrate that success is obtainable to all, if you’re willing to take small and simple steps consistently.
Born on a farm in Southern New Zealand, the son of two alcoholic parents, with a father who was abusive and violent when drunk, born right handed and strapped out of it by a brutal teacher of the ‘old school’ type, I grew up with low self esteem, built in anger, a tendency toward violence, and a dismal record at both primary and secondary schools, in the end not even graduating from what my American friends call, I think, Junior High.
Married, two children, a lousy father and husband, constantly seeking security of a ‘good job’, a surface thinker that formed all his views and beliefs from what he saw on the TV that occupied most of his evenings, I developed an attitude that the world was full of ‘fat cats’ out to get me.
To say I had a negative attitude was an understatement!
I was the guy in winter who ran around turning the room thermostats down saying to my uncomfortable family “Any higher is just a waste of money”
At about 40, after years of limited success professionally, socially and in my family life, a friend gave me a copy of a book by Shad Helmstetter called ‘What to say when you talk to yourself’
The central principle was that the constant chatter of our thoughts and spoken words form our beliefs and consequently our self image and our actions, but that we could change any belief by using positive affirmations daily.
Initially that was all too mystical to me and I put it aside, as any negative thinking skeptic like myself tends to do.
It did sow a seed in my mind though, the thought that there had to be a better way of thinking, a way that would lead to a better and happier life.
But success to me seemed to be a huge challenge! Let’s face it, up till now I hadn’t seen much of it at all. My experience was ‘getting by’, ‘making do’, ‘saving money’, ‘blaming others’, ‘life’s tough’
And then two mentors came into my life. One was a multi-millionaire I met through a short stint in multi-level marketing, and the other was a country boy from Idaho in the United States called Jim Rohn.
Jim exposed me to a series of principles that were so profound, yet so practical and simple they changed my life and I began to learn about what he called ‘Personal Development’
Personal development, those little steps you take daily to change your life. To change any area of your life.
The little steps where you say to yourself “That’s not so difficult, I could learn that, I could do that”
And little by little your life starts to change. Just a decision, small steps and action.
I won’t bore you with my success, as a reader of this blog you have a fair idea of that, but I will say that I went back to Shad’s book finally, put it into action, changed several limiting beliefs and found I could control my mind, and in doing so, change my future.
But back to those little steps.
Watch and listen now to Jim as he poses four questions for you to ponder, and give then some thought as to how they could help in your life.
With very few hours left to go until 2010 arrives, I wish you all success in the New Year! May it bring all you can dream of, desire and are willing to work towards. May you exceed every goal!
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