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Begin by writing down what you specifically want to
accomplish.
No matter how complicated a project, desire, or want,
write it down. Although you may be writing a rough draft,
you will have begun to formulate your end goal. The act of
writing your goals places the desire to accomplish this goal
into your subconscious mind.
Step one: write out what you want in life. You can
organize your ideas as short-term goals and long-term goals.
This may be the first time you seriously set down goals. If
you have already done this exercise at one point in your life,
do it again. It may have been a long time since you last did
this and you need to focus on your new goals.
The writing helps you to identify goals and, in turn,
your creative imagination will be stimulated to find new
ways to accomplish these goals.
Writing your goals is a necessary step to accomplishing
them.

God gave every single human being
a certain amount of talent, and unless
you utilize that talent to the utmost
of your ability 24 hours of every day
your life, you deceive your God, your
family, and above all yourself. This is
what life is all about, this is my religion.
–George Allen
Football Coach
(1918-1990)

self improvement self improvement

Most of us come to admit that life is short. Once you
reach the age of forty the fact that life is short sticks in your
mind.You can use your own mortality as a way of staying
focused.
The awareness of your mortality can even motivate you
to quicken your pace of accomplishments.
You have 24 hours in every day, 168 hours in a week,
and about 16 waking hours every day. That’s 112 waking
hours every week.
If you are a 40-year-old man with a normal life
expectancy, you have approximately 16,425 more days to
live, assuming you live to age 85. Women live three years
longer on average. If you decided to find 20 minutes a day
over a five-year period, you would accumulate about 609
hours of “extra time” to do what you wanted. Those 609
hours could change your life.
If I were to invest my 609 hours into learning to
paint, don’t you think after 609 hours I would be pretty
knowledgeable about painting? Imagine what new things
you could accomplish if you improved your life twenty
minutes at a time every day.
Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer, said, “Everyone
thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing
himself.”
In the entertainment field, an actor with as few as five
years acting experience can become a director because of
what he has learned about directing on-the-job.
In Working Smarter, a cassette program by Michael
LeBoeuf, Ph.D., published by Nightingale Conant Corp.,
the following story appeared: “Charles Schwab, when he
was President of Bethlehem Steel many years ago, called in
Ivy Lee, a consultant, and said to him, ‘Show me a way to
get more things done with my time, and I’ll pay you any fee
within reason.’ Lee replied, ‘Fine. I’ll give you something
in 20 minutes that will step up your output at least 50%.’
With that, Lee handed Schwab a blank piece of paper and
said, ‘Write down the six most important things you have to
do tomorrow and number them in order of importance. Now
put this piece of paper in your pocket. First thing tomorrow
morning look at item one and start working on it until you
finish it; then do item two, and so on; do this until quitting
time and don’t be concerned if you’ve only finished one or
two. You’ll be working on the most important ones anyway.
If you can’t finish them all by this method, you couldn’t
have done it by any other method either, and without some
system you’d probably not even have decided which was the
most important.’
Then Lee said, ‘Try this system every working day.
After you’ve convinced yourself of the value of this system,
have your men try it. Try it as long as you wish, then send
me a check for what you think it’s worth.’
Several weeks later Schwab sent Lee a check for $25,000,
with a note, proclaiming the advice, ‘the most profitable
he’d ever followed.’ The concept helped Charles Schwab
earn 100 million dollars and turned Bethlehem Steel into
the biggest independent steel producer in the world.”
Charles Schwab thought enough of this idea to pay
$25,000 for it, but only after he and his workers used it and
proved it worthwhile.
Since early on in my career, I have used a similar “To
Do List.” I’ve found that the list helps me accomplish more
and accomplish it faster. The to-do list keeps me focused
and I avoid wasting time on the less important things.
I’ve presented you with a system worth $25,000, a gift
for organizing your time. Try this system for four weeks.
Then, look back and see how much you have accomplished.
How much would you pay for such a system? I’ve found the
system worth thousands of dollars to me over my twentyplus
years in sales.
Anyone who stops learning is old
whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone
who keeps learning stays young. The
greatest thing in life is to keep your
mind young.
–Henry Ford
Inventor/Automobile Manufacturer
(1863-1947)

One Sunday morning I felt shocked to see in the local
newspaper an obituary of a 24-year-old man who had died
in an automobile accident. He was to be married in less than
a month to my cousin’s daughter. I felt shock, sadness, and
utter desperation in searching for a reason why we had lost
the young man in a freak, arbitrary accident. I thought of my
cousin’s daughter, who had celebrated her wedding shower
a few weeks earlier and had received beautiful gifts.
I wondered about this young man’s sudden death and it
finally sank in: there are no tomorrows guaranteed to any
of us.
You know what you expect and what you want to
happen tomorrow, but you don’t know what other events
will change your life, change your future, or whether you
will even be alive.
Today is the only day to live, to dream, and to act.
The present time is all you have as your “guaranteed
time.” You need to say to yourself, “I cannot allow my dreams
and goals to lie dormant inside me. From this day forward, I
will write down all the things I want to accomplish. I must
plan and set into motion the actions that will accomplish my
great goals.”

self improvement self improvement

Your life is such a great asset. As you grow, you learn to
protect your life, to take care of your health, and to nurture
your mind. But, do you really put the right effort in making
the most of this gift called life? You don’t have to discover a
new invention or be the president of the country, but you do
have the responsibility to ask yourself, Do you consciously
try to make the world better?
How have you made it a better place in which to live? In
what ways have you had positive, lasting effects on others?
What special innovation will you be remembered for? Will
people think of you as a doer, a visionary, a leader who
accomplished something better? Or, will people remember
you for having wasted your abilities?
These are tough questions. Most people may not want
to think about these questions. The average person tends
to ask, “How can I get as much as possible for me?” and
seldom asks, “How can I give to the world?”
Be honest with yourself. Are you content with what
you’ve done thus far? Have you done enough for others?
What will you ultimately be remembered for? If you truly
would like to change your future, you can. You simply have
to be willing to modify the way you think.
My premise is this: You have the capacity to do great
things by the use of your creative imagination.
The secret to change is, first, to tell yourself that you
want to change. Tell yourself every day you want to improve
something in your life. Work on small goals that lead to
your greater goals.
Those who have benefited from attending Alcoholics
Anonymous have had to start with an admission: “I have a
problem.” The admission of a problem creates the mental
attitude that brings about a new result.
The first step in bringing about positive change is to
admit that you want to change. Be specific about what you
want to change. Will power is a tremendous tool. Once a
person becomes determined to do something, and blocks
out all external negative thoughts, that person usually
succeeds in his or her desired goal.
The more you tell yourself that you want to improve,
the more your subconscious will begin thinking of ways
to achieve that goal. You can train your mind to think
positively.

self improvement self improvement