A Positive Attitude amongst the doom and gloom

Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left. Hubert Humphrey

Last night I was watching Sunday on TV One and saw one of the best examples of creativity coming from a positive attitude.

The piece was about how the property market is about to 'crash' and one of the people they interviewed started off saying he had got in too deep and brought too many houses at once that he couldn't sell. At this stage I am thinking to myself, 'Here we go, another doom and gloom story.'

Now here's the bit that made me sit up and pay attention. He is stuck with a huge mortgage and has six weeks to sell or lose everything. He comes up with the brilliant, creative idea to rent out the houses by the room.

Problem solved.
Now he's getting a return of 15% and is buying more houses. This idea came to him because he decided to stay positive and keep in mind there was a way out of his predicament.

Think of a problem you have. Now look at it from all angles with a positive attitude. You will be surprised and amazed at what ideas will come to you in that state of mind.

Banksie talks sense

I read a post by Dwayne Alexander about John Banks the Mayor of Auckland, NZ recently.

It was printed out for me by someone who felt it was very important I read it. John is a straight talking, goal setting, man of faith who gets things done.

Read the article here.

MondayMotivator 10 March: How to really annoy people.

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Herm Albright

Have you ever noticed how much it annoys people when you have a positive attitude?

You will be asked questions like: Why are you always smiling? Are you always this positive?

And they will be thinking: 'What's their secret' or 'they must be hiding something'.

What if you're just a positive person? What if going to work is something you really enjoy because you're passionate about what you do.

Being positive makes you stand out of the crowd. Standing out scares the crap out of most people but not you. You want to be the best and are striving for it, go for it. Be the best!

MondayMotivator 03 March: 5,127 protypes later ...

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. Newt Gingrich

Don't give up! Whatever you are doing don't stop now. Your next break-through, solution or success could be just around the corner.

I was reading Idealog recently and there was an article about James Dyson. 5,127 prototypes later the world's first bagless vacuum cleaner was a reality.

That's right - five thousand, one hundred and twenty six prototypes.

Where would you have stopped? Dyson has achieved sales of over NZD $7 Billion worldwide because he kept going until he found the solution.

From personal experience I have realised that perseverance does work. It took me five years to develop an email marketing system for the Real Estate industry that offered personalisation, consistency for the companies and affordability for the agents. And it's finally a great success.

Don't give up today, you will always find your solution eventually.

Been thinking ...

I was thinking about what really interests me the other day and I came up with property and cars.

Then it occurred to me that the two main industries my business caters to most are Real Estate and Car Dealers/Car Brands.

In fact if you have a look at my client list that is really all I deal with. And my innovations and ideas are generally based around making the communication they have with their clients and prospects more consistent, relevant and targeted.

So when they say you should follow your passions to be successful it must be true. Because by no concious thought that is what is happening to me. My business is growing and I really enjoy what I do.

Just a thought.

Books I've been reading ...

Your Life. Your Legacy by Roger Hamilton. This book was recommended to me by Richard Liew from the RSN. Excellent read and I'm glad he told me about it. In a nutshell Wealth Dynamics states there are 'ONLY eight ways to build wealth and that each is a "game" of wealth with its own rules, and "frequency"'. I did the online test and found out I was a "Creator" which, once I read what that meant, answered a few questions for me. Highly recommended reading.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon has one several awards including the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year. It is a first person account of young Christopher Boone's detective work that solved the case of who killed the neighbours dog. Christopher has Aspergers. He thinks very logically and does not like people touching him or the colours yellow and brown. I found the book hard to put down and though some of the maths (you'll understand if you read the book) was above me I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great read.

Failing Forward to Success

The only time you don't fail is the last time you try anything - and it works. William Strong

In this world successful people have mastered an ancient skill. This is the skill to 'fail forwards'.

How do you fail forwards?

You use failure as a lesson and a stepping stone that keeps you moving forwards towards your goals.

The not so glamorous secret of success is that you will fail and that your attitude to your failures is what will make you successful. Every 'overnight success' suffered setbacks and failures, but every time they learnt from them and moved forwards.

So, from today on, when something doesn't go your way or the outcome is a grand failure, look at it with fresh eyes. Find out what went wrong, learn from it and keep failing forwards.

Pep talk your way to ...

Bunnnngeeeeeee!

Pep talks. How many people use this powerful success tool? Quoting Scribe: "Not many, if any."

You're about to do a Bungy jump, you're on the edge, people are counting down. What's going on inside your head? A pep talk: "I can jump." And you do.

So why not give yourself a pep talk before doing anything. Perhaps you are about to give a talk in front of 50 people. You could say out loud, positively and with energy: "I am going to give a great talk. I've got something important to tell these people that they need to hear."

In fact, give yourself a pep talk right now to start your Monday morning - "I am damn good!!" Say it loud, make the whole office turn around and look at you with a big grin on your face.

Go on, do it. It will feel great and you will have an awesome day.

Valentines Day

Is your heart standing out this Valentines Day?

Something as simple as a smile will change someones day and make you stand out.

Are you leaving your life to chance?

Don't leave your life to chance.

Your life is too important to be left to chance - set goals for yourself.

Set goals that you can do now, this morning, by the end of the day, by the end of the week and by the end of the month.

Doing this brings one of the most important laws of the world to your aid. That law is: The Law of Compounding. Benjamin Franklin called it the Eighth Wonder of the World.

The Law of Compounding requires consistent effort. Doing something every day that moves you towards your goal will add up and over time you will be able to achieve your ultimate goal. In fact over time you will have built up so much momentum you may not be able stop yourself even if you tried.

Set a goal today that you can achieve by 5pm. It might be something as simple as finishing a proposal or paying the power bill. But set the goal and make sure you do it. Even achieving a small goal will make you feel great.