UNLIMITED POWER THROUGH A MASTERMIND

I have been blessed over the past few months with an amazing group of people who are amazing to work with.  Each person gets on and does their job and is continually looking out for the other one in our team. This reminded me of Napoleon Hills concept of the master mind.   
A Master Mind alliance involves two or more people working together in perfect harmony toward the attainment of a common purpose. Such a partnership creates a superpower that enables each of its members to do far more than either would have been able to achieve separately. Choose your Master Mind partners carefully. Align yourself with people whose strengths complement yours. If you are a right brain person, for example, a logically-driven left brain person may be a perfect counterbalance to your creative bent. Above all, choose to associate only with people who share your positive values and your commitment to similar levels of achievement.
It is am amazing place to be...


Ignite the fire within 


www.fraserstirling.co.nz

KEYS FOR VISULIZATION

Some of my most read posts are those where i expand on Visualization and dream boards.  I thought I would recap on some key aspects of Visualization. Did you know that there are four parts of visualization that you can learn and practice to assure that you use this incredible power to its best advantage all the days of your life.  This helps you stop living the life of others and start igniting the fire within. 

How Often?

The first aspect of visualization is frequency, the number of times that you visualize a particular goal as achieved of yourself performing in an excellent way in a particular event or circumstance. The more frequently you repeat a clear mental picture of your very best performance or result, the more rapidly it will appear as part of your reality.  At least once day, otherwise it can become seen as a chore.  

How Long?

The second element of visualization is the duration of the mental image, the length of time that you can hold the picture in your mind each time you replay it. When you deeply relax, you can often hold a mental picture of yourself performing at your best for several seconds, and even several minutes. The longer you can hold your mental picture, the more deeply it will be impressed into your subconscious mind and the more rapidly it will express itself in your subsequent performance. I personally believe first thing in the morning is the best time.  However just find a time that suits you. 

How Clearly?

The third element of visualization is vividness. There is a direct relationship between how clearly you can see your desired goal or result in your mind and how quickly it comes into your reality. This element of visualization is what explains the powers of the Law of Attraction and the Law of Correspondence. The vividness of your desire directly determines how quickly it materializes in the world around you. Here is an interesting point. When you set a new goal for yourself, your image or picture of this goal will usually be vague and fuzzy. But the more often you write it, review it, and repeat it mentally, the clearer it becomes for you. Eventually, it will become crystal clear. At that point, the goal will suddenly appear in your world exactly as you imagined it.  Ignite the fire within.  

How Intensely?

The fourth element of visualization is intensity, the amount of emotion that you attach to your visual image. In reality, this is the most important and powerful part of the visualization process. Sometimes, if your emotion is intense enough and your visual image is clear enough, your goal will immediately come true.

Its about getting passionate about your own life. 

BE OBSESSED!!!

The rugby world cup is busy talking about how the fans are finally starting to show passion and enthusiasm towards the teams.  How sad this is when most people spend more time and more energy shouting for a local sporting team rather than planning and organizing their own dreams and goals.   It is time we became passionate about our own lives. 

All enduring motivation must ultimately come from within ourselves. That is why the words empower and envision are so vital to team performance. It must be your inner power and your own personal vision that propels you, not that of others. 

The success of your efforts depends not so much on the efforts themselves, but rather on your motive for doing them. The greatest companies and the greatest men and women in all walks of life have achieved their greatness out of a desire to express something within themselves that had to be expressed, a desire to solve a problem using their skills as best they could. This is not to say that many of these individuals did not earn a great deal of money and prestige for what they produced. Many did. But the key to their successes was that they were motivated more by an inner magnificent obsession, a passion, than by any thought of profit or identity.

You may recall from history that the exquisitely beautiful armless statue of Venus de Milo was carved by an unknown sculptor. When a farmer dug up the soon-to-be world-famous work of art while plowing his field, a renowned museum curator sadly reflected what a great pity it was that the sculptor would never be recognized by thousands of admirers, nor would he or she ever know how valuable the statue became hundreds of years later.

The farmer retorted that it must have been a labor of love for someone to be able to have envisioned such perfection and brought it forth with just a chisel and a shapeless piece of stone. "Just creating something of such quality," said the farmer, "would have been payment in full for me."

You can't commission a masterpiece. Human greatness can't be externally motivated. It must be compelled from within. A magnificent obsession is the way you want to live, not just the things you want to own. A magnificent obsession is the person you want to be, not the title on your office door or business card. A magnificent obsession is the mind-set that you have, not the diplomas or awards you earn. It is the worldview you claim as your own, not the collection of stamps on your passport. It is uniquely yours, like your fingerprint or handwriting.

Ask yourself this question: "If it weren’t for money, time and personal responsibilities, what would I really love to do with my life?" You and I need to answer it from our own individual perspectives, not simply answer "to help my company, family or country." In addition to these shared visions, autograph your career and life with your own signature.

By personalizing your passion, you will experience the unlimited power from within!

www.fraserstirling.co.nz

What is greatness?

I have recently been working with children to create some amazing pieces of art.  One of the common questions I am asked is, what is good?  Does mine look good.  This led me to a discussion about what is great?  The children had lots of ideas in relation to the art we were creating. However what about us as adults? 

There are three keys to greatness that I will discuss today. 

1) Setting Goals. I call it the view of the future. Most people, including kids, will pay the price if they can see the promise of the future. So we need to help our kids see a well-defined future, so they will be motivated to pay the price today to attain the rewards of tomorrow. Goals help them do this.  So with us as adults, we too need to have direction and or a target- Goal.  

2) Personal Development. Simply making consistent investments in our self-education and knowledge banks pays major dividends throughout our lives. I suggest having a minimum amount of time set aside for reading books, listening to material that will help us be better.  Many people spend more time planning a holiday rather than working on what will make us better. 

3) Financial Planning. I call it the 70/30 plan. After receiving your paycheck or paying yourself, set aside 10 percent for saving, 10 percent for investing and 10 percent for giving, and over time this will guarantee financial independence for a young person. .

If a young person, or for that matter an adult, focused on doing these three simple things over a long period of time I believe they will be assured success!

The key is to ignite the fore within and chase your own passions.

www.fraserstirling.co.nz

The Key to Long-Term Success

I was at a children's sporting tournament today and as I was watching people strive to win their games I got thinking.  I was wondering what the children, parents, teachers and coaches thought success was.  If I were to ask them individually, I may have ended up with 100+ different answers. This got me thinking about what do successful people do?  This is the best place to start.  No matter what we want, if we copy people who have achieved what we want, then we are more than likely going to experience similar success. 
Successful people have been studied in depth for more than 100 years. They have been interviewed extensively to determine what it is they do and how they think that enables them to accomplish so much more than the average person.  So today I am sharing some ideas about what some research showed as key aspects to being successful.  

The Harvard Discovery on SuccessIn 1970, sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University wrote a book entitled The Unheavenly City. He described one of the most profound studies on success and priority setting ever conducted. Banfield's goal was to find out how and why some people became financially independent during the course of their working lifetimes. He started off convinced that the answer to this question would be found in factors such as family background, education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor. What he finally discovered was that the major reason for success in life was a particular attitude of mind.


Develop Long Time PerspectiveBanfield called this attitude "long time perspective." He said that men and women who were the most successful in life and the most likely to move up economically were those who took the future into consideration with every decision they made in the present. He found that the longer the period of time a person took into consideration while planning and acting, the more likely it was that he would achieve greatly during his career. For example, one of the reasons your family doctor is among the most respected people in America is because he or she has invested many years of hard work and study to finally earn the right to practice medicine. After university courses, internship, residency and practical training, a doctor may be more than 30 years old before he or she is capable of earning a good living. But from that point onward, these men and women are some of the most respected and most successful professional people in any society. They had long time perspectives.
Measure the Potential Future ImpactThe key to success in setting priorities is having a long time perspective. You can tell how important something is today by measuring its potential future impact on your life. For example, if you come home from work at night and choose to play with your children or spend time with your spouse, rather than watch TV or read the paper, you have a long time perspective. You know that investing time in the health and happiness of your children and your spouse is a very valuable, high-priority use of time. The potential future impact of quality time with your family is very high. If you take additional courses in the evening to upgrade your skills and make yourself more valuable to your employer, you're acting with a long time perspective. Learning something practical and useful can have a long-term effect on your career.
Practice Delayed GratificationEconomists say that the inability to delay gratification-that is, the natural tendency of individuals to spend everything they earn plus a little bit more, and the mind-set of doing what is fun, easy and enjoyable-is the primary cause of economic and personal failure in life. On the other hand, disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction.
The long term comes soon enough, and every sacrifice that you make today will be rewarded with compound interest in the great future that lies ahead for you.



Would these things have been answered by the children playing today?  I doubt it.  However the core principles could be used by these children to become better at the sports they played today.


For me, I define success as making progress towards a worthy ideal. 


Take steps towards your ideal life today.


www.fraserstirling.co.nz 

CREATE WHAT YOU SEE IN YOUR MIND.

The more clients I see the more I see that humans are very predictable. The same as in the classroom where i have worked as a teacher for a number of years.   

Have you ever wondered how children can sit through replays of their favorite Lion King or Little Mermaid video? It amazes me that they’ll watch the same show every day without a single complaint or request for something new.

What’s more amazing, though, is that adults do the very same thing with their days. The majority of men and women play “movies” in their heads, day after day, relentlessly focusing on past events, most of which are unpleasant and disturbing experiences. If they’re actually able to stop their contemplation of past events, then they allow impressions of their current surroundings and recent results to govern their thoughts.

If they contemplate the future it is usually by worrying about it, or wishing that something better might come along. Then they wonder why bad things keep happening to them, or why they never rise above the issues and obstacles in their lives.

While it is true that people are free to think anything they please, as long as they remain set in their ways, there is very little that can be done to change the unpleasant experiences that keep cropping up in their lives.

Recently, the study of the mind, and its veritable unearthly power, is at last taking its proper place in modern civilization. Proper use of the mind and its various faculties will give you anything you choose – but the emphasis here is on the word “proper.” To move in this direction requires study and focused, consistent effort with a good measure of creativity stirred in.

Just as the oak tree develops from the gene that lies within the acorn and a bird develops from the gene that lies asleep in the egg, so too will your achievements grow from the organized plans that first begin with your imagination. An image in your mind is the first stage of the creative process in life. From your imagination your visions and plans arise.

In his best selling book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote, “You will never have a definite purpose in life; you will never have self confidence; you will never have initiative and leadership unless you first create these qualities in your imagination and see yourself in possession of them.” He went on to say, “… imagination is the most marvelous, miraculous, inconceivably powerful force the world has ever known.”

There is a concept called “Fantasy – Theory – Fact.” The premise underlying this concept is that everything has its origination in the form of Fantasy, which some adventurous souls dare turn into a theory and then boldly turn into fact. Give this serious thought for a moment. The idea of moon landings, communicating by email, traveling on jets, cellular phones or wearing synthetic garments was, a very short time ago, sheer fantasy. Today, they are considered commonplace.

Your marvelous mind has factors that you can, with little effort, develop to use to improve the quality of life, not just for yourself, but for human kind. Imagination is one of those creative faculties. The individuals who were responsible for the conception and creation of the email, cell phones and any of the thousands of modern conveniences we enjoy today had a highly developed imagination.

Furthermore, they were not easily influenced by the opinions of the masses, the naysayers who historically have criticized and ridiculed anything they do not understand. These pioneers used their mental faculties to fantasize, to build wild and wonderful pictures in their mind. Then, holding their thought with their will, they watched their fantasy unfold into a theory and then into fact. They seemed to have an innate awareness that if they could visualize it, they could do it.

Use this power to let your mind play. Fantasize a much better life than you presently enjoy. Draft your future with imagination, ponder and calculate with intelligence and awareness, then knit it with care. Next, devise paths and find tools to help get you there.

Commit to reach new goals. The only barrier separating you from your goal is ignorance – ignorance of how simple, and simply powerful, your mind really is.

Choose something and make steps toward it.

Igniting the fire within. 

www.fraserstirling.co.nz

MAKING LIFE SIMPLE

Everyone at some stage wants more from life.  At some point we ask ourselves what is my purpose?We are here to do the work, make the changes and take the steps needed to live life on purpose. 

The stories about the power of positive thinking encourage people to be a little complacent and in some cases, lazy.  People think that because they are reading, studying that they are taking action.  Guess what positive thinking is without action? It’s nothing. Your thoughts can only manifest themselves into reality if you take action.

The Lottery Story

A young woman finds herself in dire trouble. Her business has gone bust and she’s in serious financial trouble. She’s so desperate that she decides to ask God for help. She begins to pray…”God, please help me. I’ve lost my business and if I don’t get some money, I’m going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lottery.”

Lottery night comes and somebody else wins it. The woman again prays …”God, please let me win the lotto! I’ve lost my business, my house and I’m going to lose my car as well.” Lottery night comes and she still has no luck. Once again, she prays…”My God, why have you forsaken me? I’ve lost my business, my house, and my car. My children are starving. I don’t often ask you for help and I have always been a good servant to you. PLEASE just let me win the lotto this one time so I can get my life back in order.”

Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open and the woman is confronted by the voice of God Himself: “Please, meet Me halfway on this. Buy a ticket.”

This story has been told several different ways, but it is a perfect example of what wishing will get you. I do believe in the power of prayer and asking for help, from God, a neighbor, a blogger or whomever is the right person to call on depending on the situation, but you have to meet halfway and do your part.

What are you waiting for? Please don’t complicate things. Don’t think a good idea to death. Make a move, take a leap, run with it, or whatever else you have to do to make all of your wishful thinking and positive thoughts meaningful in your life.

Decide how you want to live your life and just get started.

Simple really.

www.fraserstirling.co.nz 

Tips that keep you one step ahead of procrastination.

Someone asked me today, how do I keep focused on one thing at a time.  As I thought about this, I was reminded of the procrastination.
It takes deliberate strategies to avoid becoming our own worst enemy by procrastinating on our intended actions. Here are some tips, that will keep you one step ahead of procrastination. 

1) Time travel: How to counteract the irrationality of human nature.

We discount future rewards as less important than a task at hand, particularly if it's a more pleasant activity, and we really aren't very good at predicting how we'll feel in the future.

"Time travel" can help here. That is, we need to use concrete mental images of the future more often and more accurately, to represent the future as though it were happening in the present. For example, a person who is procrastinating on saving for retirement might imagine as vividly as possible living on his or her potential retirement savings. To make a future image like this more concrete and accurate, it may be important to set out some numbers for a budget and take into account the reality of the need for and increasing expense of health care in old age. Planning shouldn't be an abstract notion of "doing it tomorrow." Think about the task in the real context of the day, and think carefully about how these tasks make you feel. This strategy will help you prepare for tip #2. If you are unsure, then imaging what the finished product will be like.  What emotions will you be feeling?  


2) Don't give in to feeling good: Short-term gain v long-term pain. When self-regulation fails, it's often because short-term emotional repair takes precedence over our long-term goals. For example, a task at hand makes us feel anxious or overwhelmed, so we "give in to feel good," seeking immediate emotional relief, and we walk away, leaving the task for tomorrow. Here's where emotional intelligence is so important to procrastinating less. Learn to recognize that we can have negative emotions without acting on them. Stay put for a minute—don't walk away. Don't give in to "I'll feel more like it tomorrow." Acknowledge the negative emotions, but get started anyway. Progress on a goal provides the motivation for another step forward. Just get started; the negative emotions will pass. 


3) Reduce uncertainty and distractions. Planning is one thing; action is another. In fact, what can make a task aversive to us when we're simply making an intention or planning is how meaningful a goal is. The less meaningful the goal, the less likely we'll want to do the task. However, when it's time to act, aversive tasks—those we're most likely to procrastinate on—are those for which we're uncertain how to proceed. We're most likely to procrastinate on tasks that lack structure. This means that in addition to making your task concrete (see tip #1), it's important to reduce the uncertainty about how to proceed—and, when it's time to act, to reduce available distractions as well. Shut off your e-mail, isolate yourself as much as you can, and make sure the environment around you is working to strengthen your willpower and focus, not to undermine your efforts. Speaking of willpower… 


4) Willpower: How to make the most of the willpower muscle. A great deal of recent research clearly indicates that willpower is like a muscle. You can exhaust it more quickly than you might imagine and, when you do, you lose your ability to self-regulate your behavior. One immediate method to strengthen your resolve in order to keep you on task is to remind yourself of your values. This process of self-affirmation bolsters our flagging reserves of willpower. Another self-regulatory boost can come from mindfulness meditation. Attention is the first step in self-regulation, so learning to keep focused attention will help you procrastinate less by strengthening self-regulation.


Take action today.


Igniting Lives on Fire


www.fraserstirling.co.nz 

Dare to Dream

I was blessed today being allowed to see my two children.  I haven't been able to see them for a number of years.  It has all come about so quickly.  It reminds me of what we have been looking at over the past few weeks.  The importance of taking action and being clear on  what we want.  It was a dream I have had for a long time.  Therefore today I thought of sharing about dreams.
What will your life be like when you’ve achieved your most deeply held dreams? Let’s take a look at how you can start living your dreams this very day.
Do you have a dream, a vision of the life you wish to live?
 How specific is that dream?
 How clear is that vision?
 How do you intend to reach it?
 What obstacles stand in your way?
 Are your fears holding you back or are you using them to move you forward?
Your fears can actually lead you to success. Fear is an intense emotion. But that doesn’t mean it has to control you, or even stop you. Fear can prepare you and push you forward just as strongly as it can hold you back. Fear heightens your awareness and increases your physical strength. Fear brings your mind to sharp focus. With all that going for you, does it make sense to just run and hide? Of course not. Fear gets you in shape to take action!
Are you waiting for things to get better before moving ahead? If you’re serious about success, you need to start taking action today. If you’re waiting for things to be perfect, you’ll wait forever and nothing will ever get done.
The way to achieve is to bloom where you’re planted, to do what you can, where you are, with what you have. It’s easy to think up excuses for not taking action. “If only I had more hours in the day. If only I had a better job. If only I could meet the right person.” But excuses won’t bring you anything of value. You’ve got to change your “if only” into an “I will.” “I will make better use of my time. I will work on improving my career. I will create and nurture my relationships.”
Take a chance. Have faith in yourself. Your circumstances will improve when you make the effort to improve them. Start where you are right now. You have everything it takes to reach for whatever you desire. Stop wishing. Use your time, your energy, your thoughts and efforts to make it happen! You’ll be glad you did!

Ignite the fire within!!!

www.fraserstirling.co.nz

WHERE TO FIND OPPORTUNITIES.

The dictionary says that opportunity is a “fit or convenient time; a time favorable for the purpose; suitable time combined with other favorable circumstances.” 

For generations, success gurus have been saying that opportunity lies in the person and not in the job.  That’s validated by the fact that legal immigrants, regardless of where they come from, are four times as likely to become millionaires as are those people who are born in America, despite the fact that they frequently start with minimum-wage jobs, sub-standard housing and often do not speak English.  One of the major reasons for the immigrants’ success, generally speaking, is that they regard America as the land of opportunity, so they arrive with great expectations and immediately go to work to make the American Dream a reality.  Its just like people move away from a location expecting their problems will be left behind, only to find they have followed them.  

Lord Stanley said that “opportunity, sooner or later, comes to all who work and wish.”  I would add the word “expect” to the end of Stanley’s statement.  That means that we keep our eyes open and our minds working to take advantage of those opportunities which come our way.  One interesting observation is that opportunity frequently comes dressed in work clothes and there are far too many people who turn it down because of the costume it wears. I like a definition of the word success that I came across a while ago.  Someone defined it as opportunity.  The ability to not only notice but act on the things around them.  

John B. Gough said, “If you want to succeed in the world, you must make your own opportunities as you go.  The man who waits for some seventh wave to toss him on dry land will find that the seventh wave is a long time arriving.  You can commit no greater mistake than to sit by the roadside until someone comes along and invites you to ride with him to wealth or influence.”  How true it is!  Think about it – take advantage of the countless opportunities which surround each of us, and ignite the fire within.

www.fraserstirling.co.nz