The human brain is the most advanced organ and technology on the planet. It is able to outperform the most powerful supercomputers ever devised, and is capable of staggering creativity and ideas, often coming from the most unlikely of places. Coming up with useful ideas using this awesome piece of kit is easy, yet it’s an art which seems to elude the vast majority of people. I’m going to try and help you “learn” to have more effective ideas.

Most people have ideas that come and go, with no specific rhyme or reason, and being used to such big brain power, most of us just ignore the vast majority of them, as they are wild and untargeted, appearing apparently at random and with no clue to their usefulness or otherwise. Imagine if we could develop a reliable system for coming up with and processing ideas?

The first thing we need to do in order to get some “idea discipline” is to decide what we want our ideas to be about-this Identification stage is essential-how can we solve a problem if we haven’t identified what that problem is? Some typical questions to get started with may be: What is the problem we are trying to solve? Why are we trying to solve it? What will solving it achieve? And so on. Only once we have an idea of the questions can we begin answering them, and by answering them gain a greater insight into the problem as a whole.

A simple brain storming session is a great way to start finding the questions- the best way to do it is to sit with a pad and a pen, start with the basic what why and how questions, and expand from there. A good tip is to give yourself a time limit, say one hour, and not let yourself quit until you have surpassed it. This is will condition your brain to think along certain paths when called upon. The answers themselves will vary from person to person- you could be a writer looking for a new plotline or an aerospace designer trying to reduce wind resistance, and as such each person will have answers that are specific to their niche.

Now we need some way of recording the ideas. This can be anything from the pen and pad used before to a little dictating machine as used in many offices. The most important thing is to get the main idea down in a way that will help you recognize it and act upon it when you read back through your notes. Something to note here, some people prefer to write in longhand, others will prefer diagrams or whatever, but there is no right or wrong way for this-the main thing is that the idea is recorded. It may also be a good idea to record the time and place you had the idea, and if possible, what you were thinking of when the idea occurred to you. Things like this can be linked inextricably, and may be useful at some point in triggering fresh ideas or variations.

Now once we have some ideas noted down, we need to work out a filtration system for them-some are going to be better than others, some will have huge potential and others may be fatally flawed, and all of that will not be apparent at the immediate inception. We can sort the ideas into three piles, Refine, Proceed and Discard.

Worthless ideas are Discarded immediately, ideas with potential are Refined, and any ideas that are perfectly workable in their initial state are Proceeded with. Using this simple method of separation we are able to maximize the time spent on the ideas with the most potential, which is an ideal situation for any business or creative endeavor.

All it takes to separate the ideas is a simple question:-Does this idea solve the problem(s) we identified in our initial identification stage? There are four possible outcomes to this question-

Yes (place the idea in the Proceed section)
No (place the idea in the Discard section)
Yes, but (place the idea in the Refine section) and
No, but (place the idea in the Refine section).

Once an idea has been Refined it may be passed through the question again to see how it fares. Many of the best ideas will be passed through the Refinement stage again and again until ready to Proceed, but using this system you will never again discard a useful idea or move forward with a flawed one!

As you have seen, the creation of ideas can be reduced to a far more targeted precise affair. Hopefully you will put this system to use and find out for yourself how powerful it can be!

Dave Origano runs the Daily Brilliant Idea service, which gives you those insights that helped him and many others create highly successful businesses. For more information on why this single service is all you ever need, check out http://www.DailyBrilliantIdeas.com

Ideas are the very fabric of the world we live in today. From the smallest ideas grow the largest businesses, and from the largest ideas grow nations and cultures. Generating ideas is something we are all capable of to one degree of another, yet the percentage of people who achieve anything with their ideas is tiny, less than one percent. Hopefully we can make sure that you are one of that one percent, by teaching you how to grow your ideas and nurture them into adulthood and profitability.

The main problem with ideas for business or inventions or anything else that may be profitable in some way is their lack of refinement. People tend to have an idea for something, and unless it crystallizes in their mind fully formed and with no work needed, they will discard it and wait for the next idea to pop into their mind. I don’t know about you but I can’t remember the last time a new idea occurred to me in a complete state of realization-the worthwhile ideas are usually the ones that require some thought to hone and perfect them, maybe even some research!

A good analogy for the journey of an idea from its inception to its eventual (successful) realization is that of a race car in an endurance race-the Indy 500 for example. Imagine one of the teams getting their car ready to race, placing it onto the starting grid, only there is no driver, and when the light goes green they will jam the throttle wide open.

Do you think that driverless car will finish the race, much less even win?

It’s a pretty slim chance isn’t it? Yet the crazy thing is, that’s what most of us do with our business/creative ideas, and worse yet, we are surprised when they crash and burn! This is why most ideas fail to even get away from the starting grid. We just line them up and watch them go, instead of adjusting and maintaining them the whole way!

But what if we didn’t abandon the ideas as soon as the light turned green? What if we treated it as a loop? What if each time we found a reason for the idea not to work, we went back to the start, and made the necessary changes and continued from where we left off? Again, think of the Indy500-each racing team KNOWS that they can’t finish the race on one set of tires. Does that stop them competing? Hell no, they just factor in a pitstop for a change of tires. It’s the same with other wear and tear- they will change/modify anything they can in the course of the race to help them hit that finish line-and even if there is something they can’t fix in time, you can bet they will have done something about it for the next race!

Whether we are looking for ideas in business or in the creative side of our life, we can use the analogy of the endurance motor racing as a fitting one to see the progress and steps we may have to take with our ideas before they bear fruit. Instead of treating each idea like an end in and of itself, we should be treating the ideas as the starting grid from which everything begins. A lot of people will abandon the ideas as soon as some difficulty arises, instead thinking it simpler to wait for the next idea, or the next one or the next one, just in case an idea comes along that needs no effort to implement it. This is rarely the case, and in most examples people will find themselves degenerating into a negative spiral, automatically dismissing all but the most perfect of ideas out of habitual laziness. Here’s a newsflash-some ideas need to be worked on to achieve perfection! Do you think Bill Gates achieved the success he has had with Microsoft by abandoning everything that didn’t work first time, or do you think he spent long hours developing and adjusting, gaining that success inch by inch?

If you take the time to refine and work on each idea until it reaches it’s ultimate incarnation (whether as success or failure) you will be leaps and strides ahead of the guy that just tries out the odd idea and abandons all the rest, and you will gain great knowledge of the internal workings and reasonings of your business to boot. Think twice the next time you dismiss something just because it’s the easiest choice!

Dave Origano runs the Daily Brilliant Idea service, which gives you those insights that helped him and many others create highly successful businesses. For more information on why this single service is all you ever need, check out http://www.DailyBrilliantIdeas.com

Wake up ,mankind! Part Two.

In part one of this series readers were challenged to examine their mindset in regard to their values and capacity to reason as well as understand that the current socio environmental problems are the result of our passive endorsement of the industrial culture.

A brief synopsis of the industrial culture:

What defines a culture is the ways in which human needs are satisfied and whether we can allow for more adequate satisfaction of the entire system of needs depends on how we organise our economic system. There is basically one culture remaining on this planet, the Industrial Culture. All others seem doomed to disappear. One of the most important tenets of the industrial culture is the belief in the eternally growing economy. However the spirit of industrialism is rapidly losing its’ grip. The doctrine of material growth has signally failed to provide people with any lasting ideals or values. The social order is expending all of its’ creative energy on just maintaining the status quo. When personal alienation feeds on ecological breakdown then all we have to look forward to is a veritable technocracy of ruins. We are now an overpopulated and over consuming society that is pressing the carrying capacity of the global ecosystem.

Political parties invariably, if understandably, have difficulty in adapting themselves to conditions other than those which gave them birth. By clinging with growing desperation to the industrial paradigm, by supposing that the politics of plenty is still the only way to achieve progress, they condemn both themselves and us. To them will fall the increasingly thankless task of dividing up an ever diminishing economic pie that they have promised should be getting larger; to us will fall the sordid consequences of so profound a failure collectively to get a grip on reality. The longer we resist the inevitability of change, the less chance is there that we will achieve it peacefully; the sooner we commit ourselves to change the easier such a process will be. We know that continued economic growth in developed countries will be at the expense of those who really need an increase in material well-being, the underprivileged in the Third World. There is no connection between increased living standards (beyond sufficiency) and happiness/contentment. There can be now doubt that material living standards in Australia have increased since 1960. However consider the rate of murder and other violent crime, the increase in drug and alcohol abuse and suicide. It would appear that we live in a less happy society in the third millennium than in 1960. It is difficult to draw a line between sufficiency and extravagance, however it is certain that in Australia we are dying of the stresses of abundance rather than the stresses of scarcity.

Again I state the theme of this series, if you want to change your world you must first change your thinking. Your primary resource is your life, your primary responsibilities are your actions and those of your children. What do you want out of life?

Make a list and then compare it to these: beauty, truth, love, freedom and peace.

I suggest that if you don’t know what you want, you will end up with something else. Therefore the first step must be to identify what you want, then to quantify it. These values mean different but similar things to everyone. I don’t expect you to dismantle to global political and financial systems in order to achieve a more satisfying life, I only suggest you realise what is really important to you and concentrate on obtaining those things and not suffer distractions.

Think about how you spend your average day and therefore most of your life?

The majority of people in industrial cultures spend their days mindlessly occupied performing unimportant tasks in the pursuit of increased wealth with which to purchase more consumer goods to make up for the fact that their lives lack meaning and value. It is not only possible to live in a luxurious house with a wealth of consumer goods and feel impoverished, it is in fact very common. Imagine you are at the end of your life, then do a rough calculation as to the percentage of it that really means anything, that was really worthwhile.

You like your contemporaries live the life that your society expects of you if you seek to live otherwise you are branded anti social and outcast. This has always been the case, people have rarely if ever been able to escape the confines of their times. Ants, sheep, people, not a lot of difference in the mind set really. The first step to escaping such a prison is understanding, the second is reason. The connecting link between the material man and the spiritual man is the intellectual man, for the mind partakes of both the material and immaterial qualities. Realise that your day to day existence is not in your best interests nor is it the way to achieve your potential in this life. Once you have done that, the rest is easy. Your values and attitudes will change accordingly, you may appear to continue your boring existence, but your thoughts and motivation will be altered. Your goals will be of a higher order. Ultimately you will work yourself out of the rut that you live in rather than to mire yourself deeper. Ie If you have got yourself into a hole, stop digging.

Realise that the day-to-day life in the industrial culture has no higher purpose.

Basically, WAKE UP! Live consciously; don’t merely exist in a dream state moving from one situation to another as they present themselves.

You accept that the way you live is not just right but the only way when in fact it is neither. Look at our past beliefs,

The earth is flat,

The earth is the centre of the solar system, galaxy and universe,

Man is separate from his environment and not a part of the web of life,

The laws of science are changed when a new theory comes along that fits with reality better than the previous theories.

So now we have the big bang theory that is being proven wrong by the discovery of new galaxies further away than would be possible under that theory. We are told that the universe is expanding out form a single point and that all of space is moving away from all else, and yet we see details of galaxies colliding which should not be possible. We have special and general theories of relativity because neither theory works under all conditions. All my life I was told there were nine planets in our solar system, astronomers discover some more and now there are only eight.

The studies of finance, economics and politics are not subject to the same scrutiny as science and yet remain largely unquestioned. A great part of our word starves whilst for economic reasons food is left to rot or is destroyed.

A few individuals have massed wealth greater than whole countries, and while these people have not necessarily done wrong in creating wealth and in many cases apply much of their wealth to the relief of poverty and hardship, the fact remains that wealth represents excess use of natural resources at some point. In order for us to create wealth we have had to produce more than our immediate need, this is stored as wealth.

What is needed is a new concept of wealth in order that it would be conceivable that every person on the planet could hope to attain it without destroying our delicate ecosystem.

I do not measure wealth in terms of what I have, but rather by what I am not lacking. I have my health, I have the love of my children who are also healthy, I have a (very) modest income and the ability to earn sufficient to meet my needs. I have more freedom than most, I have a roof over my head and sufficient healthy food, I can choose the hours I work around the local beach conditions, I can surf when I wish, lay on the beach when I wish and when I work, it is neither stressful nor boring. Nor is it well paid but that is the choice I made.

The result of my lifestyle choices is that I am free to live and think as I see fit on a daily basis, what I do and don’t do each day are the result of conscious choices. In the absence of the biases that arise out of the need to conform to society I have been able to think through to a new reality with independent values, new concepts of right and wrong based on a clear understanding of good and evil. A belief in a higher purpose that is supported by more than blind faith and yet allows understanding of the faith of others.

This has resulted in a self-actualisation where the needs of being a means to and end and the effect of being an end in my own right are reconciled.

Thus concludes part 2 of this series, part 3 will expand on understanding of human needs proving how these needs are interdependent and how to develop an ethical set of values.

Lew Spratt an Australian Social Physicist with a background in banking and finance, community and industry development, social welfare and technology. Now seeking to engage modern Information and Communication Technology to support and assist older people and people with disabilities. http://www.goldenagenet.tk

At the very beginning of “How to Win Friends & Influence People,” Dale Carnegie gives some very useful advice on how to study his book so that it can do the most good. It’s great advice that can be applied to any self-development work.

I’m just going to paraphrase his nine suggestions.

1. Get the desire. You’ve really got to come up with a good reason for reading whatever you’re reading or studying whatever you’re studying. This reason will become the drive that keeps you on track.
2. Read it twice. Read each chapter twice before moving on. the first time swiftly, the second time taking a little longer so that you can mark, ponder, and really soak in all the best thoughts. If it’s an audio program, listening twice is always a good idea.
3. Stop often while reading/listening to let things rattle about in your head. Any decent program is going to set off completely new trains of thought on a regular basis. If you don’t put the book down or pause the CD, you’re going to miss important points.
4. When you’re reading, don’t be afraid to mark up the text. This act makes powerful ideas easier to remember, and easier to find when you need them.
5. Review it. Every so often, read through the best books again. You’ll catch things you missed before and remind yourself of all the “best practices” you wanted to put to use.
6. Try out whatever you’re learning. Honestly, it doesn’t matter what you’re trying to learn. It’s not going to stick until you’ve tried it for yourself.
7. Get somebody to hold you to it. When you come across something you really want to try in your own life, tell somebody you are going to try it. Make sure they know to check up on you. Adding a little extra responsibility can make all the difference in the world when you’re trying to start a new habit.
8. Track your progress. As you study and make goals to change your life, write them down and review them as often as you need, but at least weekly. Consider what you’ve learned by doing.
9. Write down what you’ve learned. The act of reformatting the best material into your own words will help you truly own it.

There you have it. Nine ideas for studying and implement any self development program. I think it’s great stuff.

Bryce Beattie is an avid student of the greatest succes writers of all times. He passes along what is is currently learning at his blog, Success Giants

If your invention gets rejected, do you keep going? Rejection is tough, but it’s an unfortunate part of inventing. You can show your idea to friends, family and coworkers and they may tell you it’s great, but they’re not manufacturers, retailers or business people. They probably don’t understand the intricacies of the market to see the value, or lack thereof, in the idea you’re developing.

But what would happen if you didn’t keep trying? Ponder this: the vast majority of the products we [Davison Design and Development] put onto store shelves were at some point rejected by someone. And because of that rejection, we went back to the drawing board and rebuilt it based on input from buyers, marketing executives and others. Oftentimes, this input makes a huge difference in the value of the end product. It’s amazing, actually. Once you find the right people who focus on innovation in the future, their input becomes paramount to the enhancements integrated into your creation.

We’re all familiar with the Edison adage, “genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” That quote holds true today. So my message is simple: Keep trying.

When we work with a client, we spend quite a bit of time taking their concept and turning into a product. Once that phase — which includes brainstorming, research, design, engineering, construction, etc. — is completed, we attempt to license the product to a manufacturer or company who wants to add it to their product line. On some projects, we’ll put our best foot forward for the first year with no results. Yet, years later we discover the invention was ahead of its time. We might find that the mindset of companies who said “no” in the past has changed, opening doors for that new product.

We’ve learned that rejection is just part of the process to get to your objective. So we keep trying, because in some cases it’s a matter of timing — in other cases, it’s simply waiting for the naysayer at a company to move on, giving the product a fresh set of eyes and ears, which may lead to the product being acquired and maybe even making it to store shelves.

So when do you stop trying with your invention? For me, it’s difficult to stop trying. I never like to quit, but here’s what I’ve found.

The first option you have as an inventor when your invention is rejected is to quit at the original design and regroup, but with the input from informed people in the industry. Always ask why your invention was rejected. Ask if there are things you could have done differently or things you can add to make it more attractive. Don’t ignore the data you’ll gather from this exercise, it’s a valuable guide. You should never have a problem with quitting on an original design when you have the right input to turn your project into a better creation.

However, there are cases where the further allocation of your time and revenue can be a complete waste. If you take your product to a presentation with a buyer or a major retail store and they reject the idea outright with no additional input, there may be reason for concern. At this point, you may want to present your invention to other buyers, preferably those that compete with the first one. If they confirm the sentiments from the initial presentation, push for more information to find out why they said “no.” Even though this idea may be your “baby,” that’s not a good reason to turn your ears off. Hopefully by the third “no,” it’s sinking in that the opportunity may not be there.

Not all is lost, though. Remember, a big part of life is learning to stand back up after you’ve fallen down. The Chinese say, “failure is the mother of success,” which means every time you fail, you’re sure to learn more about how to succeed.

Surely, you’ve found out things from this process to help guide you on your next project. Your goal is to become successful with inventions that benefit everyone. So keep on inventing.

For nearly 20 years, George Davison has focused his life on helping inventors, people with ideas and corporations with product development, licensing and patenting. He is the founder and CEO of George Davison’s Inventionland. Learn more at his blog.

Being in the invention idea business, I get a lot of questions, most asking, “is my idea good?” It’s difficult to answer, especially when the idea is someone’s personal project that they’ve nurtured for quite some time.

So, how do you know if your idea is a good one? Do some analysis. I’ve always been a fan of gathering data and bouncing my concepts off this information for validation, or to at least know how to turn my bad idea into a good one. A great place to begin is where you hope to end up — the marketplace. But before you go there, ask yourself a few questions.

Ask: What kind of product will my idea be? What segment of the market will want to purchase this product? What purpose does it serve, and is their a large enough audience to justify it? If it solves a specific problem, do enough people have this problem to validate its existence on the market? Will it be used by old men, young women or by a teenager?

Once you answer questions like these, you’re ready to analyze the market. Based on your responses, you should have a pretty good idea of what kinds of companies would carry a product like yours and what stores might sell it. Take a look at similar products. You may find that someone else already sells your idea, which isn’t necessarily bad. Think of it as a springboard into a different invention idea. Does the product currently selling on the market lack something? Find it and try to make something better.

Gather all of this data together and try to better formulate your invention idea. A well thought idea will make it easier to turn it into something with value, because the tough thing with ideas is that they are just that. It’s very hard to evaluate an idea to know if it’s good or not. To truly do that, you need to turn that idea into something, which is your invention or product. Now this has value over just an idea. It can be tested in real life situations, you can interact with it and gather more data and even present it to a manufacturer or a corporation for potential licensing, often the end goal with most ideas. Remember it’s not an invention when it’s just an idea. Anyone can have ideas, even your idea. I know it may seem strange, but we humans often do think alike. But it’s not an invention until you’ve created it. This takes time and effort.

Also, the main benefit with thinking out your idea fully is to discover the process of manufacturing it. It may be a good idea, but if its cost to manufacture far outweighs its value on the marketplace, you’ll have some trouble finding an interested party.

It’s like Edison said, inventing is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.

For nearly 20 years, George Davison has focused his life on helping inventors, people with ideas and corporations with product development, licensing and patenting. He is the founder and CEO of George Davison’s Inventionland. Learn more at his blog.

It’s one thing to create some great new product that the world needs, but it’ll surely collect dust if your packaging lacks efficient communication. Packaging your invention is all about communicating the details, so don’t make assumptions that the person you’re trying to reach already knows what you know.

I always enjoy watching talented inventors, engineers and designers describe their creations to colleagues. There is always an assumptive “you know what I mean” going on as they skip the details during the description phase of the explanation, which eventually leads to a communication break-down. I find the best way to overcome these sorts of problems is by bringing in a person who has no working knowledge of the project. Now, talk to the stranger, a clean slate with no predetermined notions of your invention. I think you will amaze yourself when you sit back and take notes on how they talk about the new product.

Watch how they analyze the invention, discovering its features and benefits. As an inventor you’ll notice that your whole demeanor and language selection will change, almost like you’re talking to a child. It’s right then and there you’ll discover the genius of communication. You have to throw all the jargon out the window and remove preconceptions. Encourage this person to ask questions. Act as the teacher, because when you teach, you must re-evaluate everything you know on the subject and present it in an easy-to-understand format. Teaching is learning, so hopefully the exercise will teach you how to communicate your invention.

Remember, people don’t buy what they don’t understand. This makes things especially difficult if your invention is something consumers have never seen before. In that case you’re responsible for showing the problem a user faces and how your creation solves it, using language they understand. It’s not as simple as it seems, but having fresh eyes look over your invention, as I described earlier, helps you know how to market and communicate it.

In my mind David Ogilvy was the king of advertising and his wisdom still reigns true today. If you get a chance you should read every scrap of material he ever wrote on the subject of packaging and advertising. It’s valuable, and it will help you greatly to study a bit of marketing when thinking about your invention in the long term. By the way, according to Ogilvy new products were the toughest and I agree.

“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.” David Ogilvy.

For nearly 20 years, George Davison has focused his life on helping inventors, people with ideas and corporations with product development, licensing and patenting. He is the founder and CEO of George Davison’s Inventionland. Learn more at his blog.

There is an ancient saying which goes, “He who waits, waits forever.” Literally, the more times you put something off, the harder it becomes to initiate action. This is partly due to the fact that each time you procrastinate or avoid taking action, you reinforce a negative (delaying the initiation of positive action.) The longer you procrastinate about something, the more your subconscious becomes programmed to associate postponement or avoidance with a certain activity. And if persisted in long enough, procrastinating can - and will - become a life abridging habit!

But, like all habits, it can be broken. To do so, you must establish and reinforce a new, success inciting action response to replace your habit of “putting something off.” In time, this drive to take action will become your natural habitual response to situations. And, you’ll then find yourself making personal life progress beyond what you may have ever thought possible!

The following is a success action-initiating process I’ve developed, and use successfully with clients to overcome procrastination. Read it through in its entirety before applying it within your own life concerns. Remember, excuses and alibis equal failure; they lead people to look outside themselves for reasons why they’re not successful. Realize though that any/all reasons for failure always lie within us!

Here’s how you can now clearly break out of the procrastination trap:

1.) Make engaging or resolving the situation or task you keep putting off a high priority concern — Frequently think about being Pro-Active, and becoming involved. And think of your involvement as a positive opportunity to achieve an important personal goal (one enabling you to assert your true ability, success capacity, and competence). Write notes to yourself to initiate action in the area you’ve been putting off, and post these in areas where they’ll frequently be seen (ex. car, room, office, bathroom mirror, etc.). This helps to direct your thinking toward the goal, and keeps the idea of applying yourself a primary action in your consciousness. Be sure not to judge this procedure before you try it. The purpose here is to keep your mind continually occupied with the idea of starting to take action. Apply yourself as outlined, and you’ll be surprised at how fast you’ll change!

2.) Twice daily, consider how applying yourself, and achieving the goal, will positively effect your life; once during the initial part of your day, and once during the latter part, visualize how you conceive your life will be after you’ve totally successfully dealt with or achieved the objective. Focus on sensations of confidence, strength, and ability. Feel a strong sense of pride in having done it. Clearly, graphically depict this “Future You”, experiencing the goal as an already accomplished fact in your mind.

3.) Think about DOING, not about excuses– your intention is to become ACTION fueled. So each and every time you find yourself rationalizing or making excuses, mentally exclaim the word “STOP”. As the word “STOP” obliterates the “excuse” train of thought, then substitute action initiating ideas. Inwardly TELL yourself to act, follow through, and exercise the necessary discipline. Instead of finding reasons not to do, you’re directly implanting reasons TO do! This positive, redirection of thought fosters an action pre-disposition, and a commitment to yourself (and to accomplishing your goal)!

4.) Break the process (of engeging what you’ve been putting off) down into smaller, more easily manageable parts. These smaller parts can be more effectively dealt with, as you don’t waste unnecessary emotional energy trying to tackle a potentially overwhelming, complex whole. (For example, let’s say you‘ve been saying you want to get into shape. but you find yourself procrastinating about engaging required factors. Now, you’d just focus on (and deal with) one aspect of the process until you’ve mastered it, and feel satisfied with your results. Then expand your thinking to include another aspect, then another, and so on until you’re confidently, enthusiastically engaging the whole. For example, first attend to your diet, then your workout efforts, then increasing aerobic exercises, etc.)

5.) Maintain cumulative discipline — your objective is to initiate action, to take the first step, and then consistently build upon it. After you’ve broken the objective into smaller parts, become completely absorbed into dealing with only the part you’re addressing. Concentrate your full awareness on what you’re doing while you do it, and focus on expressing a peak performance effort and demonstrating maximum completion effectiveness.

When you’re satisfied with your level of success and competency (handeling a chosen task or aspect), then move forward to your next chosen aspect. The successful mastering of each aspect will afford you feelings of confidence, competence, and self belief. This strengthens your effort when attending to each new aspect, as you’ll have positive expectations and greater knowledge of your capabilities. Remember: The whole is the sum of its parts. The stronger and more successfully addressed each part is, the stronger the whole becomes.

6.) Reinforce yourself — acknowledge yourself for action taken and progress made. Become acutely aware of the feelings of accomplishment and self respect that result as you surpass previous limitations and purposefully act in your own behalf. Emotionally bask in the wonderful feeling of having done it, and reward yourself appropriately because you stuck to it and saw it all-the-way-through.
Start small and steadily build. You’ll be powerfully motivated to act and further pursue the successful achievement of your goal (objective). Once you get going on a proactive roll, it’s hard to stop. Like a snowball rolling down a hill, you’ll gain greater confidence, determination, and momentum. Each small success “snowballs” into larger success until, through diligent effort, your actions have taken you where you wanted to go.

There is a Chinese saying which nicely supports the above philosophy — “A thousand mile journey begins with the first step.” Take the initiative and do it now! The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get there.

Commit now to yourself and your goal, and apply the above outlined process. You’ll then become a person of action. Remember: Only through doing will you accomplish!

Powerhouse self-help author, life transformation seminar leader, clinician, and national TV therapist, Pete Siegel is the country’s foremost peak performance hypnotherapist. You can review his PowerMind© national best selling life and mega-success building programs, including Building Super Confidence, Success Mind-Sets, Using Your Stress To Fuel Your Success!, Living Invincibly Positive, and Winning At Life, at http://www.incrediblechange.com

The 80/20 Principle, like the truth, can make you free. If you practice the 80/20 Principle, you will become more productive, earn more and have more time for the things you enjoy. However, you will have to do some serious 80/20 thinking.

80/20 Thinking Is Reflective

With 80/20 Thinking you want to generate action which will make sharp improvements in your life and that of others.
The objective of 80/20 thinkers should be to leave action behind, do some quite thinking, mine a few small pieces of precious insight, and then act. Act selectively on a few objectives and a narrow front, decisively and impressively, to produce terrific results with as little energy and as few resources as possible.

80/20 Thinking is Unconventional

The power of the 80/20 Principle lies in doing things differently based on unconventional wisdom. This requires you to work out why most other people are doing things wrong. If your insights are not unconventional, you are not thinking 80/20.

80/20 Thinking Seeks Pleasure

Most people do not do the simple things that would be conducive to their happiness, even when they know what they are. We spend a lot of time with people we do not even like. We do jobs that we are not enthusiastic about. Most of us are not optimists, and even those of us who are optimists do not plan carefully to make our lives better.

80/20 Thinking Believes in Progress

Progress should not be confined to the worlds of science, technology, and business. We need to apply progress to the quality of our own lives, individually and collectively.
80/20 Thinking is inherently optimistic because it reveals a state of affairs that is seriously below what it should be.
Only 20 percent of resources really matter in terms of achievement. The rest are marking time, making token contributions to the overall effort. We need to give more power to the 20 percent, get the 80 percent up to a reasonable level, to multiply the output. Progress takes you to a new, higher level. But even at this level, there will still typically be an 80/20 distribution of outputs/inputs. So you can progress again to a much higher level.

80/20 Thinking is Strategic

To be strategic is to concentrate on what is important, on the few things that give you an advantage. Concentrate on what is important to us rather than to others, and execute your plan with determination and steadfastness.

80/20 Thinking is Nonlinear

Linear thinking is believing in cause and effect. You made me unhappy because you were late. My poor schooling lead to my dead-end job. Unemployment is the price we pay for low inflation. And so on.
Linear thinking is attractive because it is simple, cut and dried. 80/20 Thinking assumes that nothing flows from one simple cause. Nothing is inevitable. Nothing is ever in equilibrium or unchangeable. No undesired state of affairs need endure.
The balance of circumstances can be shifted in a major way by a minor action. Only a few decisions really matter. Choice can always be exercised.
If you are unhappy, think about the times you have been happy and maneuver yourself into similar situations.

80/20 Thinking Combines Extreme Ambition with a Relaxed and Confident Manner

We have been conditioned to think that high ambition must go with long hours, ruthlessness, the sacrifice of both self and others to the cause. In short, the rat race.
Most great achievements are made through a combination of steady application and sudden insight.
Most of what any of us achieves in life occurs in a very small proportion of our working lives. Achievement is driven by insight and selective action. Insight comes when we are feeling relaxed and good about ourselves.

80/20 Insights for Individuals

80 percent of achievement and happiness takes place in 20 percent of out time, and these peaks can be expanded greatly.

We let life happen to us rather than shaping our own lives. We can improve out lives dramatically by recognizing the turning points and making the decisions that will make us happy and productive.

There are always winners and losers, and always more of the latter. You can be a winner by choosing the right competition, the right team and the right methods to win. You are more likely to win where you have won before.

Few people take objectives really seriously. They put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. People who achieve the most are selective as well as determined.

This is just a few of the insights covered in the book, The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch.

Suggesting reading: The 80/20 Principle, By Richard Koch, ISBN 0-385-49174-3

About the Author: Hubert Crowell, Cave Explorer

I am currently doing graduate studies at Southeastern University, in Lakeland Florida and would like to share some of the insight on making decisions. For a Free Online Training Course on the 80/20 Principle please visit: http://hucosystems.com/articles/The_80_20_Principle_1.htm, which is available on my web site.

http://hucosystems.com/

Change has become the current global Buzzword for solving most problems. Everyone is talking of it and trying to CHANGE like never before. If organizations are not doing well then the usual conclusion is that they have not Changed with times and a “ Change Strategy “ is evolved and a “ Change Process “ put in place .

If nations are having problems then it is not unusual to see leaders talking about “ Change “ .

Motivational speakers and most leadership programs will never tire of expatiating the virtues of change and also the dire consequences of not changing .

Counselors will always advocate “ Change Yourself “ if you want to improve a strained relationship . But CHANGE from what ? No one talks about that .

What is the reference point for change ? How do we know what to change and what not to change ?

Do we have answers to the following questions ? Why do millions of people across the world , including in wealthy nations , go to bed on empty stomachs ? This is in spite of the fact that Nature has provided so much that it can produce and feed ten times over the current global population ,

Why are millions of lives getting affected due to violence in the name of religion .? Why so many people get killed due to meaningless war ?, . Why do Companies only think of top lines and bottom lines ?

You will observe that the problem lays in change .

Change has occurred and that is why :

Nations no longer follow their constitution . The great people who founded nations always thought about internal prosperity through global peace

Original preaching of the religions has been distorted to suit few individuals. We all know that , no religion in this world preaches violence or hatred .

Companies deviate from their Purpose and Core Values to keep the business analysts happy . Founders of great companies have “ Service to community ‘ as the Core to their business .

If Change from the original state is the root cause for so many problems across the world , then the question I would like to bring to your attention is : Should We “Change” ?

Or Should We “Undo Change “?

Should we not endeavor to “ undo Change “ and revert to the natural state that ensures peace and prosperity at the individual level across the world .

If change is the ONLY CONSTANT then should we not keep UNDOING IT .

Potharaju Ravindra is the author of bestsellers like GIVE ME BACK MY GUITAR published by Macmillan and FOOLS WORK HARD FOR OTHERS. To know more about him and his company please visit http://www.givemebackmyguitar.com . To exchange views with him please visit his personl blog at http://ravi.givemebackmyguitar.com .