Don’t assume you “know” how things are going to turn out. Ask.

 

Be your own devil’s advocate.

Psychologists call this process “dialectical bootstrapping” and studies have shown that it can improve a single person’s judgments by encouraging broad-minded thinking and a consideration of all the facts.
We know that, in the right conditions, the summed wisdom of a group of people is superior to the judgment of any person deciding alone. But not all of us have the benefit of a trusty committee to navigate us through each day. An alternative approach is to summon the crowd within.
Let’s say you need to decide how many orders to make for a product used in your work. Ask yourself once and write down your answer. Now assume this first estimate was wrong and think about the reasons this might be.  In other words, put yourself in the shoes of someone inclined to disagree with you. Take these two results and walk through the logic for each. The combined insight gained can help you form a better-informed decision.
Squash your biases.
Suppose I told you I’m sitting opposite a man who is wearing glasses and listening to Mozart. Do you think it’s more likely that he’s a literature professor or a truck driver? If you choose the former, you’ve just fallen for what psychologists call “base-rate neglect”. The “base-rate” is the likelihood for the most important factors at play.
As Rolf Dobelli explains in The Art of Thinking Clearly (from which the example is taken) – there are vastly more truck drivers than literature professors, so even allowing for stereotypes, it’s far more likely the man is a trucker than a professor. When making judgments for your business or career, it’s always worth remembering the base rate – most books never get published, most tech start-ups fail, most MBA students end up working in middle management. This isn’t to demoralize you, but to help guard against reckless unrealistic optimism. As Dobelli says, “When you hear hoofbeats, don’t expect a zebra.”

Stop thinking about it.

Sometimes if we think too hard on a problem we can get stuck in a mental dead end. One antidote is to distract ourselves from making a judgment and let our non-conscious minds do the work. Research suggests this can be especially advantageous if you have relevant expertise and you’re attempting to make an accurate prediction about the future – which book cover design is likely to be most effective, say, or which candidate will be most suitable for your team.
This idea of “not thinking” about a problem is based on psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis’ Unconscious Thought Theory. In one relevant study he showed that people with soccer expertise made more accurate predictions about upcoming results in a Dutch league if they distracted themselves for two minutes before making their judgment calls. “… Unconscious thought may well be helpful in more situations than some people currently think,” Dijksterhuis and his team wrote at the time (99U covered this phenomenon here).

Adopt an emotionally ambiguous attitude.

Our emotional state affects the way we approach decisions. Generally speaking, we tend to be more focused and analytical when we’re sad, and more reliant on gut instincts when we’re happy. Which emotional state is optimal when making professional judgments? Well, both.
An intriguing study published earlier this year by researchers at the Michigan Ross School of Business showed that people made more accurate predictions and answered more general knowledge questions correctly when they were in an “emotionally ambiguous” state – feeling both happy and sad at the same time. The state was triggered by having participants write about a time they’d felt that way – you could do the same.
For example, think back to when you left high school and you were sad to leave your friends, but happy about the freedom and opportunities ahead. Further analysis by the researchers suggested the improved judgment accuracy was because people in an emotionally ambiguous state were more open-minded and receptive to useful information. In other words, you were able to capture the best of both sadness and happiness. “The ambivalent mind can be a wise mind,” Ross and his team said.

We tend to be more focused and analytical when we’re sad, and more reliant on gut instincts when we’re happy.

***

Human judgment is flawed but we don’t have to be defeatist. The techniques above represent just some of the ways – based on psychology research – that we can optimize our judgments and decisions. Now, the next time you’re faced with a tough choice you’ll be well-armed.

Satan’s Arsenal

To be able to understand how a person, or a church, can behave as the one just discussed, we need to take inventory of Satan’s arsenal to find out what his weapons are and how he uses them against the saints.
Satan has three main weapons. The most obvious is sin. Satan is known as the tempter (see Matt. 4:3), and this is because of the expertise with which he uses this particular weapon. Sin is an active weapon. Like a guided missile, it seeks you. When it hits you, you know it immediately, because the wages of sin is death (see Rom. 6:23).
The second weapon is a passive one. Like a trap, it is surreptitiously set up for you to fall into. It is called “accusations.” Satan is described in the Bible as the accuser of the brethren (see Job 1:6-12; Zech. 3:1; Rev. 12:10). This is what he does, day and night, before the throne of God. If he has the courage to do that before God (who knows all the facts inside out), imagine what is he capable of doing to you and me, mere mortals. Even though we are forgiven, he reminds us of every sin we have committed, and then, for effect, he adds every other sin we could have committed. We are called by God by name, but Satan shouts at us that we have been forsaken, that we are not good enough for the ministry. Even though we are protected by the One who has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5, NIV), he uses the problems and challenges we face every day as a ramrod to blind us to the solidity of that promise. “God has left you,” he screams in our ear. “You are too bad.”
Satan uses accusations to generate anxiety strong enough so we will come out from under the mighty hand of God (see 1 Pet. 5:6). This is why Peter admonishes us, “Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). Satan’s objective is to paralyze us, very much like an animal that has fallen into a trap (see 2 Tim. 2:26; 1 Pet. 5:8,9). Likewise, we know when this weapon has been used against us successfully, because we lose our freedom of movement in Christ. Creeping anxiety takes over. Fear replaces faith, and despair overtakes hope (see 2 Tim. 1:7).
The Church in general is very much aware of these two weapons. Adequate Bible teaching helps to deal with their effect on us and how to defend against them. The fact that the consequences suffered by the victims are visible—death and spiritual paralysis—acts as a motivator for people to seek help. However, Satan’s third weapon is the most dangerous. This particular weapon is virtually unknown to the average Christian. It is neither active nor passive, but dormant. Like an underwater mine, it can be planted and left undetected, waiting for the ideal moment to be activated. Because it is dormant, it is easy for the devil to conceal it from us. We usually find out about it when we survey the destruction it has wreaked on us. This devastating weapon is called “spiritual strongholds” (see 2 Cor. 10:4,5). It allows Satan to control Christians and make them do things that bring great damage to themselves and to others. He uses it to impeach our testimony, much like the DA in the opening story. It exposes a severe inconsistency between who we say we are and what we believe. Spiritual strongholds represent a state-of-the-art manifestation of deceit. This is consistent with Satan’s treacherous character because he is also called the deceiver (see John 8:44; Rev. 12:9).

Strongholds: What They Are and How to Pull Them Down

PRINCIPLE: Spiritual strongholds are Satan’s secret weapon. It is through the surreptitious use of strongholds that Satan controls the behavior of the Church. They must be identified and destroyed.

The witness stand is an important part of the judicial process. When someone is called to testify in a case, the court clerk swears him in. With a hand on the Bible, the witness promises “to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” He is then led through his testimony by the lawyer for the party that called him as a witness. This is the easy part. The hard part comes when the lawyer for the other party cross-examines him. It is hard because the objective of the cross-examination is two-fold: to find inconsistencies in the witness’s testimony, and to discredit the witness. The latter is usually done by attacking his character. If either one of these objectives is accomplished during the cross-examination, his testimony then becomes useless.
Picture for a moment a key witness in a case involving the possibility of capital punishment; if the defendant is found guilty, he may be sent to the electric chair. This particular witness is testifying for the defense, and his testimony is crucial to save the accused. As he approaches the witness stand, a sense of immediacy grabs everyone in the courtroom. Everything hangs on the balance of what he is about to say. This is where the defendant makes or breaks it.
The witness gives an excellent testimony. He says the right words and brings the right facts to bear on his story, ably lead by the defense counsel. But now the district attorney begins the cross-examination.
In a booming voice he declares, “Mr. Witness, I will not try to punch holes in your story. However, I believe that you are a liar, and I will prove it.” Then he goes on to ask three simple questions: “Are you rich? Do you have clothes on? Is your eyesight normal?” To these questions, the witness answers with an emphatic yes. With a slight smile of satisfaction, the district attorney now moves in for the kill. He asks the witness the color of the tie worn by the defendant, who sits a few feet from the witness stand. No answer comes forth. The witness is totally blind, in spite of what he just said. Next the district attorney provides the court with Exhibit A, consisting of pictures that show the witness panhandling. This is accompanied by an affidavit signed by the director of the local rescue mission stating that the witness is currently living off the mission’s charity. Finally, the DA asks the witness to stand up, and, to everybody’s amazement, he is stark naked. His credibility has been destroyed. It doesn’t matter if what he testified is true; no one will believe it.
Is it possible for someone to be blind and not know it? To be miserably poor and believe otherwise? To think in all honesty that he is dressed and to walk around naked? Yes, it is entirely possible. It happens every day. Where? In our churches. In fact, the problem is so serious that the Lord Jesus Himself sent a letter to a particular church, confronting it with this severe form of spiritual schizophrenia. Recorded in Revelation 3:14-22, the letter says:
“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eyesalve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
The situation was so serious that Jesus told them, “You think you have gathered in My name, but I have been left out” (see Rev. 3:20). Can you imagine Jesus shut out of His own Church?
In Revelation 12:11, we are told that our victory over Satan consists of three elements: the blood of Jesus, our testimony and our willingness to die. One element is constant, the remaining two being variable. The blood of the lamb is the constant because it represents a perfect sacrifice. However, our testimony and our willingness to die for Jesus, if necessary, are vulnerable to change. This is where Satan—the accuser, the spiritual district attorney—aims his attack.

Don’t assume you “know” how things are going to turn out. Ask--Tough Choices: The Science Behind Making The Right Call

 

Be your own devil’s advocate.

Psychologists call this process “dialectical bootstrapping” and studies have shown that it can improve a single person’s judgments by encouraging broad-minded thinking and a consideration of all the facts.
We know that, in the right conditions, the summed wisdom of a group of people is superior to the judgment of any person deciding alone. But not all of us have the benefit of a trusty committee to navigate us through each day. An alternative approach is to summon the crowd within.
Let’s say you need to decide how many orders to make for a product used in your work. Ask yourself once and write down your answer. Now assume this first estimate was wrong and think about the reasons this might be.  In other words, put yourself in the shoes of someone inclined to disagree with you. Take these two results and walk through the logic for each. The combined insight gained can help you form a better-informed decision.
Squash your biases.
Suppose I told you I’m sitting opposite a man who is wearing glasses and listening to Mozart. Do you think it’s more likely that he’s a literature professor or a truck driver? If you choose the former, you’ve just fallen for what psychologists call “base-rate neglect”. The “base-rate” is the likelihood for the most important factors at play.
As Rolf Dobelli explains in The Art of Thinking Clearly (from which the example is taken) – there are vastly more truck drivers than literature professors, so even allowing for stereotypes, it’s far more likely the man is a trucker than a professor. When making judgments for your business or career, it’s always worth remembering the base rate – most books never get published, most tech start-ups fail, most MBA students end up working in middle management. This isn’t to demoralize you, but to help guard against reckless unrealistic optimism. As Dobelli says, “When you hear hoofbeats, don’t expect a zebra.”

Stop thinking about it.

Sometimes if we think too hard on a problem we can get stuck in a mental dead end. One antidote is to distract ourselves from making a judgment and let our non-conscious minds do the work. Research suggests this can be especially advantageous if you have relevant expertise and you’re attempting to make an accurate prediction about the future – which book cover design is likely to be most effective, say, or which candidate will be most suitable for your team.
This idea of “not thinking” about a problem is based on psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis’ Unconscious Thought Theory. In one relevant study he showed that people with soccer expertise made more accurate predictions about upcoming results in a Dutch league if they distracted themselves for two minutes before making their judgment calls. “… Unconscious thought may well be helpful in more situations than some people currently think,” Dijksterhuis and his team wrote at the time.

NB: WATCH OUT FOR Adopt an emotionally ambiguous attitude
All by Christian  Jarrett

HOW WE SEE PEOPLE DEPENDS ON THE WINDOW WE ARE LOOKING THROUGH

A young couple moved into a new neighbourhood. The next morning while eating breakfast, the young woman saw her neighbour through the glass window hanging the clothes outside.
"That laundry is not clean," she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap".
Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time the neighbour would hang laundry to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.
About one month later, the woman was surprised to see nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: "Look, she has learnt how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this!"
The husband replied: "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."
And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look.
It is easy to discuss other people, their lives and things that don't really concern us.
Yet we tend to forget- our window isn't that clean after all.
Clean up your window to give you a clearer view of who people are before you comment on them...

GOD BLESS YOU!!!

Tough Choices: The Science Behind Making The Right Call

Keep your friends close, you'll need them when it comes time to make a tough decision.

Our lives are filled with one decision after another. Many are trivial but every now and then, a biggie comes along, one where you just know that you’re about to irreversibly shape your own future.

The bad news is our decision-making is hampered by the fog of human irrationality. Fortunately, science has shown us that there are tricks and habits we can use to improve our judgments and better light the path ahead.

Phone a friend.

We’re hopeless at predicting how future circumstances will affect us emotionally – this is what psychologists call “affective forecasting.” At a general level, most of us overestimate the impact of future events, good or bad. Think of the times you made a decision you had been putting off. When all was settled you likely thought, “That wasn’t so bad.” This myopia is accompanied by misplaced confidence in our own predicative abilities, so that our instinct is to rely on our own forecasts rather than finding out how the same experience affected others, especially when it comes to life’s big decisions.
If you want to know how you’ll feel if you take a given path, research suggests you should acknowledge your own biases and find out how a friend or neighbor felt after they made the same decision that you are considering. Moving to a new city? Ask someone that lives there. Looking for a new job in a certain field? Ask some new hires what they’d suggest. Don’t assume you “know” how things are going to turn out. Ask.

Don’t assume you “know” how things are going to turn out. Ask.  

By Christian Jarrett 

TO BE CONTINUED

How To Learn From Your Mistakes

Involved mistakes

The third pile of mistakes, Involved mistakes, requires significant changes to avoid. These are mistakes we tend to make through either habit or nature. But since change is so much harder than we admit, we often suffer through the same mistakes again and again instead of making the tough changes needed to avoid them.
Difficultly with change involves an earlier point made in this essay. Some feel that to agree to change means there is something wrong with them. “If I’m perfect, why would I need to change?” Since they need to protect their idea of perfection, they refuse change (Or possibly, even refuse to admit they did anything wrong).
But this is a trap: refusing to acknowledge mistakes, or tendencies to make similar kinds of mistakes, is a refusal to acknowledge reality. If you can’t see the gaps, flaws, or weaknesses in your behavior you’re forever trapped in the same behavior and limitations you’ve always had, possibly since you were a child (When someone tells you you’re being a baby, they might be right).
Another challenge to change is that it may require renewing commitments you’ve broken before, from the trivial “Yes, I’ll try to remember to take the trash out” to the more serious “I’ll try to stop sleeping with all of your friends”. This happens in any environment: the workplace, friendships, romantic relationships or even commitments you’ve made to yourself. Renewing commitments can be tough since it requires not only admitting to the recent mistake, but acknowledging similar mistakes you’ve made before. The feelings of failure and guilt become so large that we don’t have the courage to try again.
This is why success in learning from mistakes often requires involvement from other people, either for advice, training or simply to keep you honest. A supportive friend’s, mentor’s or professional’s perspective on your behavior will be more objective than your own and help you identify when ytou’re hedging, breaking or denying the commitments you’ve made.
In moments of weakness the only way to prevent a mistake is to enlist someone else. “Fred, I want to play my Gamecube today but I promised Sally I wouldn’t. Can we hang out so you can make sure I don’t do it today?” Admitting you need help and asking for it often requires more courage than trying to do it on your own.
The biggest lesson to learn in involved mistakes is that you have to examine your own ability to change. Some kinds of change will be easier for you than others and until you make mistakes and try to correct them you won’t know which they are.

LEARNING FROM YOUR MISTAKES

I’m leaving all philosophical questions about mistakes up to you. One person’s pleasure is another person’s mistake: decide for yourself. Maybe you enjoy stabbing your neighbor’s cat with a banana, who knows. We all do things we know are bad in the long term, but are oh so good in the short term. So regardless of where you stand, I’m working with you. However mistakes are defined in your personal philosophy this essay should help you learn from them.
Learning from mistakes that fall into the first two categories (Stupid & Simple) is easy, but shallow. Once you recognize the problem and know the better way, you should be able to avoid similar mistakes. Or in some cases you’ll realize that no matter what you do once in a while you’ll do stupid things (e.g. even Einstein stubbed his toes).
But these kinds of mistakes are not interesting. The lessons aren’t deep and it’s unlikely they lead you to learn much about yourself or anything else. For example compare these two mistakes

1. My use of dual part harmony for the 2nd trumpets in my orchestral composition for the homeless children’s shelter benefit concert overpowered the intended narrative of the violins.
2. I got an Oreo stuck in my underwear.

The kind of mistakes you make define you. The more interesting the mistakes, the more interesting the life. If your biggest mistakes are missing reruns of tv-shows or buying the wrong lottery ticket you’re not challenging yourself enough to earn more interesting mistakes.
And since there isn’t much to learn from simple and stupid mistakes, most people try to minimize their frequency and how much time we spend recovering from them. Their time is better spent learning from bigger mistakes. But if we habitually or compulsively make stupid mistakes, then what we really have is an involved mistake.
 Watch out for INVOLVED MISTAKES.
By: Scot Berkun

The four kinds of mistakes

One way to categorize mistakes is into these categories:

• Stupid: Absurdly dumb things that just happen. Stubbing your toe, dropping your pizza on your neighbor’s fat cat or poking yourself in the eye with a banana.
• Simple: Mistakes that are avoidable but your sequence of decisions made inevitable. Having the power go out in the middle of your party because you forgot to pay the rent, or running out of beer at said party because you didn’t anticipate the number of guests.
• Involved: Mistakes that are understood but require effort to prevent. Regularly arriving late to work/friends, eating fast food for lunch every day, or going bankrupt at your start-up company because of your complete ignorance of basic accounting.
• Complex: Mistakes that have complicated causes and no obvious way to avoid next time. Examples include making tough decisions that have bad results, relationships that fail, or other unpleasant or unsatisfying outcomes to important things.

HOW TO LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES

You can only learn from a mistake after you admit you’ve made it. As soon as you start blaming other people (or the universe itself) you distance yourself from any possible lesson. But if you courageously stand up and honestly say “This is my mistake and I am responsible” the possibilities for learning will move towards you. Admission of a mistake, even if only privately to yourself, makes learning possible by moving the focus away from blame assignment and towards understanding. Wise people admit their mistakes easily. They know progress accelerates when they do.
This advice runs counter to the cultural assumptions we have about mistakes and failure, namely that they are shameful things. We’re taught in school, in our families, or at work to feel guilty about failure and to do whatever we can to avoid mistakes. This sense of shame combined with the inevitability of setbacks when attempting difficult things explains why many people give up on their goals: they’re not prepared for the mistakes and failures they’ll face on their way to what they want. What’s missing in many people’s beliefs about success is the fact that the more challenging the goal, the more frequent and difficult setbacks will be. The larger your ambitions, the more dependent you will be on your ability to overcome and learn from your mistakes.
But for many reasons admitting mistakes is difficult. An implied value in many cultures is that our work represents us: if you fail a test, then you are a failure. If you make a mistake then you are a mistake (You may never have felt this way, but many people do. It explains the behavior of some of your high school or college friends). Like eggs, steak and other tasty things we are given letter grades (A, B, C, D and F) organizing us for someone else’s consumption: universities and employers evaluate young candidates on their grades, numbers based on scores from tests unforgiving to mistakes.
For anyone than never discovers a deeper self-identity, based not on lack of mistakes but on courage, compassionate intelligence, commitment and creativity, life is a scary place made safe only by never getting into trouble, never breaking rules and never taking the risks that their hearts tell them they need to take.
Learning from mistakes requires three things:

1. Putting yourself in situations where you can make interesting mistakes
2. Having the self-confidence to admit to them
3. Being courageous about making changes

NB : TO BE CONTINUED . WATCH OUT FOR THE NEXT ADVICE

FAKE FRIEND

She Slept With Her Snake And Then The Vet Told Her Something Shocking

This is a true story about a woman from India who lived in the Middle Ages and had a pet snake, python, which she loved so much. The snake was 4 meters long and looked healthy. However, one day her unusual pet just stopped eating.

This lack of appetite in the snake continued over a few weeks. The desperate woman tried everything she could and offered anything that a snake would like to strangle and eat. Nothing worked, and finally the woman took her loving pet to the veterinarian as a last resort.

The vet listened to the woman carefully and asked, ?Does your snake sleep with you at night, wrap around you closely and spread out throughout its length??

The woman was surprised and with a lot of hope she said, ?Yes! Yes! It does it every day and it makes me so sad because I see something asking of me, and I cannot help it feel better.?

Then, the vet said something shocking and most unexpected. ?Madam, your pet is not sick; it is just preparing to eat you.? Yes, the python wasn?t sick but it has been preparing to eat her instead!

?Every time, it is creeping and ?hugging? you, wrapping around your body, it is checking size to weigh how a great meal you are and how it must be prepared before the attack. And yes, it does not eat, in order to have enough space to digest you more easily,? the vet said.

This story comes with a moral ? Even people close to you, whom you are very affectionate with, can, have mean intentions. You need to identify the snake around you and their true intent. Hugs and kisses are not always honest.

Don?t fear the enemy that attacks you, but the fake friend that hugs you.

LAW OF LIFE

When a newspaper reporter interviewed a farmer who grew award-winning corn each year he entered his corn in the state fair, it was revealed that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbours.

Perplexed, the reporter asked, ?How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbours when they are entering their corn in competition with yours each year??

The farmer smiled knowingly and explained, ?The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbours grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbours grow good corn.?

So it is with our lives. Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others. For the value of a life, is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find  happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all. Call it power of collectivity. Call it a principle of success. Call it a law of life.

The fact remains, ?None of us truly wins, until we all win.? In life, when you help the people around you to be good, you surely become the best. Always bear in mind that "Real happiness is helping others.
live and let's live.
Good day !!!

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by

default: by the moral failure of those who

evade the fact that there can be no

compromise on basic principles

.

SUCCESS STARTS FROM THE MIND

The power of can’t: The word ‘can’t’ makes strong people weak, blinds people who can see, saddens happy people, turns brave people into cowards, robs a genius of their brilliance, causes rich people to think poorly, and limits the achievements of that great person living inside us all.”

SUCCESSFUL LIFE IS A POLISHED LIFE

Life is a gift that has been given to you. It is in your hands to make the best out of it--dare to believe that you can. Through the ups and downs, you'll find a lesson to learn that will make you a better person. Each experience--good and bad--makes you grow. Get along with life and surely, things will become easier for you. Live for today and enjoy every moment. Capture the best that life has to offer you. SHALOM TO YOU ALL

Critical Steps to Improve and Inspire Your Life As A Youth

Clark heard Brian Tracy once say “Your life gets better when you get better.” He took that to heart years ago and came up with these critical steps that I personally use to kick his butt into high gear. He has achieved great success following these steps. Everyone will have a different meaning of what success is to them, so make it personal to you. For some, it might be financial, for others it is significance.
 I have achieved great success in both definitions and I know that you can too. It takes courage and commitment.

1) Don’t Just Rely On Your Brain, Listen To Your Intuition Too – It’s the great voice of your spirit. It will lead you to your “Why”. Once you have listened, then you must follow your “why”. It all starts with a goal and believing in yourself. Believe that you can do it and believe that you are worth it. Give yourself permission right now to make your life matter. So many people don’t believe that they can achieve much in life. Give yourself the gift of goals. I write down my goals so that I can map out the means of getting there. It doesn’t matter if it’s a financial, physical, intellectual, or spiritual goal. Start to imagine what it feels like to have already achieved your goal. Feel it and get into commitment mode. How bad do you want to achieve the goal? What resources will you utilize to go after it? What sacrifices are you willing to make? If I am writing it down on paper, I am also writing it down in my head and imprinting it on my soul. I know I am fully committed. I will do whatever it takes to make the dream a reality.

2) Own It! – Define your goals very clearly and precisely. It helps you map out and anticipate obstacles. It also helps you break the big goal down into smaller goals. Short-range goals are the stepping-stones on the way to achieving big things. Big goals don’t get achieved overnight, but the little goals add up quickly, and when the big victory finally happens, it will feel like it happened overnight. My overnight success took almost sixteen years to accomplish, so I was not surprised when it happened. I’d spent every day of my life working towards it. It took action. I created niches and got in the trenches with the mindset of persistence, determination, integrity, enthusiasm, optimism and having a can win attitude.

3) Just Suck It Up! No Complaining – If you complain, that is the mindset you will remain in…a prisoner of your pain. Your attitude can be your best friend or your worst enemy. You have complete freedom to choose how you will act and react every second of the day. There’s 86,400 seconds in a day. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it. Obstacles will come, oh yes they will. For me, working hard and overcoming struggles is a daily business. I have found that from the birth of a dream to eventual reality has been a marathon and not a sprint. It takes time. “Success is not a result of luck. It is a result of how you spend your free time.” I always have a few different goals, so that when I need a break from one I can focus on another. Very few painters work only on one piece at a time – they work on many. Put passion into all of your actions, and have many actions devoted to different passions.

4) Self Talk is Powerful – Tell yourself that you are going to have a life that counts. You are going to make an effort to never give up. You are full of enthusiasm and determination. You are ready to work hard and play hard. You will be the master of your time. Let go of your mistakes; today is a new day. Don’t let your past infect your future. I believe that your best days are still ahead of you. Optimism is power. Be ground zero for an epidemic of positivity. You are going to be a doer and not a procrastinator. You are going to be a dream activator and not a dream-denier. You are going to hang out with others who lift you up and encourage your self-actualization. Shed your bad habits, and let good habits take root through repetition.


5) Stay Away From Life Suckers – Life is about making progress. People are going to try and talk you out of your dreams. They will suck up your time with nay-saying, or criticize you and pick you apart. But you tell them that Derek said to back off. Stay away from those people who are imprisoned by negativity. They’re not even doing good for themselves, so how can they possibly be doing good for you? Get around high achievers, mirror their good habits because greatness is contagious!

6) Don’t Worry About Failing – Try, try and try! Failure and rejection are absolutely nothing to fear. With each failure, I became one step closer to success. Seriously, after each failure, change your approach. Don’t keep banging your head against the wall over and over again trying the same dang thing. You have to change your approach, period. Look at it through a 360 degree lens. There is always a way. Just look at the technology and medical advances the past 50 years. It is unbelievable. Remember the old Disney cartoons; now look at what Pixar and Disney create. It’s incredible. They have failed many times and yet they kept persevering and trying a different way until it worked. Impossible is not a fact but really an opinion. Keep pushing through.
Failure can sneak in your mind and leave you with negative feelings about your self worth. Don’t let your mind play tricks with you. Don’t let a failure keep you down or allow the voice of other people’s opinions ring inside of your head. When was the last time someone’s opinion paid your bills? Ignore them. Failure is a great teacher and in a way has been my friend all along. Remember Thomas Edison’s quote: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Failure is also a test. Failure might be telling us that we need to change direction and execute a different plan of attack or a new strategy. Your mindset has to have the right perspective in order to push through the negative self talk, the uncertainty, the fear and the discomfort.

7) Stay Creative – Your imagination is powerful. Sometimes you will have to sit quiet for thirty minutes, so you can clear your mind of all the noise and open the doorway to your creativity. To be successful, we must be strategic in taking risks and utilizing our creativity. Creativity is the taxi that will take us to untamed and uncharted territory, it is in these places that we become all we can be. Your creativity has the ability to make a new reality for you. It has done it for me. I earn a great living because of my creativity. You will be amazed at what ideas or revelations come to you when you just put aside all the distractions of modern life and turn off the TV! It wastes your time and all that you are doing is watching others live out their dreams. Here is what I do…I typically will close the door to my home office and get into my zone of working towards my goal whether it was writing one of my books, working on a new song for a viral video or creating a new website. It might be for an hour or for 16 hours in a day. It might have to be in the middle of the night when the kids are asleep or it might be missing a party or hanging out with your friends. I always tell myself… You can sleep when you die. Haha I am a firm believer in investing in your goals. Everyday work on it…Every day!
Now listen… I can shout at you until I am blue in the face, but if you don’t have the inner desire to say “I am doing this for me”, then no amount of motivational speaking will light the spark, but know this… If ever you feel like giving up, just give up your bad habits. If you’ll change your bad habits, you’ll change your life.
Remember that life is all about the little steps in your journey. Don’t skip the little steps and fall for the easy way, it never lasts. You need to exercise your discipline and commitment muscles and pay life’s tuition for a while. People are always looking for the quick way, the quick fix and lose out on the building of their character when life gets tough. If you have been through great adversity, you will be able to make it through almost anything. I have personally gone through the fire of adversity in this life as I was abused and abandoned into the foster care system at age five. I would then spend the rest of my childhood and youth in the foster care system. I went through so much rejection and feeling like a failure that it held me back for a while.
One day a breakthrough happened… I decided to divorce my story of being a victim. I began to look at my negative past with the mindset and emotion that I am a warrior, a victor! With that mindset shift, my life became easier and I had more pride of what I had been through. Also, the obstacles that I faced now would not hold me back or bother me because in my mind, I told myself that I have been through worse and that nothing could destroy me. I went through great pain and sacrifice to get to where I am now. I have learned that what you focus on controls you, so if I focus on the obstacles, they will continue to hold me back…but if I focus not what I am going through but where I am going to, the obstacles fall by the wayside and I continue to keep pushing forward. So keep pushing!
It’s time for you to envision a better future. You must visualize to materialize. Live your life fully and doubt your limits. As long as you still have breath in your lungs, there is time to start over. As long as there is blood running in your veins, you have time to make your dreams happen. We have the rest of our lives from this moment on to realize our ambitions. I am a big believer in dreaming big and taking the big leap in life. You have one life, own it and live it. A lot of people ask me “Derek, what do you think the meaning of life is?” I tell them to give your life meaning. Find your passion and breathe life into it so that your life’s meaning can help transform the world. Once you are confident about your own ability to achieve, you can help create a world of achievers through your example. Always helps others and remember your ABC’s…Always Be Compassionate.
I came up with a simple acronym for H.O.P.E. so that you can easily remember and apply it in your daily life.
H.O.P.E. – Helping One Person Everyday! Be the example.
Never limit your life, and never give up!
To your success,
"Let our words bring development in our country by encouraging yourself and others" by Bismark
 MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER: Derek Clark

Stop Punishing Yourself! Let Go and Grow.

Sometimes your purpose in life finds you when you least expect it. If somebody had told me a few years ago that I would be the author of six books and a top ranked motivational and inspirational speaker, I would have asked what mental institution did they escape from. How foolish I would have been! The river that is your life flows free, and has a way of changing direction and overflowing its banks…then surprise you. When you are motivated and doing your best, more and different opportunities come your way. When you have complete faith in your abilities and you know, I mean really know, that you are going places, you begin to understand that nothing can stop you from achieving the success you were meant to have.
I have always been a person who tries. Sure, there were times I wanted to give up, to run away from the mounting challenges that come with any effort to try something unprecedented. Yes, I have failed and failed and failed. I have gone forward, backwards, and sideways. But I never got so sidetracked I lost sight of the main thing: keep doing your thing! Keep on trucking! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you never fail until you stop trying.

BY : Derek Clark

HOW TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL AS A YOUTH

Formulate a vision. Have goals and get ready to rock. Take action now. Any action will create motion and motion means you that are moving. Make use of your time instead of being used by it. Find purpose. If you have no purpose in life, you just bounce around in mediocrity. If you look around you and cannot find a purpose, try putting yourself in a new environment. New horizons force us to look at the world in a different way, and fresh ideas come from fresh surroundings.
Have fun. What good is making money if you don’t know how to have any fun with it? Know how to laugh. A good, honest belly-laugh is more precious than gold. The days of our lives should not be filled with misery and grouchiness. A day without a laugh is a day that is wasted.
Vance Havner said it perfectly when he said, “Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.”
Think of the first steps you are going to make. Step one is always believe in yourself. But it all starts with a goal. I write down my goals so that I can map out the means of getting there. It doesn’t matter if it’s a financial, physical, intellectual, or spiritual goal. Imagine what it feels like to have already achieved your goal. Get in commitment mode. How bad do you want to achieve the goal? What resources will you bring to bear in going after it? What sacrifices are you willing to make? If I am writing it down on paper, I am also writing it down in my head and imprinting it on my soul. I know I am fully committed. I will do whatever it takes to make the dream a reality.

Define your goals very clearly and precisely. It helps you map out and anticipate obstacles. It also helps you break the big goal down into smaller goals. Short-range goals are the stepping-stones on the way to achieving big things. Big goals don’t get achieved overnight, but the little goals add up quickly, and when the big victory finally happens, it will feel like it happened overnight. My overnight success took almost sixteen years to accomplish, so I was not surprised when it happened. I’d spent every day of my life working towards it.
If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it. Obstacles will come, oh yes they will. For me, working hard is a daily business. It is a marathon, not a sprint. “Success is not a result of luck. It is a result of how you spend your free time.” I always have a few different goals, so that when I need a break from one I can focus on another. Very few painters work only on one piece at a time—they work on many. Put passion into all your actions, and have many actions devoted to different passions.
Tell yourself that you are going to have a life that counts. You are going to make an effort to never give up. You are full of determination. You are ready to work hard and play hard. You will be the master of your time. Let go of your mistakes; today is a new day. Be ground zero for an epidemic of positivity. You are going to be a doer and not a procrastinator. You are going to be a dreamer and not a dream-denier. You are going to hang out with others who lift you up and encourage your self-actualization. Shed your bad habits, and let good habits take root through repetition.
Life is about making progress. People are going to try and talk you out of your dreams. They will suck up your time with nay-saying, or criticize you and pick you apart. But you tell them that Derek said to back off. Stay away from those people who are imprisoned by negativity. They’re not even doing good for themselves, so how can they possibly be doing good for you?

Don’t worry about failing. It is nothing. It is the voice of other people ringing inside our heads. Failure is a great teacher and in a way has been my friend all along. Remember Thomas Edison’s quote: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Failure is also a test. Failure might be telling us that we need to change direction and execute a different plan of attack or a new strategy.
To be successful, we must be strategic in taking risks. Risks will take us to untamed and uncharted territory, but it is in these places that we become all we can be.

MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER: Derek Clark