Take Yourself to the Top!

Everybody wants to get to the top, whether it is the top of a career, a company, the earnings scale, or the many other ways that we as individuals can define the "top" in our own lives! But with so many people trying to get to the top, how come so many people aren´t moving up? I think there are some fundamental reasons why. Reasons that can be addressed and changed!

What are some things you can do to get to the top? Here are some thoughts for you this week!

First of all, define what the "top" means for you.
This is extremely important because if you don't know where you are going, you will never get there! Some people don't want to be the CEO of the company. In fact, many think they are better off then the CEO even though they don't make as much money. Instead, they think they are at the top because of less stress, weekends with their families, etc., and I see their point. It doesn't matter what others think is the top, only what you do, since you are only gauging whether or not YOU get there! So where is it for you? That is the first question for you to answer.

Be passionate about your goal.
Passion is the energy that drives us, or, as Alexander Pope said, passions are the "gales of life". Passion is the wind in the sails of work. Find some thing you love and you will find something you can get to the top of. If you don't love it, you may still make it to the top, though highly unlikely. And even if you do, there will be no joy. Let your passion carry you, because it will carry you far! Thomas Fuller put it this way: A man with passion rides a horse that runs away with him.

The will to continue in the face of hardship.
Another reason most will not get to the top is because they simply refuse to scale the mountains of hardship that separate them from the top. If you want to get to the beautiful view from the top, you will have to climb over any obstacles. Instead, many choose to stay at base camp! One would think that Bjorn Borg, one of the greatest tennis players to ever live, would consider his skill his greatest asset. Instead, this is what he says, "My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories." Continue until you get to the top!

Love people and treat them right.
What? Love people? That´s right! Why? Because if you are going to get to the top you are going to need other people. Be a jerk and you will find people dragging their feet on you. Treat them right and you will find them helping you and even cheering you on!

Master the appropriate skills.
Average skills will get you to the middle. Top skills will get you to the TOP! This is most assuredly true when combined with the points above. Are you achieving excellence in the skills you need? Are you growing day by day, month by month, year by year? You can always get better and getting better will take you closer to the top! Even if you only improve a little, you can keep improving that small amount and it will eventually become a big amount! Demand the best from yourself and you will get to the top. Remember the words of Jose Ortega y Gasset: "We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes great demands on himself, and the latter who makes no demands on himself."

Define the Top
Be Passionate
Persevere
Love others
Skill Mastery!

These will take you to the top!

By

Chris Widener

Reproduced with permission from the Chris Widener Ezine. To subscribe to Chris Widener's Ezine, go to http://www.chriswidener.com or send an email with Join in the subject to subscribe@chriswidener.com Copyright 2007 Chris Widener International. All rights reserved worldwide

Finding Success

"Many of us have things backwards.
We believe that we have to wait to create the circumstances we want in life and rack up a lot of successes so we can finally relax.
Actually, it works the other way around.
We should leave where we are and move to where we ultimately dream of living, whether it’s Boulder, Santa Monica, Chicago, or Tibet.
Then once we’re there, we’ll figure out ways to fashion a livelihood that will enable us to survive and to prosper from there.
Paradise shouldn’t wait, and happiness shouldn’t either."

Dr. Gary Goodman:Author and expert on customer service and sales.

success: Richard St. John (from TED)

Check out this video
These things give you the road map for success.

Would you add anything else?

The Magic of Thinking Big

Recommended Listening

This book changed my life!

Our success is limited by the way we think. My thinking was conditioned by my upbringing, my experiences, and my low self esteem. This book was a catalyst for me to experience more in my life than my limited thinking

The Magic of Thinking Big offers useful methods, not empty promises. Dr. Schwartz presents a carefully designed program for getting the most out of your job, your marriage, family life, and your community. He proves that you don't need to be an intellectual or have innate talent to attain great success and satisfaction—but you do need to learn and understand the habit of thinking and behaving in ways that will get you there. This audiobook will give you those secrets!
• Believe you can succeed and you will

• Cure Yourself of the Fear of Failure

• Build Confidence and Destroy Fear

• Use Goals to Help You Grow

• Think Like a Leader

You can download this right now as an audio book The Magic of Thinking Big

Do You have a Profession or a Job?

'Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling." --

Vincent Van Gogh

Are you a Life Long Learner?

People who have more information have a tremendous advantage over those who don't. Brian Tracy said " If you want to earn more, learn more." Highly successful people know more. That's their edge. They undertake a program of lifelong learning, feeding a hunger for knowledge in their field that keeps them reading, researching and studying to become an absolute master at what they do.

You may think that it takes years to acquire the knowledge you would need to become super successful, but the truth is that you don't. If you dedicated between 30 and 60 minutes a day to learning- in five years you would have the equivalent of a college education!
Perhaps you feel that you are so busy, you couldn't possibly spend 30-60 minutes a day in learning.

Did you know that studies have indicated the average North American spends six hours a day watching television. If you are one of these 'average' people, by the time you are sixty, you will have spent fifteen years watching television. If you cut just one hour from your television time and spent that time learning - that would be 365 hours a year- which works out to be two months of extra time!

An excellent way to fit learning into a busy schedule is to use time spent on essential, but less productive activities. For example I like to use the time I spend in the car to receive personal mentoring from successful people such as Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, or Tony Alessandra. I just pop an audio CD in the deck and listen as I drive to the grocery store, or on the way to a business appointment. Listening and learning at the same time as doing a household chore such as preparing dinner works well for me also. I always learn something new, even though I may have listened to a CD several times.

Audio Books are another way of learning that fits in with todays busy life style. Just upload one onto your MP3 player and take it with you wherever you go. Learn from other's experiences, and get renewed motivation, and hear it again and again

To Be Thankful For

It is so easy to focus on the negative aspects of things that happen in our everyday lives.

I was so glad to come across this poem today, as it focused me on seeing things that can irritate in a different perspective.

TO BE THANKFUL FOR:

The mess to clean after a party because it means I
have been surrounded by friends.

The taxes I pay because it means that I'm employed.

The clothes that fit a little too snug because it
means I have enough to eat.

My shadow who watches me work because it means I
am out in the sunshine.

A lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning
and gutters that need fixing because it means I have
a home.

All the complaining I hear about our government because
it means we have freedom of speech.

The space I find at the far end of the parking lot because
it means I am capable of walking.

My huge heating bill because it means I am warm.

The lady behind me in church who sings off key because
it means that I can hear.

The piles of laundry and ironing because it means I have
clothes to wear.

Weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because
it means I have been productive.

The alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because
it means that I'm alive.

Getting too much email bogs me down but at least I know I
have friends who are thinking of me.

~ Unknown