Reconnect With the Child Within

Do we, sometimes, wish to be a child again?
We felt free, we never wasted a minute thinking about the future. Mommy was the best, the world seemed to be so colorful and perfect. We didn't care about what people think about us at all, when we were screaming, giggling, doing stupid things. Everything seemed to be easy, teddy was our best friend, nobody told us to "finally grow up". We miss these days.

Where did the child inside every one of us go as we grew older?
As we have grown up, our appearance as well as our hearts have no longer remained as that of a kid. In the race of life, we are somewhere caught up in doing things - for the business, for the work, for others and stopped being carefree and colorful we used to be in our childhood.

Why did it happen?
We forget that there is a child inside each of us and this child wants to become out and play. The problem is that we have suppressed it with so much burden that it has gone into hiding. Some of us have never lost touch with this unique part of ourselves. Just like there are many to lose the child in us, there are many ways in which we can reconnect with the child that is inside us.

There is a child

In everyone of us

That leaps ahead in joy

Holding slender fingers

Of molten adulthood

Playing with the stars

Smiling at the sun

Eyes of mischief

So innocent, so pristine

Tugging at my sleeves

The child calls my name

Embracing me with love

In its sweet soft world.

Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do.

So what happens if we get the child out?

Well, it will make us more relaxed emotionally and spiritually making us happy and healthy. We will enjoy live and start living in our present.

How to reconnect with the fun-loving part of you?

Here are some ideas for reconnecting with the fun-loving part of you that may just have disappeared under piles of hard work and life's burden.

• Go to the playground after dark. Run, swing, slide, play in the sand or grass bare foot
• Go to a funny animated movie. If you feel silly doing this alone, take along a child
• Collect toys. Play with them when no one is watching
• Collect children's books/comics and read them when you're feeling down
• Watch comedy/cartoon movies - laugh out loud
• Adopt a puppy
• Go fishing
• Buy a fish tank and take really good care of it
• Make paper boats and race them
• Take up a hobby as a family: biking, your favorite sport, visiting museums, library trips, putting together puzzles, learning a new language
• Stop obsessing over calories. Have a lollipop. Have a chocolate fudge. Run around madly afterwards as a kid would do and you'll soon burn off those calories!
• Never say the phrase "I am too old"
  
  Let's get the child out. You are never too old to play or to dream a new dream...
  
  
  Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,
  Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!

Work on Networking

Networking is the single most powerful marketing tactic to accelerate and sustain success for any individual or organization.

It isn't just going out of your way to meet the 'right' people, rather it is creating and sustaining relationships with a group of people that you know and trust, that you will help if asked, and who will help you.

Why Network?

1. Learn dynamics within industry
2. Establish your business contacts
3. Get "plugged in" to your community
4. Seek new career opportunities
5. Facilitate win-win relationships
6. Create your referral networks
7. Accelerate your professional development
8. Develop knowledge resources

Ultimately, it's not about who you know...but WHO KNOWS YOU!!

How Network?
You can build a network internally as well as externally.

Internally,

1. Be visible at your job - don't hide in your office or cubicle
2. Volunteer for projects and make yourself available
3. Expand your lunch partners
4. Meet and talk with new coworkers and continue to communicate with them on a regular basis
5. Be informed, know where your company is going. You may want to brush-up your skills or broadening your knowledge.

Externally,

1. Join a professional organization, group or community within your field
2. Regularly attend the meetings, meet new people and benefit from the information and knowledge presented through seminars and speakers
3. Join an online professional network such as LinkedIn. You can add your professional memberships/organizations to your profile for added visibility. Invite your contacts to join and continue expanding your network with updated information.

Cultivate an influential network which makes your life more successful, fulfilling and rewarding.

Final word
Remember that in the end, it's not about quantity, but also quality. A smaller group of quality relationships is going to be that much more effective that a very large group of contacts that you hardly know. Build quality relationships and keep them strong. Working together is much easier than going it alone!

Relationships are the catalyst for success. People do business with those they like and trust. Serve as a resource, help others succeed.

Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,

Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!

How to Believe in Yourself

The biggest difference between successful people and unsuccessful people isn't intelligence or opportunity or resources. It's the belief that they can make their goals happen.

We all deal with vulnerability, uncertainty and failure. Some of us believe that if we move forward anyway, then we will figure it out.

But the question is HOW to believe in yourself?

Most of the people don't believe in themselves. And when you don't believe in yourself, you're not able to handle the rejections you get on the way to success.

Let me ask you a question. When you set your goals, who are you going to? You are going to yourself. Yet, who is often the WORST person to know what you are truly capable of? You. You are usually the least capable person to know what you're truly capable of.

Your NEGATIVE REFLECTION represents the head trash that most of us are carrying around. It's that little voice that says, "You can't do that. Who do you think you are? No one in your family has ever done that!" We all have our own Negative Reflection; but amazingly, that's NOT the real problem.

The real problem is that traditional success teachers have told us, "Well, if you don't believe in yourself, just believe in yourself." That's kind of like saying, "If you want love and support, just go to your worst enemy."

It's not that believing in yourself is wrong. It's just what when they told us to "believe in yourself", they had the wrong order.

The first stage is someone believes in you.
The second stage is you believe in someone else.
The third stage is you believe in yourself.

So what, then are the STEPS to believe in yourself?
First, find a LOVING MIRROR - someone who reflects your greatness back to you. While you may think this sounds "touchy-feely", the fact remains that every one of the happy, wealthy people has at least one person who believed in them, even when they didn't believe in themselves. That's why having a Loving Mirror is the sine qua non - the "without which, not" - of success.

To begin to find your Loving Mirrors:

First, ANSWER these key support questions...

1. What support do I need most in my life right now?
2. Who would I like to give me that support?
3. What's in it for them to support me?
4. What actions am I willing to take, to get the support I need?

Second, INTERVIEW your potential Loving Mirrors. Ask them:

1. What do you get out of me being in your life?
2. What do you see my strengths as being?
3. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate our relationship?
4. If anything less than 10, what can I do to make it a 10?

Finally, ACKNOWLEDGE the important people in your life. List 10 people who've been important to your growth, whether you've ever met them or not. Find their contact information and connect with them. Tell them what a difference they've made in your life. But here's the key: don't expect or ask for anything in return, even if you really really want to.
Just tell them, "You've been so important in my life. I was thinking about you today, and I just wanted to thank you for making a difference in my life."

Try it. You'll find that the more you believe in others, and let others believe in you, the more you'll automatically believe in yourself. That's not only how to believe in yourself, it's also one of the fastest, easiest ways to enjoy happiness and feel confident without spending a dime.

Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,

Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!

Recipe for Success - The Unconventional Way

We have always wondered what it takes to be successful. All of us know the conventional way. That is good to know, but difficult to start. This time, let's have a look at unconventional recipe for success.

1. Don't chase money, power or status
   If they come to you, that's fine. But conventional ideas about success go wrong because they focus on outcomes instead of on the processes of living. Outcomes come around from time to time, but life itself - the process of living, acting, thinking and being - happens all the time.
   
2. Take whatever time it takes to discover what matters to you the most
   Success isn't simply a matter of money, power or prestige. You could gain all of those and still feel that you have fallen short of what you wanted. We struggle for years to get where other people said we should go, only to find it does little or nothing for us.
   
3. Don't base your choices on others' approval
   We all want to please those we care about, so it's natural to try to do what they approve. But even the most loving parent or friend can't always see what is going to make your heart sing. Listen to others. Value their input and their support. But go your own way. It's better to be committed to doing what you truly love than accept something lesser for the sake of being approved by someone else.
   
4. Stay authentic
   That means always doing what truly matters to you and is part of who you are. Somewhere inside of you is a part that recalls what truly matters and will never quite let you forget it. Over the years, that inner voice is only going to get louder.
   
5. Go for meaning over money over time
   It's perfectly possible to do something meaningless to you and earn a great deal of cash while doing so. Doing something that means a great deal to you almost always makes you feel energized and alive. It's your choice.
   
6. Be endlessly greedy - for learning
   You can never learn too much or overfill your mind with new ideas. Nothing is more useful in life than a well-developed, well-stocked mind, especially one that has been broadened and enlarged in the process. There have been plenty of near geniuses whose education was almost entirely self-produced.
   
7. Make a friend of failure
   You are certain to fail sometimes and the higher your aspirations, the more frequent and significant that failure will be. People who don't strive for anything glorious rarely fail; they take no risks and never aim beyond what is easily attainable. But if you treat failure as an enemy, it's going to lead only to discouragement and even the abandoning of your hopes and dreams. Failure can be a friend, point out what isn't right yet and showing you the way to do better. The more proficient you become at accepting the lessons of failure, the quicker you will succeed.
   
8. Make sure that every time you make a mistake, it's a new one
   Making the same mistake several times shows that you haven't learned what it can teach you. Making new mistakes proves that you're trying something different. The best definition of a loser is someone who makes the same mistakes over and over again, never managing to learn anything in the process. Such a person is doomed.
   
9. Choose to spend your time with the right people
   Whether they're powerful or not, the best people to spend time with are those from whom you can learn most: the ones whose own lives have brought them joy and endless fulfillment. That means people who do what they love and love what they do. Seek them out wherever you can. Listen to them. Never mind if they are no longer living. Read their books and emulate their largeness of spirit. Learn from them all, but don't simply copy what they did in this world.What you need to use as models are their ways of thinking and responding to the challenges of the world; the process of their lives, not what it happened to contain.
   
10. Drop whatever is consistent with these principles
    That means all activities that don't move you forward towards what you value most; things that get in the way of learning; pursuits that waste time and dull your senses; and people who hold you back. You may sometimes have to be ruthless. Each of us has only one life. If you waste it, you don't get another chance. Besides, if you have chosen your dreams and aspirations wisely, what you must leave behind by dropping what's inconsistent with those dreams and will not be worth worrying about anyway.
    
    If you use this "unconventional" recipe for cooking your success, nobody can stop it from creating a masterpiece.

Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,

Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!

Why it didn't work

Think of something in your life that you've wanted to accomplish but haven't. It might be something trivial like, to reduce the amount of TV watching, or time spent browsing the Internet, or to become an early riser, or to quit alcohol, or to start your own business. Whatever it is, what is keeping you where you are instead of reaching your desired destination? Why did it not work?

Is it because you haven't gotten around to it, or are you too timid to go for it, or you took a shot and failed spectacularly.

Let's look at the most common reasons why it didn't work and you failed. We'll start at the shallow end and work our way to the deep end.

9. We don't plan
Improvised living will give us unexpected results. You will always have a better chance to succeed in any venture if you have a plan. By forming a simple plan, former non-planners will increase their rate of success.
When you make a plan, be sure it's specific. Don't say, I am going to exercise tomorrow." Say, "I'm taking the blue van to the YMCA at 6 AM tomorrow to complete a 35 minute leg workout, starting with squats."

Lesson: Having a complete vision of your intentions prepares you to execute them and you'll be more likely to flatten obstacles in your way.

8. We try to climb a mountain before we even leave the house
When you aim high, intimidation is common and that puts your goal at risk. Dream big, but break that dream down into small, daily actions that inch you closer to it every day.

Lesson: One tiny step forward beats one giant leap sideways.

7. A single battle distracts us from the war
It is disappointing to lose any battle. Sometimes it’s devastating. If your business fails, if your book or script is rejected, it’s tough to be positive.
But the war is not over, is it? If your business fails, won’t you know several key things NOT to do next time? Objectively, it’s a highly useful learning experience.

Lesson: If you're not currently in battle or have just finished (an event), zoom out your focus to determine the current best strategy, then zoom back in and prepare for your next battle.

6. We're pessimists
If you go in expecting to fail, you’ve got a great chance to do it. Pessimism leads to failure because it decreases the amount of effort a person will put forth. Success requires effort, which is fueled by the perspective that your efforts are not in vain.

Lesson: You instinctively hesitate to invest in a sinking ship, even if you’re the one sinking it.

5. We're scared
Fear must be cold, because it freezes people. Deer are famous for freezing right before a car hits them. Like that situation, freezing in place isn't a smart strategy in life.

Lesson: Fear is failure's not-so-secret weapon. Fear itself is afraid of the spotlight. Get into the habit of confronting it and soon enough, it will be afraid of YOU.

4. Excuses - we blame anyone and everything but ourselves
"If she didn't...If I wasn't living here...If the economy...If that hadn't happened..."

Blaming others, while a lousy thing to do, isn't even a problem - it's the poisoned perspective it reveals. Do you know what it really means?
Excuses and throwing blame are the same way of saying, "I'm not in control." Now that's scary.

Lesson: You are the only variable you can control in this world.

3. We're in the wrong place
Sometimes failure is simply a matter of location - the wrong country, the wrong state, the wrong job, the worry hobby. This is the tricky aspect of failure – knowing when to move on to something else. Not all people are capable of success in all things.

Lesson: If a fish and a human switch places, they will both die of suffocation. Location matters.

2. We don't care
If you don't care about doing it well, you won't. Apathy can infect any area of our lives, and when it strikes, it produces bucketfuls of failure. The scariest part of apathy is how contagious it is. You’ll have it in one area of life, feel the resulting failure, and let it spread to another area.
This is one more reason to experiment and try different things – to ward off apathy. The more excited about your life and the possibilities to explore, the better! Apathy can often lead to the worst-case scenario of human life. That worst-case scenario is next on the list as the number one reason for failure, and it’s the saddest thing you’ll ever see in a human being.

Lesson: The more you care, the more you’ll succeed.

1. We give up
It crushes me to see it – a human being full of potential…giving up. Giving up is the number one reason people fail because it is the only permanent failure. As long as you are actively trying, you have not failed yet. But once you give up, success will not arrive unexpectedly.
You can have the worst strategy and focus on all of the wrong things, but as long as you keep trying, you will learn and have hope. That is an important truth.
Failure happens; none of us escape unblemished. But for every single person who has ever lived, the secret of life is an unflinching, inspiring little phrase that has shaped nations, bought freedom, saved lives, and fulfilled so many dreams.

Lesson: You're already in pain, you're already hurt. Get a reward from it.

Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,

Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!

Choose Your Flock Wisely

How many times have you heard that idiom? Essentially, this idiom means people of similar interests choose to spend time together. The key word is "choose" - you can choose who your friends are.

But what if you make poor choice in friends?

Are your friends helping you stretch and accomplish what you want in life?
Are your friends supporting you, especially during difficult times?
Are your friends helping you be a better person?

Keep in mind, your friends are not perfect (you're not either). However, they should be adding value - whether your friend is your constant cheerleader, your choice of reason or even the shoulder you cry on when things don't go your way.

Choose a Friend Who Helps You Achieve Your Dreams and Goals
Identify a friend who can help nourish the best in you. Someone who can lift you up, challenge, inspire and hold you accountable. One of the best moves you can make in life is to surround yourself with friends who see the potential in you that you may not even see in yourself.

Choose a Friend Who is Honest
A friend that is honest is one of the best friends you can have. Trust and honesty are cornerstones in any relationship. Choosing a friend who can tell how it is will be something you'll appreciate greatly. An honest friend will keep you walking out of the house wearing what awful green shirt or tell you the girl you're going to ask out isn't interested. They are supportive in their honesty and you should choose someone you know will not lie.

Choose a Friend Who Stands By You in Tough Times
It's so easy for us to be good friends in the fun times. But who are the people who stand by you when times turn rough? Those are your true friends. It's much harder to stand by someone that's having a tough time, so choosing a friend that is strong enough to be the shoulder to cry on or hold your hand when it's needed is a wise choice.

Choose a Friend Who Gives as Much as He/She Takes
We all have friends that only want things from us, but they never seem willing to give to us when we need it. Sometimes you're going to do what your friend wants to do, even though it's not quite your thing, and sometimes he/she is going to do what you want to do, even though it's not quite their thing. When a relationship is one-sided, we just end up feeling resentful and angry. It's not healthy. Choose a friend with whom you feel a balance of give and take.

Choose a Friend Who Gets Your Quirks, Oddities and Weird Sense of Humor
Friends need to laugh together. Choose a friend who gets those quirks and can laugh with you rather than at you. After all, if you choose a friend who gets your odd sense of humor, it's likely they have one, too. Look for someone who will laugh with you at a look or a glance. Those people will be some of your best friends. They don't put you down for the things that make you different, they embrace them.
So, choose your friends wisely to surround yourself with people who will help you become everything you are striving to become in life. And remember, to keep a good friend you need to be a good friend.

Set your life on fire and seek those who fan your flames.

Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,

Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!

How bad do you want it

Most of us say we want to be successful, but we don’t want it bad. We just kind of want it. We don’t want it badder than we want to party. We don’t want it as much as we want to be cool. Some of us want sleep more than we want success. If we want to be successful we got to be willing to give up sleep.

Whatever our bigger goals are in life, what are we willing to do achieve it? Are we willing to make sacrifices? Work when others are sleeping? Breakup with a girlfriend/boyfriend who is holding us back?
We may think we want it so bad, but do we really?

Are you willing to make sacrifices?

Any area of life where you want success isn’t going to happen overnight.
If you had a free day off of work, are you willing to spend that day doing more work? Or would you rather go out shopping?  Are you willing to skip nights out with friends? Would you wake up an hour earlier?

To be successful you must be willing to, at any moment, sacrifice what you are for what you will become.

Committed ones don't quit

Those who like the idea of doing something will quit after failing once or twice. They’ll say, “It’s too hard. It’s not meant to be. Oh well I tried.” 
The committed ones don’t stop.

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

What do ordinary people do?

They want what others have, but don’t realize how much work is involved. 
Average people day dream about what they want. Then there’s an excuse that comes along. If they try, they do so gently, like walking on a frozen pond. They’re so afraid to fail! So if they do, they think “Okay well at least I didn’t waste too much time trying."

That’s not commitment.

Take a look at yourself

Do you want to be just average or do you want to be extraordinary?
Look at your actions. Look at what you’re doing in your free time. Look at the results you’ve been getting. Take a hard look at yourself and be honest.
If it feels too easy, you’re probably not doing enough.
You may think you want it really bad, but are you willing to commit everything you’ve got?

When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.

Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,

Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!

Reclaim your Dreams

Ever thought of a life without dreams?

A life without dreams is like a garden without flowers, a sky without stars, a building without pillars.
Since we were young, we have always dreamed big. We thought about becoming an astronaut, a movie star, a scientist, and maybe even a spy. What happened to those fantastic dreams?
Reality hit. People always grow out of the stage of wanting to be something outrageous or different, and do something practical or ordinary.

But why?

Is it scary to think about what will happen if we follow our heart when it doesn't seem very practical?

Is it scary to give up the safe, predictable existence of the 9 to 5?

Is it scary to do what we think we can't do?

Is it scary when we're not sure where to start?

We have been conditioned to believe that we need to keep our heads down and follow a template for living.

It goes something like this: Go to school, go to college, find a job that you kind of like (but really don't), get married, have some kids, save for retirement and slowly give up..

But we don't have to be like this.

Just because a lot of people do something, doesn't mean that's the only way to live. You can follow your own path, wake up excited and live on your own terms.

It might seem scary at first glance. The unknown isn't a popular place to hang out. But the reality is that we always make the risks out to be much bigger than they really are. And if things don't work out, we can always go back to doing what works in the mainstream. It's better to know that we tried and failed than to have not tried at all.

It's time to reclaim our personal power and freedom. It's time to resurrect our dreams.

Step 1. Reclaim ownership of your mind

Stop living your life by a template and pave your own way.

Most people defer the ownership of their minds simply because they are afraid to be different. They're afraid of being noticed and they're afraid of what people will think about them. The only person's opinion you should care about is your own. Everyone else is secondary.

Step 2. Stop caring

One of the things that keeps you from living your dreams is that you care about things that are at odds with the types of lives you want to live. Pull all the weeds and make room for the things that make your heart sing.

Step 3. Undomesticate yourself

Once you free yourself from the idea of who you "should" be by society's standard, you'll start to get in touch with the people you actually are. Only once you find that core can you start making your dreams real.

Step 4. Define your dreams

Roll up your sleeves and start figuring out what your dreams actually are. Awaken your inner superhero and unleash the full spectrum of your desires.

Step 5. Walk the path

The goal of life is not to arrive anywhere, but to create a path so irresistible, exciting and joyful that you never want to leave it. The best paths have no end in sight. No ceiling. The roadblocks you'll come across are really opportunities to grow. The plateaus you'll experience are signals that it's time to find the next challenge.

Step 6. Promise yourself

Following your dreams is not so much about solving the mystery of life; it's about being in the mystery. It's about living and breathing curiosity and having a spirit of exploration.

It's time to start walking. Be adventurous. Follow your passion and set this earth on fire...

Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,

Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!

Pursuit of Excellence

It should seem obvious that the pursuit of excellence in everything you do would be the surest road to maximizing your potential, yet so few of us strive to do just that.

Why is that?

Rather than settle for average, why don’t we give it our all, try our very best, and never give up till the job is done?

Why is it so difficult to go the extra mile or put in the extra effort?

The answer is, because of the comfort zone.

We all want to feel some sense of safety and security. Our ego, which simply exists so our mind can feel protected, gives us a sense of safety and security. So when we’re in our “comfort zone”—that is—the place that is familiar to us, where we are familiar with the actions and generally speaking the results we’ll get from those actions—we feel safe. 

The moment we leave our comfort zone we enter uncharted waters. We execute actions that we haven’t mastered. Now there’s fear. Fear of failure. Fear of judgment. Fear of looking bad. And let’s face it: failing, being judged and looking bad really suck. 

Mediocrity is the result of staying safe and familiar. It means we have given into the fears of failure, judgment and looking bad. 

Nobody ever died of discomfort, yet living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions and more growth than everything else combined.

When you become comfortable, do you know what happens around us? Absolutely nothing. Each day becomes just like the one before. We do what we have always done, therefore we get what we have always gotten

In order to move out of the comfort zone, one must think differently, get rid of what hasn’t worked, connect with those who can give sound direction, design a plan of action and put that plan in motion in the pursuit of excellence.

You will never be disappointed in your pursuit of excellence, for there are no traffic jams along the extra mile.

Why the pursuit of excellence will always, always, always be the better option when compared to settling for mediocrity:

1. Nothing of any real significance happens to people who linger in the status quo.
2. You were created in the image of God. Therefore, you have to ability to do excellent things over and over and over again.
3. The world is already filled with mediocrity, so don't settle for adding more white noise.
4. You grow and develop as a person when you set out to do more than is merely expected or required
5. People will begin to follow you on social media and perceive you as an expert
6. Pursuing excellence shows that you aren't a victim of procrastination
7. People who tend to pursue excellence have less stress in their lives

Pursuing excellence rather than settling for mediocrity is what you’re called to do in life. It is your calling in your work, your career, your ministry, your marriage, and your life in general. You were created to produce excellence.

There is no speed limit on the pursuit of excellence.

So press on, don’t ever stop giving it your best, and don’t let the jealous voices around you (or even the small voice inside your head) ever convince you that you are not made for the MASS PRODUCTION of greatness.

Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,

Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!

Start with 'Why'

Why did only Wright Brothers succeed to build the first airplane?

Why has Apple remained one of the most innovative companies year over year?

Why was Martin Luther King Jr. able to inspire his country to come together in the Civil Rights Movement?

Why is Harley Davidson the only company whose customers have been known to regularly tattoo its trademark on their body?

Why has Southwest Airlines been the most profitable airline in history?

Why did only Walt Disney create Disneyland and Mickey Mouse?

No matter from where they hail, they all have something in common. They all started with WHY!

So, it all starts from inside out. It all starts with WHY!

Most of the organizations or people think, act or communicate they do so from the outside in, from WHAT TO WHY. And for good reason - they go from clearest thing to fuzziest thing. We say WHAT we do, we sometimes say HOW we do it, but we rarely say WHY we do WHAT we do.

But not the inspired companies. Not the inspired leaders. Every single one of them, regardless of their size or their industry, thinks, acts or communicates from the inside out.

"People don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it."

Knowing your WHY is not the only way to be "successful", but it is the only way to maintain a lasting success and have a greater blend of innovation and flexibility. When a WHY goes fuzzy, it becomes much more difficult to maintain the growth, loyalty and inspiration that helped drive the original success. By difficult, I mean that manipulation rather than inspiration fast becomes the strategy of choice to motivate behavior. This is effective in the short term but comes at a high cost in the long term.

Starting with WHY is just the beginning. There is still work to be done before a person or an organization earns the right or ability to inspire. For the Golden Circle to work, each of the pieces must be in balance and in the right order.

Clarity of WHY

It all starts with clarity. You have to know WHY you do WHAT you do. If people don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it, so it follows that if you don't know WHY you do WHAT you do, how will anyone else? To lead it requires those who willingly follow. It requires those who believe in something bigger than a single issue. To inspire starts with the clarity of WHY.

Discipline of HOW

Once you know WHY you do WHAT you do, the question is HOW will you do it? HOWs are the values or principles that guide HOW to bring your cause to life. The inherent nature of doing things for the long-term success often includes investments or short-term costs. That's why the discipline to never veer from your cause, to hold yourself accountable to HOW you do things, is the hardest part.

Consistency of WHAT

Everything you say and everything you do has to prove what you believe. A WHY is just a belief. HOWs are the actions you take to realize that belief. And WHATs are the results of those actions - everything you say and do. If people don't buy WHAT you do but WHY you do it, then all things must be consistent. With consistency people will see and hear, without a shadow of a doubt, what you believe. It is at the WHAT level that authenticity happens.

Following the above order, start with WHY, know HOW you want to do WHAT you want to do!

The more organizations and people who learn to start with WHY, the more people there will be who wake up being fulfilled by the work they do.

Just be happy without a reason, keep a smile all the season,

Life is too short to be stressed, so stay happy, stay blessed!!