along well with the people around you, and you want to earn the respect of the
people you respect. Your involvement in social and community affairs results from
your desire to have happy interactions with others and to make a contribution to the
society you live in.
The second category is your desire for interesting and challenging work. You want to
make a good living, of course, but more than that, you want to really enjoy your
occupation or profession. The very best times of your life are when you are
completely absorbed in your work.
The third category is your desire for financial independence. You want to be free
from worries about money. You want to have enough money in the bank so that you
can make decisions without counting your pennies. You want to achieve a certain
financial state so that you can retire in comfort and never have to be concerned
about whether or not you have enough money to support your lifestyle. Financial
independence frees you from poverty and a need to depend upon others for your
livelihood. If you save and invest regularly throughout your working life, you will
eventually reach the point where you will never have to work again.
The fourth category is your desire for good health, to be free of pain and illness and
to have a continuous flow of energy and feelings of well-being. In fact, your health is
so central t your life that you take it for granted until something happens to disrupt
it.
The common denominator of these four goals, and the essential requirement for
achieving each of them, is a high level of energy. The achievement of even a small
amount of success in any one of these areas requires the development and
expenditure of energy. Energy is a critical fuel and the one ingredient without which
no other accomplishment is possible.
The aim of strategic planning for corporations is to find ways to organize the
business to increase ROE, return on equity. ROE refers to the return on the capital
invested in the enterprise. By shifting resources from areas of lower value to areas of
higher potential value, the ROE in the business can be increased. In personal
strategic planning, the aim is similar. It is also to increase ROE, but in this case, ROE
stands for return on energy. All the work on personal development, self-
improvement, goal setting, and time management is aimed at helping you to
increase your return on energy, or as my friend Ken Blanchard calls it, “your return
on life.” You are continually organizing and reorganizing your time and your
resources so that you can get the very most pleasure, satisfaction, and rewards from
the time and energy you put into your activities on a day-to-day basis.
Whereas companies have financial capital, you have human capital. Your human
capital is composed of mental, emotional, and physical energy. The more energy you
have to invest, and the more intelligently you invest it, the greater will be your
rewards.
It is not the amount of time that you spend at your work or on your relationships
that matters. Rather, it is the amount of yourself that you put into the time. If you
have gone to bed late, gotten up early, and gone to work tired, you may be
physically present for eight hours, but the quality and quantity of work that you can
accomplish during that period of time is compromised. You’ll achieve only a small
percentage of your potential productivity compared with what you can accomplish
when you are fully rested and filled with enthusiasm.
In every area of your life, it is the quality of the time that you put into your activities
that determines the rewards and satisfaction that you receive from them; this
depends upon your energy level.
Building and sustaining your energy level is imperative. Since your energy is central
to everything you accomplish, you should be very sensitive to things that either build
or deplete it. Here are six keys to building and maintaining a high level of energy and
vitality:
1.
Proper weight. Carrying extra weight on your body is like carrying a pack
loaded with bricks on your back — uphill. Excess weight tires you out. It taxes
your heart, your lungs, and your muscles. Extra weight forces your body to
burn up more energy than it normally would just to maintain life and proper
functioning.
On the other hand, losing weight will increase your energy level almost
immediately. Your self-esteem will go up. You will feel healthier and happier.
As you lose weight, you will feel a greater sense of power and personal
control. When you reach your ideal weight, you will be more effective in
everything else you do.
2.
Proper diet. The foods you eat have a tremendous impact on your energy
level throughout the day. Changes in your diet can make you feel fresher,
more alive, more alert, and filled with greater vitality than you can imagine.
The way to live to a ripe, happy, healthy old age is to shift the proportions of
food you eat so you are consuming more fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain
products. When you get used to eating highly nutritious foods, you’ll be less
willing to eat foods that are not particularly good for you.
3.
Proper exercise. The more regularly you exercise, the more energy you have,
the better you feel, and the longer you will live. Regular exercise enhances
your digestion, reduces the number of hours that you need to sleep, and
increases your vitality in the physical, mental, and emotional realms.
There are three basic types of exercise: flexibility, strength, and endurance.
Flexibility exercises, such as yoga, require gentle stretching of all your
muscles and the articulation of each of your joints each day. The more you
stretch your muscles on a regular basis, the more relaxed, coordinated, and
looser you will feel.
Strength exercises include calisthenics, weight lifting, and other exercises that
build your muscles.
But perhaps the most important are endurance, or aerobic, exercises. One of
the keys to long life and good health is aerobic exercise at least three times
per week for a minimum of 30 minutes per time. You can achieve aerobic
fitness by walking, running, swimming, cycling, rowing, or cross-country
skiing. The important thing is that you exercise at least three times per week
— and many people say five times per week — for the rest of your life. This
will affect your levels of health and energy in everything else you do.
Everything counts.
4.
Proper rest and recreation. On average, you need seven to eight hours of
good, solid sleep each night. Some people can get by on less. But you should
plan and organize your evenings so that you are “early to bed and early to
rise.” Remember, nature demands balance in all things. If you are going to
work hard during the day, you must take time off to rest and recuperate in
the evenings and on the weekends. The more balance you have between
work and recreation, the more energy you will have and the more productive
you will be.
5.
Proper breathing. By breathing, I mean deep diaphragmatic breathing, where
you fill your lungs to the count of 10, hold to the count of 10, and then exhale
to the count of 10. If you do this seven to 10 times, two or three times per
day, you will be amazed at how much fresher and more relaxed you feel.
6.
Proper attitude. Positive Mental Attitude seems to go hand in hand with great
achievement and success in every walk of life. The more positive you are, the
more energy you have. The more positive you are, the happier you are. The
more positive you are, the more positive are the people and situations you
attract into your life. The more positive you are, the easier it seems for you to
get the cooperation of other people. The more positive you are, the more
effectively you perform.
On the other hand, negative emotions drain your energy, enthusiasm, and
vitality. They tire you out and depress your immune system. Bouts of fear,
anger, doubt, resentment, or guilt will be manifested in your physical body.
Keep your energy level high by always looking for the good in every person,
in every situation. Seek the valuable lesson in every setback or adversity.
Look for the equal or greater benefit that comes out of every disappointment.
Be a perennial optimist. Be cheerful and positive. Be helpful and supportive.
Be a source of encouragement and inspiration. Be the kind of person
everybody looks forward to seeing and talking to.
Every success is the result of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of tiny
efforts that nobody may ever see or appreciate. These tiny efforts, sacrifices,
and disciplines accumulate to make you an extraordinary person.
Everything that you do counts in some way. Nothing is neutral. Everything
either helps you or hurts you. Everything either adds up or takes away.
Everything either propels you toward your goal or moves you away from it.
Everything counts.
With regard to your levels of health and energy, everything that you do, or
don’t do, will have an impact on how you feel and how you perform. And the
results of all these activities are cumulative. People who are healthy and
energetic in their 50s and 60s were engaging in positive health habits in their
20s and 30s. People who live a long, healthy, happy life into their 80s are
people who began planning for it and disciplining themselves in their 30s and
40s. Everything counts.
Leading and Motivating
By: Brian Tracy
It’s been said that “Leadership is not what you do, but who you are.” This, however,
is only partially true. Leadership is very much who you are, but it cannot be divorced
from what you do. Who you are represents the inner person, and what you do
represents the outer person. Each is dependent on the other for maximum
effectiveness.
The starting point of motivational leadership is to begin seeing yourself as a role
model, seeing yourself as an example to others. See yourself as a person who sets the
standards that others follow. A key characteristic of leaders is that they set high
standards of accountability for themselves and for their behaviors. They assume that
others are watching them and then setting their own standards by what they do. They,
in fact, lead by example, just exactly as though someone were following them around,
surreptitiously taking notes and photographs of their daily actions for others to see and
act on.
Motivational leadership is based on the Law of Indirect Effort. According to this law,
most things in human life are achieved more easily by indirect means than they are by
direct means. You more easily become a leader to others by demonstrating that you
have the qualities of leadership than you do by ordering others to follow your
directions. Instead of trying to get people to emulate you, you concentrate on living a
life that is so admirable that others want to be like you without your saying a word.
In business, there are several kinds of power. Two of these are ascribed power and
position power.
Position power is the power that comes with a job title or position in any
organization. If you become a manager in a company, you automatically have certain
powers and privileges that go along with your rank. You can order people about and
make certain decisions. You can be a leader whether or not anyone likes you.
Ascribed power is the power you gain because of the kind of person you are. In
every organization, there are people who are inordinately influential and looked up to
by others, even though their positions may not be high up on the organizational chart.
These are the men and women who are genuine leaders because of the quality of the
people they have become, because of their characters and their personalities.
Perhaps the most powerful of motivational leaders is the person who practices what
is called “servant leadership.” Confucius said, “He who would be master must be
servant of all.” The person who sees himself or herself as a servant, and who does
everything possible to help others to perform at their best, is practicing the highest
form of servant leadership.
Over the years, we have been led to believe that leaders are those who stride boldly
about, exude power and confidence, give orders and make decisions for others to carry
out. However, that is old school. The leader of today is the one who asks questions,
listens carefully, plans diligently and then builds consensus among all those who are
necessary for achieving the goals. The leader does not try to do it by himself or herself.
The leader gets things done by helping others to do them.
This brings us to five of the qualities of motivational leaders. These are qualities
that you already have to a certain degree and that you can develop further to stand out
from the people around you in a very short period of time.
The first quality is vision. This is the one single quality that, more than anything,
separates leaders from followers. Leaders have vision. Followers do not. Leaders have
the ability to stand back and see the big picture. Followers are caught up in day-to-day
activities. Leaders have developed the ability to fix their eyes on the horizon and see
greater possibilities. Followers are those whose eyes are fixed on the ground in front of
them and who are so busy that they seldom look at themselves and their activities in a
larger context.
George Bernard Shaw summarized this quality of leaders; in the words of one of his
characters: “Most men look at what is and ask, ‘Why?’ I instead look at what could be
and ask, ‘Why not?’”
The best way for you to motivate others is to be motivated yourself. The fastest
way to get others excited about a project is to get excited yourself. The way to get
others committed to achieving a goal or a result is to be totally committed yourself. The
way to build loyalty to your organization, and to other people, is to be an example of
loyalty in everything you say and do. These all are applications of the Law of Indirect
Effort. They very neatly tie in to the quality of vision.
