Many work hard at achieving success. Unfortunately most of that work is externally oriented. What do I mean by that?

Well I mean that individuals do the following:

1. Learn new skills.

2. Strategize.

3. Learn to read their environment.

4. Learn to second guess their competition.

5. Work hard at creating opportunities.

And so on.

If you look at what all of these have in common you will see that they are “externally oriented” activities. That is they are focused on what is going on “outside” of the individual.

Did you know however that an individual’s ability to achieve success is an “internal” matter exclusively?

By internal matter I mean that it is determined by the repertoire of unconscious and consciously held beliefs that one holds about one’s self and one’s reality.

Did you know that most of these beliefs are preprogrammed into you by the time you are 6 years of age by the experiences you have had in your family environment.

Children prior to the age of 6 are highly suggestible, that is they are highly hypnotizable and therefore tend to absorb many beliefs that they are conditioned with in this early family environment. Such conditioning remains there for life at an unconscious level and literally creates an internal reality that imposes significant limitations on that individual.

As this conditioning is unconscious many never even recognize its presence yet find themselves running into its invisible wall over and over again. This wall manifests as recurring patterns of self sabotaging habits, thoughts, behaviors and perceptions that often lead to failure in one or more areas of life.

The net result of such unconscious conditioning is to create a great deal of stress, undermine one’s success, one’s relationships, one’s health and so on.

Attempts to work “externally” are only thwarted by this invisible conditioning at some point leaving the individual depleted of life energy and of self confidence.

It’s much like trying to run through a solid wall with your eyes closed in order to get to the other side. I think you’ll recognize that it is going to be painful.

The power of this invisible conditioning has tremendous power to undermine one’s life.

In order to address it it requires the following from the individual:

1. Courage to face it.

2. To make it conscious.

3. To recognize the illogical beliefs that keep them anchored in unconsciousness.

4. An approach that will allow the complete release of the conditioning as well as those beliefs that hold them inside.

Parts 2 to 4 can all be achieved through a new modality called the Mind Resonance Process(R) (MRP) that I developed over 10 years ago. Part 1 can only come from you.

The way to summon up the courage to undertake MRP is to reflect on the amount of energy depletion and pain you have allowed yourself to tolerate as a result of all of your conditioning so far.

When you feel that you’ve had enough then out of that feeling you’ll find the courage to move forward to your freedom.

When you’re ready feel free to set up your introductory consultation with me over the telephone by visiting the web link below.

Dr. Nick Arrizza is trained in Chemical Engineering, Business Management & Leadership, Medicine and Psychiatry. He is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer, Key Note Speaker,Editor of a New Ezine Called “Spirituality And Science” (which is requesting high quality article submissions) Author of “Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation” (available in ebook format on his web site), Stress Management Coach, Peak Performance Coach & Energy Medicine Researcher, Specializes in Life and Executive Performance Coaching, is the Developer of a powerful new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) that helps build physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being by helping to permanently release negative beliefs, emotions, perceptions and memories. He holds live workshops, international telephone coaching sessions and international teleconference workshops on Physical. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual Well Being.

Web Site: http://www.telecoaching4u.com/IntroConsult.htm

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Paul also encourages leaders to give themselves wholly to godliness. (1 Timothy 4:15). Doing so brings about godliness in others. The effective leader will not be a force of just personality and power plays. Leaders cannot be power seeking controllers of others lives, when it is the Lord who is in control. Some people see experiences and challenges as learning opportunities and value others as role models and sources of feedback. Effective leaders must be relationship oriented, centered on building and mentoring others. “The key to effective leadership is the ability to care, and make accurate judgments about how others react to you.”1 Sincerity, hospitality, good-natured, and being respectable are mentoring tools that Paul provided to Timothy to help him lead leaders.

Before undertaking the mentoring role, it is essential to understand the process and the difference between mentoring and other leadership development tools such as coaching or tutoring. It is a confidential relationship between mentor and protégé and this confidence must be maintained. The role of the mentor is to help the person bring about the transition from reliance on others to reliance on him or herself. “Every day we each grow older, meet new people, encounter new problems and challenges, and perhaps suffer some defeats. No matter how little we seem to change, remaining the same is impossible.”2 Helping someone to learn and grow should be the goal of a good mentor. “The real aim of mentoring is not mastery, because it implies closure or an ending.” 3. The ultimate goal should be continuous growth.

The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) is a research tool developed by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner in 1983. They wanted to know what people did when they were at their “personal best” in leading others. From this project evolved The Leadership Challenge Model. From an analysis of the personal-best cases, they developed a model of leadership that consists of what Kouzes and Posner call The Five Practices: 1) Challenging the process, 2) Inspiring a shared vision, 3) Enabling others to act, 4) Modeling the way, and 5) Encouraging the heart. I took the survey and asked three of my Navy colleagues to take it as well - a department head from a previous command, a fellow division officer from my tour onboard USS ESTOCIN (FFG 15), and a subordinate from my department head tour onboard USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (FFG 58).

The greatest differential between how I rated myself and how my colleagues viewed me occurred in the area of Inspiring a shared vision - specifically enlisting others in a common vision. I understand the need to get buy-in on the vision, to enlist others in the dream but more importantly I did not get followers and colleagues to understand, accept, and commit to the vision. “Teaching a vision - and confirming that the vision is shared - is a process of engaging constituents in conversations about their lives, about their hopes and dreams.”4. This is just one of the many mentoring tools available to leaders.

Knowledge management is another tool available to help leaders lead others. Knowledge Management refers to a range of practices used by many organizations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge across the organization. This includes Knowledge Acquisition, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Sharing, and Knowledge Application. These programs correlate to organizational objectives and generate specific outcomes such as increased performance, competitive advantage, or higher levels of innovation. While the transfer of knowledge will always exist (i.e. discussion with peers around the water cooler, professional development training, mentoring programs, etc.), the way in which organizations perceive this transfer is changing. Management programs are explicitly evaluating and managing knowledge-based resources or the creation, identification, accumulation, and application of knowledge across an organization.

The term knowledge-based resources refer to “skills, abilities, and learning capacity.”5 These skills develop through experience and formal training and the resources include all the intellectual abilities and knowledge possessed by employees, as well as their capacity to learn and acquire more knowledge. Thus, knowledge-based resources include what employees have mastered as well as their potential for adapting and acquiring new information. The U.S. Navy, for example, is focusing on every person employed by the Navy - every sailor, every government civilian, every contractor, and even consultants. The knowledge may or may not have been acquired while working for (or specifically for) the Navy. Thus, the creation of knowledge comes not only in the training of employees but also in the hiring of new employees, consulting services, or through the linkages that people bring with them. These linkages might include the personal relationships that bind together members of an organization as well as relationships that link organizational members to other external sources of human capital (physical and intellectual). “Many knowledge resources may be acquired by hiring new individuals, and these resources may improve performance of a job or even the performance of a team or work unit. In order to become sources of competitive advantage, however, such individual resources must increase performance at the organizational level.” 6

To create, share, and transfer knowledge, leaders must have a process in place for both physical and social support. For example, the technology used (i.e. Internet or intranets) must allow for more self-directed learning and easier sharing of knowledge while social facilitation would be to provide people with a forum for sharing knowledge with others. “Knowledge management is a social activity; whether it is mediated by technology or not, sharing knowledge involves people working together. Creation of intellectual capital can be facilitated through action learning and use of communities of learning or practice.” 7.

1. Manuel London, Leadership Development: Paths to Self-Insight and Professional Growth, (Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Incorporated, 2001), 32.

2. Gordon F. Shea, Mentoring: How to Develop Successful Mentor Behaviors, (Menlo Park: Course Technology Crisp, 2001), 27.

3. Christopher R. Bell, Managers as Mentors: Building Partnerships for Learning, (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, Inc., 2002), 93.

4. James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, The Leadership Challenge. 3rd Ed., (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Books, 2002), 143.

5. Susan E. Jackson, Michael A. Hitt, and Angelo S. DeNisi; Managing Knowledge for Sustained Competitive Advantage: Designing Strategies for Effective Human Resource Management, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 7.

6. Susan E. Jackson, Michael A. Hitt, and Angelo S. DeNisi; Managing Knowledge for Sustained Competitive Advantage: Designing Strategies for Effective Human Resource Management, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 10.

7. Susan E. Jackson, Michael A. Hitt, and Angelo S. DeNisi; Managing Knowledge for Sustained Competitive Advantage, 217.

Are leaders only born, or can you become a real leader? History answers this question. You can become a leader, and even of a country. It’s up to you. Here are the basics of how to become a real leader.

Check Yourself. Who are You?

To become a real leader, people would have to follow you. Why should they? Have you anywhere to lead them? Whether it be in your family, your work, an organization, wherever, you must check yourself to see “why would people wish to follow my leadership?”

This means, are you the role model or example people can relate to? No? If not, you must become so. Talking about what you can do, who you are, and so on will not make you a leader.

Becoming a Role Model

Nothing secret here. You are the master of your actions, and if you wish, you can become the perfect father, or employee, or employer, or member of an organization. People will notice. Are you the first to stand up for what you believe? Are you always present at important events? Is you working meaningful? People notice these things

You Change by Being a Role Model

Perhaps you were not the perfect father, employee and so on, but by working towards it, YOU CHANGE, it’s inevitable. As you change, people notice.

What is a Leader?

The characteristics of a leader are too wide to describe here. Sometimes (and in primitive societies) leaders were simply the strongest of men. Over time and evolution, that changed. Leaders were often the wealthy, or even the crafty. People followed willingly, and often unwillingly. A real leader leads people willingly.

As the most basic example, as the leader of a family, your actions and words must always be the same. Do as you say and say as you do. You must always be there to support any of the others in the family situation. You must demonstrate your intentions that the family is the single most important thing in your life.

A leader has these qualities, and in the final analysis, people notice, people begin to follow. If you can lead a family, you can lead your workplace. If you can lead at your workplace, you can lead an organization. It follows, and in the end, you can lead a whole country. It’s up to you, and the energy you are willing to put into it.

People are Following, Now What?

So you have become a leader. Your responsibilities have just increased. You are a role model and have now the power given to you by people who follow. They expect you will cover their needs, and lead them in the way of their obvious benefit. If you can do this, people will really follow, and you have become a real leader.

Last Word

Don’t let down the people who put their trust in you. If you wish to lead, this is your basic responsibility.

Although Dr. Herbert Benson wrote a fascinating book called the Relaxation Response in which he outlined 6 steps to relax deeply, you have probably never heard of the Pleasure Response.

You probably have not heard about it because I haven’t told anyone about it yet—unless of course, someone else has been thinking the same thing and has already communicated it.

Before I get into it, I have a question for you:

Have you ever noticed that when you should do something but you don’t really want to do it, you either force yourself to do it–if you’re experiencing sufficient external or internal pressure– or–if you can get away with it–you don’t do it at all?

Sooner or later, and more often sooner, you avoid the activity altogether.

There are numerous things that we should do that would benefit us if we did them, but we just don’t want to do them.

Examples abound: balancing your check book, exercising, eating right, performing better at your job, and so on.

The reason you don’t want to do these things is because you link up pain to doing them.

It is as easy to make the Pleasure Response work for you. All you have to do is link up pleasure to taking action. Of course, before you do this, please make sure that you should make this switch. Sometimes, the pain is a warning. For example, if you hate your job, you are being warned to do something that is closer to your own nature and to desist from being untrue to yourself.

With that said, assuming that a switch will do you a world of good, how do you turn an “I should do it but I don’t want to do it” into an “I want to do it and I want to do it now”?

You change the associations in your mind.

As an example, suppose that you hate to exercise. You know that your health and energy would benefit from it but you don’t want to do it.

The reason you don’t want to do it is because you associate pain to the action. You think of the discomfort of getting sweaty, panting, feeling physical discomfort, looking foolish, putting up with ridicule, and so on.

Yet you may have noticed that there are other people who love to exercise. In fact, they even pay to go to certain places where other people are exercising.

What is happening inside them?

They are operating on the Pleasure Response.

In their minds, they envision their improved cardiovascular fitness, muscularity, weight loss, healthy physiology and the sheer joy of energetic movement. They imagine compliments and stares of admiration. The whole exercise phenomena is a thrill to them.

Using your mental software program called your imagination, you can hold similar thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Run this program long enough and intensely enough and you’ll be reaching for that tennis racquet or gym membership in no time.

The Pleasure Response. Tap into it and you can live a much happier, productive, wealthier, and healthier life.

Here, then, is a brief checklist to make the Pleasure Response work for you.

1. Identify what you ought to do but don’t want to do.
2. Decide whether this is something that you should actually consider not doing at all.
3. If you decide it would be highly beneficial to do it, then make a list of all the painful mental associations you have with this activity.
4. Now write just the opposite response.
5. Run an imaginary scene in your mind where you are doing it and deriving a lot of pleasure.
6. You can amp up this scene with intensity and repetition.
7. You have now connected with the Pleasure Response.

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas with you. Hunting everywhere for a life worth living? Discover the life of your dreams. His free book tells you how. http://www.theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html

Copyright 2004 Saleem Rana. Please feel free to pass this
article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or
newsletter. It’s a shareware article.

Get ready for an idea that will change all what you may know about personal success.

Are you like most of people who may sit with themselves and define their strengths and weaknesses?

And after that you start developing a plan to improve your weaknesses to become a better person.

And while applying your plan, you face a lot of difficulties and you might surrender with the excuse that it is a habit that can’t be changed.

If you are like those people, then accept my apology: you are limiting your chances of success and putting yourself in a great struggle.

By following that method you are wasting time and effort and you are far beyond the fast track to ultimate personal success.

Here is what you should do with your strengths and weaknesses:

“Focus 80% of your time and energy building and improving your strengths and focus the remaining 20% on improving you weaknesses”.

Don’t say it is strange because your strengths will become weaknesses if you left them without continuous improvement.

Your strength will decrease fast while your weakness may improve slowly and you will end up being a “middle” person with no unique talent or value.

To be a person of value you have to focus on your uniqueness and special talent. Develop it, improve it, and the most important thing is: use it, use it and use it.

Forget about your weaknesses; nobody is perfect. And focus on your strengths. Focus on the unique value you have more than anyone else.

If you do that you will accelerate your personal success and become a person of great value.

Build on your talents and strengths and don’t give much attention to your weaknesses. No body is perfect.

Again, here is the golden idea for accelerating personal success:

“Focus 80% of your time and energy building and improving your strengths and focus the remaining 20% on improving you weaknesses”.

My friend, you can make a difference.

I believe in you.

Copyright 2006 by Mohamed Tohami

Mohamed Tohami author, speaker and mentor
helps you unleash your potential, live on purpose, achieve your goals and make a difference.

http://www.7stepstoliveonpurpose.com

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I might be one of the few people who like setting goals. Fortunately, I have read people who set goals are much more apt to be successful than those who do not.

I have studied how to set goals as part of my time management studies. From this study, I have found many different ways to set goals. I use multiple methods. One of the latest ones that I am working on is thinking about my leadership legacy.

What inspired me to start thinking this way was a book called, Your Leadership Legacy by Robert Galford and Regina Fazio Maruca.

Think where would you like to be at some future point. One way to do this is to write a document that says, I am now “x” years old and have accomplished the following things. I am at the following point in my life, etc. The more vivid the vision can be, the more likely, you will achieve it. Imagine how it will feel, what it will be like, how proud you are etc. I do this exercise at least two or three times a year as part of my goal setting.

It is always interesting to look back at what I wrote at different times and how close I have come in many cases to what I envisioned. Sometimes I fall short but many times, where I end up far exceeds what I thought.

I am now adding a section to that on what is the legacy that I leave behind in the various projects that I was involved in? What will the culture be? How will the decisions be made? What will the impact be on the organization as a result of my being involved in it?

I am not thinking of what people will think of me, rather how will the business sustain itself? How will the business be successful and what parts of that have I helped put in place and have I put the right parts of it in place to be successful?

Thinking in terms of legacy can change current thinking. It helps me to focus on what is truly important.