I read.

A lot.

And, over the years, I’ve dabbled in self-help and success books.  I go through spurts, and honestly, sometimes I get pretty fed up with all the rah-rah stuff.  But, I also admit that I have to attribute much of what I’ve learned to all the great rah-rahers out there — Nightingale, Mandino, Canfield, Robbins, and countless others (Gitomer’s a new one on my radar).  There’s no substitute for on-the-life training and actually being out there doing and living your work, your life, and your dream job; but, great books are a tremendous supplement to that.

As I was thinking about all of these writers and cheerleaders last night, it occurred to me that they all take up a common theme, despite their side stories and experiences.

What all of the success literature of all time boils down to is what Earl Nightingale says in his class book, Earl Nightingale’s Greatest Discovery, and it’s this:

You become what you think about.

That’s it.

That’s the secret to success, and to getting your dream job.

Now, you’d have to read the whole book to get to the meaning behind those words (nope, you can’t just sit around and day dream about your dream job — ya gotta actually do something at some point), but that’s the essence of success.

Say your dream job is to become a charter boat captain somewhere in Florida.  You start by reading everything you can about boating.  Then, you boat wherever you are.  You talk to other boaters, and you meet a captain or two.  You take a vacation to Florida and spend as much time as you can on charter boats.  Maybe you hire on for a week or two to be a mate.  You read some more.  And, you think about your dream job.  All that thinking turns to doing turns to being what you’re thinking about.

I’m tellin’ ya right here and now, Earl Nightingale is right — you become what you think about.

Check out his classic of a book, Earl Nightingale’s Greatest Discovery and let me know what you think.  It has been around for ages, and it gets smarter with each passing year.

Nightingale and this book are both Top 5ers.

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I’ve found that most people don’t seek out their dream jobs for one very reason:  they just don’t believe in themselves.  It’s as simple as that.  Really.

Sure, they’ll come up with all sorts of reasons (translation: ex-freakin’-cuses) why they can’t possibly make a change right now — you know the line . . . can’t take the risk right now, gotta get the kids through school, my spouse wouldn’t want me to become a ________, I can’t afford it, it wouldn’t look good, I studied something else in college, Yaddy yaddy yadda.

Bleh!

And, that belief in self really boils down to getting away from all of the negative images you’ve taught yourself to believe about yourself over the years.

So, it was a nice coincidence when I came across a section of Jeffrey Gitomer’s new book, Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, (and, wowie, zowie, let me tell ya, that little baby is a gem of a book), a few days ago because he has a section that relates directly to this topic — turning the negative into positive.

Here goes 8 things (Gitomer calls ‘em 7.5 things) you can do to turn around the negative and make it a positive.  Note that Gitomer’s references are often to a business situation, but you can turn those around to fit your dream-job-searching scenario.

1. Stop blaming circumstances for your situation.  It’s not the rain, or the car, or the phone, or the product.  It’s YOU!
2. Stop blaming other people for your situation.  If you are consistently blaming other people, guess what, Bubba, get over it — it ain’t them.
3. Know your customer or prospect better.
4. Persist until you gain an answer.
5. Know where you are or where you should be.  Manage your time.  Have lunch with a customer, not a friend.
6. Work on your skills every day.  (Werner note:  This one is huge!)  Books, CDs, seminars.  You can never read enough books or listen to enough CDs.
7. Become solution oriented.  Instead of griping or wallowing in your problems, why not spend the same amount of time working on solutions?
8. Think before talking.  People speak without thinking, only to regret what they’ve said.  Every time you are about to engage someone else, think quickly about what it is you are about to say.  How will the words be received?  And, what else could you be saying that might create a more positive expression?  The goal is a positive response or result.

Check out Jeffrey Gitomer’s stuff.  Worth a long look-see.

Source: Gitomer’s Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude (I’ll be doing a full review of this whack-your-noggin’ book later on; it’s real solid, and a fun read to boot).

 

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Excerpt from a recent Fortune Magazine article:

What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway (Charts) Chairman Warren Buffett the world’s premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was “wired at birth to allocate capital.” It’s a one-in-a-million thing. You’ve got it - or you don’t.

Well, folks, it’s not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don’t exist. (Sorry, Warren.) You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that’s demanding and painful.

For the rest of this article, click below . . .

Source:  Fortune Magazine

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The journey is better than the inn.
–Cervantes

If you can’t do it excellently, don’t do it at all.  Because if it’s not excellent it won’t be profitable or fun, and if you’re not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing here?
–Robert Townsend

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I think you know by now that I’m a pretty big fan of Tom Butler-Bowden and the work he’s been putting in over the last several years with his books on success, self-help, and spirituality.  See 50 Success Classics for more details about Tom and my review of that book.

So, I was pretty thrilled when Tom agreed to talk with me so that I could share some of his thoughts with you.

MW: Tom, what are you doing for work these days, and why?
TBB: I’ve just finished writing a book on the classic works of popular psychology (50 Psychology Classics, due for release in January) in which I look at some of the outstanding writings in the field, everyone from Freud, Jung and Adler to William James and Alfred Kinsey, and also pick out some of the best modern stuff from people such as Martin Seligman (Authentic Happiness) and Malcolm Gladwell (Blink). The book is basically about human nature, or what makes people tick. This is something we would all like to know more about – not just the psychologists! So I wanted to put in one volume many of the most intriguing ideas and research about motivation, the emotions, and intelligence.

MW: How did you get involved in doing the 50 series?
TBB: I had a regular job writing briefing notes for senior politicians, then happened to start reading Steven Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, followed by Anthony Robbins Awaken The Giant Within. I was amazed by what these authors were saying about personal possibility, and started taking notes about some of the best books in the personal development field. I read more, researched more, and the result was – a few years later – my first book, 50 Self-Help Classics. I never intended to create a series, but it became obvious that there were plenty more classics in the motivational area that I hadn’t covered, so I then wrote 50 Success Classics.

MW: Which other titles are in the planning or development stages?
TBB: We are going to do a book on the wealth creation-investing-entrepreneurial classics, which I’m excited about, plus I have a few other concepts ready to be translated into books when the time comes, but still along roughly personal development lines. I’m also working on a book about success of a ‘slow-cooked’ nature, looking at the hundreds of examples of people in different fields who express the fact that genuine achievement takes time. If there is one principle I can take from all my reading and research, it is the importance of the time factor in any kind of success.

MW: How would you describe your dream job?
TBB: Doing what I’m doing now is my dream job, as I really created my own career. I would do it no matter how much money I had. If you can say that about your work, then you are doing what you were meant to do.

MW: What would you suggest others do to find theirs?
TBB: Simply follow a path that intrigues you, where you believe something needs to be done, to be created, to be improved, and no one seems to be doing it at the moment. If you don’t do it, who will? This is not to say that following the path might be difficult, or involve some kind of sacrifice, but if you are energized enough by what is ahead of you, none of the difficulties will matter that much to you.

MW: If you were not able to be a writer, what career do you think you might have followed?
TBB:  I probably would have stayed on the path I was on, which was being a political advisor. I enjoyed doing research and providing recommendations on courses of action for political leaders - without having to take the rap for anything! In another life I might also have become a newsreader - I fancied myself sitting behind one of those big desks breaking the day’s news, but ultimately I probably would have come back to personal development, so I’m very happy with the path I’ve taken.

MW:  From your Self-Help and Success book lists, which three or four titles would you suggest someone start with, and why?
Anthony Robbins Awaken The Giant Within - just a great all-round motivational book if you want to change your life.
David Schwartz The Magic of Thinking Big - most of the time the big difference between what people achieve in life relates to the size of their vision or goals. It is no more difficult to think big that it is to think small.  Dale Carnegie How To Win Friends and Influence People - a timeless and powerful work of ‘people relations’ from the 1930s that is also a very enjoyable, witty read.  Napoloeon Hill Think and Grow Rich - another landmark work that has awakened thousands of people to the idea that they can create prosperity through the use of their minds.

MW: How do you define success?
TBB: This might sound like a cliché, but it is simply the achievement of meaningful goals, that is, not goals that society says you should have, but ones that you have genuinely created from inside yourself.

The important point is that everyone wants to be a success, no matter what they may tell you. Even the monk in the cave has a goal to achieve enlightenment. Humans are ‘goal seeking beings’ - unlike other animals, we are able to make a difference to many people, some of whom are not even yet born, through what we do in our lives today. Appreciate that your actions reverberate across the generations, so you might as well make those actions constructive.

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Whatever you attempt, go at it with spirit.
–David Starr Jordan

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
–Confucius

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you.  Never excuse yourself.
–Henry Ward Beecher

Bloom where you’re planted.
–Motto of the American Church in Paris 

If there is no wind, row.
–Latin proverb

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.
–Buddha

If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?
–Joe Namath

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
–Thomas Edison

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, “I used everything you gave me.”
–Erma Bombeck

Remember that someone, somewhere, is practicing.  And when you meet him, he will win.
–Edward Macauley

Success is living up to your potential.  That’s all.  Wake up with a smile and go after life.  Don’t just show up at the game—or at the office.  Live it, enjoy it, taste it, smell it, feel it.
–Joe Kapp

I have never understood why hard work is supposed to be pitiable . . . You get tired, of course, often in despair, but the struggle, the challenge, the feeling of being extended as you never though you could be, is fulfilling and deeply, deeply satisfying.
–Rumer Godden

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If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music that he hears, however measured or far away.
–Henry David Thoreau

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign:  that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
–Jonathan Swift

Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no other is, and to do what no other can do.
–William Channing

It’s too hard, and life is too short, to spend your time doing something because someone else has said it’s important.  You must feel the thing yourself.
–Isidor Rabi

Imitation is suicide.
–Emerson

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
–Arthur Schopenhauer

If you want to be original, question all the truths that come down to you.
–Niles Eldridge

There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.
–Christopher Morley

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
–Anatole France

To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
–e.e. cummings

It’s amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.
–Charles F. Kettering

It is a good idea to obey all the rules when you’re young just so you’ll have the strength to break them when you’re old.
–Mark Twain

If I listened to the critics, I’d be off in a little room somewhere, cowering in a corner.
–Sting

Never follow the crowd.
–Bernard Baruch

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1. Do simple things first.
2. Learn to do them flawlessly.
3. Add new layers of activity over the results of the simple tasks.
4. Don’t change the simple things.
5. Make the new layer work as flawlessly as the simple.
6. Repeat, ad infinitum.
–MIT’s recipe for devising a system of distributed control

Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together.
–Vincent Van Gogh

The wise will always reflect on the quality, not the quantity, of life.
–Seneca

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.  The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
–Mark Twain

Our life is frittered away by detail . . . Simplify, simplify!
–Thoreau

In character, in manner, in style—in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity.
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Who begins too much accomplishes little.
–German proverb

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
–Albert Einstein

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Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir the blood.
–Daniel H. Burnham

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore.
–Andre Gide

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.
–Michelangelo

Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.
–Lloyd George

Our reach should exceed our grasp, or what’s a heaven for?
–Robert Browning

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.
–Anatole France

All things are possible until they are proved impossible—even the impossible may only be so, as of now.
–Pearl Buck

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Make a success of living by seeing the goal and aiming for it unswervingly.
–Cecil B. DeMille

In the long run, we only hit what we aim at.
–Thoreau

I’ve stopped thinking all the time of what happened yesterday.  And stopped asking myself what’s going to happen tomorrow.  What’s happening today, this minute, is what I care about.  I say:  What are you doing at this moment, Zorba? . . . I’m kissing a woman.  Well, kiss her well, Zorba.  And forget all the rest while you’re doing it; there’s nothing else on earth, only you and her!
–Nikos Kazantzakis

Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.
–Steven Covey

The dullest, the least gifted of us can achieve things that seem miraculous to those who never concentrate on anything.
–Robert MacNeil

If you make fine bone china and you’re recognized as the best in the world, you don’t suddenly announce that you’re going to make automobiles . . . we’re so self-destructive.  If you do something well, you should stick to it.
–Bob Newhart

Be like a postage stamp—stick to one thing until you’re done.
–Josh Billings

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