Excellence over Acceptability

Making a commitment to excellence is a fundamental step on the success journey. I don't know about you, but I've never met a man or woman of success who hasn't passed the landmark of dedication to personal excellence. Believe it or not, lack of excellence has nothing to do with talent, personality, conditions, or luck. Excellence is always a choice. "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilled execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives." Willa A. Foster

To achieve excellence over what's merely adequate, follow these recommendations:

1. Pay attention to details: It takes a lot of little things to add up to 100 percent. Use the start right start now brochure, take the time to show your new distributors the back office. Make sure that you build a list of names and phone numbers with every new distributor.
2. Seek continual improvement: Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better. Go for 100 percent sign up ratio, hold the line on Auto-ship and Initial Order with new sign ups. Always strive to launch your new distributors properly. Work to go from house to house building depth.
3. Practice self-discipline: Daily disciplines separate the excellent from the mediocre. If you want to change yourself, you must change something you do every day. Make a commitment to make 10 calls a day to prospects. Once you get in the habit it's easy and it pays! Do something everyday to move your business forward.
4. Maintain high personal standards: D. Bruce Lockerbie, "Mediocrity isn't at root a national problem nor a corporate or institutional problem; nor a departmental problem... You see, mediocrity is first, a personal trait, a personal concession to less than our best... Mediocrity always begins with me!" Don't ITS at half speed, don't just put a follow through off. Do the right things right and you will move forward to new ranks.

Your level of performance is a choice. You can settle for mediocrity, or you can strive for excellence. But know this: You can't make adequacy your goal and reach your potential.

Great Article by Dallin A Larsen

http://www.directsellingnews.com/index.php/site/entries_archive_display/get_out_from_behind_the_desk

Here's a great article by Dallin A Larsen on Leadership.

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We hope you don't find yourself stranded on the side of poor health. When you need better health it may be too late. Go for better health now while you can.

A wise man doesn't wait until he's thirsty to drill a well. Drill your "Better Health Well" and/or your "Financial Health Well" now while you are able. Don't wait until you HAVE to.

Want to meet people? Watch this...

Here's a simple way to get people to approach you... Want to make more contacts? Need to meet people? Step out and do what Scott did and you'll meet more people.

Discipline and Belief...

The longer I am in business for myself, the more I realize that it's discipline and belief that have the greatest impact on your success. In the MAP book written by Brig Hart, he says that "the amount of discipline that you are willing to apply to your life, not desire, determines your destiny."

I see now, how true that statement is. You can want something very much but if you don't discipline yourself to do the steps that are required you'll never achieve your desire. In the same way, if you don't believe in what you are doing, you'll never make the serious commitment to discipline yourself. It takes both discipline and belief.

But how do I gain belief and discipline? First, you take the time to study your business. Put your head in the game and learn all about the product and the comp plan. Make sure to research through the right resources. Go straight to your support team for motivation and to the company for product information.

Second, begin your run by starting with the simplest activities, like making calls to your warm market. Get with a mentor or buddy up with another excited distributor and begin right now to move forward. Set your path in such a way that everyday you have something scheduled that moves you forward. Make sure you don't fall into management mode. Stay in expansion mode by calling, sponsoring and doing tasting parties.

Remember, the three principles of success; Long Term Vision, Delayed Gratification and Harnessing the Power of Duplication. You may not become disciplined in one day or one week... it takes a long term approach. Discipline and Belief both take some sacrifice, but it's worth it when you have someone duplicate your efforts. No matter what you do, true success comes when you believe in what you are doing and you discipline yourself to stay the course.

When You Get Kicked in the Rear, You Know You’re Out in Front

From John C Maxwell

Greek philosopher Aristotle said, “Criticism is something you can avoid easily—by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” Obviously, that isn't an option for anyone who wants to be successful as a leader.

Good leaders are active, and their actions often put them out front. That often draws criticism. When spectators watch a race, where do they focus their attention? On the front-runners! People watch their every action—and often criticize.

Since criticism is a part of leadership, you need to learn how to handle it constructively. The following has helped me to deal with criticism, so I pass it on to you.

Know yourself.

Do you really know yourself? Are you aware of your weaknesses as well as your strengths? Where do you fall short as a person and leader? Not sure what your weaknesses are? Ask five trustworthy people close to you. They’ll be able to tell you where you come up short.

Know the criticism – and the critics.

When you receive criticism, how do you tell if it’s constructive or destructive? (Some say constructive criticism is when I criticize you, but destructive criticism is when you criticize me!) Here are the questions I ask to get to determine what kind of criticism it is:

Who criticized me? Adverse criticism from a wise person is more to be desired than the enthusiastic approval of a fool. The source often matters.
How was it given? I try to discern whether the person was being judgmental or whether he gave me the benefit of the doubt and spoke with kindness.
Why was it given? Was it given out of a personal hurt or for my benefit? Hurting people hurt people; they lash out or criticize to try to make themselves feel better, not to help the other person.
Stay open to change.

Let’s assume you now know yourself pretty well. You can tell when a criticism is way off-base; maybe it’s directed more at your position than at you. And you know when a criticism is 100% legitimate because it’s about a weakness that you've already discovered.

But what about the gray areas? The criticisms that might hold a grain of truth? A good leader stays open to improvement by:

Not being defensive,
Looking for the helpful grain of truth,
Making the necessary changes, and
Taking the high road.
Accept yourself.

Jonas Salk, developer of the Salk polio vaccine, had many critics in spite of his incredible contribution to medicine. Of criticism, he observed, “First people will tell you that you are wrong. Then they will tell you that you are right, but what you’re doing really isn't important. Finally, they will admit that you are right and that what you are doing is very important; but after all, they knew it all the time.”

How do leaders who are out front handle this kind of fickle response from others?

The Serenity Prayer, made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs, gives direction in this area:

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

If you have endeavored to know yourself, and have worked hard to change yourself, then what more can you do?

Forget yourself.

The final step in the process of effectively handling criticism is to stop focusing on yourself. Secure people forget about themselves so they can focus on others. By doing this, they can face nearly any kind of criticism—and even serve the critic.

I try to live out a sentiment expressed by Parkenham Beatty, who advised, “By your own soul learn to live. And if men thwart you, take no heed. If men hate you, have no care: Sing your song, dream your dream, hope your hope and pray your prayer.”

As leaders, we must always be serious about our responsibilities, but it isn't healthy for us to take ourselves too seriously. A Chinese proverb says, “Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves. They shall never cease to be entertained.”

By John C Maxwell

Unemployment Map

Copy and paste this animated map of the USA regarding unemployment.

A wise man drills a well before he's thirsty.

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Tomorrow...

He was born to be all a mortal could be-
Tomorrow
None should be stronger or braver than he-
Tomorrow
A friend who was troubled and weary, he knew,
Who'd be glad of a lift- and needed it too,
On him he would call to see what he could do-
Tomorrow
Each morning he'd stack up the letters he'd write-
Tomorrow
And he thought of the friends he'd fill with delight-
Tomorrow
It was too bad indeed he was busy today
And hadn't a moment to stop on his way
More time I'll give to the others he'd say-
Tomorrow
The greatest of workers this man would have been-
Tomorrow
And the world would have known him had he ever seen-
Tomorrow
But the fact is, he died and faded from view
And all that was left here when living was through
Was a mountain of things he intended to do-
Tomorrow

by Edgar Guest

The 21st Century Business by Robert Kiyosaki.

Here's a great video on why Network Marketing is a great business model!