Author: Tony Fasulo

You’ve just put yourself ahead of the majority, who never think they can make a difference, and because of this, they probably never will.

Studies show that individuals with a strong belief in themselves are more likely to set and achieve success in any capacity.

When we talk of success, we are not talking solely about some business or financial success, as success doesn’t need to be like this (although if this is what you decide to aim for, then you can, of course!).

The success we are talking about here is success at “achieving”, and that achievement could be simple if you look at it in isolation, but it could and would make a positive difference to someone else.

THAT IS THE TRUE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS!

If you make a positive difference to anyone else, no matter how small, you have made a difference.

The first step is “believing” you can do this. Having belief will spur you to

The second step is “researching” what you can do to make it a reality.

The third step is planning what you need to do to make those things happen

And the fourth step, which is very important, is “Acting” on the plan you have devised

The final fifth step is reflecting on what you have done and how it had the desired impact you had initially intended.

Doing all this, however small on the outcome, means you have made a difference, and this gives you further value as a human, so keep on believing!

The number of times I hear people tell me they like to “embrace change”

We all know that humans predominately hate change, no matter what many people say about it.

You see, “embracing change” is a mantra often cited in companies and a worthwhile endeavour. If you don’t continually change in business, you will be left behind and eventually fail. So embracing change and then going ahead and evolving with the business landscape is a fundamental requirement for businesses. Hence, they often use this term.

For individuals, however, it is undoubtedly harder because…

Change means uncertainty.

Change means anxiety.

Change means the unknown!

This equates to an often perceived false “fear” that prevents most people from acting to their full potential.

People often shy away from the change or put it off for a later time, and that later time is often far away.

By doing this, they hope to “not have to think about it” because it has been pushed away.

However, all this tends to do is build anxiety at the back of your mind because you know you still probably “have to do that change”, however uncomfortable it appears on the surface.

So, my message here is to look at whatever change you are facing, write it down on a piece of paper, and write out what you think the change will do to you. This is so you are “defining” the change in your mind.

Then, create a list of both the positive and negative outcomes of the change so you clearly have them written down.

Finally, challenge all the items you have written down.

Ask a trusted friend or family member to review what you have written down to see whether there is any “actual evidence” for any of the items written down. Or are the items listed merely negative or false thoughts you have thought about regarding the outcome, where there is no evidence associated with the possible reality?

This type of journaling is powerful as it forces us to put down on paper our uncertainties about the change and creates some semblance of order.

This process reduces anxiety because it takes the jumbled, uncertain assumptions in our brains and puts them down clearly on paper.

Try this exercise because you may discover, as often happens, that the change wasn’t as daunting as we had made it out to be.

PPC stands for “Professional Persistent Consistent”

These three items are vital if you want to be successful in your own busness or the company your work for. If you apply these traits in practically most things, you will beat most other people and become successful.

It stands to reason that you need to remain professional at all times and success follows when you do. Professional also means acting with integrity and be upstanding in your particular business, projecting yourself as professional and competent at all times.

It is no coincidence that the best businesses are always professional in everything they do, so if you practice this trait in your own business or the businesses that you work in, you will attract customers and clients and ultimately be successful. Being unprofessional is a sure sign to repel any customers and clients you may be persuing or indeed already have. Being unprofessional will almost certainly lead to you failing completely.

Being persistent and consistent in your actions will also yield results, especially if seeking new customers. What most people and some companies lack is this persistent and consistent atttiude. Stopping and dropping out of a particular action far too quickly, before the successes come in. Remember the quote, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”

When are chasing anything worthwhile, whether they are personal goals or within the business arena you are involved in, being persistent and consistent will eventually get you results, as others will simply fall away sooner than they should, thus leaving you to reap the rewards.

Now I must caveat this of course. Being consistent and persistance doesn’t mean you mindlessly beat your head against a brick wall either. Measuring and analysising at each stage is vital, to determine whether gains can indeed be made. Needlessly “flogging a dead horse” is also not beneficial, so the trait of being consistent and persistance must also include regular measurement of KPI (Keep Performance Indicators) to determine whether there is indeed value in being persistant and continuing along your present course.

Can these traits be carried to personal goals?

Of course, these same traits will certainly add the same benefits when actioned in your personal life as well. So start using them today.

It always boils down to you!

Life is what you make of it.

You are given a set of cards to play this “game” of life and how you play it is totally up to you. Some people get a good deal to begin with and some not so good. Others get a right-bum deal altogether. However, it’s how we “play” those cards we have been dealt that is the key.

You can play the “victim” if you don’t like your cards and have a “whoa is me” attitude and stay down. Or you can play your cards in a manner that tries to improve your situation and circumstance, the choice of how you play YOUR cards is always yours.

Different mindset, different attitude. Different result!

This is all by playing your cards using YOUR choices.

Now of course you don’t know how your choices are gonna pan out of course. But what you do need to understand is that they are YOUR choices. You can choose “HOW” you want to respond to stuff and how you want to play your hand in life.

Realising you have this power of choice is liberating as you can influence your outcome and most people don’t realise they have this choice.

Even not choosing IS A CHOICE

So choose wisely.

No one has seen what is inside that orange until you peel it open and look beneath the surface.
No one knows what it contains “exactly” until they have looked inside.

They can have an idea of what they will find of course, but until it is peeled, no one knows exactly 100%.

The same applies to you!

No one else knows exactly what you contain inside of you until they peel away the surface and see all that is underneath.

Is what they find worth seeing?

Is what you have under the surface magical for all mankind to benefit?

Or will seeing under the surface of who you are reveal something no one wants to see?

Only you can decide what that is…

Make sure you expose a wonderful side that can make a difference.

The strange thing is, other people can “think” they know what they will find inside of you, but they can’t know for sure. Only YOU determine what the world sees.

Will they get someone who is just a taker in life and doesn’t give anything back? Just a sponge sucking in the things in life but not giving anything worthwhile back?

Or will others find something in you that surprises them? Or even takes their breath away?

Someone who has chosen to “free their magic” and use and release the talents that you have tucked away?

You can choose what others see, so choose wisely.

Doesn’t make you feel good when you’re with them…
Doesn’t make you laugh occasionally…
Doesn’t praise and lift you when you are in need of being lifted…
Doesn’t attend to your needs when you’re most vulnerable…
Seems rather to be a drain most of the time…

Then they wouldn’t be your friend, would they?

So why do some of us accept partners who are like this?

Why do we let some people who we are in an intimate relationship with, treat us this way?

Life’s too short to be with people who are ‘drains’

Find those “right” people that uplift your soul and make you feel great, especially if you choose them as a partner for more intimate relationships.

Think more than once before you get into any sort of relationship with people who drain!

What is your self-confidence like? Do you back yourself?

Do you like how you act in life and are happy with who you are?

Normally, our self-confidence can take a battering throughout our lives because we have had to listen to the word “NO” on many occasions, and being told “no” in whatever capacity, is like a very light form of rejection, as you cannot do the thing which has resulted in hearing the word “no”.

Whilst “no” could be said by someone in authority as a way of protecting us, many of us having heard the word “no” thousands of times during our lives, sometimes take this stoppage in what we want to do, as something we are doing wrong, so we are somehow “less”.

This is entirely crooked thinking, and can and does undermine our self-confidence. Just because an action cannot be performed, the action can be delayed or amended. An action is something we “do” it is not a part of who we “are”

This is why most adults take these insecurities which have their source in childhood and falsely apply them into adulthood, therefore believing we are not quite good enough.

This stifles our confidence and self-worth and therefore we become apprehensive and don’t get as much fulfilment in life as we should, falsely believing we “shouldn’t” try because of the false conditioning of all the “no’s” over the years.

This does not serve us well in adulthood as it stifles us from achieving what we want to try and achieve.

This can be changed just by changing some of the vocabulary we use on a day-to-day basis. Instead of doubting ourselves, maybe introduce the word “YET” into our vocabulary.

So if something doesn’t go to plan, or we haven’t managed to do, it’s because we haven’t perhaps quite mastered it…Yet!

This slight shift in language means what we currently can’t do isn’t forever. It gives scope to believe we can go again until we DO get things right. This builds confidence over time, meaning we are starting to believe in ourselves.

So improving our confidence is not something that can happen overnight, but we can get there step-by-step by changing our vocabulary slightly.