Be Persistent

Bill FitzPatrick - Founder of the "American Success Institute".

Action Principle No.46>> Be Persistent, Modern life can make you soft. The status quo may become comfortably familiar. You can actually begin to believe that you are doing all that you can, or that doing more isn't worth the effort. Challenge yourself. You must start the positive momentum in your life and then you've got to stick with it day to day.

You don't need someone else to tell you not to smoke. If today, you smoked a pack, tomorrow smoke 18. The next day, 17. Improve. If you haven't read a book recently, read one. If you don't exercise, take a walk around the block. If you're shy, say to five new people: "Good morning!"

You know yourself. You know what improvement you need. You don't need anyone to tell you not to jump from a fifty-story building, so why would you need someone to tell you not to do drugs, to exercise more, eat a sensible diet, talk to your kids, or compliment your employees? You know what to do.

Keep going. No one can say that you failed until you do. Keep taking small steps forward your goal. Challenge the you who is content with yesterday's accomplishments. Take a deep breath. Changes that last a lifetime begin in a moment. With persistence, only time stands between you and your goal.

Admit Your Weaknesses

Dr. Ron Jenson - Author of "Make a Life, Not just a Living".

Admit Your Weaknesses, Admit shortcomings to yourself, to others (in the appropriate context), and to God as you know him. Just learn to admit them. Denial exacerbates the problem.

Everyone develops what I call a "box" sense of maturity. We believe that if we live according to a certain socially acceptable "box," then we are accepted and can rise in position or respectability. All of us have certain peer groups that establish the limits of acceptable and unacceptable dres and behavior. Those limits put us in a box. When we measure ourselves against this "box," our focus becomes our external lifestyle, not our internal growth. Consequently, we stop addressing or even being aware of our weaknesses.

I remember once sitting down with a friend who was struggling with worry. I said to him, "What's your greatest problem?" He said, "Money."

I looked at him and laughed. I said, "You're kidding."

"No. Why do you say I'm kidding?"

"In my view, money's not your biggest problem."
"Then what is my biggest problem?"

"It's worry."

He paled. This man worked with a group of people who didn't think worry was acceptable behavior. He said, rather frantically, "Worry? I don't worry. You're wrong. You've got to be wrong!"

"Everybody knows you worry," I said. "Your wife knows you worry. I know you worry. Anyone who meets you for five minutes knows you worry. Your stomach knows you worry. You have an ulcer. Of course you worry! What you need to hear is that it's okay - yes, okay to worry. You're not a bad person because you worry. You just don't realize that you don't need to worry."

It's okay to be impatient sometimes. It's okay if we say things we shouldn't say sometimes. I'm not glad to be full of flaws. But I recognize - and so should you - that everyone is struggling with something, and it's okay to admin it. In fact, the first principle in growth is to say, "I am helpless. I really mean am weak and I need help."

Most of us are great con artists. We pretend to be someone we're really not, and we end up playing a game all our lives. Paul Tournier said, "We can conceal our persons behind a protective barrier. We let it be seen only through the bars. We display certain of its aspects. Others we carefully hide."

Be Disciplined, Not Lazy

Dr. Ron Jenson - Author of "Make a Life, Not just a Living".

Be Disciplined, Not Lazy, We begin to make things happen when we become disciplined. We don't accomplish anything in this life without self-discipline. Richard Shelley Taylor, in his book "The Disciplined Life", defines self-discipline this way: "The ability to regulate conduct by principle and judgment rather than impulse, desire, high pressure, or social custom." You see, discipline is the ability to consciously control your circumstances. It is the ability to control your life - to put first things first.

Now here's a question for you. Are there habits in your life that were acceptable when you were a child but aren't acceptable now? Are you still struggling with giving in to impulse?

Everyone struggles with one or more of three areas: pride, sensualism, and greed. Pride, which has its place, is unhealthy when it is stimulated by self-absorption. Sensualism is being preoccupied with sensual fulfillment - food, sex, sound, thrill-seeking. (Many commercials and advertisements today are geared toward sensualism.) Greed involves people just wanting more for more's sake, or being covetous, that is, wanting what belongs to someone else. This creates a generation of people who live on plastic. They are preoccupied with their credit cards and can't stop spending.

I can relate to pride, sensualism, and greed. Yet my major point of struggle is in the area of the senses. Whether the struggle involves not wanting to exercise or wanting to eat too much or watching too much TV, it all centers on sensual gratification.

Consider your own life: What do you really desire? What makes you salivate the quickest? For me it's donuts. I like donuts. There was a place near my home in Philadelphia called the Donuttery. Whenever I go within a mile of the Donuttery, I visualized a hot cinnamon roll with butter cascading down the sides. I could smell it. I could see it. I could taste it. And like Pavlov's dog, I started to salivate and even froth just thinking about that cinnamon rol. In a very real sense, I was looking for a sensual gratification - and the words of Richard Shelley Taylor burned in my gut: "Self-discipline is basically the ability to subordinate."

If you're going to become a person who makes things happen - if you really want to be a difference-maker - then you need to become disciplined. You need to put a coach, a governor over your thoughts and actions. You need to become patterned in your life.

Develop Your Special Talent

Bill FitzPatrick - Founder of the "American Success Institute".

Action Principle No.45>> Develop Your Special Talent, You were born with a special talent. It may be to sing, write, teach, paint, mentor, preach, defend or befriend. You have something special to offer the world, something you can do better than 10,000 others. You must keep learning and trying new things to find your special talent. The world needs your gift. Be aware that even a special talent can go stale if you don't keep using and honing it. Endeavor to keep your talents and all your skills up to date.

An advantage isn't an advantage unless you use it. Find ways to use your advantages to set and reach your goals. Likewise, you should recognize and then try to minimize the impact of your limitations. Remember that not all advantages are transferable. Just because you are talented in one area doesn't mean that you will be talented at everything you try. The successful real estate investor can easily lose her money opening a restaurant. Stick to your advantages and don't stray from them without reasoned justification.

Christmas in Philippines

Christmas in Philippines

Christmas countdown, Let's celebrate together with our loveones and feel the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Love is the most precious gift that we can give to everybody. Merry Christmas to all!

Be Prudent

Bill FitzPatrick - Founder of the "American Success Institute".

Action Principle No.44>> Be Prudent, Just because you deserve victory doesn't mean that you will win every fight, game or argument. Someone else may have the tactical advantage. Have the self-confidence to know when not to fight. Perhaps the smartest course of action is to retreat and reflect upon your options. Can you return to the challenge on another day better equipped, more experienced and stronger?

The non-action of the wise man is not inaction. It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything. The heart of the wise man is tranquil. It is the mirror of heaven and earth... emptiness, stillness and tranquility. Wise men don't fight each other.

Bring excellence to life

Ralph Marston - Author of The Daily Motivator.

Bring excellence to life, You cannot achieve excellence just by proclaiming it to be. Excellence is built in the details.

Attend faithfully and competently to the details, while staying true to your purpose. That is how to bring excellence into your world.

What is done with genuine love is done with excellence. Let love guide you in each moment, and you will consistently create excellence.

Excellence resonates with what is true, what is good and authentically valuable, with what is right. Work with honesty, integrity, and a commitment to truth, and excellence will permeate the results.

Intention is critical, yet excellence does not come from good intentions alone. Excellence comes from actions persistently and consistently guided by the highest and most authentic intentions.
In each thing you do is the opportunity to create excellence. Again and again, bring excellence to life, and live true to your highest purpose.

Solving Money Problems Makes You Smarter

Robert Kiyosaki - International Bestselling Author

Solving Money Problems Makes You Smarter, When I was a young boy, rich dad said to me, "Money problems make you smarter... if you solve the problem." He also said, "If you solve your money problem, your financial intelligence grows. When your financial intelligence grows, you become richer. If you do not solve your money problem, that problem often grows into more problems." If you want to increase your financial intelligence, you need to be a problem solver. If you don't solve your money problems you will never be rich. In fact, you will become poorer the longer the problem persists.

Rich Dad used the example of having a toothache to illustrate what he meant by a problem leading to other problems. He said, "Having a money problem is like having a toothache. If you do not handle the toothache, the toothache makes you feel bad. If you feel bad, you may not do well at work because you are irritable. Not fixing the toothache can lead to further medical complications because it is easy for germs to breed and spread from your mouth. One day you lose your job because you have been missing work due to your chronic illness. Without a job, you cannot pay your rent. If you fail to solve the problem of rent money, you are on the street, homeless, in poor health, eating out of garbage cans, and you still have the toothache."

Demonstrate Your Love

Bill FitzPatrick - Founder of the "American Success Institute".

Action Principle No.43>> Demonstrate Your Love, From the Bible, we learn that love is patient and kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. It is responsibility and a willingness to work out problems.

Love is too wonderful and too powerful to be kept bottled up. Let it out with your smiles, your voice, your manner, your enthusiasm and your continuing acts of kindness. For love, you can risk being vulnerable.

When you find love, cherish and safeguard it. A loving marriage and family is worth all your efforts.

Is There an End to the Storm?

Harold J. Sala - A well-known speaker

Is There an End to the Storm, Tough times pass, but tough people - those who are focused on what God says about our lives - endure.

Such a man was the prophet Jeremiah. His beloved country, Israel, was about to be overthrown by Babylon. Jeremiah had to announce this prophecy, a message that was denounced as "unpatriotic and traitorous."

Yes Jeremiah looked beyond the external events and heard the voice of God. Yes, Israel would go into captivity for seventy years. But God promised restoration. "For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (Jeremiah 29:11).

So certain was Jeremiah that God would keep His word, that he bought a piece of property that lay in default, burying the title deed in a jar so that when the troubles had passed, he could come back and claim the property (see Jeremiah 32).

Your life may seem like a catastrophe, but the story is not yet finished. You can lean on God and say, "I trust You Lord, so please walk with me today."

Christmas in our hearts

Christmas in our hearts - Jose Mari Chan

Christmas countdown, Christmas is a very special moment to all of us. Loveones who are working abroad make sure that they could go home to celebrate and be with their families. It is the spirit of Christmas that bind our hearts together.

What You Believe Makes a Difference

Harold J. Sala - A well-known speaker

What You Believe Makes a Difference, Unlike employers who make promises and don't keep them, or friends who forget what they tell you, God is never remiss on coming through with what He says He will do. Our faith in Him is founded on His character. Because people fail us, we often bring God down to their level, wondering if He really can be trusted as well. We forget the times when He has met us in the past.

Your earthly father may not be trustworthy, but your heavenly Father is. The Bible puts it pointedly: "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?"

(Numbers 23:19) And the obvious answer is, "No!"

The Quaker scholar David Elton Trueblood put it well when he said, "Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation." Believing is important, but trusting is what brings the promises into our lives and our families. Real faith includes both.

Solving Other People's Financial Problems

Robert Kiyosaki - International Bestselling Author

Solving Other People's Financial Problems, Rich dad also said, "Many people work for rich people, solving rich people's money problems." For example, an accountant goes to work to count the rich person's money. The salesperson sells the rich person's products. The office manager manages the rich person's business. The secretary answers the rich person's phones and treats the rich person's customers respectfully. The maintenance man keeps the rich person's building and machines running smoothly. A lawyer protects the rich person from other lawyers and lawsuits. A CPA protects the rich person's money from taxes. And the banker keeps the rich person's money safe.

What rich dad was getting at was that most people work at solving other people's money problems. But who solves the worker's money problems? Most people go home and are faced with many problems, money being one of them. If a person fails to handle his or her money problems at home, the problem, like a toothache, leads to other problems.

Many of the poor and middle class work for the rich and then fail to solve their own money problems at home. Instead of looking at financial problems as opportunities to get smarter, they go home, sit in the lawn chair, have a drink, put a steak on the grill, and watch TV. The next morning, they return to work once again solving someone else's problems and making someone else richer.

Practice Forgiveness

Bill FitzPatrick - Founder of the "American Success Institute".

Action Principle No.42>> Practice Forgiveness, Anger, hatred, bitterness, resentments and thoughts of revenge are heavy weights that slow a person down. Allowed to fester, these negative feelings can consume increasingly larger portions of your life. LIberate yourself. Let it go. The forgiving person is always stronger. Be like the rock in the stream and let the thoughts of revenge flow by you.

As a person of action, improving yourself and helping others, you will make lots of mistakes. You will do foolish things. Learn the lesson.

You practice forgiveness for yourself. Consider those whom you may have offended or injured and ask for their forgiveness. Can you say, "I'm sorry and I apologize if I offended you."? If you ask and your request is rejected, you have lightened your burden in trying. Continue to encourage efforts at reconciliation.

How Knowing God should Change Your Life

Harold J. Sala - A well-known speaker

How Knowing God should Change Your Life, On the streets of Manila, dirty, brash, young entrepreneurs - called cigarette boys - dash between the cars, jeepneys, and buses. They compete with each other in selling cigarettes, candies, and gums. One such boy was struck by a vehicle and the contents of his display board were scattered on the pavement. In a moment, a man stepped quickly from the crowd of onlookers, helped the boy to his feet, and began to pick up the fallen wares.

Somewhat dazed and not sure what to say, the boy looked intently at the man's face and blurted out, "Is you Jesus?"

When your neighbors and friends look at your lfe, what do they see? When God touches your life, something should rub off: the mark of the Divine. God's attributes should be evident in the lives of His children.

The image of the Father should, in some way, be reflected in the countenance of the son.

Making the Gospel attractive isn't accomplished by making it easy but by making it desirable and authentic.

God is Never Late

Harold J. Sala - A well-known speaker

God is Never Late, God is precisely on time. His timing, however, is different from ours. He is bound neither by time nor space.

Have you learned that it is impossible to fully understand God's timing in our lives? D. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote: "He may sometimes do the opposite of what we anticipate ... Yet it is a fundamental principle in the life and walk of faith that we must always be prepared for the unexpected when we are dealing with God."

God looks at life from a different perspective. He's the timekeeper, and when we think He is late, He's apt to show up, and then learn our time is in His hands.

When it looked like Jesus was late in arriving, He showed up and raised His friend Lazarus from the dead.

God is neither early nor late, He's exactly on time!

Quitters Rarely Win

Robert Kiyosaki - International Bestselling Author

Quitters Rarely Win, There is a young man who worked for me a few years ago. He was very bright, charming, had his MBA, and earned a lot of money. In his spare time, he and his wife tried many business ventures. They tried real estate, and failed. They bought her a small franchise, and failed. Then they bought a nursing home, and nearly lost everything when patients died unexpectedly. Today, both are back at work with high-paying jobs, but an unsettling feeling of inadequacy.

The reason I mention this young couple is because they failed to learn. They let the learning process beat them. When the going got tough, they quit. While it's commendable that they tried new ventures, they stopped when their problems seemed too big to be solved. They failed to push through their failure and learn from their mistakes. They failed to realize that the process, not the money, made them rich.

One of the toughest lessons I had to learn from my rich dad was to stick with the process until I won. When I ran into trouble at Xerox because I could not sell, I wanted to quit. Because I could not sell, I was not making money. In fact, it was costing me more to live in Honolulu than I was earning. Rich dad said, "You can quit when you win, but never quit because you're losing." Not until 1978, after becoming the number one salesperson for Xerox, did I quit. The process had made me richer, both mentally and financially. By overcoming my problem of not being able to sell, I was able to overcome my problem of not making money.

While working at Xerox I started my nylon wallet business in my spare time. In 1978, I went full-time into my wallet business. The business took off, and then failed. Again, I wanted to quit; and again, rich dad reminded me that the process is more important than the goal. Many times he reminded me, while I was deeply in debt, without much money, that if and when I solved this problem, I would never need money again. I would know how to build a business, and I would be a little more financially intelligent. But first I had to solve the problem in front of me.

Valuable Experience

Ralph Marston - Author of The Daily Motivator.

Valuable Experience, You are filled with valuable experience. The things you've done and learned and seen and lived through have left behind a unique and powerful substance of experience that is yours alone.

What a shame it would be for all that to go to waste. It is yours to make use of, yours to build upon, and yours from which to grow.

By making this present moment count, you also make all the past moments count even more. You cannot live in the past, yet you can continue to draw upon the value you created there.

Right now, you can benefit greatly from the things you've already done, whatever they may have been. By tapping into the value of experience and doing something positive and productive with it, you extend and expand upon that value.

Use this day to invest your wealth of experience into effective action. That investment will immediately begin to pay dividends.

Take action, and let your valuable experience guide that action. Get value from the past and use it in the present to create an outstanding future.

Practice Forgiveness

Bill FitzPatrick - Founder of the "American Success Institute".

Action Principle No.42>> Practice Forgiveness, Anger, hatred, bitterness, resentments and thoughts of revenge are heavy weights that slow a person down. Allowed to fester, these negative feelings can consume increasingly larger portions of your life. Liberate yourself. Let it go. The forgiving person is always stronger. Be like the rock in the stream and let the thoughts of revenge flow by you.

As a person of action, improving yourself and helping others, you will make lots of mistakes. You will do foolish things. Learn the lesson.

You practice forgiveness for yourself. Consider those whom you may have offended or injured and ask for their forgiveness. Can you say, "I'm sorry and I apologize if I offended you."? If you ask and your request is rejected, you have lightened your burden in trying. Continue to encourage efforts at reconciliation.

Show Loyalty

Bill FitzPatrick - Founder of the "American Success Institute".

Action Principle No.41>> Show Loyalty, Be a stand-up person. You stand for your family, country and friends. When and if trouble comes, let others have no doubt that they can count on you for help and support. Your commitments don't waver with the moods of the moment.

You don't hesitate to act.

At work, you build customer loyalty by concentrating on service with an attitude clear to everyone that customer retention is very important to you. You don't run a business solely dependent on finding new customers.

You are consistent, devoted, faithful and true. You stand for your beliefs and values. You aren't afraid to pledge allegiance to what is right. This is loyalty.