Part 5: Self Improvement 101: The 62 Essential Truths about Improving Your Life - by David Riklan

If you missed lesson 4, please click here: http://www.selfgrowth.com/gwlesson4.html  

Today's section (Part 5): The "Ten Commandments" of Self Improvement.

This section focuses on the basics of Self Improvement.  What does it really take to change your life? Let me begin by giving you a little background. Here are some guidelines, what I like to call the pre-commandments of Self Improvement:

 ---There is no single book, tape, seminar, expert or system that will work equally well for everybody.

---There is no master plan for everybody. We are all unique.

---There is no panacea (a remedy for all diseases, evils or difficulties; a cure-all).

---There are many people with products and information that can help you.

---There are a lot of books, tapes, and programs out there that will provide you with very little benefit.

 Now let me share with you some ideas that I believe will stick with you throughout your time as a Self Improvement seeker. The following are ten steps or "Commandments" you can use as you scan the aisles, check the Web sites and read the books trying to improve your life.  For each of these "Ten Commandments", I have included quotes that support that belief from a variety of experts in the field of Self Improvement and beyond.

You are probably familiar with many of these "Commandments". If you are, please look at these as a refresher course to remind you of the basics. The Ten Commandments of Self Improvement Are as Follows:

 #1:  Thou Shalt Take Responsibility for Your Life

Dr. Phil: "Life Law:-You Create Your Own Experience. Acknowledge and Accept Responsibility for your life"

Stephen Covey: "Taking initiative does not mean being pushy, obnoxious, or aggressive.  It does mean recognizing our responsibility to make things happen."

Les Brown: "Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else."

Denis Waitley: "There are two primary choices in life:  to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them."

#2:  Thou Shall Take Action

Dr. Phil McGraw: "Life Rewards Action. Make Careful Decisions"

Tony Robbins: "Take Massive Action"

Dale Carnegie: The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore

Jack Canfield "Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you.  But you have to take action to get it."

#3:  Thou Shall Have desire

Napoleon Hill: Desire is the starting point of all achievement.

Muhammad Ali: "Champions aren't made in the gyms.  Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision."

Mario Andretti: "Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal -- a commitment to excellence -- that will enable you to attain the success you seek."

Earl Nightingale: "The key that unlocks energy is 'Desire.'  It's also the key to a long and interesting life.  If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited."

#4:  Thou Shall Set Goals

Tony Robbins: Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

Aristotle: First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.

Maxwell Maltz: People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project. Always have something ahead of you to ''look forward to'' -- to work for and hope for.

Brian Tracy: "Every single life only becomes great when the individual sets upon a goal or goals which they really believe in, which they can really commit themselves to, which they can put their whole heart and soul into."

Zig Ziglar "A goal properly set is halfway reached."

#5:  Thou Shalt Create a Plan

Unknown: If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail.

 Napoleon Hill: When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

Mark Victor Hansen: The majority of people meet with failure because they lack the persistence to create new plans to take the place of failed plans.

#6:  Thou Shalt Pay the Price

Vince Lombardi: "The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.

Orison Swett Marden: Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price and it is yours.

#7:  Thou Shalt Have Persistence

Calvin Coolidge: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.".

Orison Swett Marden: "There is genius in persistence.  It conquers all opposers.  It gives confidence.  It annihilates obstacles.  Everybody believes in a determined man.  People know that when he undertakes a thing, the battle is half won, for his rule is to accomplish whatever he sets out to do."

#8:  Thou Shalt Believe

Denis Waitley: "If you believe you can, you probably can.  If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't.  Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad."

Anthony Robbins: "If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything."

Maxwell Maltz: Realizing that our actions, feelings and behavior are the result of our own images and beliefs gives us the level that psychology has always needed for changing personality.

David J. Schwartz:  "The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.  Think little goals and expect little achievements.

Think big goals and win big success.  Remember this, too!  Big ideas and big plans are often easier-certainly no more difficult-than small ideas and small plans."

# 9 Thou Shalt Learn From Thy Mistakes

Winston Churchill: All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.

Oprah Winfrey: There are no failures, only lessons to be learned.

John Sculley: I have found that I always learn more from my mistakes than from my successes. If you aren't making some mistakes, you aren't taking enough chances.

 # 10:  Thou Shalt Create A Clear Picture of Your Future and Visualize It

Earl Nightingale: Picture yourself in your minds eye as having already achieved this goal. See yourself doing the things you'll be doing when you've reached your goal.

Stephen Covey: Create a clear, mutual understanding of what needs to be accomplished, focusing on what, not how; results not methods. Spend time. Be patient. Visualize the desired result .

Robert L Schwartz: "The entrepreneur is essentially a visualizer and an actualizer. He can visualize something, and when visualizes it he sees exactly how to make it happen." --

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Phone:  (732)-761-9930

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