Knowing Your Beliefs

Controlling Your State Of Mind

Life Success Principle

Many times throughout life we have we call 'defining moments' moments that we remember for both good and bad reasons.

These moments actaully shape the way we think, act, are habits and are beliefs. Isn't it funny how something that could have happened when you were 6yrs old could still be shaping the way you live when you're 40. BUT that is exactly the case.

Everytime something happens in our life we give it a meaning, we decide how it is going to effect us and we hold onto that meaning for the rest of our lives.

We all have significant emotional events in our past that have shaped who we have become and the choices we make. If it's important then it's important.

I saw this morning myself 2 ladies working across a garden a small dog was with one of the ladies and bounded up to the other. The second lady freaked out and starting screaming and yelling at the dog and the first lady. What was going through her mind when the dog came to visit? What past meaning and defining moments had taken place in her world growing up?

Throughout life depending on your age you could probably find 6+ defining moments that have shaped your world.

The question is are these defining moments serving you and the life you would like to be living?

Remember if you can give meanings to events you can also change the meanings that you have given these events.

Doing The Same Thing - Get The Same Results

If you always do what you've always done, You'll always get what you've always got... Abraham Maslow

If you want things to be different in your life then you need to do different things, make different decisions and ask different questions. Thinking in different ways is not difficult, however still many people can not do it. Why not start with these questions....

Notice the three areas of your life you are not getting the results you want-

What are 3 things in each of these areas you can do differently?

What do you need to stop doing?

What do you need to express more?

What do you need to do much more of?

Remember change is within everyone, you just need to have a big enough reason to change...

Twelve Qualities Of Happiness

Throughout life we take different paths, make different decisions each day and ride a rollercoaster of emotions. To ensure success and happiness there are 12 qualities that we need to pocess. These qualities allow us to enjoy happiness, love, to have passion and purpose and overall feel fulfilled.

These qualities are:

1. Love
2. Optimism
3. Courgae
4. Freedom
5. Proactivity
6. Security
7. Health
8. Spirituality
9. Altruism
10. Perspective
11. Humour
12. Purpose

Plus a big extra one Appreciation

A person who can love themselves but more importantly others around them, can have big dreams and be optimistic even when times are tough, has enough security about themselves to laugh and take risks, BUT most importantly can always put things back into perspective knowing that there is a bigger picture.

A person that is happy and has great appreciation for the wolrd around them, is proactive and allows their focus to be on helping other people rather than on themselves.

This sort of person will feel a greater sense of fulfillment and happiness than someone who is self involved and lives in self doubt and fear.

We all have choices in life to who we want to be and the qualities we want to share, value and take on board. What is your choice?

The 5 Principles For Life Success

To achieve anything in life successfully there are 5 principles to follow which will allow a greater chance of success.

1. Know your outcome. Be specific with what you want. Understand clearly what it looks like, feels like, and sounds like.

2. Take Action. Each and every day do a little bit to move towards your outcome. Even if it is 1 thing you, have moved 1 step closer than the day before. The reason why so many people never have success is that one day they stop taking action.

3. Have sensory acuity to notice what’s working and what’s not working. People tend to either say they achieved something or failed at something. This way of thinking does nothing other than set you up for failure. There is no way you can get everything right all of the time. So when something doesn’t go right, do you stop, quit, give up? What if instead you thought like this, ‘there is no failure, only feedback’. Then you can notice what is not working for you and change the way you do that particular thing.

4. Have behavioural flexibility to make changes as required. If something is not working for you I guess we have two options. Quit or change the way we are currently doing things. Unfortunately to many people can’t or in fact aren’t willing to change their behaviour and therefore they think the only option is to quit. Those people who can release that something is not working and change their behaviour accordingly continue on the path forward to achieving their outcome.

5. Operate from a physiology and psychology of excellence. Whatever your outcome is complete all the previous steps with an ecology of goodness. I ask myself is it 1. Good for me?
Good for you?
Good for the greater good?

If I can answer all of those with a yes then I know I’m operating from a physiology and psychology of excellence.

So let’s complete a little exercise right now that is easy and effortless to do.

1. Choose an outcome that you would like to achieve in the next day, week or month. Write the outcome in moving towards language. For example ‘I will .....

2. Create a list of 5 things that if you took action on these things would get you closer to your goal.

3. After you complete the first 3 action, evaluate what has taken place and add more action steps to the outcome or change the current action steps because they are no longer relevant.

4. Ensure you have behavioural flexibility to change if required. Remember there is no failure here just feedback and therefore you need to monitor and adjust

5. Ask yourself when I complete this outcome is it good for me, good for others and good for the greater good?


Have fun along the way

Live Life With Passion
Michael Griffiths

Pathway To Life Fulfilment...

Pathways To Life Fulfilment and Happiness #1
By Michael Griffiths
www.secretsofasuperlife.com

We are starting a new beginning with our pathways to Life fulfilment and happiness. The quotes, statements and questions are for you to think about, write down and act upon. While the questions posed are for you to answer and create wonderful awareness for yourself.

Hold these on whatever level they work for you, don’t try to read too much into them and keep referring back as I’m sure as you grow the meanings will become different over time.

1: To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself:
First, what could I do?
Second, what could I read?
And third, who could I ask?
Jim Rohn

You are 100% responsible for your results – If you played at that level every day, what would you do differently?


What books would you read?

What courses would you do?

Who would you seek to learn more about creating your ideal life?


2: You must be the change you wish to see in the world
Mahatma Ghandi

How do you currently see the world and people in it?

How would you like to see the world and the people in it?

What needs to change in you to see the world that way?

The 10 Secrets Of Having A Coach

Top 10 Secrets Of Having A Coach Revealed
By Michael Griffiths
www.michaelgriffiths.com.au

• You’ll learn where the power comes from
• How to use the power in your own life
• How to become more successful in life or business
• Limit your mistakes
• Become more effective and influential
• How To Take it to the next level!

There are over 100 things that you can work on with your Personal / Professional Coach, but here are the top 10.

1. You will set far better goals that motivate you in a healthy way.
Did you do goal setting 101 in high school? Probably not. Enter the Coach, an expert in helping you to identify and set goals that you really want, not the ones that are “shoulds” pipedreams, that you’ve been recycling or that mirror the goals of your parents, society or Madison Avenue. Choosing the right goals for you is an art and the Coach takes the necessary time to help you clarify your personal values, so that you have something really solid on which to develop your goals. Value-based goals are naturally motivating, but it takes good coaching to get to these.

2. You’ll accomplish goals and tasks and projects much more quickly.
One of the reasons that people hire a coach is to save themselves time. Working with a coach, they learn how to be far more effective, efficient and productive in everything that they do, including their job / business or personal projects. We humans just aren’t naturally effective, even if we think we are. The coach has the tools and techniques to share with their clients so that things get done in half the time.

3. You’ll make fewer mistakes in your business life or in your personal life.
The old model of learning from your mistakes has deteriorated to be more like; how else will you learn if you don’t make mistakes? Too expensive, in our view. With a coach, you have a third eye, someone who’s been there and who has worked with others in your situation, and an expert in getting the job done with minimum of fuss. The costs (emotional, financial, time) of making mistakes has gotten very expensive in the past decade. A single mistake can ruin you in today’s hyper-paced business environment. Some clients use their coach as an inexperience insurance policy.

4. You’ll move up to the next level of your professional and personal life.
Almost everybody is moving up the ladder of business success, personal development, awareness and emotional balance. The coach can help you see where you are right now and point out ways to grow and get where you want to get to. Or, if you’re not even on the ladder, the coach can guide you to it and help you get started on your path.


5. You’ll reduce the number of problems you have and better resolve the problems that are left.
The first step in solving a problem is to ask yourself why you have this problem at all. The second step is to ask yourself why you have this problem at all. The second step is to ask yourself why you have problems at all. The third step is to get on track to having no problems – aka, becoming a Problem Free Zone (PFZ). This is not a joke. Being a PFZ is becoming even more important along the path of sustainable success. You cannot afford to have problems, period. Life’s too short and problems are too expensive. A well trained coach can help you become a PFZ.

6. You’ll likely make more money in your career, profession or business.
Clients don’t keep paying their coaches just for the fun of it. Coaching, like every other professional service, needs to improve the financial bottom line and it does. Coaches are trained to help clients to leverage their ability to make money, i.e. getting a raise, choosing a better career, starting a business, improving profitability, adding more value to their customers, proper pricing, productivity and others. Sure, coaching is personal, but it almost always includes a strong financial aspect.

7. You’ll be a lot happier and this happiness will last.
Coaches know how to help you to reduce stress, integrate all aspects of your life, simplify or downshift, and reorient around what makes you the happiest. What good is increased productivity and profitability if you’re not happy?

8. You’ll be much more effective and influential with others; family, business and personal relationships.
Communication makes life life. A coach is an expert communicator and trains clients on how to come across better, relate well others, listen aggressively, influence, coach, motivate and support others. There are over 100 communication and listening skills that clients can learn from a coach.

9. You’ll become much more attractive to others – on the inside and on the outside.
Selling, as a profession and as a proven technique / process is on its way out. Why? Because humans are getting better at choosing for themselves and buying better. Humans will always respond less to advertising and selling techniques and instead be drawn to product or service and they will be more likely drawn because of who is offering the product or service. This process is called attraction. It’s real. It works. And it will replace much of the promotion, marketing, selling, seducing and other very expensive budget items. Remember, the world (aka customers) is rapidly eliminating virtually all waste and inefficiencies in how business is conducted, products are sold and how services are delivered. Selling and mass marketing, while certainly still very effective right now, is on the hit list. Attraction is the next generation of selling and the well trained coach can help you and your business get on this track immediately.

10. You’ll have a better life, not just a better lifestyle.
The term quality of life has become overused in the past few years, but the trend of all of us seeking to create a much better life for themselves is accelerating. In fact, people are re-examining what they had assumed that a good life was (married, 2.3 kids, nice car, secure job, 3 weeks vacation a year) and are now creating their own life, often breaking the rules and flying in the face of conventional wisdom in the process. Coaches understand the Life design process and have already made many of the design changes in their own life that their clients are just now beginning to make.

A Little Mistake That Cost $100,000 A Year

A Little Mistake That Cost $100,000 A Year - Don’t Fall Into The Same Trap!
By Michael Griffiths
www.thebusinessleader.blogspot.com
www.michael-griffiths.blogspot.com

What an amazing time December is, summer begins, the days are longer with sunlight, the hot days turn into mild nights, people are out and about having fun letting down their hair after a hard year with Christmas parties, lunches and dinners while catching up with old friends.

In business December, if not November, becomes a very important time. In fact without this time you and your business would not continue past March or April the following year without it becoming a struggle.

I was reading over the weekend that small to medium business owners that fail to set up their goals, plans and outcomes for the following year make $100,000 less than those that do spend the time, set goals, make Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and know the direction they should be heading.

I’ve always believed that any small to medium business needs to do nothing other than FOLLOW WHAT THE BIG DOGS DO! Take a look at what the corporate sector does, how do they set goals, how do they plan, how do they market, how do they network, how do they sell, how do they follow up; I think you get the picture. The only difference between a corporate big dog and everyone else is they have more employees and bigger budgets, BUT they can all teach us some valuable lessons to follow and model.

The majority of people have heard the saying “Failing To Plan is Planning to Fail” however all the words in the world are fine until YOU TAKE ACTION. We are now half way through December, do you have a 2010 dairy, wall planner, do you have a plan for January and February, if not for the first six months or even better the whole year. Have you set out some KPI’s to measure your business by, to measure the direction you are heading. Do you have a 5yr, 3yr and 1 yr plan in place? Can you break that down into a 90/60/30 day plan and even further do you know your weekly and daily activities to make it happen for you.

Goal setting and planning is all about knowing what you need to be focused on over that period of time. Through many sources we have learnt that “What we focus on is what we get, to the exclusion of everything else.”

Does this start to make some sense on how you could be missing out on an extra $100,000 in 2010? If your plans and goals aren’t in place then how do you know what to focus on, who are you marketing to, who are you selling to, who do you need to speak to, who are you building relationships with, how many clients can you be working with at any given time? Planning and setting goals allows the answers to all of those questions.

A great friend of mine even goes a step further with his business; he and his wife go away on a 5 day planning retreat. Now, I don’t think they plan for the whole 5 days; however they put aside TIME EVERY year time to reflect, monitor and adjust from the previous year and set out their plans, goals, outcome, KPI’s for the following year. This then allows them to focus on what they need to be successful.

So what are you going to do for the rest of December, Planning to Succeed or Planning to Fail?
I realise that you might have all the right intentions in the world BUT just don’t know where to start.

We’ll here’s what I’m going to do. Send me an email at support@michaelgriffiths.com.au with the subject heading ‘Goal Template Help’ and I will send to you the templates that I use with my business clients.

Remember - Keep Dreaming
Michael Griffiths

Why Don’t We Listen To Others

Question - Who is the most important person in the wolrd?

I’m sure you’ll come up with some different names, but deep down we all know the right answer. Don’t We! We all know who is #1, the best person around, the number one topic all the time, and YES it is ourself.

This is the case with EVERY single person, HOWEVER not everyone acts the same way or feels a need to justify their self worth through either talking over others, adding their own story or feeling a need to comment about their own experience in conversations.

When you are in a conversation with somone, what is your conscious telling you, where is your mind really at? Are you really paying attention, or thinking about what will be for dinner, or thinking about what comment or story you could tell to make the conversation about you.

How do you feel when a person listens to you 100%, when there actually interested asking questions and showing an interest in you. It’s a pretty awsome feeling.

I did a great exercise a week back with a group of leaders on listening. The task was to be in pairs and one member had to speak for 5 minutes non stop while their partner had to listen completely; no distractions, not taking their eyes of their partners eyes, no body langauage changes and at the end they swapped over.

The comments made after the task went generally along these lines;

The talker – It was amazing to have someones full attention for that period of time, to know that they were interested in my conversation.

The listener – That was the hardest thing that I have done. There were so many distractions that I wanted to look at.

So, if it feels so good when someone really listens to us, WHY do we not return the favour and ensure that we give 100% listening ability when others speak to us. Are we really that disinterested or have we formed such a bad habit that our time and self importance is worth more to us than listening to someone else?

I was speaking with a collegue last week and shared a story, I knew before I had finished, that as soon as I finished they were going to tell me a similar story that happened to them. This occurs probably 70% of the time. Why is my question? Are we really so insecure that we need to make ourself feel more important, by talking about our #1 topic.

The next time you’re in a conversation try this, look at the person in the eyes, the whole time that their speaking, ask some questions that shows that you have been listening, get curious about what they’re talking about and at the end say nothing about yourself and acknowledge them. It want be easy but trust me IT WILL BE A GREAT FEELING!

Until next time, take care and happy listening!
Michael Griffiths