Still in business, but does it have to be a struggle?

Business seems to be that much tougher today than ever before. More regulation, more taxes (despite what Trev would have us believe) more pressure, more traffic, more headaches, more paperwork. Each person may have his or her own definition of success, but it seems we all spend a disproportionate amount of our waking time toiling to earn a living. Doesn't this perhaps indicate that for many of us, no matter what we like to say or believe, success is irrevocably tied to our financial standing? It follows then, that this time should be spent as productively as possible to allow us a little additional leisure time and peace of mind now and in the future. Unfortunately, our conditioning (also known as "old programmes") sometimes keeps us in a groove that serves our immediate security needs whilst limiting our possibilities.

Today I'm going to share with you the six key character qualities that generate outstanding success. They are also the six qualities that consistently separate the successful from the unsuccessful. Research shows that people who display these characteristics habitually achieve dramatically better results in every realm of their lives than people who don't. The six qualities are goals, planning, discipline, action, perseverance and resilience.

1. Goal orientation. When we have an appointment at an unfamiliar location, we get the map out and plan our route. Yet most of us fail to plan the really important things (like our lives) and end up having to deal with the daily consequences of our own lack of direction - not enough time, money, freedom, happiness, energy or motivation. It has been chronicled at length through the ages that goal orientation is a sure-fire route to abundance. And written goals, reread on a daily basis produce the quickest, most spectacular and sustainable results. People who know where they're going have a better chance of getting there. Logical, very logical, but most unusual....

2. Planner. Goals without an implementation plan usually remain dreams. Dreams are hugely important. Dreams are the source of greatness - the idea before the deed. Goals are the commitment to a chosen dream, but planning is the route map and when it is effective, it reduces pain and rapidly accelerates the pace of achievement. When planning backfires or things don't work out, at least one can re-evaluate and try again. But where there is no plan there is seldom momentum, and never results.

3. Discipline. You've set the goal and planned your course. The link between planning and the next step is the discipline to follow your plan. Discipline eliminates the type of distractions experienced by the hare who had such a hectic social life along the way that he ended up being beaten by the pedestrian but focussed tortoise!

4. Action. Knowledge is only power when it is mixed with action. Some of the most knowledgeable people around are unable to convert their knowledge to more than winning arguments (and losing friends) in pubs. Yet many academic underachievers go on to reach and maintain great heights later in life. Knowledge times procrastination gets the same results as one million times zero. The answer? Zero.

5. Perseverance. At some stage the "going" is bound to get tough. Life regularly has a way of delivering us a slap to the jaw. That's when perseverance is vital. Giving in is one's programmed response. Hanging in and finding a better way is the only language that champions understand. Momentum is the most powerful word in the English language - try standing up to a wave with an incoming tide behind it and feel the force of it...

6. Resilience. Resilience is a rare quality. It allows us to use logic and a fistful of stubbornness to shrug off the blows, and stick to the task at hand despite the evidence that tells us we should be turning back. With resilience should also come circumspection, and the ability to identify and retreat from a completely lost cause. And for this we require sound judgement.

But what is the framework upon which these qualities are built?

How do some people actually achieve outstanding results in their lives while others live in perpetual struggle? How does a man like Richard Branson become a major airline owner despite starting off a dyslexic child? How do some manage to sustain a winning attitude, getting up and moving on, no matter what life throws at them, while others cave in to their troubles, whining and bleating at the poor hand that life perpetually deals them? One answer may lie in simplistic yet compelling definition of a winning attitude:

"A winning attitude is when your belief that you can is stronger than the evidence that suggests you can't"

Over 2500 people in 9 locations throughout Southern Africa in the past 20 months have attended the Winning Attitude and it is still going. (Almost ready to take on "Defending The Caveman!")

Last Friday a week ago, one of my past delegates phoned to tell me that by implementing just one of the many recommendations from the Winning Attitude seminar, his entire life had turned around.

We received a phone call 4 days after the Durban seminar to say that one of our delegates who was planning to shut down his business has reversed his decision, now has a new lease on life and has committed himself to a proactive plan to reduce his debtors book.

But you don't have to be in trouble, lacking in self confidence, down-and-out or directionless to benefit from this seminar. In the Winning Attitude I will reveal to you:

• The key ingredient that leads to abundance - and I'll explain why.
• What you need to have in order to guarantee personal fulfilment.
• The obstacles we must all overcome to free us from mediocrity.
• How to avoid the six traps we set ourselves for failure.
• How to recondition your "human operating system" for sustained personal success and effectiveness.
• The one thing that can prevent your results from increasing by 257% or more after attending this seminar.

I will show you why we are all born to be successful, why most of us accept programming that leads us to failure without questioning its validity, and how you can change things immediately, just as so many of my past delegates have done. You don't have to study psychology to learn how to be successful - the journey is far easier and more pleasurable than you can imagine. So if you've been procrastinating about joining us, check below and make sure you don't miss it this time around!

Paul du Toit