What Are Your Results Telling You?

Feb 14, 2016

I welcome you to join our Facebook community to discuss this newsletter and share relevant personal experiences. Click here.

 

I hope you’re having a great weekend. Did you do anything to sharpen your saw, as Stephen Covey says?

 

I’m reading Adam Grant’s new book, titled Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. I like it!. It debunks many of the myths, which have been baked into our minds, of what it takes to make original things happen in our lives. For example, many of the more successful people in history were actually procrastinators. Martin Luther King, Jr. was still writing his most famous speech as he walked up to the podium!

 

While I am thinking about it, let me tell you that this coming Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. EST I will present an exclusive webinar with my good friend Amanda Maynard. The topic is “Creating a Raving Fan Base Using LinkedIn.” I will describe my experience with LinkedIn and suggest ways to use the social network to create a foundation of fans who will buy from you even when you’re not selling. If you’d like to join in, click here to register in advance.

 

For the last couple Sundays, I’ve been writing in this newsletter about a formula for achieving whatever we desire in our lives. As a reminder, here’s that formula again:

• Success is the progressive realization of goals that we have set for ourselves.
• Achievement of goals requires self-motivation, which is the internal energy that enables us to take action with meaning and strength behind it.
• Each of us has a life vision. These visions are either positive (we see ourselves acting, with meaning and strength, in the direction of our goals), neutral (we are where we are), or negative (our current results were accidental or coincidental, and we cannot see ourselves maintaining them—this is disaster waiting to happen).
• We can create any vision we choose. Most people’s visions are based on their past experiences or their creative interpretations of their past experiences.
• To get the right kind of self-motivation that drives us toward progressive goals, we need to create positive visions.

 

Last week, we talked about self-motivation.

 

This week, let’s talk about vision. What is it? Basically, vision is how we see ourselves, on the screen of the mind, acting, doing, and being in the various areas of our lives.

 

As humans, we think in pictures. Think about that for a moment. Think about your vehicle. Think about your refrigerator. Even though those things aren’t in front of you right now, you’re able to pass through the walls of your house and see them just as if they were. A vision is simply an extension of this phenomenon.

 

Diets rarely work; although we force ourselves to make short-term changes in our actions, we have not changed the picture we have, on the screen of the mind, for ourselves. If, like me, you have struggled with your weight over the years without any medical reason, it all boils down to the picture you have for yourself on the screen of your mind. You gravitate toward that image.

 

So, this week’s question: Is your present vision positive, neutral, or negative?

 

Based on my experience, the easiest way to determine the direction of a vision is to look at the results. Results don’t lie.

 

Are you growing in your business or career? Things to think about include income, fulfillment, title, ability to help others, sales revenue, and so on.

 

Are you becoming healthier, or is your age a determinant of your health? We do not have to become less healthy as we grow older. Things to think about include body weight, waistline, endurance, and whether you feel good or feel bad.

 

Is your family prospering? Is your relationship with your spouse going in the right direction? Are you happier with your spouse today than you were yesterday? How are your kids doing? Are you positively contributing to their lives?

 

Are you generating wealth? Is your net worth increasing or decreasing? Are you giving back to society?

 

Every now and then, sit back and ask ourselves the hard questions. Your honest answers to these questions provide a glimpse into your vision.

 

Take some time today to be honest with yourself.

 

Can you honestly say to yourself that you have a positive vision for the various areas of your life? If you’re willing to share, let’s be honest with each other in the Facebook community that I mentioned at the beginning of today’s newsletter.

 

Have a great week.

Chris