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IN THIS ISSUE
Featured Article by Daniel R.
Murphy
The Power of
Habit – Six Steps to Achieve Success Through Habit
Featured Book Review by Daniel R.
Murphy
The Seven Habits
of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey
Guest Article
Where are Your Habits Leading
You?
by Jack Canfield
Read the Creating True Wealth Blog
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Successful
people read – Reading leads to Success!
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The Power of
Habit – How You Can Use It to Achieve Success
This issue is dedicated to the Power of Habit. It can
launch you to success beyond your own expectations and it can lead to terrible failure. Learn
how to master the Power of Habit – nothing you do will be more important in your efforts to
achieve success and create true wealth.
Today I feature three articles on Habit. First my
article on the Six Steps to Achieve Success Through
Habit outlines for you a simple but powerful process to create and maintain good habits to
help you achieve your goals.
Next is my book review of Stephen Covey’s seminal book
on the power of habits, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This remains
one of the best books on how the cultivation of proper habits can empower you to succeed in all
areas of your life.
Finally I include Jack Canfield’s article, Where Are Your Habits
Leading You? Canfield has written for years about the power of habit and how the choices
you make define the life you will get.
This is the longest newsletter I have ever published. At
just over 3800 words I know it exceeds our usual size. I believe the subject matter justifies
this. Nothing is more important than your habits, be they good or bad. As the quotation below
from Aristotle illustrates the power of your habits has been recognized for centuries as a key
to success.
Take this opportunity to examine your habits. Are there
some bad ones you might want to change? Are there some good ones you should consider developing?
Think about how the power of habit can be used to improve your life and then take action now to
develop those habits that lead to success.
I cannot sign off without mentioning that one of the
best habits you can cultivate and maintain is the habit of continuous learning and reading.
Consider this, if you were to read just one hour a day, five days a week you could easily read a
book a week. That is 50 books a year. In a decade you would have read 500 books. A simple habit
of reading five hours a week can make you one of the most well read people in the world – how
many people do you know who have read 500 books in their entire life?
The Power of Habit – use it to your advantage and do not let bad
habits pull you down.
Wishing you well,
Daniel R.
Murphy
Books2Wealth.com
Visit my blog at:
Blog: http://books2wealth.blogspot.com/
Send your questions and
suggestions to me at:
Email: info@books2wealth.com
Visit our website
at:
http://www.books2wealth.com
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Learn from a Legend!
The late Jim Rohn is a
legend in the personal development field. For over 50 years he taught and inspired millions of
people to succeed and exceed their expectations. His philosophy of personal development is
fundamental and proven. Read more about Mr. Rohn and his timeless wisdom here.
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Inspiration in a few words:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not
an act, but a habit.”
--Aristotle
(Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scientist and Physician, 384 BC-322 BC)
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Featured Article by
Daniel R. Murphy
Category: Success / Personal
Development
Six Steps to Achieve Success through Habit
One of the most important factors in
success for failure is habit. Good habits can lead to success and just as surely
bad habits lead to failure. This applies to equally to your business and your
personal life.
The late Jim Rohn often said that the
key to success are a few good disciplines practiced daily, and the key to
failure are a few bad habits practiced daily. People will often read a book,
listen to a motivational speaker, or see a successful person and feel inspired
to “change their lives”. For a few days perhaps they do things differently. They
really eat healthy foods and exercise and are prudent with their spending (all
very good habits). But the resolve is not sufficient, in a short time they
falter and a few weeks later they are right back where they started.
Has this happened to you? Chances are it
has – it happens to most of us. Many successful people have used habit
discipline to succeed on whatever goal they have.
To achieve success in your life follow
these six steps to cultivate and maintain good habits:
1. Identify clearly what you want to
achieve. Do you want to be healthy? Lose weight? Succeed in business? Improve
your friendships? Climb Mt. Everest? It really does not matter what you want to
accomplish, just be clear what it is you want to do.
If you want to lose weight do not simply
say “I want to lose weight”. Be very clear and specific. Let us say you weigh
210 lbs. and you want to lose 20 lbs. Your goal then would be to weigh 190 lbs.
and set a deadline. State your goal in present active tense, such as, “I weight
190 lbs. on December 31, 2010”. Write it down, this is crucial, and refer to it
daily.
2. Identify why you want to achieve your
goal. People are only effectively motivated by certain things. You may want to
lose weight to look better, for your upcoming high school reunion, to improve
your health or for some other reason. Be sure the reason is a good one and one
that you really believe in. Write
it down, and refer to it daily.
3. Identify what activities or steps you
need to take to achieve your goal. For example if it is losing weight maybe it
is joining a weight loss program or keeping a food diary or counting calories or
reading good books on proper diet. Make a list of these steps and plan out when
each day you will work on them. Write it down.
4. Each day, preferably first thing in
the morning, schedule time to work on your goal – to take the steps you have
planned. These “steps” become your new habits. For example if one step is to eat
a healthy breakfast then identify what healthy foods you like for breakfast and
plan on obtaining them and eating them every day. It is crucial that you do this
every day for the first 30 days.
5. Each evening look back over your day
and assess how well you have performed your new habit. If you did it well give
yourself a pat on the back and resolve to do it well again tomorrow. If you
failed, do not beat yourself up. Renew your resolve, remember that no one is
perfect, and plan to do better tomorrow. Write it down.
6. If you maintain this habit for 30
days you will have established it as a habit. If you have lapsed during your 30
days then start over until you have 30 straight days of consistently practicing
your new habit.
For most people consistently practicing
something for 30 days ingrains the habit. After that you may not have to be as
conscious of writing it down or assessing it on a daily basis but at least
weekly you should look back and make sure you are sticking with your new habit.
A brief falter now and then will not defeat you as long as you maintain your
habit most of the time.
Beware of sliding though. Any good habit
can die and be replaced with a bad habit much more easily then cultivating and
maintain good habits. A doughnut once a month may not kill you, but if you are
eating three of them a week your healthy breakfast habit has now been
defeated.
While 30 days of monitored discipline is
usually enough to instill a habit if it is a difficult discipline or if you feel
tempted to cheat often it may take more than 30 days – just continue your daily
discipline of practice and record keeping until your new habit just feels
automatic. A good example of this is putting on your safety belt in the car –
once it is a habit you no longer have to think about it or keep any records –
you just do it, every time.
Faithfully practice these six steps and
you can cultivate and instill any good habit you truly want to achieve. And
remember, a good habit practiced every day leads to success. Failure to do it
every day leads to failure.
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Featured Book Review by Daniel R.
Murphy
Category: Success / Personal Development
The Seven Habits
of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
I cannot tell you when I first read a self improvement
book. Over the years I’ve picked up one here and there, now and then. It was never a systematic
process for me. If I saw a title that intrigued me I would read it. I started doing that in the
late 1970s. I have read most of the significant self improvement books published in the past
thirty years. But, my approach to reading these books changed one faithful day in 1994 when I
was browsing in a local bookstore and stumbled upon this book, Stephen R. Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People, which for short I will call The 7 Habits.
The book intrigued me a great deal. It seemed too good
to be true. Had a college professor actually identified seven simple habits that made people
successful? I read the book and loved it. I’ve reread the book several times since. I have
taught the contents of the book at seminars. I should say at the outset that I’ve never met
Professor Covey nor do I have any connection with him or his company. I found the content of his
book however to be life changing. It was a gradual process, but as I internalized the principle
concepts of his book and applied them in my life I found they worked – I found that Covey had in
fact identified seven habits that do lead to success.
Are they the only seven habits that lead to success? Not
likely. Are they most important seven habits that lead to success? Perhaps, but either way I
found them very useful. It was not that I had not enjoyed a success in my life prior to opening
this book. I had. But I did not always understand why some of the things I did brought me
success and other things did not – or even caused failure. The 7 Habits began to teach me how to
discern between what works and what does not – and why.
This book also launched me on a quest to learn all I
could from these kinds of books. I bought and borrowed them, read them and re-read them, studied
them and analyzed them. I have done this systematically now for over fifteen years. I truly
enjoy this work. I enjoy reading these books and learning from them. Now I enjoy passing on to
you what I have learned about them. Covey did something similar to what I have done. He set out
to study the success literature that existed at the time he wrote his book. After studying it
and applying some of the skills he learned in academic scholarship, he came up with the thesis
that you could reduce those things that led to success down to seven basic habits. People who
had these habits were more successful. The more of the habits they had the more successful they
were. The less people had these habits, the less success they enjoyed. He found this to be a
principle and it was without or nearly without exception.
Covey begins his book discussing how we see the world.
He talks about how our perceptions of things, our internal lens on the world, color our view.
Our own experiences and viewpoints alter the reality that we perceive through our senses
and
create our own personal reality.
We can alter our own view of the world by knowing this
and acting upon it. He then divides the seven habits into three primary areas. He calls these
the areas of Private Victory, Public Victory and Renewal.
Under private victory he discusses the three first
habits and how living them can give us control over our own lives and destiny. These habits
include being Proactive (taking initiative); Begin with the End in Mind (have goals); and Put
First Things First (prioritize your life and your time). The second area is the Public Victory,
which include the habits of Thinking Win/Win (collaborative problem solving); See First To
Understand, Then to Be Understood (empathic listening and communication skills); and Synergy –
the principles of creative cooperation.
Finally he discussed Renewal – those things we must all
do on a regular basis to keep ourselves in tune, healthy and vital so that we can do our work
and accomplish our goals. Throughout the book Covey provides anecdotes, stories and
illustrations that help us understand these principles and how they are applied. It is a very
readable book – much like reading a novel. This book contains a great deal of wisdom and
information.
A single read is never going to be enough to derive its
full value. To mine it effectively you must read it several times and then make notes of the
primary elements in the book. Then create an action plan of how you will implement those aspects
of the book that you found compelling.
This book challenges you to view the world and your
place in it through a new paradigm – a new perspective. It then challenges you to develop new
habits and to replace some old habits with new and better ones. This is hard work. This does not
come easy or fast. It will take you months if not years to fully realize the benefits of living
the Seven Habits to their full potential. In fact, I submit that it is a life-time pursuit and
no one has ever full attained the level of effectiveness that Covey suggests. However, we can
all pursue it in good faith and with increasing success.
This book is an excellent beginning to build your
library and your study of success literature. It is not just about winning or making money or
being wealthy. It is about a balanced approach to life that can pay dividends in all types of
areas, including your interpersonal relationships, family and marriage. It is far more than a
book for business people or wealth building – this book typifies what Creating True Wealth is
dedicated to – the acquisition of knowledge and skill to become a whole person seeking and
finding greater and greater success in all areas of life. Buy this book. Add it to your
permanent library. It is worth it, whether you find an old used copy or buy a new one – buy it,
read it, study it, ACT on it and apply it. You will gain a great deal out of that.
READING TIP – To get the best out of this book read it
from start to finish. Avoid jumping around. The book is written in a particular order for a
reason. You will understand it better reading it in the order it is written. Use a highlighter
or under liner to emphasize the material you find most important. You may be surprised that on
subsequent readings you find different materials of interest. This is part of the learning
process. Read through the book as many times as you like. Then put the book away for three
months or more. Read it again. You will find new material each time you re-read. Another great
thing about this book is that it is timeless. The fundamental principles discussed in this book
will be as sound and relevant a century from now as they are today. Even though the book was
written in 1989 it is fresh and timely.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R.
Covey
© 1989 by Stephen R. Covey
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Guest Article
Category: Success
Personal Development / Finance & Investment / Time Management / Health / Wealth Building /
Leadership
Where are Your Habits Leading
You?
by Jack Canfield
You are an accumulation of
your habits. From how you get out of bed, how you shower, how you dress, how you walk, sit, and
talk, how you respond to the world, how you act in front of others, and how you think; you're
living out your habits.
Habits
are
necessary.
They free up your mind so you
can concentrate on how to survive day to day. You don't have to think about how to drive your
car so you can be on the lookout for danger while you are driving. You don't have to think about
how to walk so you can concentrate on where you're going.
Unfortunately, habits can
also keep you locked in self-destructive patterns, which will limit your
success.
Is there something you want
to accomplish in life that requires you to up-level your game? Whatever it is that you want to
achieve, you will need to drop those bad habits that are lead to a dead-end and develop new ones
that are in alignment with the life you want to live.
People don't suddenly appear
in the life they want to live... their habits play a large part in determining their
outcome.
What are the habits you have
that are keeping you from achieving your goals?
Really be honest with yourself here...
Are you always running late?
Do you return phone calls within 24 hours?
Do you get enough sleep?
Do you follow through on your promises?
Do you plan out your day?
Imagine what your life would
be like if all your habits were their productive counterparts!
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What would your life be like if you ate healthy meals, exercised and got
enough sleep?
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What if you saved your money, stopped using credit cards and paid cash for
everything?
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What if you stopped procrastinating, overcame your fears, and began
networking with people in your field?
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Would your life be different? I bet it would!
So, my suggested action step
for you is to write down some productive habits you could adopt and visualize in your life. Step
two is to 'act as if' you were living these new habits right now!
I'd like to help you get
moving toward creating more successful habits, so I'd recommend you develop four of your new
success habits each year, one for each quarter.
Once you pick the new habit
you're ready to adopt, next you'll want to create a method that will support your new
habit.
Here are some ideas... You
could write it down on a card that you keep with you and read several times a day. You could
make it a part of your daily visualization. You could also enlist the help of an accountability
partner who has habits to change, or work with a personal coach who can keep you on track.
It's important to make a 100%
commitment to your new habit, so be specific about the steps that you're willing to take in
order to drop an old habit and adopt a new one. Don't be vague about how you will change your
habits. Spell it out for yourself so you can recognize situations that motivate you to act out
your new habit.
Just developing four new
habits a year will dramatically shift your life to be more in line with your
vision. And the more in line it
becomes, the easier the other habits are to replace because your perspective is shifting and you
can see more clearly how your old habits aren't serving you anymore.
Make the decision. Make the
commitment. Then watch your new, positive life unfold!
© 2010 The Canfield Training Group
All Rights Reserved.
* * *
Are you
"stuck" in this area?
There's still time to join me
in transforming your life into the one you truly want at Breakthrough to
Success. Over seven days of exercises, tutorials and experiential processes,
you'll be changed from the inside out -- emerging with a new mindset, new success skills, a
different outlook and a clear path of where you're going... and how to get
there.
* * *
You can, as long
as you include this complete statement with it: Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is
founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the
Soul© and a leading authority on Peak
Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have
more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now
at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com
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You do not have the time to read everything on the internet or in
books published in the past or today about success and self development.
Creating True Wealth reviews that material for you,
condensing it into concise bites you do have time for, and leading you to those books,
magazines, blogs and websites that will offer you more.
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I hope you will find the information in the Creating
True Wealth newsletter useful. Future editions will highlight other books in the
fields of business, sales, motivational materials, self help literature, psychology and other
related fields. This newsletter is published weekly on Fridays. - Daniel R. Murphy, Publisher.
All content is written by Daniel R. Murphy unless noted otherwise.
Disclaimer:Nothing in this ezine is intended nor should be relied upon as professional legal, medical
or financial advice. If you need personal legal or financial planning advice you should consult a
licensed attorney, accountant or financial planner. If you need personal medical advice you should
consult your medical professional.
©
2010 by Daniel R. Murphy
All Rights Reserved. You
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"This
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Learn from a Master of
Success
- the late Jim Rohn.
No one has spoken to more audiences around the world or sold more
audio programs around the world than the great Jim Rohn.
He was a giant in the self development industry for half a
century.
Jim is no longer with us but fortunately his wisdom and teaching
does remain for us to use.
Learn more about this legendary self improvement teacher and the
fantastic educational materials you can obtain here.
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