Chapter 5 | Five Skills to Success
(Part 1 out of 2)
In this chapter I’ll discuss the five skills to success, as part of your journey to self-development:
* The ability to absorb information.
* The ability to react.
* The ability to think and reflect.
* The ability to do things, take action and how to make "miracles"...
* The ability to share.
Five skills for success:
There are five skills that can especially help you in your journey to self-development:
1. The ability to absorb information: Just as you absorb the information here on this site.
When you absorb information, don’t absorb the words only; take notice of the overall picture, take notice of the ambiance, the colors, and sounds.
Most people just try to "get through the day". Here's something I want you to dedicate yourself to – make the maximum out of your day, let the day teach you new things, make the day a "university of life".
Wherever you are, really be there and absorb the information.
2. Learn to react: Let life touch you, let feelings touch you - not just words or pictures, for it's important that your feelings are not less developed than your wisdom.
When you watch a movie - "get into it".
If it's a comedy - laugh out loud, if drama – get emotional, shed a tear.
If it's a horror movie - scream like never before, if only for not leaving the movie the way you came in...
Same goes with a good book or an excellent article.
3. Learn to think and reflect: Learn to think about what you read, hear or listen; learn to go back and study them again and again.
Go over the notes you're writing here while reading, go back and review a book you've already read.
Reflect about the day you had (being it good or bad):
Take a few minutes at the end of each day and "run the tape back": who have you ran into, what did he say, how you felt, what happened in that meeting? - to "capture" the day and learn from it.
Remember that each passing day is another piece to the "puzzle" of your life.
Take a few hours over the weekend and review your personal diary, your meetings schedule, where did you go? who you've met? how did it go and how you felt? - "capture" the week.
Take half a day by the end of each month and think again about your reading material, things you've heard and seen, emotions you felt and any other events you've captured in the past few weeks - so it will serve you in the future.
Take a weekend at the end of each year, to reflect and "anchor" it even harder in your memory or in you "life experience bank", so you'll remember it better, so you'll remember the ideas and thoughts, the experience, the events, moments of pleasure and disappointment, things you did well and things you didn't succeed at, how you've changed, how you've developed and what you have today that you didn't before.
Reflect among yourself, ponder with a loved one, ponder with your children or with your spouse, reflect together with your colleagues and even try to reflect things with a total stranger.
The main thing in thought and reflection is to make your past valuable in the future.
Once this is done - invest it in the future.
Take the conclusions of today and invest them in tomorrow.
Take the conclusions of this week and invest them in next week.
Take the conclusions of this month and invest them in next month.
Take the conclusions of this year and invest them in next year.
Assimilate the conclusions you've reached regarding finance, health, parenting, relations, interpersonal communication and any other valuable field.
The best value you can give your family, community, your workplace and the state is:
increase your value and not sacrifice yourself.
The sentence "You take care of me and I take care of you" should be changed to – "I will take care of myself in order to take care of you, and you take care of yourself in order to take care of me".
Develop yourself so you and your loved ones will enjoy your value.
4. Learn to do things and take action: don’t rush things unless it’s necessary, but don’t waste time in vain either.
The best time to carry out an idea is when it’s "blazing hot" and you’re really excited about it.
If you want to make yourself a big library and the idea excites you, what you have to do is buy that first book... and then the second one, before the flurry will fade away and the idea will vanish into thin air - immediate action.
We intend to carry out the idea we have just thought of, we mean to carry it out while we’re still excited about it - but if we don’t translate that into immediate action, that intention will dissolve.
A month later it’ll get “cold” and a year later we won’t even find it.
Implement self-discipline while excitement is at its peak and the idea loud and clear.
You heard someone talking about healthy nutrition, which stimulates your excitement and you think:
"I must buy a book on healthy nutrition". Buy it before the excitement fades away and the idea gets lost, buy it, build your library and start the process.
Self Discipline
Self-discipline is: how to grasp the emotion, enthusiasm, and wisdom and turn them to an asset.
Remember, self-discipline in a certain area influences self discipline in another - if you don’t make that walk around the neighborhood, you probably won’t follow a healthy nutrition too, you’ll probably stop buying books on healthy nutrition (and perhaps on the subject of finances too) to your library, you then will probably stop writing in your diary and maybe you’ll stop managing your money and time wisely - finally this will accumulate from a few days to a few years and the result: disaster.
Therefore, it’s always important to take action and carry out even the smallest deed - to jump start the self-discipline process.
The conclusion from the sentence above is that even a small and simple act of self-discipline can influence complex things that require greater self-discipline.
Start with walking around the neighborhood.
It will inspire you and make you nurture your diet, it will encourage you to buy books on various topics and write in your diary the important things you're learning.
It will inspire you to grow and develop more, to learn more skills - every act of self discipline affects the other.
One of the temptations is to "slow down a bit" - you understand by now this will start influencing everything, right? Not only the self discipline but your life philosophy.
Negligence begins as an infection, and if not treated will become a disease.
Neglecting one thing leads to neglecting another. What’s worse, it starts eating your self-respect, self-confidence, and your values.
The good news is that in order to restore your self-respect, self-confidence, and values, what’s required of you is one simple self discipline that nurtures your life philosophy.
Here’s an example of a wonderful key sentence to self discipline: "Never let neglect take command, in order for me to pity myself in a few years time - making excuses, instead of celebrating my progress and development".
If you have children, inherit them the ability to be self discipline. Start with something easy and then another small thing and a bit more. Before you know it, you'll find the seed you planted has grown into a beautiful flower of wisdom, courage and willpower.
I promise you, reaping that first fruit of success in self discipline, will cause you so much pleasure it will gradually become a life strategy.
Here's something to start with: your local library - a huge variety of wisdom and knowledge waiting for you and everyone else for f-r-e-e!
You just have to go there.
Get rid of your “I blame" list and buy a book / go to the library.
Can you think of anything easier?
Remember: Statements you make but don’t carry out are the beginning of illusions.
Statements alone won’t bring change into your life.
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Continue to Chapter 5 | Five Skills to Success - Part 2
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* Chapter 4 | The Miracle of Your Personal Development - Part 3
* Chapter 4 | The Miracle of Your Personal Development - Part 2
* Chapter 4 | The Miracle of Your Personal Development - Part 1