Commitment and Character

It has been a long while since my last blog post. I don't know exactly why I stopped but I do know why I am resuming. I believe that if you read enough, you will eventually begin to speak and/or write as well. It seems logical but oddly enough, there are some who believe that reading is not essential or doesn't apply to them. I have read numerous books and I have learned that commitment and character are directly related. If you are committed to a worthwhile cause, by default, you will build character. What is character?....you may ask...I'm sure it can be expressed in a few definitions but I found one that simplified it for me and drove the point home. Here it is...character means having distinctive qualities that make one recognizable as a person differentiated from others.....WOW! Isn't that what we all want? to be different? to have more than the norm? to live free while others are kept in bondage by their loyalty to being average? Have we committed to what we believe in? If not, why not? Is your goal worthy of your total commitment? If not, change it. It is worth it. The benefits of being committed to something worthwhile will not only build character but it will effect other areas of your life. You will do other things better and feel encouraged to keep doing things better. This can be applied in all areas of our lives. Take a moment and think about what activities you are doing that will build your character and in turn build your life!

Diligence does NOT mean Dull !!

In order to gain anything of significance, especially success in business, you must be diligent. Many people come to a complete halt on the plateau of mediocrity and never leave and then comes the blame...the company, the product, your upline, your downline, your spouse, your whatever. The truth is the majority of people never stick around long enough to reap the rewards that diligence pays. We should look at our businesses more like a buffet rather than a meal that we order at a sit down restaurant. In a buffet, you usually pay first and then partake in the feast of choice, in a sit down restaurant, we enjoy the meal first and then pay. We have heard that anything worth having requires sacrifice. Just because we have a new age of technology that makes some business practices more convenient, does not eliminate the need for patience and most importantly, diligence. If you are bored, you may want to examine your philosophies. Let's look at the Wikipedia definition of diligence:

Diligence - is a zealous and careful nature in one's actions and work, exemplified by a decisive work ethic, budgeting of one's time, monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness, and putting forth full concentration in one's work.

The thing that stands out to me in the definition is the word, "zealous". The words "dull" or "bored" do not come to mind when we read this definition. What I take from that is, when we are diligent about something, we should have excitement or "zeal" not boredom or complacency. Diligence which is rewarded, gives us satisfaction and excitement, which fuels us to be even more diligent to experience more of the same. We must pay the price of diligence first, and then the rest will come! Have you paid for YOUR buffet first?

Be Interested !!!

It doesn't take much to notice the amount of effort that people go through to try and sell themselves or their opportunity to you. With the popularity of social media in hyper growth, people are making attempts to capitalize in any way they can and grab some piece of the financial pie that is being created from this phenomena. No matter what the message they are trying to get across or how good their deal is they have to offer, one thing has always and will always hold true: People are not interested in you or what you have to say initially because you have not taken the time or effort to get to know them or anything about them, but you still suggest that you know what the best deal is or how you can help them. How can you help anyone without first knowing what it is they need help with? The answer is, you can't possibly know. So what is the answer? It is simply taking time to get to know the person personally by asking questions and most importantly, listening. This is simple but seldom practiced by people in business today either because of the pressure we put on ourselves to "close" a prospect or by lack of patience. In either case, you will never establish a meaningful, long term business relationship with anyone unless you are first interested in that person. You must be interested in order to be interesting.