“Definiteness of decision always requires courage,
sometimes very great courage.”
“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
Do you make great decisions under pressure? Great football quarterbacks, such as Tom Brady, quickly read a defense and decide which receiver to throw to. Great salespeople, such as Sara Quick, land the largest new accounts by being creative — like selling to businesses their companies usually don’t serve. Great leaders, such as Harry Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, make decisions that affect the lives of innumerable people, such as dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.
Napoleon Hill studied over 25,000 people who had experienced failure and concluded that lack of decision-making was one of the top causes of failure. To make great decisions, consider Harry Truman’s three-step decision-making process:
1. The logical decision. Gather the best information from people who know the most about the subject. Make a pro and con list and determine your logical decision.
2. The emotional decision. Search your heart for your emotional decision. Truman’s emotional decision was to not drop the bomb; he hated the idea.
3. The intuitive decision. Take time away to quiet your thoughts and emotions. Then pay attention to your intuition. You may find your intuitive message in the pit of your stomach, like Harry Truman did, or it could be a quiet sense of knowing. Intuitive messages are different for everyone.
It takes courage to make the tough decisions;
a good decision-making process will give you
more confidence in your decisions.
Showing posts with label Courage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Courage. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Friday, December 28, 2007
Life on the Farm
Victims Blame;
High Performers Accept Responsibility
Jan, a highly successful entrepreneur, endured tremendous hardships throughout life, including both of her parents dying before she was 6 years old. Later, in corporate America, she hit her head on the glass ceiling early — being a woman without a college degree. So Jan started her own business, building it to 40 employees. Things were going well until adversity struck again: When her company exposed a Fortune 500 company for not paying commissions and wanting to cover it up, this company attacked and destroyed Jan’s company.
Never the victim, Jan rebuilt her company to 70 employees, this time offering different services. But years later she again faced adversity — she caught her CFO embezzling and the police caught him flashing. Then her chief technology officer turned out to be a feared rapist. Regarding all her adversity, Jan said: “TC, you can’t make this s*it up.”
When I asked Jan how she stayed positive and kept going forward, she told me this story: “When my parents died, I was adopted by my mother’s best friend and her husband, who were farmers. I remember standing with my adopted dad watching a hail storm completely destroy our corn crop, which was about 4 inches high. When the storm was over, my dad just walked along the rows of destroyed corn and said, ‘I guess we’ll have to replant.’ I just live my life the way I learned on the farm.”
Neither Jan nor her father ever felt victimized; they took responsibility for creating positive outcomes. They didn’t waste their energy blaming; they took positive action … and replanted when necessary.
“The evasion of responsibility
is the major cause of most people’s frustrations and defeats.”
–Ayn Rand, author, philosopher
- TC North, Ph.D., High Performance Expert
High Performers Accept Responsibility
Jan, a highly successful entrepreneur, endured tremendous hardships throughout life, including both of her parents dying before she was 6 years old. Later, in corporate America, she hit her head on the glass ceiling early — being a woman without a college degree. So Jan started her own business, building it to 40 employees. Things were going well until adversity struck again: When her company exposed a Fortune 500 company for not paying commissions and wanting to cover it up, this company attacked and destroyed Jan’s company.
Never the victim, Jan rebuilt her company to 70 employees, this time offering different services. But years later she again faced adversity — she caught her CFO embezzling and the police caught him flashing. Then her chief technology officer turned out to be a feared rapist. Regarding all her adversity, Jan said: “TC, you can’t make this s*it up.”
When I asked Jan how she stayed positive and kept going forward, she told me this story: “When my parents died, I was adopted by my mother’s best friend and her husband, who were farmers. I remember standing with my adopted dad watching a hail storm completely destroy our corn crop, which was about 4 inches high. When the storm was over, my dad just walked along the rows of destroyed corn and said, ‘I guess we’ll have to replant.’ I just live my life the way I learned on the farm.”
Neither Jan nor her father ever felt victimized; they took responsibility for creating positive outcomes. They didn’t waste their energy blaming; they took positive action … and replanted when necessary.
“The evasion of responsibility
is the major cause of most people’s frustrations and defeats.”
–Ayn Rand, author, philosopher
- TC North, Ph.D., High Performance Expert
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
- Anais Nin
You're probably not confident when you have little or no experience with something, so you need courage. During graduate school, I accepted my first public speaking engagement. It was about two months away, and for those two months the thought of presenting twisted my stomach into knots and I often felt like vomiting. Most people don't realize this, but I am shy and introverted. In grade school, I never raised my hand because I was afraid of being wrong and embarrassed. So when I delivered my first presentation, I was so scared that I read my handwritten script word-for-word from a pad of yellow paper - while sitting and shaking.
This first presentation may sound like a disaster, but it was actually quite glorious. Why? Because I learned that I wouldn't die speaking to a group of people! This was a huge victory because I had the courage to go face to face with one of my greatest fears (public speaking), and as Anais Nin said above, this experience expanded my life. I have now delivered over 400 public presentations and have gained more confidence with each one. Today, I love empowering audiences with courage and confidence knowledge.
When you need courage, access your courageous self. Here are the four steps:
Breathe slowly and deeply.
Remember a time when you acted with courage and had a positive outcome.
Notice how you feel as you do this; you are now in your courageous self.
While in your courageous self, imagine doing something that is scary to you. See, hear and feel yourself as best you can, courageously going for what you want.
This process programs your brain to be courageous and helps you gain confidence in doing what you imagined. The more you do this, the stronger your courage and confidence become.
"A mind that is stretched by a new experience
can never go back to its old dimensions."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
- TC North, Ph.D., High Performance Expert
- Anais Nin
You're probably not confident when you have little or no experience with something, so you need courage. During graduate school, I accepted my first public speaking engagement. It was about two months away, and for those two months the thought of presenting twisted my stomach into knots and I often felt like vomiting. Most people don't realize this, but I am shy and introverted. In grade school, I never raised my hand because I was afraid of being wrong and embarrassed. So when I delivered my first presentation, I was so scared that I read my handwritten script word-for-word from a pad of yellow paper - while sitting and shaking.
This first presentation may sound like a disaster, but it was actually quite glorious. Why? Because I learned that I wouldn't die speaking to a group of people! This was a huge victory because I had the courage to go face to face with one of my greatest fears (public speaking), and as Anais Nin said above, this experience expanded my life. I have now delivered over 400 public presentations and have gained more confidence with each one. Today, I love empowering audiences with courage and confidence knowledge.
When you need courage, access your courageous self. Here are the four steps:
Breathe slowly and deeply.
Remember a time when you acted with courage and had a positive outcome.
Notice how you feel as you do this; you are now in your courageous self.
While in your courageous self, imagine doing something that is scary to you. See, hear and feel yourself as best you can, courageously going for what you want.
This process programs your brain to be courageous and helps you gain confidence in doing what you imagined. The more you do this, the stronger your courage and confidence become.
"A mind that is stretched by a new experience
can never go back to its old dimensions."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
- TC North, Ph.D., High Performance Expert
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
My negative world ...
"The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts ... .
The content of your character is your choice."
Heraclitus
This is the second EnCOURAGEment on defining moments (a time when you made a life-changing decision). This week, let's examine defining moments when you had the choice to stay the same, or become more of who you want to be.
I am generally a very positive and happy person, but this wasn't always true. In my twenties, a girlfriend broke up with me by saying, "I can't live in your world of negativity anymore." As I reflected on her statement, there was a painful realization that she was right. I had a choice: Do I continue on as I was, or do I have the courage to become a more positive person? I chose the latter. I even took a humor workshop to learn to laugh because I laughed so little that it was uncomfortable! I will always be thankful for my ex-girlfriend. She gave me a defining moment, a gift. Almost 30 years later, I am a positive person, laugh a lot and ... I work daily to be more positive.
Would you like to be different in some way? If yes ...
Have the courage to be honest with yourself, review your defining moments.
If your previous choice(s) is not helping you be who you want to be,
be courageous, make a new decision ...
then work every day to become who you want to be.
- TC North, Ph.D., High Performance Expert
The content of your character is your choice."
Heraclitus
This is the second EnCOURAGEment on defining moments (a time when you made a life-changing decision). This week, let's examine defining moments when you had the choice to stay the same, or become more of who you want to be.
I am generally a very positive and happy person, but this wasn't always true. In my twenties, a girlfriend broke up with me by saying, "I can't live in your world of negativity anymore." As I reflected on her statement, there was a painful realization that she was right. I had a choice: Do I continue on as I was, or do I have the courage to become a more positive person? I chose the latter. I even took a humor workshop to learn to laugh because I laughed so little that it was uncomfortable! I will always be thankful for my ex-girlfriend. She gave me a defining moment, a gift. Almost 30 years later, I am a positive person, laugh a lot and ... I work daily to be more positive.
Would you like to be different in some way? If yes ...
Have the courage to be honest with yourself, review your defining moments.
If your previous choice(s) is not helping you be who you want to be,
be courageous, make a new decision ...
then work every day to become who you want to be.
- TC North, Ph.D., High Performance Expert
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Courage to be Who You Are!
“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”
E.E. Cummings
We’ve all had defining moments in life (a time when we made a life-changing decision). This and the next EnCOURAGEment message examine two types of defining moments. This week’s is having the courage to become who you really are, and next week’s is having the courage to become more of who you want to be.
In the small town where I grew up, most guys hunted. When I was about 12 years old, I was walking in the woods mindlessly shooting chipmunks with my BB gun when a bird began chirping really loudly at me. I walked closer, thinking the bird would fly away. But it sat on a branch and chirped more loudly. I thought, If you are dumb enough to stay there and chirp at me, I’m gonna shoot you. I raised my gun, it chirped, aimed, it chirped, squeezed the trigger … the bird dropped straight from the tree and hit the ground with a thud.
As I looked at it lying motionless and silent, I thought, That’ll teach you! Then, I heard the faint sounds of baby birds coming from the nest, where the bird had been. When I realized I had killed a parent protecting its babies, I fell to my knees and sobbed. I decided then that I would never shoot another gun or hurt another animal — and I haven’t. This was a defining moment for me. All my friends had guns and shot animals, which made me an outcast at times. It took courage to be different, but it was who I really am. I am an animal lover, and I have never regretted the decision to never hurt an animal again!
Defining moments … are the life-changing decisions you have made.
Are yours really who you are in your deepest self?
E.E. Cummings
We’ve all had defining moments in life (a time when we made a life-changing decision). This and the next EnCOURAGEment message examine two types of defining moments. This week’s is having the courage to become who you really are, and next week’s is having the courage to become more of who you want to be.
In the small town where I grew up, most guys hunted. When I was about 12 years old, I was walking in the woods mindlessly shooting chipmunks with my BB gun when a bird began chirping really loudly at me. I walked closer, thinking the bird would fly away. But it sat on a branch and chirped more loudly. I thought, If you are dumb enough to stay there and chirp at me, I’m gonna shoot you. I raised my gun, it chirped, aimed, it chirped, squeezed the trigger … the bird dropped straight from the tree and hit the ground with a thud.
As I looked at it lying motionless and silent, I thought, That’ll teach you! Then, I heard the faint sounds of baby birds coming from the nest, where the bird had been. When I realized I had killed a parent protecting its babies, I fell to my knees and sobbed. I decided then that I would never shoot another gun or hurt another animal — and I haven’t. This was a defining moment for me. All my friends had guns and shot animals, which made me an outcast at times. It took courage to be different, but it was who I really am. I am an animal lover, and I have never regretted the decision to never hurt an animal again!
Defining moments … are the life-changing decisions you have made.
Are yours really who you are in your deepest self?
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