The Top 20 Secrets of Success and the Pillars of Self-Mastery

The Top 20 Secrets of Success and the Pillars of Self-Mastery

1. Sleep less. This is one of the best investments you can make to make your life more
productive and rewarding. Most people do not need more than 6 hours to maintain an
excellent state of health. Try getting up one hour earlier for 21 days and it will develop
into a powerful habit. Remember, it is the quality not the quantity of sleep that is
important. And just imagine having an extra 30 hours a month to spend on the things that
are important to you.

2. Set aside one hour every morning for personal development matters. Meditate, visualize
your day, read inspirational texts to set the tone of your day, listen to motivational tapes
or read great literature. Take this quiet period to vitalize and energize your spirit for the
productive day ahead. Watch the sun rise once a week or be with nature. Starting the day
off well is a powerful strategy for self-renewal and personal effectiveness.

3. Do not allow those things that matter the most in your life be at the mercy of activities
that matter the least. Every day, take the time to ask yourself the question "is this the best
use of my time and energy?" Time management is life management so guard your time
with great care.

4. Use the rubber band method to condition your mind to focus solely on the most positive
elements in your life. Place a rubber band around your wrist. Each time a negative,
energy sapping thought enters your mind, snap the rubber band. Through the power of
conditioning, your mind will associate pain with negative thinking and you will soon
possess a strongly positive mindset.

5. Always answer the phone with enthusiasm in your voice and show your appreciation for
the caller. Good phone manners are essential. To convey authority on the line, stand up.
This will instill further confidence in your voice.

6. Throughout the day we all get inspiration and excellent ideas. Keep a set of cards (the
size of business cards; available at most stationary stores) in your wallet along with a
pencil to jot down these insights. When you get home, put the ideas in a central place
such as a coil notepad and review them from time to time. As noted by Oliver Wendell
Holmes: "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original
dimensions."

7. Set aside every Sunday evening for yourself and be strongly disciplined with this habit.
Use this period to plan your week, visualize your encounters and what you want to
achieve, to read new materials and inspirational books, to listen to soft soothing music
and to simply relax. This habit will serve as your anchor to keep you focused, motivated
and effective throughout the coming week.

8. Always remember the key principle that the quality of your life is the quality of your
communication. This means the way you communicate with others and, more
importantly, the way you communicate with yourself. What you focus on is what you get.
If you look for the positive this is what you get. This is a fundamental law of Nature.

9. Stay on purpose, not on outcome. In other words, do the task because it is what you love
to do or because it will help someone or is a valuable exercise. Don't do it for the money
or the recognition. Those will come naturally. This is the way of the world.

10. Laugh for five minutes in the mirror each morning. Steve Martin does. Laughter activates
many beneficial chemicals within the body that place us into a very joyous state.
Laughter also returns the body to a state of balance. Laughter therapy has been regularly
used to heal persons with varied ailments and is a wonderful tonic for life's ills. While the
average 4 year old laughs 500 times a day, the average adult is lucky to laugh 15 times a
day. Revitalize the habit of laughter, it will put far more living into your life.

11. Light a candle beside you when you are reading in the evening. It is most relaxing and
creates a wonderful, soothing atmosphere. Make your home an oasis from the frenzied
world outside. Fill it with great music, great books and great friends.

12. To enhance your concentration and powers of focus, count your steps when you walk.
This is a particularly strong technique. Take six steps while taking a long inhale, hold
your breath for another six steps, and then exhale for six steps. If six steps is too long for
the breaths, do whatever you feel comfortable with. You will feel very alert, refreshed,
internally quiet and centered after this exercise. So many people allow their minds to be
filled with mental chatter. All peak performers appreciate the power of a quiet, clear mind
which will concentrate steadily on all important tasks.

13. Learn to meditate effectively. The mind is naturally a very noisy machine which wants to
move from one subject to another like an unchained monkey. One must learn to restrain
and discipline it if one is to achieve anything of substance and to be peaceful. Meditation
for twenty minutes in the morning and twenty minutes in the evening will certainly
provide you with exceptional results if regularly practiced for six months. Learned sages
of the East have been advancing the many benefits of meditation for over 5000 years.

14. Learn to be still. The average person doesn't spend even 30 minutes a month in total
silence and tranquility. Develop the skill of sitting quietly, enjoying the powerful silence
for at least ten minutes a day. Simply think about what is important to you in your life.
Reflect on your mission. Silence indeed is golden. As the Zen master once said, it is the
space between the bars that holds the cage.

15. Enhance your will-power; it is likely one of the best training programs you can invest in.
Here are some ideas to strengthen your will and become a stronger person:

a. Do not let your mind float like a piece of paper in the wind. Work hard to keep it
focused at all times. When doing a task, think of nothing else. When walking to
work, count the steps that it takes to get all the way to the office. This is not easy
but your mind will soon understand that you hold its reins and not vice versa.
Your mind must eventually become as still as a candle flame in a corner where
there is no draft.

b. Your will is like a muscle. You must first exercise it and then push before it gets
stronger. This necessarily involves short term pain but be assured that the
improvements will come and will touch your character in a most positive way.
When you are hungry, wait another hour before your meal. When you are
labouring over a difficult task and your mind is prompting you to pick up the
latest magazine for a break or to get up and go talk to a friend, curb the impulse.
Soon you will be able to sit for hours in a precisely concentrated state. Sir Issac
Newton, one of the greatest classical physicists the world has produced, once said:
"if I have done the public any service, it is due to patient thought." Newton had a
remarkable ability to sit quietly and think without interruption for very long
periods of time. If he can develop this so can you.

c. You can also build your will-power by restraint in your conduct with others.
Speak less (use the 60/40 Rule = listen 60% of the time and speak a mere 40%, if
that). This will not only make you more popular but you will learn much wisdom
as everyone we meet, every day has something to teach us. Also restrain the urge
to gossip or to condemn someone who you feel has made a mistake. Stop
complaining and develop a cheerful, vital and strong personality. You will greatly
influence others.

d. When a negative thought comes to your mind, immediately replace it with one
that is positive. Positive always dominates over the negative and your mind has to
be conditioned to think only the best thoughts. Negative thinking is a conditioned
process whereby the negative patterns are established over and over. Rid yourself
of any limitations and become a powerful positive thinker.

16. Make an effort to be humorous throughout the day. Not only is it beneficial from a
physical viewpoint but it diffuses tension in difficult circumstances and creates an
excellent atmosphere wherever you are. It was recently reported that members of the
Tauripan tribe of South America have a ritual where they awake in the middle of the
night to tell each other jokes. Even tribesmen in the deepest sleep wake to enjoy the laugh
and then return to their state of slumber in seconds.

17. Become a highly disciplined time manager. There are roughly 168 hours in a week. This
surely allows plenty of time for achievement of the many goals we desire to accomplish.
Be ruthless with your time. Set aside a few minutes each morning to plan your day. Plan
around your priorities and focus on not only those tasks which are immediate but not
important (i.e., many telephone calls) but especially on those which are important but not
urgent, for these allow for the greatest personal and professional development. Important
but not immediate activities are those which produce long-term, sustainable benefits and
include exercise, strategic planning, the development of relationships and professional
education. Never let the things which matter most be placed in the backseat as compared
to those that matter least.

18. Associate only with positive, focused people who you can learn from and who will not
drain your valuable energy with complaining and uninspiring attitudes. By developing
relationships with those committed to constant improvement and the pursuit of the best
that life has to offer, you will have plenty of company on your path to the top of whatever
mountain you seek to climb.

19. Stephen Hawking, one of the great modern physicists of the world, is reported to have
said that we are on a minor planet of a very average star located within the outer limits of
one of a hundred thousand million galaxies. Are your problems really significant in light
of this? You walk this Earth for but a short time. Why not become devoted to having only
a wonderful experience. Why not dedicate yourself to leaving a powerful legacy to the
world? Sit down now and write out a list of all that you have in your life. Start first with
your health or your family - the things we often take for granted. Put down the country
we live in and the food we eat. Do not stop until you have written down fifty items. Once
every few days, go through this list - you will be uplifted and recognize the richness of
your existence.

20. You must have a mission statement in life. This is simply a set of guiding principles
which clearly state where you are going and where you want to be at the end of your life.
A mission statement embodies your values. It is your personal lighthouse keeping you
steadily on the course of your dreams. Over a period of one month, set a few hours aside
to write down five or ten principles which will govern your life and which will keep you
focused at all times. Examples might be to consistently serve others, to be a considerate
citizen, to become highly wealthy or to serve as a powerful leader. Whatever the mission
statement of your life, refine it and review it regularly. Then when something adverse
happens or someone tries to pull you off course, you quickly and precisely return to your
chosen path with the full knowledge that you are moving in the direction that you have
selected.