The Sykes Group's OnPoint

“The person who succeeds is not the one who holds back, fearing failure, not the one who nevers fails…but rather the one who moves on in spite of failure.” Charles Swindoll. Keep moving forward!

The following are ten motivation action steps you can take to motivate yourself in work, business, and life:

1. Positive Affirmations for Success – Our subconscious mind is a wonderful tool for success or failure. It will do what we tell it to do. It all depends on what thoughts we feed it. So why not feed your inner mind with only positive thoughts. The following are some examples of positive affirmations you can feed your inner mind for success:

• “Today, I will win because I have faith, courage and enthusiasm.”
• “I see failure only as a signpost on my road to success.”
• “When I feel stress, I will relax and release my stress before I take on my next task.”
• “I always write down my priorities, thinking of my responsibilities. I may not get everything done, but I will do the most productive thing possible at every given moment.”
• “I am a winner, I work for a winning organization, and because of my contribution and cooperation we will keep on winning.”
• “Today, I will see opportunity in every challenge offered to me.”

2. Positive Language for Success – Recent research has come out that 75% of daily conversation is negative. Whether it is the words we use or the body language, we need to communicate in a positive manner all the time.

The following are some examples of how you can turn negative words into positive communication:

• Instead of saying “problem,” call it “opportunity.”
• Instead of an action being a “failure,” describe it as a “learning experience.”
• Instead of “I have to,” say “I choose to.” This gives control for your actions back to you.
• Instead of saying, “There’s nothing I can do,” say, “Let’s look at our alternatives.”
• Instead of saying, “That’s just the way I am,” say, “I choose a different approach.”
• Instead of saying, “He makes me so mad,” say, “I control my own feelings.”
• If you notice, by using the positive response, you have control over your actions and life.

3. Exercise for Success – A Gallup survey found the following among men and women who have taken up exercise recently:

• 66 percent report a more relaxed life
• 62 percent a new surge of energy
• 55 percent less stress
• 51 percent better looks
• 46 percent more confidence
• 45 percent better love life
• 44 percent greater job satisfaction
• 37 percent more creative on their jobs

You can read the rest of the article at Success Steps.
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“A successful person is one who can build a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.” - David Brinkley

Are you creating your foundation of success? Are you motivated to take on challenges that others are not willing to do? The following is a story of someone who did and achieved great success in his life and how you can, too!

There once was a young man who grew up in Crawford, Mississippi. His father worked as a brick mason building home foundations. Everyday after school and during the summers, this young man would help his father build foundations. It’s not the most glamorous job by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s an honest, backbreaking, and low paying job that put food on the table and paid the bills. The father would start by throwing bricks towards the son in the area where they would build a housing foundation. Under the hot, sweltering Mississippi sun, his son would catch brick after brick with his hands, day after day. While most other kids were enjoying their summers or working in less strenuous jobs, this young man was motivated to work long and hard with his father, while catching those bricks and building a foundation for success in more ways than one.

You see, each time that young man caught bricks, he was not only making his hands stronger, he was building character and the foundation for success in his later years. With each brick he caught, he was even more determined to be successful in life. When he wasn’t helping his father and going to school, he was pushing himself through football workouts to be better than any other football player. You see the young man’s name is Jerry Rice, and he went on to become the most successful NFL All-Pro wide receiver of all time with the San Francisco 49ers. Some of you non-football fans may know him as a contestant from the television program, “Dancing with the Stars.”

The following are the six success secrets that Jerry Rice used that can easily motivate you to achieve success in any aspect of your business, career, and life:

1. Motivate Yourself to See Opportunities in Every Challenge – Jerry could have looked at the job of catching bricks as a chore that was a waste of his time. But he saw the big picture and made the chore more enjoyable by developing games out of the activities. Many times in life, we are thrown bricks and complain and miss the opportunity it presents to us. The person who can find solutions in the challenges they are faced with can write their own ticket for success. When you take on a challenge, it’s preparing you for an opportunity in the future. You may not know when the opportunity is coming, how it is coming, or what the opportunity will look like, but it is coming; and will you be prepared? Embrace your challenges so you will be prepared.
2. Motivate Yourself to See That It’s Normal to Experience a Little Pain – As Jerry was experiencing the pain of catching bricks each day, this pain was actually building him to becoming a stronger person. Each brick was fueling Jerry’s internal desire to be successful. Think of some situation at work, in business, or in life that was painful. Your pain may be an embarrassing moment, it may be a learning experience, and it may be a setback. How can you use this setback to motivate you to become more successful? We achieve success in our businesses, careers, and life when we develop the success tools of using our “pains” as a learning experience and a springboard to success.
3. Motivate Yourself to Take on Unpopular Tasks - Catching bricks all day is not the most glamorous job in the world. Many times we are thrown bricks in life and avoid them like the plague. Volunteer to catch these bricks while others decline. This will allow people of influence to see your special skills and offer you opportunities for success. It is what I always say, “It’s not what you know, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows what you know.” When you volunteer to catch those bricks, you allow others to now know and see the special skills and talent you exhibit. (Read the rest of the article at Bricks of Success)

“The power of vision is in foreseeing better things to come, then making them happen.” What are you foreseeing today?

“Your work reflects who you are.  Make yourself proud.”

We can take great pleasure from the opportunities presented to us everyday or we can complain about the tasks given to us on a daily basis.  I prefer to gain great pleasure for the opportunities to be creative.  I know these opportunities will prepare me for future opportunities.

The following are five secrets to creating opportunities in your career:

The following are five career advice secrets for being the perfect, motivated employee that everyone wants on their team, putting your career on the fast track, and creating great relationship with management:

1. Be Enthusiastic
   Be known as an employee who has a great attitude and is enthusiastic about his/her job and work. Enthusiasm is contagious and spreads quickly in the workplace. Just the opposite, constantly whining and complaining deplete valuable resources of energy in the workplace. Think of people you know at work and ask the following questions:
   
   • Who energizes me at work? Who has a can do attitude?
   • Who drains the energy out of the day? Whom do I hate to see come through the door in the morning?
   • How do my co-workers and managers see me? (Read the rest at Perfect Employee)

    

How did the power of believing play in the upset win of the VCU basketball team’s win over the mighty Kansas University in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament?  The Kansas U. basketball team were heavy favorites to beat VCU and win the championship. However, there was one little problem:  the VCU basketball players believed they could beat Kansas and they did!

As I listened to the VCU coach’s pre-game speech, I realized he was using the power of believing to achieve this monumental victory.  The following are the five power of believing secrets VCU used to motivate the team to victory:

1. Believe in Your Success – Take the time to break through the barriers that may be holding you back from achieving your success.  The “experts” said that VCU shouldn’t even be in the tournament; much less win the game against Kansas.  What so called “experts” are holding you back from your success?”  Eliminate the naysayers and negative people for whom your failure is their success.  Take the time to develop the belief you can be successful in your life.

2. Visualize Your Success – The VCU coach asked his team to visualize what it would look like when they defeated Kansas.  He asked them to visualize seeing the scoreboard with the winning score, how they would be celebrating their victory, how their fans would react, and how they would personal feel emotionally with the victory.Take the time to visualize your success everyday!  You can start with something challenging and visualize how you can successful achieve your success.  It could be a project, a presentation, a coaching, or a personal relationship.  Involve as many senses as possible so that your visualization is realistic and vivid.  Visualize the positive outcome and how you would feel.

3. Plan Your Success – Invest in the time to plan the steps to developing an unshakeable belief in your success.  The VCU coach told his team about the different Kansas U. challenges they would encounter during the game.  He also explained to the team how they would need to react to these challenges so that VCU would be successful.

Have you developed your plan for success?  You will also encounter many challenges to achieve your success.  Have you taken the time to develop you’re A, B, and C plans for defeating the challenges in your life?  The successful people always do.

4. Enlist Help for Your Success – The VCU coach told the team that in order for them to win the game they must act as one team helping each other.  He asked them to work together and merge their unique talents so that they are more powerful as one.

Who is your team and are you working with them?  Develop your team of like-minded, positive people who will work with you to help you achieve your success.  This team or “mastermind” group will merge their unique talents to win as a team.

5. Act Now! – The VCU coach asked the team to give 110% and “leave everything on the floor.”

Are you taking the steps to giving 110% and “leave everything on the floor” to achieve your success?  We can plan, visualize, believe, and develop a mastermind group all we want.  The most important ingredient is…action.  Take the steps today to start your journey to developing a more successful future.

I challenge you to apply the success step mentioned above so that you can develop an unshakeable belief in success.  For additions success resources go to Believe in Your Success.