The two "A/s" in Success

I can spell success and I know that there are no "A/s" in the word. However, there are two things that one must do to be successful. One has to be able to adjust and be adaptable to get to our goals. I had a personal experience this past weekend that illustrates this in a simple way. My wife and I were driving our daughter to a friend's party. Since we were unfamiliar with the area I did a Mapquest. Also being eager to try out my new toy we brought along our new GPS system. Enough back up right? Well here is what happened. About 5 miles from the location we came to an orange sign. If you are in the states you know that that is not a good sign, no pun intended. In any case this sign read "bridge closed three miles ahead." My daughter and I urged my wife to drive on anyway in hopes that the destination was within the three miles. Well it wasn't. We could see the road we needed continuing beyond the construction but there was no clear path around the construction. We retraced our steps and the GPS found an alternate route but by this time my wife had had it with the GPS, the Mapquest directions and the girl’s mom on the other end of the phone who could not seem to give us clear directions around the construction. By then the tension in the car was thicker than zero visibility fog. I offered to drive from that point and when my wife did not take me up on my offer I thought it best to keep my mouth shut and sit back for the remainder of the ride. Well, my wife decided to try and figure it out herself and ended up using the alternate route that the GPS suggested anyway. So you see even with back up plans, a GPS and Mapqiuest directions we had to be adaptable because they did not pick up the "obstacle" (construction) in our path. So stay open to adjusting and be adaptable and in my case stay quite. Things always work out. I like the way Dr. Maxwell Maltz describes it in his book Psycho-Cybernetics. He talks about that cybernetic mechanism that we all have which is like a modern missile that adjust course along the way to the target but always finds the target.



Oak



Carpe Diem!

In the flow

I have been experimenting with what I call being in sync or in the flow. I had been working for weeks to get the mayor of the city to visit the toastmaster club I belong to for our twentieth year celebration to no avail. One day while not even thinking about this a thought popped into my head to make a personal in person visit to the mayor's office. I did. I spoke to the young woman who was less than helpful on the phone. She had done a total 180. She tried to be as accommodating as possible. I felt great leaving the office. However, a few days later when I telephoned her a few days later I got that all too familiar cold, not helpful reception. I stayed cordial with her and told her irregardless of the proclamation that I was trying to get she was invited to our special celebration. She hung up with no promises and I thought that I did not attain my goal. Monday morning came quickly and it was time for our celebration. While setting up the room someone called my name. I did not recognise him. He introduced himself and he was the mayor and he had come to deliver the proclamation himself. Needless to say I was very pleased especially since I am always telling people to make thingd happen. The moral of the story here is that things always work out if you take the right action at the right time. I acted immediatly when the idea hit me to make an in person visit and the result was a resounding success. Make it happen in your own lives by acting now.

Oak

Carpe Diem!

Percpective

Perspective is a very interesting thing. I remember the first time I went to Phoenix Arizona. I landed there between 9 and 10 that night and it was 110 degrees. One of the people who picked us up commented that it was actually cooling off and don't worry it was dry heat. Dry heat? Well from my perspective it did not matter if it was dry heat, wet heat or damp heat, it was HEAT. It was down right hot and for me unbearable. Can you see how our different perspectives drove our overall experience? I will give you another example. A few years ago there was a commercial on television that basically showed a young man asking a women her opinion on the engagement ring that he was purchasing for his fiance. A neighbor saw this and went rushing to his fiance's house to tell her....What do you think her version was? I am sure you guessed it :-) As we face our challenges and work on our goals, it is always a good idea to pause a bit and look at the challenge from a different perspective. You usually find the solution or at least get a different insight.

Oak

Carpe Diem!

It's A good day to be successful

Have you ever noticed that many times after completing a task that we thought was going to be difficult that we look back and realize that it was not that difficult after all? This blog is all about getting to success NOW. Not tomorrow or the day after or next year but NOW! I will not be exposing any Secret about success but I will be sharing some practical tips based on some observations and my personal experience. I have had much success using the tips that I will share with you. It is my hope that I can help change at least a few lives with this blog. Check in with me next week when I will start discussing Vision to Success NOW. Until then make each day a great day. Its up to you. It's a good day to be succesful!!!

Oak

Carpe Diem!