THE CEO

Some people are more talented than others. Some people are more educationally privileged than others. But we all have the capacity to be great. Greatness comes by recognizing that your potential is limited only by how you choose, how you use your freedom, how resolute you are, how persistent you are - in short, by your attitude. And we are all free to choose our attitude. - Peter Koestenbaum

The choices that have determined the thoughts that you've habitually thought, the people you've surrounded yourself with, the books you've read, and the actions you've taken have shaped you and defined your life. You've created the life you see before your eyes - no one else has.

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse. - Rudyard Kipling

When you blame the status of your life on other people and things, you're really saying that they've shaped your destiny and are the cause of your current conditions.

Circumstances don't define a person, they reveal a person.

Now is the time to raise your standards about what it means to be a person, to show the world who you really are. And if not now, when?

I'd always put off doing the things I needed to do to be truly successful in the world until a later date. I'd tell myself that I'd go the extra mile and become a star at work when I had more time. I'd rebuild my relationship once I got promoted. I'd improve my life when I made more money.
But that thinking didn't work for me anymore - it didn't suit my new state of awareness. I really needed to take my life to its highest level. Not next year. Not next month. Not next week. Now.

The wise man always does at once what the fool does at finally. - Baltasar Gracian

If we don't take charge of our lives and act on them, our lives have a way of acting on us.

Elite performance in career and in life is all about the promotion of personal accountability. It's about keeping the pledges you've made to yourself.

Greatness as a person is mostly about saying what we'll do as people, and then doing what we said we would. This is simple stuff, yet most of us have forgotten it in this crazy world we live in.

The best leaders expose their weaknesses - they're real and people love them for it.

Did you know that recent scientific evidence has show that the electromagnetic field created by the human heart is actually 5,000 times more powerful than the one created by the human mind?
Think about it...

You can talk the talk all you want, but unless you're genuinely devoted to helping your clients and making their lives better, they won't do business with you - they'll sense that you're not genuine. Success in business comes down to trust. People need to trust that you want to help them. If the trust is there, your services will sell themselves.

Trust is key.

Maintain a trust account with every person in your life. Whenever you interact with someone, you're either making deposits into that account or withdrawing from it.

I honor the best and highest within you.

Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in life, living for other people and doing good for them.

You can get everything you want out of life when you focus on helping those around you get everything they want out of life.

A great life is nothing more than a series of great conversations. Business success comes from having thoughtful conversations with our teammates, customers, and prospects. If we stop engaging in these conversations, we lose the business. Family success comes from having meaningful conversations with out mates and among our children. Lose these conversations, and we lose the family. And inner success - success as a human being - involves, in many ways, nothing more than a continual conversation and connection with your highest self. Lose that conversation, and you lose yourself.

The more awaken, the more you'll realize that success is all about making a difference in the world.

The elite performers in life spend their time centered on creating and building value rather than on making money. They seek out ways to enrich others, and they live to improve the lot of those who have the privilege of doing business with them. They take themselves out of the equation and exist, in many ways, for others. The irony is that they're the ones who become the most successful and wealthy.

To have more in the world, you must give more to others. It's just one of those timeless laws of life.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others? - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Elite performers in business make a lot of time to reflect. And one of the things they think about the most is how they can add more value to the people they serve.

The purpose of life isn't to be happy. That's one of the most self-centered ways of living that one could imagine, and it's the source of so many problems in the world today. This global community would change if we'd stop thinking about our individual happiness and start to think about our collective service. In other words, the world would change if we began to become consumed, not with being happier, but with being more valuable.

Stop wishing that life were easier and wish that you were better, more caring, and more kind. Stop wishing for fewer problems and wish for greater wisdom. You see, happiness is a by-product, and it comes to those who don't seek it.
It's a paradox, isn't it?

The best thing you can do to help the poor of this world is to ensure that you're not one of them.

Giving with the intention of receiving really isn't giving, it's trading - and people can sense that. Give to genuinely help, and act like a servant leader. That's how you'll grow to greatness.

I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. - William Penn

You will be happy in your life in direct proportion to the degree to which you will be helpful to the world.

Death is not the greatest loss of life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. - Norman Cousins

The true reward of a well-lived life doesn't lie in what you get at the end of your path, but what you become once you get there.

We think it takes a lot of energy to do the inner work required to live our best lives, both at work and at home - the reality is that it takes far more energy to stay mediocre.

A wise human being blends compassion with courage.

People make the mistake of believing that to be loving means you have to give in to people and let them walk all over you. That's just not the case. I love myself too much to ever let that happen. If someone crosses the boundary with me, I let them know it in a compassionate yet powerful way. I speak in a way that doesn't sting them but lets them know that I won't be mistreated. And so, I blend compassion with courage.

For you to win, no one needs to lose.

We just need to get out of our own way.

What's of greatest value to me is my reputation. It never ceases to amaze me how people will work for decades to build a good name, then do something silly, and in a matter of moments, lose their reputation. In doing so, they lose their ability to conduct business in so many ways. You see, you can't put a price tag on getting your phone calls returned. Cherish your good name. Never do anything that would put a stain on your reputation. Live and work with a great deal of integrity.

The Law of Diminishing Intent hold that the more time that passes after you've set a goal, the less likely you are to breathe life into it and make it happen. When we initially set a goal, we tend to be full of excitement and hope about the future possibilities. But as the days pass, life gets in the way, as do our limiting beliefs. Our inner critic begins its work and offers up an array of excuses as to why this goal will never come to fruition. The more time passes, the more we get distracted by the urgent issues we have to deal with - soon the dream dies a quick death. Just imagine if you acted on even 5 percent of the brilliant ideas you've had over the course of your life, not only for success in your career but for success in your life.

I've always believed that elite performers never leave the site of a new idea without taking some action to advance it. So to prevent The Law of Diminishing Intent from strangling the desires of your heart, you must build an accountability structure into the process I'm sharing with you.

Set up a mastermind group!

What's not measure will never be mastered.

One of the primary reasons we lose our inspiration and passion for making our goals happen is because we spend more time focusing on what's not working rather than on what is.

Live your life each day as if you would climb mountains. An occasional glance toward the summit puts the goal in mind. Many beautiful scenes can be observed from each new vantage point. Climb steadily, slowly, enjoy each passing moment; and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax to the journey. - Harold Melchert

Speak about your intentions and desires often. Declare them to the world. Tell your family and friends about what you want to have, do, and be. The more you talk about what you want, the more you'll have what you want.
Why? Because the more you talk about your heart's desires, the higher they'll move into your awareness. You'll begin to see opportunities that were previously invisible. You'll form new connections in your mind and view the possibilities of your life from the highest vantage point.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. - Peter Drucker

Grow into greatness.


[Robin Sharma]

The River Runs through it.

Dear ,

As the moon lingers a moment over the bitterroots, before its descent into the invisible, my mind is filled with song, not to the music but something else, some place else. A place remembered, a field of grass where no one seemed to have been, except the deer. And the memories strengthened by the memory of you, dancing in my awkward arms.

The Surfer

[Random thoughts & underlines from a book...]

I live my life moment to moment. I'm dedicated to living in a state of continuous grace. I try to stay completely present to everything that unfolds for me. The past is over - long gone. So my philosophy works like this: I never let my yesterdays take up much of my todays.

The future? The future isn't real, man. It's just an illusion as far as I'm concerned. The only thing that I really focus on is the enchantment of each minute. I live in the flow and take things as they come. I follow my heart. And I love it!

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in my pillow or stretch myself taut or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return." - Mary Jean Iron

We all have a stained glass window we view the world through. My whole stained glass window is transforming, so to speak.

You're getting out of your head and moving into your heart, which is where all your answers live. Living in your head is playing it safe with your life. You try to figure things out. You plan and worry and fret about your past, your present, and your future. You spend so much time analyzing what could be and what would be that you miss out on living the life that you need to live. The ideal way to learn from life is to be present to every moment presented to you - and you can't do that if you're caught up in your thoughts.

"Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar" - Emerson

No matter how much we collect, nothing-nothing-can ever make up for any incompleteness we feel within ourselves. As human beings, we all have these holes within us that crave to be filled. Some of us have holes created by parents who didn't care for our emotional needs as children; others of us have holes created by uncaring schoolmates who couldn't see our true worth. Still others of us have holes created by educators who taught us that we were never good enough, no matter how much we achieved. And as we grow into adults, we unconsciously look for other people and things to fill our holes - to complete us. And when they don't, we move on in search of the next solution. It's an endless pursuit, and it empties us - as human beings-of our inner peace.
Go within.

"No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit" - Helen Keller

When you see things from a higher perspective, you can see that seemingly unrelated things are actually related. And to me, that's a miracle.

The key is to trust.

Stop living in your head, you've tried that method of operating your whole life, and where has it gotten you.

Yes, his approach was unconventional. But if we all only lived according to the conventional thinking of the masses, our society would have remained in the Dark Ages. It's only due to the novel and bold thinking of the visionaries of our world that any progress has been made.

"That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet." - Emily Dickinson

"Life is too short to be little" - Benjamin Disraeli

Life is a beach in so many ways. It reflects a journey that has its sandy parts as well as its rocky areas, and it has its curves and its straightaways. Sometimes you see the crashing waves when you wake up in the morning and feel the fury of the ocean; other times there's a blissful calm and not a thing stirs.

It never ceases to amaze me how the brightness of the dawn always comes immediately after the darkest part of the night. Each and every one of us has to endure darkness - but it always passes, and the light always returns.

Acceptance is the key here.

But feel those fears, and then do it anyway. Just stand with your fears and let them wash through you. Eventually they'll pass. For your life to be great, your faith must be bigger than your fears.

Stop trying to analyze every event as good or bad and just experience it. That's the path to mastery: detachment from outcomes.

Stop trying so hard to get what you want in life. That's one of the paradoxes of the world: Those things that you run toward will run away from you. The more you stop worrying about the way your life should turn out, the more your life will turn out just fine.

Your life, my life, every life is so beautiful. We just fail to make the time to take that in. That's why it's so important to slow down. Why are you always rushing? Where are you running to?

Life is a great mystery novel that contains the story of your life. What fun would it be if you knew how it all unfolded and how it ended before you got to the final chapter?

Pay more attention to the way you treat people. Spend more time focusing on their strengths rather than noticing their weaknesses, man.

To breathe properly is to live properly.

The easiest things to do are also the things that are easiest not to do.

"Real love begins where nothing is expected in return." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Please, remember that the hand that gives is the hand that gathers.

You know that forgiving is something you do for yourself, don't you?

"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that crushed it." - Mark Twain

Forgiveness isn't about condoning what someone did to you in the past - it's about accepting it and realizing that they only hurt you because they were in some form of fear.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the thing I can, and wisdom to know the difference." - Serenity Prayer

"Before you set out to seek revenge, it is best you dig two graves." - Confucius

And by appreciating what's good in your lives, those good things will grow. Think in terms of economics: When something appreciates in value, what happens to it? It becomes worth more.

"It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know" - Henry David Thoreau

I don't want to get too technical here, but we live in what physicist have called a holographic universe, which means that what we send out comes back in kind.

"I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet" - Mahatma Gandhi

Once you've completed a feeling to its endpoint, which every feeling has, then there's certainly nothing wrong with looking for the good in the circumstances. Actually, that's the only smart thing to do.

Out-picturing. The internal will always become the external because all things are created twice: first in the mind and then in reality.

A mistake is only a mistake if you repeat it.

A life without setbacks is a shallow life. To fully experience your life, you must experience the highs as well as the lows- then you'll know what being alive is really about. Pain isn't such a bad thing, you know. Actually, I believe that pain comes to us to raise our lives to the next level.

"Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with." - Thomas Carlyle

"The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them but because he is a man of high and heroic temper." - Aristotle

"I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their chamber." - Blaise Pascal

"Those who don't make time for exercise must eventually make times for illness, you know.

Thanks for being great.


[Robin Sharma]