Freedom from Urgency by Denis Waitley

December 2, 2009 Issue 144 Welcome to this issue of the Denis Waitley International online newsletter! My goal is to offer valuable, relevant, leading-edge and interesting content, with some innovative and refreshing differences from the other newsletters you may receive. Warm regards, Denis Waitley P.S.: Today's issue is going out to more than 109,956 weekly subscribers. If you've enjoyed this edition and have found it to be valuable, then if you would do me the favor of forwarding it to your friends, family and associates, it would be very much appreciated. If they would like to subscribe, have them visit www.deniswaitley.com for easy and convenient sign-up. Many Thanks! In This Issue..... 1. This Week's Jump-Start 2. The Champion Within Article 3. Seeds of Greatness 4. The Winner's Edge Coaching Tips 5. Gifts for Achievers | PLUS Free Shipping—less than 36 hours left! 6. More Information 1. This Week's Jumpstart Freedom from Urgency by Denis Waitley Freedom from urgency…. That’s what will allow us to live a rich and rewarding life. You may have thought your problem was “time starvation,” when in truth, it was in the way you assigned priorities in your decision-making process. Have you allowed the urgent to crowd out the important? Each day we will continue to encounter deadlines we must meet and “fires,” not necessarily of our own making, we must put out. Endless urgent details will always beg for attention, time and energy. What we seldom realize is that the really important things in our life don’t make such strict demands on us, and therefore we usually assign them a lower priority. Our loved ones understand when we are preoccupied with our urgent business, but it’s hard for us to understand, many years later, why they appear preoccupied when we finally find some time for them. Harry Chapin’s classic song “The Cat’s in the Cradle” is still a mirror reflecting our priorities. All the important arenas in our life are there awaiting our decisions. But they don’t beg us to give them our time. The local university doesn’t call us to advance our education and improve our life skills. I have never received a call or e-mail from the health club I joined insisting that I show up and work out for 30 minutes each day. My bathroom scale has never insisted that I lose 30 pounds. The grocery clerks have never made me put back on the shelves the junk food I put in the cart, nor has a fast-food restaurant ever refused me a double cheeseburger and large fries because of my high cholesterol. Nor have I ever been subpoenaed by the ocean or the mountains to appear for relaxation and solitude. Yet I receive hundreds of urgent phone messages and e-mails each week from people with deadlines. You see, it’s the easiest thing in the world to neglect the important and give in to the urgent. One of the greatest skills you can ever develop in your life is not only to tell the two apart, but to be able to assign the correct amount of time to each. Beginning tomorrow, throughout the day, and every day thereafter, stop and ask yourself this question: “Is what I’m doing right now important to my health, well-being and mission in life, and for my loved ones?” Your affirmative answer will free you forever, from the tyranny of the urgent! —Denis Waitley 2. The Champion Within Article Motivation from Within by Dr. Denis Waitley Motivation is a contraction of motive and action. An inner force that compels behavior, it comes from within, not from any external circumstance. You know where you’re going because you have a compelling image inside, not a travel poster on the wall, a financial statement with a big bonus, or a slogan in the hall. The performance of many externally motivated individuals begins declining as soon as they win contests of one sort or another. I’ve personally witnessed this among Super Bowl champions and World Cup teams that lost the incentive to maintain their excellence after winning the cup, the honors, and the cash. If you’re really committed to peak performance and leadership, you must motivate yourself from within. Studies of achievers show that inner drives for excellence and independence are far more powerful than desire for wealth, status or recognition. The Inner Drive Behavioral scientists have found that independent desire for excellence is the most telling predictor of significant achievement. In other words, the success of our efforts depends less on the efforts themselves than on our motives. The most successful companies, like the most successful men and women in almost all fields, have achieved their greatness out of a desire to express what they felt had to be expressed. Often it was a desire to use their skills to their utmost in order to solve a problem. This is not to say that many of them did not also earn a great deal of money and prestige. William Shakespeare, Thomas Edison, Estee Lauder, Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Sam Walton and Bill Gates all became wealthy. But far more than thoughts of profit, the key to their success was inspiration and inner drive by creating or providing excellence in a product or a service. All were motivated by the desire to produce the very best that was in them. Go for the Inner Applause The late Ray Kroc, a former neighbor of mine who founded McDonald’s Corporation when he was in his 50s, stressed the importance of people working for the inner satisfaction, not just for the money. Ray said most people find it difficult to associate applause with their work when they can’t hear literal applause—but the important applause should come from within. It is the faster heartbeat, the pride and satisfaction of accomplishment. Kroc told the University of Southern California’s Business School that the first thing a business executive needs is love of an idea. If you don’t love your concept, drop it. If you prostitute yourself at an early age by taking a job where the money is, you’ll be working for money all your life. Loving their work is particularly important for younger people. If they lose that love early, they may never grow to anywhere near their potential for self-actualization. Hire People Who Have Empowered Themselves An inner drive for excellence motivates you always to be the best you possible can in whatever you do. Leaders and managers should take special note here. They must be careful in their use of external motivators—money, perks, prestigious offices and titles—in trying to inspire their team members and employees. Enduring motivation must always come ultimately from within the individual. That’s why empowerment and vision are so crucial to team performance and quality. Their power and their vision, not those of the leader, must compel team members. Interviewing potential members, you should look for internally motivated individuals who hold their work important for its own sake, who love their field or their industry, who seek the exhilaration of testing their limits and contributing to the world. Be wary if they show more interest in your compensation package than in their contribution package. Commit to achieving peak performance and leadership, by motivating yourself from within! —Denis Waitley Denis Waitley has studied, counseled and trained leaders in virtually every field including Apollo astronauts, Olympic gold medalists, Super Bowl champions, returning POW's, heads of state and Fortune 500 top executives. Denis is recognized as a world class speaker and author and has traveled the globe sharing success ideas and strategies to thousands of companies the past 25 years. To book Dr. Waitley to speak for your company or to be part of your upcoming Regional or National Convention send an email to speaker@deniswaitley.com or call 877-929-0439 and ask for Hilary. 3. Seeds of Greatness Seeds of Purpose: Focus Precedes Success (These quotes were taken from Denis Waitley’s Excerpts from The Seeds of Greatness Treasury booklet) If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter if your alarm doesn’t go off in the morning. There is a gold mine, in your goal mind! Your mind is the most marvelous bio-computer ever created. It does not deal with vague ideas; it is activated by specifics. Purpose is the engine that powers our lives. If you go to your place of business to see what happens, you’ll put out fires but make little progress toward your goals. What you get is what you set! Focus always precedes success. 4. The Winner's Edge Coaching Tips This week I'm featuring a little something by Brian Tracy, titled I Believe. It was excerpted from Brian's The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success. Enjoy! —DW I Believe by Brian Tracy I believe every person has within themselves inexhaustible reserves of potential they have never even come close to realizing. I believe each person has far more intelligence than they have ever used. I believe each person is more creative than he or she has ever imagined. I believe the greatest achievements of your life lie ahead of you. I believe the happiest moments of your life are yet to come. I believe the greatest successes you will ever attain are still waiting for you on the road ahead. And, I believe through learning and application of what you learn, you can solve any problem, overcome any obstacle and achieve any goal that you can set for yourself. —Brian Tracy 5. Gifts for Achievers | PLUS Free Shipping—less than 36 hours left! Find the perfect gifts that’ll not only make an immediate impression, but also a positive difference in someone’s life! As a valued Denis Waitley Newsletter reader, you can shop among hundreds of books, audio CD sets, DVDs and more by top thought leaders and renowned success experts, like Denis Waitley, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, Stephen Covey, Robert Kiyosaki, Connie Podesta and Tom Peters. Give the gift of more confidence, greater financial security, improved leadership skills, superior sales techniques and better relationships for higher achievement in every area of their lives! Hurry, Free Shipping ends at midnight, Wednesday, December 2! Start shopping now! 6. More Information