Nathan Martin

I picked up Living for the Weekday in an airport bookstore Friday.  Looking forward to Monday is an appealing dream.  Author Clint Swindall isn’t selling a magic pill here.  Living for the Weekday is simply a book filled with good commonsense.

This book appealed to me for two reasons.

1.  75% of the book was a fictional story.  Swindall calls it a fable.  I find the story format much easier to digest than a straight lecture style teaching.

2.  Swindall’s advice for a happier existance at work (and at home) centers around personal growth in these five areas: career, relationships, health, finances, and spirituality.

By keeping the focus to five areas and teaching in story form, Swindall has created a fun and practical tool.  I recommend Living for the Weekday.

Action:  Set goals in each of these areas of your life. Working toward these goals will bring balance and happiness even if you don’t immediately love Mondays.

Don’t read The Seven-Day Weekend by Ricardo Semler if you’re happy with old-school methods of employer/employee relationships.  Mr. Semler shares new ideas that he has implemented in Semco, his $200+ million company.  Ideas that have kept turnover extremely low.

If you are open to new ideas and want to make your company a fun place to work, check this book out.  It’s a fun read.  You may not want to implement all Semler’s ideas, but just a couple could make your workplace more enjoyable.  The Seven-Day Weekend concept is about flexibility.  Time flexibility, career choice flexibility, decision-making flexibility.  Semler begins with the premise that employees are adults.  As adults they are capable of more responsibility than they are given in most organizations.

I can buy much of what he says in this book IF:

1.  You truly do hire adults…responsible people willing to use their brains.

2.  You lay out objectives and goals of the job clearly.

At any rate, pick this book up at your library and start reading.  You’ll know part way into the first chapter if it’s for you.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m currently working my way through Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude.  Hill and Stone list 17 different success principles in this classic:

1.  A Positive Mental Attitude

2.  Definiteness of Purpose

3.  Going the extra mile

4.  Accurate thinking

5.  Self-discipline

6.  The master mind

7.  Applied faith

8.  A pleasing personality

9.  Personal initiative

10.  Enthusiasm

11.  Controlled attention

12.  Teamwork

13.  Learning from defeat

14.  Creative vision

15.  Budgeting time and money

16.  Maintaining sound physical and mental health

17.  Using cosmic habit force (universal law)

Success Through a PMA is a really helpful book…although I wouldn’t mind seeing a shorter list.  What 5 principles from this or any other list would you consider to be most essential?

“Everyone has some creative ability, but most people haven’t learned to use it.” ~Alex Osborn

I’m reading through Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude this week.  It’s a classic by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone.  I just finished a particularly fascinating section on creative thinking.  I’m curious to hear feedback on these thoughts…

Dr. Elmer Gates, in response to a Napoleon Hill question, gave these as “the sources of all ideas:

1.  Knowledge stored in the subconscious mind and acquired through individual experience, observation, and education.

2.  Knowledge accumulated by others through the same media, which may be communicated by telepathy.

3.  The great universal storehouse of Infinite Intelligence, wherein is stored all knowledge and all facts, and which may be contacted through the subconscious section of the mind.”

Gates showed Hill the small barren room that he often spent hours in “sitting for ideas.”  For whatever reason, I seem to get many of my ideas while getting ready in the morning–I haven’t found waterproof paper for the shower.  Where do you get your best ideas?  And what do you think of Gates’ sources of all ideas?

I’m finishing up my first listen of Craig Valentine’s Home Study Course (which, by the way, is amazing!).  Craig recommends writing out what you favorite day would look like.  This advice makes a lot of sense to my goal-setting mind.  So I decided to give it a try.  I found out that 24 hours is just not enough time to do everything that would make a day perfect… but a near perfect day might look something like this:

• Wake up to see a $1,000 deposit in my account from info products that people purchased from my sites the past 24 hours.
• Exercise & shower.
• Spend some quiet time outside soaking up sun rays, meditating and planning.
• Lunch date with Becky.
• Implement some of the planning (write & develop products and marketing).
• Float down the river in my kayak.
• Cookout with friends and family in the evening.
• Read a book.
• Bedtime with my wife =)

That would make a pretty cool day for me.  What’s your perfect day look like?

Have you ever wanted to pull the covers up over your head and pretend it’s not morning?  This morning I slammed the alarm clock off, rolled back over, and continued my sleep.  I didn’t feel good mentally or physically.  When I finally woke up I knew I had to get my head on straight before I went to the office.  I was in a lousy state of mind!

I said to myself, “Get a grip.  What is important to you, Nate?!”

I grabbed my notebook from my nightstand and began writing.

1.  Financial Independence…this is the main financial goal for me…having enough money coming in from passive sources each month so that I am not dependent on a job.  Not that I’ll stop working exactly, but it may change WHAT I work on.

2.  What will I do when I achieve financial independence?  This is one I’ve been pondering for a while (months, maybe years).  I’ve narrowed it down to this: I want to help people recognize and achieve their dreams and potential.  This brings to mind Zig Ziglar’s famous quote, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”  Thinking about Zig’s statement, I’m realizing that I don’t have to wait till I have piles of money to go after my dream.  My dream is to help other people get what they want just like Zig says.  I can do that now and figure out the money part after I get good at it.  Because this is truly something I would do for free!!

3.  The next page in my notebook I filled with people that I am helping currently or should be helping reach their dreams.  Each entry has a name and something I know that they are working toward.  I was surprised just how many people are already in my life that I can help.  I just need to be more intentional about helping.

After going through this exercise I was excited about life once more…at least until I reached the office.  Still working on keeping a positive attitude the whole day =)

Toastmasters District 18 Spring Conference was yesterday in Dover, DE.  Five of us Chambersburg Toastmasters attended.  This was my first District Conference and I was absolutely impressed.  The special speakers (Ty Howard, Craig Valentine, and Charlie Wilson) entertained and educated.  They set the bar high for us as speakers in training.

Ty Howard highlights:

• Your habits define your future.
• Quit Marking Time and Move Forward–in the military, marching in place is called marking time.  Too many of us are marking time…going through the same routines each day…not moving forward.
• Set UNSTOPPABLE written goals.

Craig Valentine highlights:

• Don’t get ready, stay ready.  When opportunities present themselves we need to be prepared.
• Be crystal clear with your message…your foundational phrase must be fewer than 10 words.
• Keep learning…READ.
• When speaking, one major point and one story for every 10 minutes that you speak.  The 10 to 1 rule.

Charlie Wilson highlights:

• Growth…Stretch a little…then a little more…then a little more…etc.
• Failure…If you aren’t failing, you aren’t learning.  Extend yourself…be willing to learn.

The contests were also exciting.  Erica Goodridge rocked the Table Topics!   The speech contestants were fantastic.  They all brought their A games and were fun to watch!

My favorite part…I won Craig Valentine’s The Edge of Their Seats Storytelling Home-Study Course.  Gotta say after listening to three of the CD’s on the way home…I understand how Craig can charge $297 for the program.  The tips in the course are subtle but very effective.  Can’t wait to try them out.  Thanks, Craig!!!

Dr. Dilip Abayasekara’s The Path of the Genie follows the fictional character Aladdin through his journey of discovery.  Dilip teaches how Aladdin’s lessons learned can be applied in our lives.

Dilip says “Becoming the person you ought to be is a spiritual journey that will last as long as you live.”  I’ve certainly found that to be true in my experience.

My favorite section of The Path of the Genie is Dilip’s encouragement to figure out your gifts and fulfillment in life.  He ends Part III with these Five Action Steps For Self-Discovery:

1.  Know God–you are a spiritual being having a human experience.

2. Understand what gives you bliss–happiness and fulfillment.

3. Discover your gifts–what you do easily and naturally.

4. Work on becoming the person you ought to be–values driven.  Also, emulate role models in the areas you wish to improve.

5. Build you life around your true identity, your calling, and your gifts–even small steps to get started will help you feel more fulfilled.

I know Dilip through Toastmasters.  He has lived–and is living–the journey he writes about.  If you get the chance to hear him speak, make sure you do.  You won’t be disappointed.

My friend Tracey at Tremendous Life Books gave me this book to read.  In 8 Attributes of Great Achievers, Cameron Taylor uses dozens of stories to illustrate the character traits of successful people.  I found tons of one-liners in this book…I have a lot of sentences underlined.  Here are a handful:

• In order to inspire teamwork, you must be filled with enthusiasm.
• Many people achieve little in life simply because they never decide to achieve something.
• Following someone who has achieved what you want to achieve is the simplest and quickest way to get where you want to be.
• We can have as much wealth as we are willing to work to create.

This book may not be the first time you hear truths like this, but can anyone be reminded too often?

The 8 Attributes are:

1. Responsibility
2. Creator
3. Independence
4. Humility
5. Honesty
6. Optimism
7. Vision
8. Persistence

I definitely recommend 8 Attributes of Great Achievers.  Get it from Amazon or Tremendous Life Books.

This recording by Les Brown truly challenges the listener to “Step Into Your Greatness”.  I enjoyed it so much that I listened to the program three times in the last week.  Les shares how he overcame the negativity associated with not performing well in school.  He shares how persistence landed him a DJ position on the radio.  Then he overcame deep despair after wallowing in his failed TV show.  Through his passionate speaking and heartfelt story-telling, Les Brown inspires and motivates us to step into our greatness.