GOOD THOTS

An excerpt from
The Right to Lead
by John C. Maxwell
What gives a man or woman the right to lead? It certainly isn't gained by election or appointment. Having position, title, rank or degrees doesn't qualify anyone to lead other people. And the ability doesn't come automatically from age or experience, either.

No, it would be accurate to say that no one can be given the right to lead. The right to lead can only be earned. And that takes time.
The Kind of Leader Others Want to Follow
The key to becoming an effective leader is not to focus on making other people follow, but on making yourself the kind of person they want to follow. You must become someone others can trust to take them where they want to go.

As you prepare yourself to become a better leader, use the following guidelines to help you grow:
1. Let go of your ego
The truly great leaders are not in leadership for personal gain. They lead in order to serve other people. Perhaps that is why Lawrence D. Bell remarked, "Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things, and I'll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things."
2. Become a good follower first
Rare is the effective leader who didn't learn to become a good follower first. That is why a leadership institution such as the United States Military Academy teaches its officers to become effective followers first - and why West Point has produced more leaders than the Harvard Business School.
3. Build positive relationships
Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. That means it is by nature relational. Today's generation of leaders seem particularly aware of this because title and position mean so little to them. They know intuitively that people go along with people they get along with.
4. Work with excellence
No one respects and follows mediocrity. Leaders who earn the right to lead give their all to what they do. They bring into play not only their skills and talents, but also great passion and hard work They perform on the highest level of which they are capable.
5. Rely on discipline, not emotion
Leadership is often easy during the good times. It's when everything seems to be against you - when you're out of energy, and you don't want to lead - that you earn your place as a leader. During every season of life, leaders face crucial moments when they must choose between gearing up or giving up. To make it through those times, rely on the rock of discipline, not the shifting sand of emotion.
6. Make adding value your goal
When you look at the leaders whose names are revered long after they have finished leading, you find that they were men and women who helped people to live better lives and reach their potential. That is the highest calling of leadership - and its highest value.
7. Give your power away
One of the ironies of leadership is that you become a better leader by sharing whatever power you have, not by saving it all for yourself. You're meant to be a river, not a reservoir. If you use your power to empower others, your leadership will extend far beyond your grasp.

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Life is like a game of tennis. The player who serves well seldom loses."


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An excerpt from
Customer Love
by Mac Anderson
The following story was told by my friend Phillip Van Hooser, in his book titled: Willie's Way. I really like it and hope you will too.

The conversation was pleasant. Earlier in the day I had presented a service professionalism training program for the Georgia Club Managers' Association, a group of managers representing some of the finest city, athletic, golf, and country clubs throughout the state of Georgia. Now I found myself dining with nine of the most highly respected leaders in the field of club management. Somewhere between the appetizer and the salad, Manuel de Juan, general manager of the host, Capital City Club, spoke.

"Phillip, I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation today. I especially enjoyed the stories you shared to illustrate your content points. As a matter of fact, at one point during your presentation, I almost interrupted you to share one of my stories I thought you might enjoy."

He said, "The occasion was Easter Sunday and the day found more than 500 club members and their guests crowded into the overflowing Capital City Club restaurant. As they waited to dine, a club member and his four dinner guests approached the bar where they were greeted by the head bartender, Bob, who quickly began to take and fill each drink order. Everything progressed as might be expected until one of the guests placed an order for a specialty drink.

'I would like a sazerac, please.'

'A sazerac?' Bob asked curiously. 'Sir, I'm sorry but I'm unfamiliar with that particular drink. However, if you'll share its ingredients with me, I will be happy to make you one.'

'That's the problem,' the guest explained. 'I was in New Orleans on business recently and I stayed at the Fairmont Hotel. During my visit, I went into the hotel bar and the bartender suggested I try the house specialty, a sazerac. I remember the name of the drink because it was the same as that of the bar. Anyway, I tried the drink and I loved it.

Since then though, whenever I've tried to order it in other bars around the country I always get the same response, 'never heard of it.' I was hoping a place like the Capital City Club would be different. But never mind. Don't worry about it. Just give me a Bloody Mary instead.'

Bob filled the revised drink order, and as soon as the guest left the bar to rejoin his party, Bob took his break and headed straight to the nearest telephone. He called information and requested the number for the Fairmont Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. Once connected to the Fairmont, Bob asked for the Sazerac Bar. Within seconds, Bob was talking directly with a previously anonymous professional colleague in a bar several hundred miles away.

'My name is Bob and I am the head bartender at the Capital City Club here in Atlanta. A few minutes ago I had a gentleman order a sazerac. He told me he was introduced to it while visiting your bar. I was wondering if you would be willing to share the recipe with me so I can fill his order?'

Bob's New Orleans counterpart was happy to oblige.

Within a few short minutes, Bob confidently approached the guest's table. Imagine the guest's level of surprise, satisfaction, and sheer delight when Bob said, 'Excuse me, sir, but I have your sazerac. I hope it's to your liking. I have taken the liberty of writing down the ingredients on this index card so you can have them with you in your travels. I hope you enjoy your time here at the Capital City Club. I'm glad I had the opportunity to serve you.'

One of my favorite definitions of listening is from Jim Cathcart. He said listening is wanting to hear. And you see, Bob wanted to hear...and he did. Great service is always about wanting to hear.

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At 211 degrees...water is hot.
At 212 degrees...it boils.
And with boiling water, comes steam.
And steam can power a locomotive.
And, it's that one extra degree that...
Makes all the difference.


Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties
today of its strength.' - Unknown author

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n excerpt from
Courage Does Not Always Roar
by Bobi Seredich
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."
- Benjamin Franklin
Sometimes we can get blindsided by the events that happen in our lives. Certified Financial Planner Rebecca Kennell shares the story of two of her clients, Pam and Tom, whose lack of planning could have been averted with the courage to take responsibility for the future.

Both in their fifties, Pam and Tom had not really done any long-term financial planning. Theirs was a second marriage, and Tom knew he should have a will or trust, but somehow he just didn't get around to it. Soon after Tom and Pam's meeting with Rebecca, Tom had a bicycle accident. The resulting x-rays revealed lung cancer and he passed away three months later, with the will kit still in the closet.

Without a will, a bitter probate battle developed. Tom and Pam had only been married a year and a half and the life insurance policy that Tom held listed his daughter, rather than Pam, as beneficiary. The result? Probate lasted two years, causing Pam a great deal of stress and costing her $30,000 in court costs. Suffering from a lack of sleep and distraught by the double impact of the death of her spouse and fighting with his daughter, Pam finally turned to anti-depressants to help balance herself emotionally. She developed physical effects, ranging from skin rashes to stomach problems - she was a mess, both physically and emotionally. Tom's death caused her deep heartache and presented problems she was never prepared to handle.

Pam was not very sophisticated financially when she married Tom, and he was just beginning to teach her about his assets when he passed away. She didn't bring a lot of assets or income to the marriage and mistakenly felt she didn't then have the "right" to discuss these topics. This is an error Rebecca sees many times in counseling clients. "If you are entering into a marriage partnership, you not only have a 'right' to discuss all of these topics, you should discuss them to avoid any future miscommunication," Rebecca advises.

Although Pam felt overwhelmed by this extremely stressful situation, she swallowed her pride and became wiser financially and stronger physically. She began to take charge of her own financial future - learning what to fight for in probate and what to let go of. Even more importantly, with Rebecca's help, she became financial savvy...understanding her assets and setting up her own trust.

"A lot of people are in denial about end-of-life planning," said Rebecca. "But that really turns out to be a selfish decision, one that leaves everyone around you having to make very hard choices. Sometimes it starts disagreements that can last for a generation."

Not only did Pam have to make end of life decisions for Tom, she had to deal with his daughter and an ex-wife who was still very angry at Tom for their divorce two years earlier. The best gift you can give your loved ones is putting your plan in place so there's no guesswork or disagreement in an emotionally stressful time.

Rebecca suggests taking small steps to protect your future. "It's important to be prepared," said Rebecca. "It can start with something as small as getting organized - having file folders and putting beneficiary information in a file for both spouses to share. Sometimes it just takes one spouse stating the obvious to get the conversation started, 'If something happens, I'll need to take over for the two of us. If I can't find things, they might be lost forever.'"

Smart planning doesn't only relate to end of life decisions. "While no one goes into marriage thinking about divorce, it's something that affects a lot of couples in this country," says Rebecca. "Women lose a lot of their inheritance though death or divorce when documents aren't updated." As one of our clients said, "I don't want to be sad and broke."

Death and divorce are highly emotional times. It takes courage to take the long view and protect yourself for the future before these events happen. Death is inevitable and divorce affects millions every year. As Rebecca says, "You can't stick your head in the sand and think that it won't happen to me."

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An excerpt from
Attitude is Everything
by Vicki Hitzges
I used to worry. A lot. The more I fretted, the more proficient I became at it. Anxiety begets anxiety. I even worried that I worried too much! Ulcers might develop. My health could fail. My finances could deplete to pay the hospital bills.

A comedian once said, "I tried to drown my worries with gin, but my worries are equipped with flotation devices." While not a drinker, I certainly could identify! My worries could swim, jump and pole vault!

To get some perspective, I visited a well known, Dallas businessman, Fred Smith. Fred mentored such luminaries as motivational whiz Zig Ziglar, business guru Ken Blanchard and leadership expert John Maxwell. Fred listened as I poured out my concerns and then said, "Vicki, you need to learn to wait to worry."

As the words sank in, I asked Fred if he ever spent time fretting. (I was quite certain he wouldn't admit it if he did. He was pretty full of testosterone-even at age 90.) To my surprise, he confessed that in years gone by he had been a top-notch worrier!

"I decided that I would wait to worry!" he explained. "I decided that I'd wait until I actually had a reason to worry-something that was happening, not just something that might happen-before I worried."

"When I'm tempted to get alarmed," he confided, "I tell myself, 'Fred, you've got to wait to worry! Until you know differently, don't worry.' And I don't. Waiting to worry helps me develop the habit of not worrying and that helps me not be tempted to worry."

Fred possessed a quick mind and a gift for gab. As such, he became a captivating public speaker. "I frequently ask audiences what they were worried about this time last year. I get a lot of laughs," he said, "because most people can't remember. Then I ask if they have a current worry - you see nods from everybody. Then I remind them that the average worrier is 92% inefficient - only 8% of what we worry about ever comes true."

Charles Spurgeon said it best. "Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength."

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If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day!"

Brian Tracy says that your "frog" should be the most difficult item on your things to do list, the one you're most likely to procrastinate on; because, if you eat that first, it'll give you energy and momentum for the rest of the day.

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An excerpt from
Eat That Frog!
by Brian Tracy
The 80/20 Rule is one of the most helpful of all concepts of time and life management. It is also called the "Pareto Principle" after its founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who first wrote about it in 1895. Pareto noticed that people in his society seemed to divide naturally into what he called the "vital few", the top 20 percent in terms of money and influence, and the "trivial many", the bottom 80 percent.

He later discovered that virtually all economic activity was subject to this principle as well. For example, this principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results, 20 percent of your customers will account for 80 percent of your sales, 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits, 20 percent of your tasks will account for 80 percent of the value of what you do, and so on. This means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth five or ten times or more than the other eight items put together.

Number of Tasks versus Importance of Tasks
Here is an interesting discovery. Each of the ten tasks may take the same amount of time to accomplish. But one or two of those tasks will contribute five or ten times the value of any of the others.

Often, one item on a list of ten tasks that you have to do can be worth more than all the other nine items put together. This task is invariably the frog that you should eat first.

Focus on Activities, Not Accomplishments
The most valuable tasks you can do each day are often the hardest and most complex. But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous. For this reason, you must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80 percent while you still have tasks in the top 20 percent left to be done.

Before you begin work, always ask yourself, "Is this task in the top 20 percent of my activities or in the bottom 80 percent?"

The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you will be naturally motivated to continue. A part of your mind loves to be busy working on significant tasks that can really make a difference. Your job is to feed this part of your mind continually.

Motivate Yourself
Just thinking about starting and finishing an important task motivates you and helps you to overcome procrastination. Time management is really life management, personal management. It is really taking control of the sequence of events. Time management is having control over what you do next. And you are always free to choose the task that you will do next. Your ability to choose between the important and the unimportant is the key determinant of your success in life and work.

Effective, productive people discipline themselves to start on the most important task that is before them. They force themselves to eat that frog, whatever it is. As a result, they accomplish vastly more than the average person and are much happier as a result. This should be your way of working as well.

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"When you know that everything matters - that every move counts as much as any other - you will begin living a life of permanent purpose. A life of permanent purpose will make you a better parent, a better spouse, and a more valuable friend. Your productivity and financial success will soar to new heights while the old days of uncertainty, doubt, and depression fade into the past."

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An Excerpt From
Finish Strong: Teen Athlete
by Dan Green
Western Oregon University's Sara Tucholsky had no idea that the first - and, as it turns out, only - home run of her career would cause ripples that would make her last swing of the bat as a college softball player a national media sensation.

With two runners on and her team down a run to Central Washington University, Sara hit a home run to centerfield. As she rounded first base, she missed the bag. When she turned to tag the base, she injured her knee. Able only to crawl back to the base, Sara was told that she would be called out if her teammates came to her aid. If a pinch runner checked into the game, her home run would count only as a single.

Players and fans alike were stunned when Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman, the conference's all-time home run leader, asked the umpire if there was any rule against opponents helping an injured player around the bases.

She was told that there was not. Together, Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace picked up Tucholsky and carried her around the bases, stopping at each bag to allow Sara to touch it with her good leg. "It was the right thing to do," Holtman said in an interview on national television, after the respectful act of sportsmanship had been witnessed by millions on ESPN and had become a YouTube sensation.

The three runs sent Western Oregon to a 4-2 victory, ending Central Washington's chances of winning the conference and advancing to the playoffs.

"It's a great story," Western Oregon coach Pam Knox said, "something I'll never forget - the game's about character and integrity and sportsmanship, and it's not always about winning and losing."

As it turns out, the players who helped Sara had no idea of the circumstances surrounding the at-bat, or that the story would make headlines around the country. "We didn't know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run," Wallace said Wednesday. "That makes the story more touching than it was. We just wanted to help her." The gesture left Sara's Western Oregon teammates in tears. "I hope I would do the same for her in the same situation," Sara said. Central Washington coach Gary Frederick called the act of sportsmanship "unbelievable."

"In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much," Holtman, who initiated the act, said. "It was about this girl. She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run."
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hey say "you can't choose your parents." All of us have circumstances that cannot be changed, whether it's the home we're born into or a physical condition we're struggling with.

In that case, our choice isn't to change our circumstances, but to change our ATTITUDE.

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An excerpt from
Secrets of the World Class
by Steve Siebold
I have had the privilege of competing against, coaching, being coached by and observing world-class performers since I was six years old. As a junior tennis player competing throughout the United States from ages 7 - 18, I became fascinated with what it takes to become a champion. My dream was to be ranked among the Top 10 players in the world, but I fell short. At my best, I hovered around the Top 500 in the world, and that's as high as I could seem to reach. Deep down, I knew I had the talent to make my dream a reality, and I knew the missing link was mental. After I hung up my racquet for the last time, I became obsessed with uncovering the mental toughness secrets of champions.

Starting in 1984, I spent every free moment conducting interviews with champions, reading their books and studying everything I could get my hands on about the psychology of peak performance. My friends said I was obsessed. They were right. This book is the result of my 20-year obsession.

When I started to implement the ideas in this book, my whole life changed. It wasn't overnight, but sometimes it seemed like it. There's no magic here, just practical thought processes, habits and philosophies drawn from the greatest performers in the world.

This book contains no theories. Every secret comes straight from the street of experience, either my own or that of our clients. This book is loaded with ideas you can implement immediately. Some will be familiar and some new. All of them have the power to catapult your results, no matter how high you're flying. It's been said that speakers and writers espouse wisdom on the very topic they need most. Now that you know my story, you know this is true for me. After 20 years of studying and teaching mental toughness to people throughout the United States, Canada and 10 other countries, I can honestly tell you that many times I still think like a complete amateur, operating out of the same middle-class consciousness that I ridicule in this book. After all these years, my mental toughness growth is still a work in progress.

The good news is that mental toughness is a skill that can be learned, and the tougher you get, the bigger you'll dream and the more fun you'll have.

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An excerpt from
The Strangest Secret
by Earl Nightingale
George Bernard Shaw said, "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."

Well, it's pretty apparent, isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.

Now, it stands to reason that a person who is thinking about a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach it, because that's what he's thinking about. And we become what we think about.

Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety, fear and worry - his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing...he becomes nothing.

How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.

Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make a decision.

We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.

Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand - one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds - one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted. As it's written in the Bible,

"As ye sow, so shall ye reap."

Remember, the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the plants - one corn, one poison. The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn't care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety, and so on. But what we plant it must return to us.

You see, the human mind is the last great, unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.

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