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YOUR Attitude is YOUR Key to Success

Guest post by: Sheryl Nicholson

Article Overview: How many of you out there feel like survivors? Have you experienced and survived a divorce, job change or life-threatening illness? I, too, am a survivor! And I used to be so proud of that word that I almost wore it as a "badge of courage" pinned on my chest. I had lived in a tent for 18 months with four children and physically built my own home-and I survived! I built that home for $28,000; and 2 years later it appraised at $98,000. And I lost it in an ugly divorce, walking away with nothing but my greatest assets, my four children; and I survived! I ended up having to work three jobs. Got up in the morning and repaired bathtubs on construction sites (I'm a plumber's daughter; sold real estate in the afternoon; got home to greet the kids from school, start dinner, and then I was off doing free talks at Rotary and Kiwanis meetings tryin

YOUR Attitude is YOUR Key to Success

How many of you out there feel like survivors? Have you experienced and survived a divorce, job change or life-threatening illness? I, too, am a survivor! And I used to be so proud of that word that I almost wore it as a "badge of courage" pinned on my chest. I had lived in a tent for 18 months with four children and physically built my own home-and I survived! I built that home for $28,000; and 2 years later it appraised at $98,000. And I lost it in an ugly divorce, walking away with nothing but my greatest assets, my four children; and I survived! I ended up having to work three jobs. Got up in the morning and repaired bathtubs on construction sites (I'm a plumber's daughter; sold real estate in the afternoon; got home to greet the kids from school, start dinner, and then I was off doing free talks at Rotary and Kiwanis meetings trying to build my speaking and training business. I was getting headaches and feeling like I was pushing myself to get through the day. Can you relate?

And like most of us, I took care of myself last. I self medicated by popping aspirins. When I was up to 14 aspirins a day, my body said, "Uh uh," and I ended up in the hospital with a doctor telling me that I probably wouldn't survive the gangrene in my intestines. I went through major surgery and I survived! Going through a life-death situation, I got thinking about it.... survivor, survivor... as my children were growing up and asking me about life, was I just going to be able to say I had survived it? All of a sudden that magical word meant nothing and I decided I wanted to get more out of life than just survival. And I wanted to share those skills with others. So let's get started on our path out of a life of survival.

Do you hope to one day leave this world as a success? Why wait until we're on our deathbed to ask ourselves that question? Today, I want you to know that success is within your grasp, and you can go home and know you are successful. But to do that you must first take the time to define success.

Everyone has his or her own customized definition. For example, if you asked my son Erik, when he was a teenager, he would say "you're successful when you own a Porsche and live in a house on the beach." Some say, "If the Porsche and the house are paid for and you have two years salary in the bank, you're successful." And my mother says "If your kids remember to call you on Mother's Day, you're successful."

Several years ago success was define by "things". "He who dies with the most toys wins" was a popular bumper sticker. Then came the recession and recently the dot com crash and many have suffered making the mistake of tying success into a dollar amount or even fame. Hollywood and Celebrity Sports give thousands of examples of misplaced

definitions of success that lead to drugs and suicide. In my business I've met many people who drive expensive cars and live in gorgeous homes, and I wouldn't call them successful at all. They throw money instead of time at their kids and are often out of balance.

I recently heard this definition and liked it so well I often use it. You might want to copy

it and put it up somewhere:

Success is loving what you do so much, you'd do it for free, but doing it so well, you get

paid handsomely for it.

That definition works for Joe the gardener who whistles while he works. It works for me when I'm offered other jobs that I can turn down quickly because I wouldn't love the job.

The first step is to realize positive mental attitude as imperative to your success. Research has shown that there are actually three ingredients in personal and professional success. Education, Interpersonal Skills and Attitude. Which do you think is the most important ingredient? You can know the answer to that question by thinking about someone you admire and consider successful. Now think of five qualities, not possessions, they have.

Did you list honest or integrity? How about pro-active and caring? Now think back over your list. Won't the qualities you listed fall into the realm of attitude more than in the area of education or skill? Attitude is the No. 1 ingredient to their success. To bring that fact closer to home, can you name someone who is better educated than you are but making less money? How about someone who is less educated than you are but making more money? So knowledge is not the key to success, attitude is most important, coupled with strong interpersonal skills and a continuing education.

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Article Tags: attitude, job, rotary, survivor, ugly divorce



Related Forum Posts
Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Yes, you are right Mal. Attitude plays a big role in it. Robert
Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Success = Thinking (Head) + Heart (Feeling / Interest) + Hand (doing/ action). Success - H3 Robert
Re: What to do at the first roadblock? - Upon first discouragement, dig in and see if things are as they seem. Sometimes, even though there are several products out there that appear comparable, they are no match. Maybe they do don't a good job of what they are intended for, or maybe there are several glitches in their system, or perhaps their customer service just plain stinks. Decide how you can "one up" all of these things and decide that you are going to create a better product that more people would want. Attitude is 95% of the battle. If you feel defeated before you've done any research on any of the other products, you're doing yourself a huge disservice. Give yourself a chance and see if you can be the BEST in every way. This will get you far no matter what the venture.
Re: Stay positive! - Great theme My favorite book the ageless "Power of Positive Thinking" and I do not read many of these Motivational Books, Attitude is everything - a positive one is ore likely to bring positive results According to my Pisces horoscope - I am told that by my birth I am to be moody. We all have those bad days, but even though moody by nature, I tried to keep those days down to 4 or 5 a year - not bad for a Pisces Hang with the positives, lose the negatives
Re: Who hates cold calling? - About 15 years ago I worked for this sales company that used to sell anything from Kitchen Knives to Dry Cell Torches. The owner was a very motivating guy and he would ask us to get to the office by 7.00AM and we could sing and dance for an hour before we went to sell the products in the streets, stopping anyone and telling them our products were on discount. We used to sell snow to Eskimos, why were we able to do that? because of PMA (Positive Mental Attitude). The key to cold calling is like beauty, in eyes of the beholder. If you have no PMA, you cannot sell. Remember the law of average that states that if you went to a dance and every girl or guy you approached for a dance decline your proposal. What do you do? Do you stop? If you have a PMA, you continue until you get one person who agree to dance with you despite how ugly you look, that is is PMA and that is the power of cold calling.


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