Chapter 1.
Mindset and People

Have you ever wondered, as I have for over ten years, what makes the difference between success and failure? It's nothing to do with education, intelligence or background. The difference lies in some fundamental characteristics or traits that successful people adopt and the great news is that you can learn and copy these characteristics so you get the same results.

One of the major breakthroughs that I have had is learning that successful people are vastly different in the way they think - their mindset is different. My invitation to you is that you start adopting these success traits that you will learn in this book into your daily life so that they become habits. You can also extend the thinking contained here to others in your team so that they develop and compound the development of your business.

If we take on board the premise that success leaves tracks then we need to find out what successful people do and do the same thing. This is the basis of modelling - copying what works.

First of all - what is the key secret of successful people?

We are all ruled by the Natural Laws of the Universe - otherwise known as universal, timeless and self-evident principles. By universal I mean that the principles apply in any situation, any culture and are found in all societies and institutions that have had truly enduring success. By timeless I mean that they never change and they are permanent, natural laws, like gravity. One of these is the natural law of cause and effect which states that thoughts are causes and conditions are effects - you have to think of something before it can happen or materialise. This can be extended to say that in effect your entire outer world is a reflection of your inner world. Every action, idea or outcome in your life has been a thought in your head beforehand - you've had to think it before it happened.

This really is the greatest ever discovery in human history - if you want to change anything on the outside then you have to change it on the inside. If you want to change your life, then you have to change your thinking. This great discovery forms the basis of all religions, all philosophy and all success and is that you become what you think about most of the time.

Of course there are a few exceptions to this otherwise all young men in their teens would turn into women and fat people would turn into chocolate! In all seriousness, you do become what you think about most of the time.

Think about What You Want

In the USA a survey interviewed over 350,000 entrepreneurs - the top 10% income earners in the survey were asked "What do you think about most of the time?" The answer they gave was not surprising - 'What we want and how to get it". This is the essence of a success mindset - you think about what you want and how to get it. If you develop a success mindset then you will always be a success in life. And because successful people are succeeding and overcoming obstacles by being creative, they are happy - which is probably the most important thing of all.

Successful people have clear goals, they think about what they want most of the time and dwell and contemplate on how they are going to get there. When you have a vision and clear priorities and keep asking "how can I get there?" or "what's another way to do it", you become intensely solution oriented.

It's no secret that there are 2 types of people in the world - the 90% who are problem oriented and talk about their problems all the time. The top people - the other 10%, talk about what they want and solutions to get them there, all the time. So one of the most important lessons that you can learn is that successful people are intensely solution oriented. That's not to say that they don't have problems or challenges - we all do, but they think about what they want, look to what they can do to move forward and take action.

However the reality is that we are all up against it as the natural tendency of human beings and their nature is to talk about what they are worried about, what they are anxious about, what their problems are, what irritates them. The top people don't do that - they discipline themselves not to talk in problems or about things they don't want or things from the past as they recognise there is no future in talking about things that can't be changed or have already happened. They only talk about the things that they can do something about - they ask questions like "what's the solution?" and "what can we do now?" and "What's the next step to move us forward?" The upshot is that solution-oriented people are future oriented people.

We all have tremendous mental abilities that allow us to be creative, positive, confident, happy and caring - but only when we are consistently solution and future oriented. You cannot be creative and happy if you talk about all your problems all day. You activate this state by your thoughts - which are absolutely in your control, no-one else controls your thoughts.

When you think about the future, where you are going and have a clear purpose, mission and vision then you will get excited about the future and feel good. Up to 80% of our emotions are determined by our anticipation of what will happen to us in the future, so when you think about solutions, you create the positive emotions that make you happy. And the interesting thing is that as you keep thinking about the future and think in solutions and ask questions to get you where you want to go, then it becomes a habit and you develop a success mindset.

Nature

Successful people also look to nature for lessons. All living things need to grow otherwise they atrophy and eventually die. Human beings are no different and we can look to the seasons to help us think about growth.

Spring is a time for planting seeds and watching them grow - the question is "What seeds are you planting?". If you don't sow the seeds and begin the projects, then come harvest time you'll be staring at a barren, dust blown field. A wise farmer doesn't just plant one seed because he knows that despite his best efforts, random events will destroy a percentage of his crop.

Summer is the farmer's busiest time nurturing those fledgling seeds, just when they are at their most vulnerable. If spring is the time for planting then summer is the time for tending

Autumn is the time to reap the rewards of your efforts. There is no alternative system of planting, tending and harvesting. The bounty of your harvest will allow you to 'plant more fields' next year and become involved in bigger and more exciting projects. Growth and change - change and growth. Both essential to our well being.

Winter follows autumn every year. Learn to accept that we all have winters in our lives and get used to them. Learn to accept them as part of the cycle of nature and never again moan about the cold. Winter is also an opportunity to reflect and introspect - a time to look at the feedback you received for your planting and tending. How could you do better next year? As Henry Ford said "Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again"

Success Mindset

A person with a success mindset is an individual who is always thinking about where they are going, always positive, outcome oriented and always thinking how they can remove any obstacles. The non-success mindset is the opposite and dwells on the negative, waits for life to direct it and blames everything else for its poor circumstances. The more you think about subjects that make you unhappy, the more unhappy they make you.

The most popular prescription drug in America is the anti depressant drug Prozac. In recent years there have been a hundreds of percent increase in depression in America that has fuelled this drug rise. However not many people have heard of the 22 year study from the University of Pennsylvania which analysed why people are depressed - the finding, not surprisingly, was that almost all people are depressed because they think about their problems all day.

Depressed people mull over their problems all day and it has been proven that this negative thinking changes the chemical composition of the body and induces physical illness. This is called psychosomatic medicine and is estimated to account for over 70% of the World's health problems. Depressed people also create pictures and movies in their mind about all the things that could go wrong because of something that has or could be about to happen. This imaginary sequence of events gets them feeling bad and low - you must, I repeat must break this cycle of negative thinking as soon as you realise that you are doing it. The great thing about the mind is that you can choose not to think these negative thoughts and therefore not create the bad feeling that goes with it.

You can also use your linguistic skills to get people to change their focus - for example when a person starts talking about something you don't want say "Is that what we really want?" and "If we don't want it, then let's stop talking about it". As a leader you have to recognise that positive thoughts and conversations empowers people whereas negative talk has the opposite effect.

You can be successful and change your life by doing 3 things -

1. Thinking and talking about what you want - by thinking and talking about what you want, you'll move faster towards what you want and create more opportunities to get there.
2. Look for the good in everything - imagine everything that happens in your life, happens for a good reason. Look for the good in every situation and every setback. Extend this to people and look for the good in every person.
3. Seek the valuable lesson. If you seek the valuable lesson in every setback you find yourself in, then you will find it. Successful people develop a habit of looking into every difficulty for the lesson as they know that it's worth more than the problem. Sometimes a setback can be the best thing that ever happens to you as it makes you change course and take a new direction, so always look for the lesson.

Success and Probabilities

When you talk about what you want, you increase the probability of success, when you treat people well, you increase the probability of success, when you take care of your physical and mental health, you increase the probability of success. Success is really the result of a whole series of probabilities - a person who is successful has done a whole lot of small steps towards their goals. Claude M. Bristol, 1891-1951, Author of "The Magic of Believing" says, "It's a constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance, sweeps away all obstacles."

Looking at it another way - you tend to get what you focus on. The great thing in life is that you have a choice on what you focus on. If you decide to focus on excellence (which is only a decision) then you won't just 'scrape through', you'll do what it takes for a result. Don't try to change the things that are out of your control - this is a route to disappointment, depression and frustration.

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