No one will deny the fact that some people have made tons of money and acquired power through illegal means. It’s probably the fastest way to get to the top but it’s also the fastest ride downhill. Sooner or later, the past will catch up and justice will be served.

On the other hand, success has also been acquired by staying within the framework of the law but with disregard to other people’s interest. Again, financial success and power may be acquired this way but that’s as far as it goes.

If success is acquired at the expense of other, even if done in a perfectly legal way, no personal satisfaction and no personal happiness is possible. The reason for that is simple. Satisfaction and happiness require a sense of self-esteem and self-worth. Something that cannot be acquired by trampling others.

True success can only be acquired and enjoyed when it is acquired ethically and with regards for the common good. This principle is called egoistical altruism, which means giving to get. No lasting success can be achieved without following that fundamental axiom.

In nature we must give before we can get; the seeds must be planted before the crop can be harvested and the land must be nourished if it is expected to keep on producing. That principle is true with nature and it’s also true in the affairs of mankind.

We grow and prosper by filling needs and helping people. It’s a fundamental law. We can only grow and prosper when those that we touch can also benefit because they are the ones who feed our growth. They are the roots that sustain us and keep us going and growing.

There are three levels of personal growth. We have dependency. The stage when we are dependent on others to fulfill our essential needs. Then there is dependency when we can fully take care of ourselves. Finally we have interdependency.

Interdependency is understanding that we can accomplish much more and be much more successful if we work with others rather than going at it alone. It is understanding that the human ecosystem is interdependent and that its subjects will either grow together or wither and die together.

No man is an island… we grow as a society or we stagnate collectively. That’s a fundamental lesson that anyone who aspire to lead the good life has to learn and understand. Anything that we do for the greater good of all will pay great dividends, that is… so long as we follow this one last principle.

A wise man will not squander his physical or intellectual resources. Unless an investment brings some returns, ruin is the only logical outcome. So, contributions must be done wisely and judiciously. There has to be an exchange of values and mutual benefits. That is the base upon which the concept of egoistic altruisms is founded.

Doing the right thing for the right reason would be a good definition for the word ethic but it’s also much more than that. Like the golden rule, they are good words to live by and a recipe for true and lasting success.

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When it is well understood and assimilated, this one sentence contains an entire philosophy. It can become a life’s purpose, a source of motivation and a guiding light to achievement and self-actualization.

The part that says, “Life is a gift.” is particularly telling. Once that the fact that life is a gift is accepted, everything changes. Instead of feeling that life owes us we are left with the feeling that it is we that owes to life.

This could be better explained by using an analogy. Let us say that someone gives you a nice car. Chance are very good that you would be grateful for the gift instead of complaining that the car has not your favorite color and that it is not brand new.

Same thing with the gift of life. When accepted as a gift, we don’t go around complaining that all is not perfect. We accept the gift gratefully and do our utmost to enjoy it as much as possible.

Accepting life as a gift rather than as an ordained right is a slight but a very meaningful distinction. We are more prone to value and enjoy the gift and every day that is given us becomes an added bonus instead of a source of recrimination for whatever is not perfect in our eyes.

Serenity is not a matter of outside circumstances; it’s a way of interpreting our reality. It’s a matter of accepting what is, changing what can be changed and coping gratefully with what is given us. Life may not unfold exactly as we would like but it’s always better than non-existence or the great void.

The quote also says, life offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more. There is a world of wisdom in these words. It’s about the duality of the Universe. It’s about the Ying and Yang that rules everything.

For every force there has to be a counteracting force. There are two sides to everything. Polarity is essential to existence. Without the negative, the positive cannot exist. Life is about symbiosis and contribution. In order to get, we must give.

The more we give and contribute, the more we get back. This fundamental truth is of special importance for anyone who happens to be on survival mode and struggling just to stay afloat. What can you give if you barely have enough for yourself?

Giving can take the form of support, advice, encouragement and above all human warmth. There is always someone who could use some moral support or a good word. It does not cost anything and it can make a world of difference to someone in need.

It is by sowing that we reap. It is by giving that we receive and no one is so poor that he does not have something to give. Contribution is more a question of attitude than a matter of material possessions.

Basically, what this quote says is that life is a gift and with that gift came some talents. Now, if we choose to appreciate that gift, cultivate those talents and share their fruits, the end results will be the life of our dream. One short quote that says it all.

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Strange as it may seem, in some cases, ignorance can be a blessing. Most of the world’s greatest achievements came to be because someone simply did not know that it could not be done. That’s when it would be appropriate to invoke the proverb that says, “Ignorance is bliss.”

The extent of what we can accomplish is only limited by the scope of our determination. Most of our limits are self-imposed. For thousands of years, people held the belief that it was impossible for a human being to run the mile in less than four minutes. But in 1954 Roger Bannister broke this imposing belief barrier.

In the whole history of the human race, no one had ever been able to break the four-minute mile, yet within one year of Bannister’s breaking the barrier, 37 other runners also broke it. And the year after that, 300 other runners did the same thing! Today, high school kids run the four minutes mile. All that because Roger did not know that it could not be done.

Most of man’s greatest achievements were thought to be impossible at one point. Someone did not know that it was impossible, went ahead and did it. Now it is seen as self-evident.

If we ever hope to do anything worthwhile with our life, the Art of Selective Ignorance has to be learned and mastered. That is, we have to learn to ignore all the reasons why it’s impossible to do something that has never been done before. We need to learn to ignore limitations, lacks and shortages.

One of the most important words in the vocabulary of great achievers is the adverb: how. They want to know “how” something can be done and they choose to ignore the reasons why it cannot be done. That is the Art of Selective Ignorance at its finest.

Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania has introduced us to the world of “learned helplessness.” He has demonstrated how one single failed attempt at something that we tried to accomplish can create the belief that it meant that we could never accomplish that objective.

He also showed that this “one attempt” could create the belief that since we’ve failed in this particular project it also meant that we would fail in something that is totally unrelated. And, as if that was not enough, this one failure can also be seen as a personal flaw or personal ineptitude.

In 1895, Albert Einstein sat the entrance examinations to get into the prestigious Federal Polytechnic School (or Academy) in Zurich, Switzerland and failed. What a great mind the world would have lost if Einstein had taken that failure as a sign that he was not intelligent enough to pursue a life of research.

We can always learn from our failures. However, we must be selective on what we choose to learn. Instead of learning that failures are signs of personal ineptitude, we should learn from what went wrong and how it can be changed in future attempts.

The brain is a wonderful tool but it does need someone at the helm to direct it. Allowed to run free, it can create havoc; well guided it can produce wonders. That is why we should learn to master the Art of Selective Ignorance.

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Success is the end result of multiple victories honorably won. For that reason, anyone who aspires to succeed must be passionate about winning. It could even be said that most of the world’s movers and shakers are more motivated by the desire to win than by the objective that they are after.

Winning is processional and it’s a way of life. Without the competitive spirit, no great achievement is possible. Ambivalence has no place in the arenas of success. Either the game is played to win or it’s a no contest.

Life is about competition. That’s how evolution worked from ameba to man, it’s how mankind grew and it’s how success is achieved. To live and grow is to compete and win.

Strong and effective competitors share two common elements. They have a unique mindset and they posses outstanding personal resources. Let’s take a look at these two items.

Winners believe that they are fighting for a cause that is larger than they are. They have a sense of destiny. They understand that they have an important role to play in the grand scheme of the Universe and that what they do matter.

Taking such a stance is not reserved to the privileged few. Anyone who has the courage to stand up and claim his birthright could see himself in that light. It’s a question of self-esteem and a question of self-confidence. Something that anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort can acquire.

Along with that mindset, winners have outstanding personal resources. They were not born with these resources they acquired them. They did so by constantly waging the ultimate war, the battle to constantly outdo themselves.

Life’s noblest conquests are the ones that we have over ourselves. Those are the battles that we should be obsessed to win. That’s were we expand and grow. It’s where we acquire the personal resources essential to lasting success.

We learn very little when we stay in our comfort zone. A bodybuilder will grow by challenging heavier and heavier weights. That’s also how our bank of references (personal resources) works. We learn by overcoming larger and larger obstacles and facing ever-greater obstacles.

It could be said that the story of accomplishments is the story of victories. Victories that start with victories over self then extend outward to public achievements; thus creating a self-propelling and ever growing circle of personal growth, victories and achievements.

If we look at it with a cold and calculating eye, we can see that life, in all its forms, is an eternal competition for supremacy. We cannot escape it. Either we enter the arena and compete or we are left by the wayside and become a burden on society. Those are not cruel and uncaring words they are facts.

The world does not owe us anything yet it has already given us much. It is up to us to find the opportunities available and do the best that we can to turn them into successful and rewarding accomplishments. That’s what we were born to do. To quote Julius Caesar, “Veni, vidi, vici.” (I came, I saw, I conquered.)

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Basically, self-actualization means working toward becoming all that we can be. It should be a process that starts at birth and last until the last curtain falls. Unfortunately, such is not always the case. Many people are so entangled in the problems of daily life that little thought or attention is given to self-actualization.

That’s a shame because self-actualization should be what life is all about. Life means growth. The moment that growth stops, stagnation and decay set in. That is true for all living organisms and it is especially true for humans. It is correctly said that some people die at age twenty-two, forget to fall down, and will only get buried past age eighty.

Self-actualization passes through three stages: learning, integrating and doing. Let’s review these three stages.

1. Learning is the first stage. Every new thing that we learn is added to our bank of reference where it can be used in the thinking process. That information serves to evaluate concepts and ideas; it can be used to make finer and more effective distinctions and is the basis for the entire conscious process.

2. The integration into the wiring of our brain of some of our knowledge has to be done in a way that it becomes an automatic reflex. That is the second stage of the self-actualizing process and it has much to do with self-control. It is evident that a person near the zenith of self-actualization will not react to situations the same way that an infant would. As we evolve and grow, we get to be more and more sophisticated in our automatic responses to situations and events.

3. The last, and probably most meaningful stage of self-actualization is the “doing” part. It is not what we know that really counts but what we do with it that really matters. It is by pushing our limits that we really grow. So long as we stay in our comfort zone, no real progress is achieve. It is when we really have to flex our intellectual muscles that growth occurs.

That is the primary reason why we should have goals and objectives. It is not reaching a goal that is the most important. What really matters is the person that we have to become to reach our objectives that really matters.

The real objective of goal setting is self-transformation, self-growth and self-actualization. The stories of people who never grasped or understood that fundamental axiom are legion. They are the tales of people who have achieved unbelievable success, acquired fame and adulation of the masses that end up destroying themselves because they are so miserable and unhappy that they can no longer stand it.

Material possessions, fame and recognition by themselves will not bring happiness. Successful living is above all a state of mind. It is found in the satisfaction that we are constantly growing and improving; in the realization that we are evolving and contributing. In the feeling that, day-by-day, we are climbing the path of self-actualization.

Once our basic physiological and emotional needs have been met, everything that we do is directed toward satisfying our need for self-actualization. Self-actualization has been called the master motive. In other words, self-actualization is the ultimate motive from which all other motives spring.

Once we’ve understood this basic fact of life, we are ready to make real progress. We are heading in the right direction. It’s not what we own that really matters; it’s whom we are that really counts.

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The first of these notions is to know and realize that we all have some very personal rules on what it takes for us to feel good. That rule can be quite complex and hard to achieve or it can be very simple and easily attainable.

A person who needs ten different elements to feel good such as: perfect health, financial security, many friends, personal success at work, kids who are high achiever etc… would not feel good very often. At any one time, one of those conditions would not be fulfilled and that would prevent the sentiment of feeling good.

Let’s take someone else whose personal rule said that the only requirement to feel happy would be, to be alive and have enough to eat for the day. It would be incredibly easy for that person to feel good most of the time.

Even though we may not be aware of it, we are the one who unconsciously set up that personal rule. If the rule is simple enough and serves us well, we should keep it. On the other hand, if we find that our rule is far too complex and hard to fulfill, there is nothing to stop us from changing it for a simpler one.

There is also another technique that can be used to foster the sentiment of feeling good. It’s called, the attitude of gratitude. At any one time in our life, we have literally thousands of reasons to be grateful. Yet, those can all escape us because we are focusing one single thing that displeases us.

The attitude of gratitude consists of constantly reminding ourselves of all the things that we should be grateful for. When we do that, we actually build a bank of references of the good things that we have and of the good things that have happened to us in the past. That bank of references makes us feel that we are the fortunate and lucky ones. That somehow we are blessed and protected by the powers that control our Universe. It makes us feel special, fortunate and protected.

By concentrating on whatever it is that we are grateful for, it makes us discovers even more gifts that we were freely given and simply took for granted. It creates an aura of abundance around us that promotes the feeling that this bounty will keep on growing and expanding.

We live in a world that is defined by our own interpretation. When we focus on the good and the beautiful, that’s what our world becomes. With a little stretch of the imagination and some small efforts, we can see ourselves surrounded by amazing gifts that were graciously provided by life. When that happens, we cannot fail to feel blessed, thankful and happy.

It is said that we can be just as happy as we makeup our mind to be. Happiness and the sensation of feeling good come from the within. We create our internal world of emotions by choosing what things and events represent for us. The mountains to be climbed and the dragons to be fought can be seen as a miserable ordeals or as exhilarating adventures.

Life is what we make it out to be. It can be a vale of tears or a fantastic experience. We get to choose. We are the ultimate judge and jury. We hold in our hand the magic wand that can define how we see and interpret life and everything that it contains. That magic wand is also called the imagination. Used as it should, feeling good À la Carte is available if we so desire and are willing to put in the time and efforts.

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These are but a few of the ways that security is sought. The need for security is a powerful motivator. It can lead people to do great things as it can lead others to self-destruct by hiding into drug abuse and alcoholism. There are no fail-safe methods of acquiring security but there is one that stands head and shoulders above the others. But, first, let’s have a look at the nature of fear.

First and foremost, fear is a sense of inadequacy in front of an impending real or imaginary situation. It is the sense that if such or such a situation was to materialize, our current resources would be inadequate to meet the challenge and we would somehow be hurt or even completely destroyed.

Most of the times, when under the grip of fear, the consequences of the impending danger are greatly exaggerated. The reason for that is the fact that fear has a disempowering effect that can lead to near-paralysis which cut us off from being able to use the resources at our disposal. A situation that can only acerbate even further the feeling of helplessness, which in turn creates a greater fear.

It must also be noted that fear is an emotion that is pervasive to the point of being contagious. When under the grip of fear, the person will be much more susceptible to be affected by whatever hold any seemingly dangerous connotation. Fear could be said to be a self-stroking emotion. That is, it will feed on itself to create an even greater fear.

How then can we best protect ourselves from this nefarious emotion? The answer to this question can be found by using a little logic. If fear is the product of a sense of inadequacy the antidote or solution would be more self-confidence.

A person with a high degree of self-confidence will only become fearful when facing real, eminent and immediate danger. Something that is a rather rare occurrence under normal conditions. With self-confidence, a person feels in control of most conditions therefore, there is no need or reason to be fearful.

So, if the remedy against fear is more self-confidence, the question that begs to be asked is, “How do we acquire more self-confidence?” Once again, logic gives us an answer to that question.

We are more confident when we feel that we have more resources and the only way that we can have more resource is by working on improving ourselves every day of our life. If we consciously work on improving ourselves everyday of our life, we cannot escape the feeling that we are getting smarter, stronger and better equipped to face life’s vagaries as time goes on. The result of which is more self-confidence and less fear.

That may be a long-term solution but it is a highly effective and lasting one against the specter of fear. For some, fear is a major problem affecting every day of their life. For others, it may be a periodic recurring but highly annoying state of affair. In either case, there is a bona fide solution to the problem. The solution is more self-confidence acquired through daily work on self-improvement. Not only is that the best solution, it is also the only effective solution.

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Unfortunately, our brain is not equipped with any Anti-virus program and, everyday, we are exposed to negative thinking, parasitic notions and seriously debilitating patterns of thinking. Unless some type of regular scans and cleanups are performed, we’re in for some serious malfunction.

Rule number one to keep our computer safe from viruses is to keep away from unsavory sites. That same rule also applies to our brain. If we keep on frequenting the “wrong” crowd, we are almost certain to get infected. The GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) principle applies to both the computer and the mind.

For the computer, as soon as we see something going a bit strange or bizarre, we initiate a virus scan. Now, it should be stressed that when we do a scan, we are cleaning our own computer and not the computer that infected us. The procedure is the same for a brain scan.

Blaming someone else because we have been infected serves no purpose. The only brain on which we have any power is our own so that’s the one that we should concentrate on. Blaming someone else for our problems is always appealing. It frees us from guilt or responsibilities but that’s all it will do. We are still stuck with the problem.

A personal brain scan is done by asking ourselves questions. We must find out what we could have done differently to avoid the problematic situation. This has nothing to do with accepting blame for the situation but it has everything to do about learning from an undesirable situation.

We learn and grow mostly through trials and errors. When the time comes for a personal brain scan, the trial part is already over. Now, what remains to be done is to learn from that situation and make sure that we don’t fall in the same trap ever again.

We spend most of our life interacting in a less than perfect world so we are bound to be influenced by negative views and skewed thinking. This can be negated by regularly spending quality time doing some reading or viewing inspirational material. But, once a while, we’ll fall in a rut that needs more drastic measures.

That’s when an indebt personal scan is needed. That’s when we need to take a serious look at ourselves and see what’s working for us and what’s not working. We need a reality check. Tough questions must be asked and commitments must be taken.

In today’s world, being good is simply not enough. If we want to grow, advance and succeed, we must be outstanding. That simply cannot be done with a brain that is cluttered with negativities and self-sabotaging patterns.

Winners have what losers don’t because winner will do the things that losers won’t. Winners know that the path to success requires rational and quality thinking and judicious decisions taking. Something that simply cannot be done with a mind that is infected with unproductive or destructive elements.

The mind, just like a computer, will perform well when it is well taken care off. That’s why regular scanning are absolutely essential for both. You might want to think about that next time you scan your beloved PC. Why not do both at the same time?

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Sooner or later, we are bound to get stuck. We are at an impasse, deadlocked. No solution comes to mind. Why is that? The answer to that is simple. We don’t have a solution because we never thought of asking our brain for one. We just wait there for inspiration to come. Sooner or later, the solution might come. But one thing is certain; it will come a lot sooner if we ask ourselves the right question.

Question is one of the most powerful tool that we have at our disposal to guide us on the path to a successful, meaningful and rewarding life. Yet, most of the time, we don’t even think of using it. That’s like having the key to open a door in our pocket and instead of using it; we try to pick the lock with a bobby pin.

The brain will always supply some answers to whatever question we may ask. Some of those answers may not be the right ones but sooner or later, the precise answer that we are looking for will come along.

The trick is to formulate the right question. Not always an obvious task. As an example, if someone were to ask, “How come I’m not rich?” The brain might just answer, “You’re not rich because you’re stupid.” However if we ask the brain, “How can I become rich?” It will come up with many answers; one of which might just be the solution that can be used to accomplish that goal.

When a question does not give the right answer, it probably means that the question was not adequately formulated. In that case, all that needs to be done is to change the way that the question is asked.

Our brain contains an unimaginable quantity of information. Every experience that we ever had throughout our entire life is stored in there. It is even arguably claimed that the brain is all knowing. That it already contained at birth of all of the world’s wisdom and knowledge and that all that is needed to have access to that information is to ask the right question.

That theory has yet to be confirmed. However, one thing is certain and that is the fact that we know much more than we might think that we do. Who has not had a flash of insight that could not be rationally explained? Who has not experienced a moment of inspiration that seemed to come from nowhere?

We have, stored in our cranium, the most amazing thinking machine that ever was created. Neuroscientists will say that the brain’s capacity is virtually limitless. The only reason that they will not say that it is limitless is the fact that absolutes are never used by scientists.

Questions can be used to solve problems, they can be used to shed light on confusing situations or they can be used to find inspiration when so needed. They are one of the best counselors that we could have.

Certain questions are so important that they should be asked on a daily basis. One of those is, “What’s not perfect yet?” That’s one of the best ways to improve our productivity, our effectiveness and most aspects of our life. Some of the answers that we get following that question are simply amazing. It’s one of the best tools for self-improvement.

At birth we were given this amazing thinking computer called the brain. With everyday that passes, this amazing organ gets richer and richer in knowledge and information. That wealth of wisdom is just there waiting to be used. It works a bit like Google. All that we have to do is to formulate the right question and tons of answers will magically appear. It might be slower than Google but it’s much more accurate. It knows everything about us, something that cannot be found in Google.

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That’s an awesome responsibility. The quality of our life depends on it. That book will be our final legacy. It can be a beautiful monument or the shadow of what it could have been. When, in the winter of our journey on Planet Earth, we reread that book, it can fill us with pride and satisfaction or it can be a source of regrets and misgivings.

No one knows how many pages are left in our book but there is something that we should aware off. That is the fact that the last chapters can drastically alter the tone of the entire book. It is never too late to change the course of the story presented.

In our book, just as is the case in most books that we’ve ever read, the epilogue is the most important part of the story. It does not matter what the hero of the book has done or gone through that really matter. What does really matter is what that hero eventually becomes.

A scoundrel can turn into an angel and loafer can turn into a mover and shaker. A proverbial victim of circumstances can turn into a charismatic leader and a silent spectator can turn into the parade leader.

It is our book. We are the authors. We get to choose how the story will turn out. So long as there are pages left, anything is possible. We can still write a book that we will be proud off.

Great people are not born. They are made. They are people who took control of their lives and of their destinies. They had the courage and the wherewithal to stand up and be counted. Most of what they did was not exceptional but what they did was done exceptionally well.

That is an option that is available to every one of us. We are not the result of circumstance; we are the creator of circumstances in that we get to choose what those circumstances mean to us. What is a stumbling block for one person is a stepping-stone for another.

Often we may be tempted think that we are inconsequential, unimportant, that we don’t matter much. There is no such thing as an unimportant person. Just as a butterfly that flutters its wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world, a word that we say or an action that we perform can dramatically change someone’s life or even alter the course of mankind.

Every word that we say and every gesture that we make can cause a ripple effect that will affect, positively or negatively, those that we touch. It is our book, it is our life; we get to write it. We can make it a formidable book of inspiration or a manual on ways to waste a life.

A good way to start the day is by asking ourselves the questions, “What will I write in today’s page? Will this first day of the rest of my life be an epic, world changing day, or will I spend it feeling sorry for myself?”

It is the answer to those daily questions that will determine the quality or our book and by the same token, the quality of our life. We are the authors; we get to write and to decide.

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